For our trip in October, I bookedd Delta flying down and US Airways flying home. At the time of booking, both airlines were the same price, but Delta gave us a better flight time going down. I booked through Travelocity rather than booking one-way flights on each carrier's website. That was my mistake!
Fast forward to two days before we are scheduled to depart. I learn that I must have emergency gallbladder removal surgery the next day -- as in the day BEFORE we leave for vacation! I thought I could still make the trip, but would like to have an extra day or two to recoup before leaving. I looked online at both Delta and USAir. The price for the Delta flight had jumped from the $59 I paid to over $300, but USAir still had flights down on my desired day for $59. I called Travelocity and their customer service was no help at all. I've used Travelocity before and they are great as long as you don't have problems. Then I called Delta; they were less than sympathetic to my circumstances. Their only advice was to send a letter by snail mail requesting a waiver of the $150 change fee per ticket. I'd still have to pay the $50/ticket re-booking fee since I'd used Travelocity and the difference in ticket price. I asked the Delta rep what would happen if I just didn't show up for that flight and rebooked on another airline, since my return flight was not on Delta. She told me that even though the flights for my trip were on different carriers, the reservations were linked together since I'd used a
travel agent (Travelocity). Therefore, if I didn't show up for the Delta flight down, my return flight on USAir would automatically be cancelled. Basically, I was stuck.
Fortunately all was well in the end. I had a great surgeon who was very helpful and understanding of my situation. I boarded a plane less than 24 hours after surgery (not a direct flight either!) and made it to WDW.
Lesson learned: Never again will I book a flight only through Travelocity, especially if using two different carriers. And when flying to Orlando, I will not use Delta OR USAir again, because I now have two low-fare direct flight options flying into MCO - AirTran and Allegiant.
