r m a h

i have researched this and i have searched past threads, but...

1. if i buy a dl economy ticket on time y and date x for a flight within 24 hours of time y and date x, and i need to cancel the ticket within 24 hours of time y and date x, will i get my full refund?

my confusion lies in the fact that some delta site info and threads seem to indicate i would need to buy the ticket 7 days in advance to get a full refund.

thanks!

xliioper

DOT rules say airlines only have to offer 24 hour refunds for tickets purchased 7 days or more in advance. DL policy is more liberal than the DOT requirements and allow 24 hour refunds on tickets purchased all the way up to flight time.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...cellation.html

Zorak

While it's true that the DOT does not require the airlines to offer 24 hour risk-free cancellation on tickets purchased within 7 days of travel, Delta's policy is more generous than the minimum required. So you will have at least 24 hours to cancel, up to midnight on the calendar day after your purchase.

There are some caveats:
- I don't think it's 100% spelled out what time zone applies, although many people have theories. You will probably get a bit of leeway getting it interpreted as your time zone or the time zone of the first flight (the other likely candidate is midnight ATL time) but also prob just better not to cut it close.
- Award tickets may or may not get RFC inside of 72 hours (there have definitely been reports of sucessful RFC of such tickets but it's unclear whether that's strictly policy or agents doing favors)
- an edge-case quirk I just learned while reviewing the DL page before posting this: if you want to pay cash for a ticket, "you may make the reservation over the phone, which will guarantee the fare for 24 hours. Your ticket must be purchased at a Delta ticketing location by midnight of the following day, or your reservation will be cancelled. Once purchased, these tickets will not be eligible for cancellation under the Risk-Free Cancellation policy." Seems unlikely to apply to anyone on FT though when you could be earning CC points

Justin026

Delta pretty much leads the industry here: you can cancel until midnight of the day after you booked the ticket without any penalty--Delta agents now recognize this without prompting and the website seems to as well. There is no seven-day rule.

Delta can also be flexible about when midnight actually is -- they have interpreted it for me as the time zone I was calling from to cancel.

I have woken up at 2:45 more than once realizing I forgot to cancel a reservation, but then remembered I was in... LA.

Zorak

IIRC people have posted that the web site has issues handling free cancellation of award tickets for non-PM/DM and in those situations you have to call in.

r m a h

what a forum!

thanks for the info.

VERY appreciated!!!!

xliioper

You're welcome. Enjoy your free Sky Club visit.

MSPeconomist

Official policy is that award tickets cannot be cancelled within 72 hours, even if they were purchased less than 24 hours ago. YMMV.

r m a h

how can i get a free sky club visit???

WidgetTravels

While it may say that on the website, I can 100% confirm that internally, there is language that the RFC supersedes the 72 hour rule.

flyerCO

I wrote DL corporate. Their response agrees. They did say that there is some confusion by agents with it.

BTW they also pointed out for flights booked the day before that you technically need to at least cancel the reservation before departure. No showing technically means no refund. Though from past experience it doesn't matter.

Zorak

Good to know!

Is there a reference you can share? i.e. not asking you to post an internal document but if someone runs into this can they say "please refer to such-and-such document, paragraph X, line Y" etc.

CJKatl

When it gets to be later in the day - not sure of specific time - the cancelation period actually jumps to midnight the day after next. In other words, if you purchase your ticket at 11:00 pm on the 1st, you may actually have until midnight the 3rd to cancel. I've used this to my advantage several times.

The first time I was told this I had made my reservation the first night in ATL. Two days later, while in my friends' living room in Sandy Springs (ATL suburb) I found out the trip was scrubbed, called to cancel and was told I was still within the free cancelation period, about 40 hours later, so it is not a time zone thing. Since then I've done this a few times.

xliioper

Ah, nevermind. I was making an assumption based on some previous posts. My bad.

MrAndy1369

Agreed. Once, I accidentally purchased a same-day flight from a kiosk (I think it was a shuttle flight), didn't realize it until the next day (so still within 24 hours). Called and happily got a refund.