Anyone work for Virgin or KLM who could help me with DS’s flight?

[ratticus4]

Trying to work something out for DS who is flying alone to England via Amsterdam from the US. It doesn’t involve changing his flight or money - it’s trying to cancel the last leg of the journey - and is the sort of thing that someone in the know might be able to help. Could you DM me if so, please?

Can he not just not do the last bit?

Sadly not without incurring an extra charge.

How would they charge him if he just didn’t get on the plane?

Is this a return ticket?

If he’s doing US - Amsterdam - England and back the same way, do you mean cancelling flight 2? So the Amsterdam - England leg?

Doing this would incur both a charge and might mean they’ll cancel the rest of the ticket (flights 3+4) as it would become a no show. You need to call the airline you booked with (please tell me it was an airline and not an agency) and ask them how this would work.

If you mean cancelling flight 4 - or flight 2 if it’s a single ticket - sometimes this can be done at the airport (I’ve certainly gone through it myself) but it is also open to extra charges. Basically because booking connecting flights is cheaper than a direct one, so they don’t want people booking the cheaper option A-B, B-C - just to save some money when all they want is to get to B.

Like I said, if it’s the last ever flight on the ticket, you can inquire at the airport desk when checking in in the US. If it’s not the last flight on the ticket, get on the phone.

I work for a different airline but would say you are asking someone to change his ticket and it does involve money. It's certainly more than their job is worth! .The fare will be calculated from start to end. It is common for indirect flights to be cheaper than direct. By missing the last flight they would need to recalculate the fare and it will likely be higher. The check in staff will not short ship baggage so if he checking in a bag they will check it to the end destination. The bag cannot travel on the last sector without him but they could hold the bag and request payment of the correct fare. There is a chance he could get away with it if hand baggage only as the airline might not chase him for the extra cost but it would be at his risk.

It’s segment 4, the last flight, so there’s no impact on the rest of the itinerary. He has a big rucksack so will have to check that in.

The connection is 75 mins so check in staff will know he doesn’t have much time to pick up his bag and rechecking it for the last leg. They’ll know he’s not planning to take the flight.

Only other option I can think of is if he lands and says there’s some sort of emergency and he has to take a later flight or meet someone urgently in AMS and he needs his bag. Don’t see the airline falling for that one though (and don’t see that he could convincingly pull it off either).

We wanted to meet him there as we haven’t seen him for 3 months and it was to be a surprise for his siblings. It doesn’t look like we can make it work.

Thanks for your replies.

If you book flights with the same airline with changes usually you don’t see the bag again between checking it in at departures and collecting it at your final destination. I may be wrong.

He won't have to collect his bag in Amsterdam if it's checked through - so you'd need for the airline to modify the booking so they only check him in until AMS. Like I said, this can sometimes be done, but it's at the discretion of the desk staff who will most likely charge you for the privilege. Last time I saw this happen was when travelling with colleagues for work - one wanted to leave after layover no. 2 as that was in her home city, instead of flying for another two segments - and the staff had no issue arranging this. BUT it was a flexible ticket, business class, booked by corporate... I imagine that helped.