Originally Posted by
kenn0223
No security issues since your details are run though Secure Flight (No Fly List) before you get a boarding pass and you are screened like any other passenger.
In theory there is a cost to the taxpayer since you are using TSA services and not paying for them (i.e. all fees are refunded when you do the refund) and I am sure there is a cost to DL to process everything. If either of these was material they wouldn't allow the practice but they do so no reason not to do it.
Fun Fact -- If you buy a fully refundable ticket you can get a refund at any point within a year from ticket issuance even after the flight departs. You could purchase a ticket, get a BP and go though security, and still get a refund months later if you were worried about being called out by DL.
Or you could just change the ticket to some other trip rather than refunding it if you're concerned about having refunds associated with your account. That might lower DL's credit card processing fees for the transactions since AFAIK if a merchant processes a sale and then a refund to the same card, they pay percentage fees. [This is partly why most places resist refunding a charge and then recharging it to some other credit card if you made a mistake and offered a card other than the one you wanted to use.]