Delta Air Lines Updates Its Refund and Cancellation Policies
Taylor Rains March 16, 2020
The coronavirus has put US airlines in a tight spot when it comes to refund and cancellation policies. While some carriers have released unclear information or made it difficult to get a refund or credit, Delta CEO Ed Bastian sent an email to the company’s customers with its response to the coronavirus. The detailed information outlined three main points:
- Aircraft cleanliness
- Refunds/cancellations
- SkyMiles Medallion status
Aircraft Cleanliness
As far as aircraft cleaning, Delta has taken precautions beyond the guidance of the CDC, including, “disinfecting check-in kiosks regularly, more frequent cleaning and disinfecting gate areas, and doubling down on our regular aircraft cleaning. We’ve added a fogging process to disinfect most transoceanic flights and are quickly securing more equipment to expand fogging to even more flights. As always, in-flight air is filtered through Delta’s state-of-the-art circulation system with HEPA filtration.”
Refunds/Cancellation Information
To address concerned customers who cannot get through to reservations, Delta asked travelers that do not have a flight within 72 hours to wait to contact the company. It further explained that customers could change or cancel flights using My Trips on Delta’s website, and any flight expiring in March or April has been “extended to enable rebooking and travel until Dec. 31, 2020.” The email also included one new policy that pleased many FlyerTalk users – “if you don’t take your flight, your ticket number automatically becomes an unused eCredit within 24 hours.”
Medallion Status
There are many questions regarding Medallion status, but the email explained the airline is focused on immediate flight concerns and will answer questions about Status once the crisis is over.
You can find the full email in the forums here. What do you think about the information provided by Delta? Let us know in the comments!
Modifying or cancelling a flight on Delta's web site has not been working for the last several days. Have two booked tickets, one domestic and one international. Want to cancel or modifying the domestic one that is next month but have not been successful at all. I am happy to get a credit for a future flight. The international one is May 8th so I will keep it for a little longer see how things go.
Hats off to Delta Airlines for showing flexibility on its cancellation rules and procedures.
@FullFare - I had the same conversation yesterday. I Have unused e-tickets expiring and they're saying it can only be extended for March/April as it stands today. I know it's unchartered times, but they need to be more flexible than normal considering the current situation.
I was able to change a BE ticket to a later flight and was not charged any changes fees.
Hi mulbry, in the last paragraph of the article there is a link to the forums where the cancellation/rebooking policies are being discussed. Post your question there and see if you can get the information you are looking for. However, as far as I understand, it applies to any Delta ticket, which would include basic economy.