France itinerary questions

They made a substantive change to your itinerary. You are allowed to make changes for no fee. I think this could likely include adding a couple days. Your argument is that by changing you to an earlier flight they are significantly impacting your last vacation day. They shouldn't charge you a fee but they could charge you a difference in fares, but I still doubt it. The last time we flew home from Paris they changed our flight. It was irritating but not a huge change, and I was going to let it go. While talking to an agent about other flight arrangements I mentioned my minor irritation with the Paris flight and she offered to change it and came up with a better itinerary that had originally been a higher fare ticket at no charge.

• Do not drive into a big city like Lyon, especially just to stop for a meal. You will end up driving round in circles looking for parking. You say you have been to Paris, would you drive to a restaurant in Paris? Lyon will be similar. Plenty of good restaurants in small towns.

• Research and learn the driving rules and road signs. Ignorance is no defence.

• Be prepared for the tolls on autoroutes.

I'll bet it will be more than 4-1/2 hours to Provence.

Delta made the change, Vickie, so it's no charge to you to remedy what they did. Go online to see Delta's current flights to ORD for your date of travel and then contact Delta directly to instruct them to put you on that flight you select assuming this flight isn't sold out already.

Definitely No to Lyon; it's just too big and difficult to drive if you don't know your way around.
Annecy is manageable, especially since you can just spend your time along the lake and the nearby center and see plenty and also find a place for lunch. However, getting in and out of Annecy can take some time, and parking can be difficult. So you might want to consider a smaller place, such as around the Lac de Bourget.

I did this drive in 2015 (July) in reverse. It took me 4.5 hours. My top choice would be to linger in Chamonix to see brevant and flegerre. This other side if the valley is highly underrated. If you get to do these sites on day 1 or 2, then I recommend Annecy. Check to see if it will be market day as that will conplicate your arrival.

Matt

Your itinerary is very similar to the one I designed for our September trip. Chamonix and Annecy are only about 60 miles apart. If you make Annecy your lunch stop, you will still have about a 200 mile drive to St. Remy. You could visit Annecy as a day trip from Chamonix. After trying to decide between the two locations, we finally decided to spend one night in each. (We don't mind occasional one nighters. )

We will be driving from Annecy to Vaison-le-Romain and visiting there for a couple of hours before driving the last 30 miles to our accommodations near Venesque. We plan to take a coffee break en-route to Vaison, probably somewhere around Romans-sur-Isere, although I am still trying to find a good location for that stop. .

We were in Chamonix just over a week ago. The gondola trip over Mer de Glace is being repaired... May/may not be ready for you. Also, the train up and down the valley was undergoing repairs. We still enjoyed great hikes. Just an FYI.

Lyon is out of the way on your itinerary. Why not stop in Vienne--a fascinating city full of Roman ruins.

We're sticking with the original plan of Annecy for the lunch stop.

I decided to talk to a Delta agent in person, since I had to go to my local airport to pick someone up. I explained that Delta had changed my flight itinerary in a way that was causing a missed connection and said that I had a proposal to make: let us drop the Toulouse to Paris leg of the return flight home and keep the Paris to Chicago 10:10 a.m. direct flight they'd put us on, but move it to 2 days later. The agent, who was very nice, told me that she could get someone on the phone to request this, but she expressed skepticism that this change would be made without our paying a change fee and fare difference. She said that a free change requires that we keep the same itinerary, but we were dropping the first leg, making it a new itinerary. She said she could put us on an earlier flight out of Toulouse (7 a.m.) that would allow us to make the connection. I told her the earlier flight would mess up the final day of our vacation as it would require us to travel to the airport the day before the flight and stay in an airport area hotel. We had accommodations reserved for that night that were two hours away from the airport. She got on the phone and did verify that we'd need to pay fees to make the proposed change. I said no, I don't want to do that, can you ask them about keeping us on the Toulouse to Paris flight, but moving our Paris to Chicago flight to two days later? With the person on the other end of the phone on hold, the desk agent told me this wasn't the kind of change they'd do for free, either. I asked, why not? It's a way for us to make the connection that Delta is causing us to miss. She said two days later was too big an itinerary change to get it for free. I asked her to find out what the fees would be to accommodate the first request I'd made, so she made that inquiry on the phone and was told $79.75 per ticket. Ok! That was fine with me. We will end our trip with a 4 hr. train from the Dordogne region that will take us right into central Paris and two nights in the City of Lights! It's too bad they wouldn't just do this for free, but the fee was acceptable to get what I wanted.

She said that a free change requires that we keep the same itinerary,

Yes, that's something I learned many years ago. But I'm surprised that the change fee was so low. I wonder how they calculated it. A ouija board? Throwing darts?

I know, Robert, I couldn't figure it out either, except that the receipt she gave me after the transaction was complete indicated that $60 was the "fare difference" and $19.75 was taxes and fees. So I guess there was no "change fee" after all. If you look at Delta's cancellation and change policy, it looks like they could have charged up to a $500 per person change fee, or could have denied a change altogether since these were basic economy tickets, except of course, they're the ones who necessitated the change. They did apparentlly see it in their hearts to waive any change fee. But I can't figure out how they came up with a $60 "fare difference." I booked my original round trip (open jaw) itinerary many months ago and paid $831 per person. The new round trip itinerary that I've ended up with, if booked today, would be over $2,900 per person. Paying a "fare difference" could have been a couple thousand dollars then, right? I just feel lucky to have gotten what I did, but it's not helpful for the future, as I don't know how they came up with the fee.

Vickie, I liked that you went in person to take care of things. It's annoying that Delta changed things on you in the first place. But you handled it. :-)

Well, I think that is garbage. They shouldn't have charged you a fee, but I don't work for Delta, do I. ;) I'm glad you came to a settlement that you were happy enough with.