VA/DL Codeshare Flight Number Changes

[cssaus]

Just wondering if others have encountered a similar issue where the Delta flight numbers for a VA ticket issued with VA code share flight numbers operated by Delta are changed after the issuing of the ticket. (I have posted about this before).

I have an itinerary coming up next week SYD-LAX-JFK-LAX-SYD.

The SYD-LAX flight is VA1 & LAX-SYD is VA2. The VA ticket has the flight number for LAX-JFK as VA6611 & for JFK-LAX VA6659. When first ticketed after making the booking and cross-checking my itinerary on the DL web site, it was showing my VA6611 flight as being operated by DL234 and the JFK-LAX VA6659 being operated by DL447

Some time later after making the booking, I noticed that on the Delta web site my JFK-LAX flight was showing as DL400 and no mention of it as being VA codeshare flight VA6659.

Today I made arrangements through my US office to have a limo meet my LAX-JFK flight DL234. To my surprise the office in the US came back to me to say that flight DL234 was a flight that went from Minneapolis to Las Vegas!!

Jumped back onto the DL website to again check my itinerary and sure enough the flight from LAX-JFK was now DL444 and again no mention of the VA codeshare flight number VA6611. My VA itinerary makes no mention of the new DL flight numbers and still shows the VA codeshare flight numbers.

I've had this issue happen to me several times in past years when flying the same itinerary and I've ended up having to spend much time & effort resolving the matter with VFF because they did not correctly credit my Delta flights with "eligible sectors" and status credits. Convincing VFF to award me "Original Routing Credit" based on my VA ticket wasn't easy.

I'm sure I would have picked up the changes when I checked in.

 

[serfty]

No notification email was received?

 

[cssaus]

No notification email was received?

No.

 

[serfty]

That's where the MY Flights app was so good.

Interesting though - I get emails from DL for any change, 5 minutes, flight numbers etc.

 

[cssaus]

That's where the MY Flights app was so good.

Interesting though - I get emails from DL for any change, 5 minutes, flight numbers etc.

I'm traveling on a VA ticket with VA flight numbers issued by American Express Travel.

What I will be doing this time is bring up the BP for the DL LAX-JFK sector on the DL APP. Hopefully it will show me as "TSA PRE-CHECK" for my Platinum Medallion / Elite Plus Status. I got caught out last year in that the BP issued at Sydney didn't & it wasn't until I had my BP re-printed in the DL lounge at LAX did I realize I was TSA PRE-CHECK & got held up in the non TSA PRE-CHECK line. The rash of VA delays into LAX is somewhat concerning.

 

[serfty]

American Express Travel

One would expect that as your agent, they would inform you of such changes.

 

[cssaus]

One would expect that as your agent, they would inform you of such changes.

They do but it seems only for changes that appear on the VA reservation system (i.e. time changes). Changes that occur on the DL reservation system such as a change to the DL flight number that is operating the code share flight for VA do not.

 

[serfty]

Fair enough - I only ever used them for the "Amex Free Flight" and not even that anymore.

 

[clipped_wings]

I have to throw my experience in here as well.

I booked our upcoming (October) Delta connection flights directly through the Delta website many months ago. I printed off the itinerary and never received anything other than a nice confirmation with our e-tickets.

Just happened to check back into the site one day and saw the "There has been a change affecting your flight" notification. It had moved our flights forward by 5 minutes, everything else was the same so I printed off the new itinerary to update my folder.

Recently, I was back on their site and, just like the OP - one of my flight numbers had disappeared, along with the A330 I was supposed to be on! Our First Class seats were classified as "not assigned"......what the?
I contacted Delta by phone and they advised that one of the connecting flights was now operated by Skywest but that it was still a Delta flight. They reinstated our First Class seats, sadly it is now an CRJ900 so not much to look forward to over a 3 hour flight.

The change aircraft change is not so much of an issue and although I am pleased with the confirmation - it was up to me to discover the change had been made. I have both the Delta app and a Skymiles account - yet there was zip from them in terms of correspondence.

 

[cssaus]

I sense there's a serious disconnect between the VA & DL reservation systems after the initial booking has been made.

 

[madrooster]

I sense there's a serious disconnect between the VA & DL reservation systems after the initial booking has been made.

It happens on all sorts of codeshares, I've seen this behaviour between HA and AA, VA and DL, QF and AA, QF and AS and many others.

 

[clipped_wings]

Another day - another change. This time, they've changed the flight number for the first sector! No problem with that, however I checked the historical information for DL491 and apparently it flies a completely different route than the one we are supposed to be on.

Time to leave the Virgin Velocity forum and find a Delta one...............