Hello!
I'm an expat who is relocating back home, near a major DL hub, during peak summer travel season. As you can imagine, I'm very tempted to buy a round-trip ticket and throw away the return segments. (Obviously this ticket would be of the cheap, non-refundable variety.) I understand that while not illegal, it's a violation of DL's contract of carriage, and that they are contractually entitled to levy certain penalties (if they feel it's worth their time to go after me).
If I do this, I'll be a first-time offender, so naturally I have some questions. I perused the forums, but I couldn't really find answer to these:
(1) If I throw away the return leg of a flight, is it better to just totally no-show, or to call the airline and tell them my plans have changed? There seems to be a lot of disagreement about this.
(2) As a first-time offender, I understand that DL is very unlikely to go after me and impose any penalties—too many legit reasons for a no-show, no established pattern of abuse. I've flown Delta pretty often before and always behaved. BUT, am I at greater risk of being penalized because of the expensive international route? The one-way tickets are literally twice as much as the round-trips, and the round-trip tickets, even the cheap ones, are already over $1000.
(3) Will I be at greater risk if I no-show and don't try to rebook? (I'm guessing no, because if I missed the return half of a non-refundable ticket for a dumb but legit reason, I might reasonably look for a different ticket elsewhere.)
(4) In the worst-case scenario that they charge me for the fare I "should have" paid (that is, the one-way fare), is this fare assessed according to the date that I booked the ticket, or the date that I failed to travel?
(5) If I get cold feet, is it possible to change the round-trip ticket to a one-way ticket? Again, if I do that, will the fare change be assessed according to the date of that fare on the date I originally bought the ticket, or the date that I changed fares?
(6) Am I worrying too much? Should I just go ahead and do it?
Thanks!
I'm an expat who is relocating back home, near a major DL hub, during peak summer travel season. As you can imagine, I'm very tempted to buy a round-trip ticket and throw away the return segments. (Obviously this ticket would be of the cheap, non-refundable variety.) I understand that while not illegal, it's a violation of DL's contract of carriage, and that they are contractually entitled to levy certain penalties (if they feel it's worth their time to go after me).
If I do this, I'll be a first-time offender, so naturally I have some questions. I perused the forums, but I couldn't really find answer to these:
(1) If I throw away the return leg of a flight, is it better to just totally no-show, or to call the airline and tell them my plans have changed? There seems to be a lot of disagreement about this.
(2) As a first-time offender, I understand that DL is very unlikely to go after me and impose any penalties—too many legit reasons for a no-show, no established pattern of abuse. I've flown Delta pretty often before and always behaved. BUT, am I at greater risk of being penalized because of the expensive international route? The one-way tickets are literally twice as much as the round-trips, and the round-trip tickets, even the cheap ones, are already over $1000.
(3) Will I be at greater risk if I no-show and don't try to rebook? (I'm guessing no, because if I missed the return half of a non-refundable ticket for a dumb but legit reason, I might reasonably look for a different ticket elsewhere.)
(4) In the worst-case scenario that they charge me for the fare I "should have" paid (that is, the one-way fare), is this fare assessed according to the date that I booked the ticket, or the date that I failed to travel?
(5) If I get cold feet, is it possible to change the round-trip ticket to a one-way ticket? Again, if I do that, will the fare change be assessed according to the date of that fare on the date I originally bought the ticket, or the date that I changed fares?
(6) Am I worrying too much? Should I just go ahead and do it?
Thanks!