Travel Question

[bluegargantua]

Hi,

So last week, I purchased my ticket to GenCon. I leave on Wednesday, August 15th and come back on Sunday.

Early this week, it occurred to me that I could start my vacation earlier and leave from Boston on Friday, August 10th to go out to Nebraska and visit my folks (I was supposed to do this next week, but work and a new house are conspiring). It turns out, there's a pretty cheap multi-city fare that takes me from Boston to Omaha and back to Indianapolis on Wednesday.

Now, here's my question: I could try and change my existing ticket. But they'll slap a fee of $100 bucks on me and all kinds of other crap. Suppose I just bought the multi-city ticket. On Wednesday, I wouldn't be in Boston to take my flight out to Indianapolis. But can I use the return portion on Sunday. In other words, can I skip out on the outbound flight but use the return portion of my ticket rather than canceling the whole thing and starting over? It would be cheaper than trying to alter the existing flight and probably more convenient since I might need to use a different carrier to get to Omaha.

I'm sure in the past no one would care, but with heightened security, they might wonder what happened to me and deny my boarding.

Does anyone in LJ know the answer to this?

later
Tom

Comments

[nchanter.livejournal.com]

10 years ago the dallas ft worth to oklahoma city leg of our flight got delayed for 8 hours... and ended up putting everyone on a bus. at hour 5, my parents rented a car. We didn't end up on the bus aka last leg of our flight. We showed up at OKC to get on our flight to dallas ft worth to get back to DC at the end of our trip, and 'cause we dind't make the last leg of our flight to OKC, we weren't allwoed to get on the plane in OKC to go back to Dallas. Then we had to re-book the Dallas to DC part of our flight, 'cause we had to drive back to Dallas 'cause they couldnt' get us on a flight out of OKC for the next two days.

So... um... yea... that was pre 9-11.... make your own inferences.

[boxninja.livejournal.com]

I would phone your carrier and ask them. Here in the UK we had to confirm with BA that we wouldn't be using an outbound ticket on a flight, and they confirmed they would have made the return invalid if we hadn't phoned ahead.

But it might vary from carrier to carrier, so phone and you'll know for sure.

[drwex]

If you do not use an earlier leg of a ticket, later legs will automatically be cancelled. It makes sense from the carrier's point of view - if you miss the flight from A to B and don't rebook in some known way they have no reason to expect you to show up for the return from B back to A.

The issue is not with security; it's about airline revenue.