mrgreeze

Hello all,

I bought tickets for my parents who want to come visit me in New York (from Belgium). Now my working situation just changed, we need to change the dates of their flights. I called Delta and they told me the tickets are non-refundable and non-changeable.

This would basically mean that I would lose over a $1000/ticket and would have to book new tickets on top of that. Can an airline do this?

Are there any steps I can take? I booked the tickets through an amex delta skymiles card but they tell me as well they cant help me.

MSPeconomist

If you booked a fare that is nonrefundable and nonchangeable, then these are the rules. That's why the price was so low.

What's exactly the situation with you having a work conflict now? For instance, if you had gotten approved vacation dates earlier and now work wants to change the timing, there's an argument that your employer should cover the cost of changing the tickets. They would if you had purchased tickets for yourself to leave town. Check your company's policies on this.

fti

Welcome to Flyer Talk.

It is probably an expensive lesson to learn but please read the fare rules before you buy a ticket not after.

mrgreeze

They were $1000 a ticket. Makes me laugh (bitter) to hear "That's why the price was so low".

MSPeconomist

Of course it depends on the particular city pair, but I would consider a $1000 RT ai TATL fare to be cheap.

TTT

OP, sorry you find yourself in this situation. Only thing you can hope for is a schedule change greater than 90 minutes in either arrival or departure. That can allow for a free change or refund.

Otherwise the no change/refund is just what it says.

justhere

Depending on when the flights are, $1000 isn't bad for a round trip transatlantic ticket.

One thing you could try, and I've no idea if this will work, is to see if Delta will let you pay the fare difference to upgrade the ticket to a changeable ticket and then pay the change fee to change it to the dates you want. Won't be cheap but will be cheaper than a new ticket. The change fee is likely to be $200 per ticket and the upfare could be anything from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

Out of curiosity I was looking on delta.com to see if I could tell how much a changeable ticket costs. I noticed that even the cheapest ticket said changeable/non-refundable. When I clicked on the fare rules to see how much the change fee was, it said it no changes were permitted. So in the case I looked at, delta.com is providing the customer conflicting information. If that happened to you, then maybe you'd have a case for getting Delta to allow you to change. Still won't be free, but at least you might be able to salvage some value out of the ticket.

howtofreetravel

You could always try waiting for a schedule change

MSPeconomist

IIRC the $200 change fee is for (most) domestic tickets. Many international tickets cost $400 or more to change but of course it depends on the fare rules.

Throw Down Your Leavy Screens

Is the fare class on these tickets "E"? If so, you're out of luck.

E-fares are Delta's rock-bottom fare class and tickets booked in that class come with all sorts of restrictions, not being refundable or changeable being just two.

Typically E-fares are used domestically on vacation routes (MCO, FLL, MIA, etc.), although I have seen them transatlantic from time to time as well.

CDKing

I did a search on expertflyer BRU-JFK and the some of the cheapest fares have a $125 EUR change fee. What i thought was odd is there were some higher fares that had no changes allowed and one was a V fare.

MSPeconomist

For TATL RTs, there are many more fares exEU that permit absolutely no changes than exUSA.

Often1

As a starting point, go back and read the exact conditions for the fare you purchased (presuming that both tickets are the exact same fare code). It is doubtful that the tickets use the jargon quoted in your post.

Are the tickets changeable at all? Can they be changed for a fee + fare difference? If cancelled, is there a credit which can be used for other travel?

You will need to make the determination yourself and should not rely on DL or anyone else to tell you what something says. As others note, my starting point would be with my employer. Maybe they will cover some or all of your lost. At least, asking is free.

To put this in perspective, you purchased tickets which are approximately 40% of the cost of the cheapest flexible tickets on that route. Even if the tickets you purchased for your parents are worthless, you will still likely be ahead of the game if you have to purchase new tickets at anything close to the price you originally paid.

mrgreeze

Thank you all for the replies.

Just to be clear. These are tickets I bought for my parents. No employer has anything to do with this. When I say 'my work situation' changed, it is because I know have time in-between two jobs and will now have to work when they come over. Because of that, it would make sense they come now instead of later when I'm working.

The tickets are economy (x). I was able to upgrade them to economy plus after I bought them (so in case they can make money of of me, they aren't that 'non-changeable' after all)

These are the conditions on my receipt:

NON-REFUNDABLE / CHANGE FEE
When using certain vouchers to purchase tickets, remaining credits may not be refunded. Additional charges and/or credits may apply and are displayed in the sections below.

This ticket is non-refundable unless issued at a fully refundable fare. Any change to your itinerary may require payment of a change fee and increased fare. Failure to appear for any flight without notice to Delta will result in cancellation of your remaining reservation.

All Economy Comfort and Preferred seats are Nonrefundable.

Terms & Conditions
Air transportation on Delta and the Delta Connection® carriers is subject to Delta's conditions of carriage. They include terms governing for example:
Limits on our liability for personal injury or death of passengers, and for loss, damage of delay of goods and baggage.
Claim restrictions including time periods within which you must file a claim or bring action against us.
Our right to change terms of the contract.
Check-in requirements and other rules established when we may refuse carriage.
Our rights and limits of our liability for delay of failure to perform service, including schedule change, substitution of alternative air carriers or aircraft, and rerouting.
Our policy on overbooking flights, and your rights if we deny you boarding due to an oversold flight.
These terms are incorporated by reference into our contract with you. You may view these conditions of carriage on delta.com, or by requesting a copy from Delta.

No mention of non-changeable. The opposite is true. If I book the exact same ticket today, it says non-refundable and changeable at the bottom.

NotHamSarnie

Agree. When you said non-changeable I assumed you'd got them from a bucket store or something. I've bought pretty cheap tickets and still been able to change them with a $400 fee (I think that's what it was, international). The first condition listed in bold just says that if you get a voucher for the travel, you may not be able to get the balance if you buy a cheaper ticket (which is unlikely here, anywa) so you can change only to an equal or more expensive ticket (minus the change fee). IMHO you should be able to change minus the change fee.

Plus you lose what you paid for your E+ seats.