Quote:
Originally Posted by jimworcs
I absolutely did not say that some Delta agent screwed up the booking. (Quote me if you can!) My point was that although they are separate bookings, the reason the passenger could not utilise the second ticket was directly because of reasons which were in the control of Delta and not of the passenger. Therefore, when he pushed the issue up to supervisors at Delta's Anti-Customer Department, they should have exercised common sense and made the passenger whole. If he pursues this via Small Claims I do not think any court would find that the passenger did anything wrong. He could not fulfil his part of the contract on the second ticket (ie turn up) soley because Delta did not fulfil their part of an earlier contract (ie transport him). Is that any clearer for you?
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Actually, I have to disagree here. What if this were the case of a Southwest connection to another airline. I remember an episode of "Airline" which followed the day to day stories of Southwest and some of it's passengers. There was a couple who flew into LAX on Southwest who had a "connection" to a trans-Pacific flight to Asia, I think on Cathay Pacific. Their Southwest flight was delayed leaving them about 15 minutes to claim their bags from Southwest, as they have no interline baggage agreements, and check-in with the international airline as Southwest has no interline ticketing agreements either so there were two separate tickets purchased. Although the Southwest manager went above and beyond escorting them from the plane to baggage claim and on to the counter for their international flight, the story ended there.
Now as far as the international airline is concerned this couple was to embark on their journey from LAX. It mattered not how they got there since the ticket wasn't purchased as a complete itinerary and the delay on Southwest wasn't Cathay Pacific's concern. They were late, for whatever reason, to check-in for the flight to Asia. Being an international flight I doubt, unless the Cathay Pacific flight was delayed, they were allowed to check-in with only fifteen minutes until the departure. They probably had to get a hotel room near LAX, at their own expense, and fly to Asia the next day perhaps even on stand-by.
There's no distinction or difference in the OP's case even though the two tickets were on the same airline. For the return trip it matters not to the airline how the person arrives at the departure city on the ticket. If they are late or a no-show it is treated as such. Of course it can be argued that a reasonable person would be able to connect the dots and say "well if the canceled flight from A to B caused them to not be at B for the trip back to A that some accomodation could be made", but then they would be giving preferential treatment over someone who just didn't bother to show up on time for the same B to A flight. Rules are set to establish a level playing field and although the rules might not always work in our favor they are there for a reason. For the lack of many rules about ticketing, fares, etc. too many unscrupulous people would be given the leeway to "game the system" and then things would really not be fair.