I have an international trip booked w Delta in October - No. Calif. to SLC; SLC to JFK; JFK to PSA. I received an "itinerary change" email from Delta. It simply does not show the 1st and last legs of the trip, as if I'm supposed to show up at SLC 900 miles away.

Then I see a newspaper article announcing that Delta will only be serving my city in the summer and will accommodate travelers on another airline at no cost. Ha! Delta states that my only option is to rebook through another city served by Delta (300+ miles away) or to take a refund. They will not accommodate travelers on another airline.

Any ideas? Would the answer be different higher in the "chain of command" than a reservation agent?

Try another agent. If s/he gives you the same story, ask to talk to a supervisor. The ticket has been issued and it's Delta's responsibility to get you from point A to point B. Not all agents are made the same, and through my experience over the years, there are some bad apples, lazy agents, etc...

Having said that, I have to warn you that flight times may be completely different, connection cities may change and finally you may end up flying on totally different airlines all the way through.

If it's reasonably close to your original booking (meaning few hours difference either way), you will only have 2 choices. Either accept it or ask for a refund. If you accept the changes, the same fare rules, for the most part, will apply to your new ticket. For instance, you can't change your mind later and demand a refund if the ticket was non-refundable to begin with.

Ditto.

CO did this to our daughter last year when they turned EWR - ATH into seasonal service and cancelled her return. I spent quite a bit of time with several different agents trying to work on a return, all of which was on one or more of CO's partner airlines. Each agent gave me different options, most of which were ludicrous (like a 20 min connect time at CDG). In our case, nothing worked out that was acceptable/realistic, so we cancelled BOTH legs of the trip and got full refund with no questions asked. Ended up doing entire trip on BA and it was over $700 cheaper so worked out just fine!

Same rules apply in your situation.

PS - I find it helpful to do some homework when I run into these situations. I pull up a variety of possible itineraries before I called. As AA says, some agents are more knowledgeable/helpful than others. Some of the ones I talked with hadn't even thought of some of the itineraries I suggested. Though it sometimes still doesn't work out (as in my ATH example), at least you're armed with some ammunition.

Give us the city that you were originally going to fly out of and the actual trip and possibly we can offer some ideas?

Sorry for the delayed response.

After talking to different agents at Delta, the answer was tough luck. The only accommodation would be to rebook my trip out of an airport served by Delta. I can get to a Delta-served airport via Horizon/Alaska; I'm in Eureka CA (ACV), but Delta will not pay for this even though they have a code share with Alaska.

I'm fairly experienced with negotiating my way through airlines' red tape, but this takes the cake.

A local travel agent was informed that Delta would be rescheduling passengers, but not until 30 days before departure. Then it would be "take it or leave it".

I've rescheduled on United (which I was trying to avoid but that's another story).

Thanks all for your responses. Oh, and I had to deal with having my travel insurance refunded too.

Sorry to hear about your prediciment but I'll say it once again, Delta is responsible and says so in the CoC, Rule 240. Perhaps next time you should read this to one of their agents.

<i>Delta Domestic General Rules Tariff Page 49 of 58

C. Schedule Changes, Delays, & <u>Flight Cancellations within Delta’s Control</u>

When, as a result of factors within Delta’s control, you miss a connection due to flight delays,
<u>your flight is cancelled</u>, or a substitution of equipment results in a change in the class of service
that you purchased or prevents us from transporting you, Delta will provide you with the
following:

1. Transportation to Your Destination

<u>Delta will transport you to your destination on our next flight on which seats are available in
the class of service you originally purchased. At our sole discretion, we may arrange for
your travel on another carrier or via ground transportation.</u> If acceptable to you, we will
transport you in a lower class of service, in which case you may be entitled to a partial
refund as set forth below. If space on the next available flight is available only in a higher
class of service than you purchased, we will transport you on the flight, although we reserve
the right to upgrade other passengers on the flight according to our upgrade priority policy
to make space for you in the class of service you originally purchased.
</i>

what that basically says is that if Delta had other flights available they would most likely use the flights, but if there are none, they will use another carrier and even ground transportation.

Call again!

Good luck


btw, the above is straight from www.delta.com

AAFF, a little "knowledge" can be a dangerous thing. I believe that you're mistaken on two counts.

First of all, you've quoted from Delta's domestic contract of carriage. OP bought a ticket to Italy, so the domestic rules do not apply.

Then you spout out Rule 240. Rule 240 is for irregular operations -- delays and cancellations that occur during travel, not to schedule changes that happen months before travel is to begin.

Otherwise, terrific advice.