Originally Posted by
Firstboss
Corporate bureaucracy language quite often spills over to the outside world.
People in charge of the fine print and terms and conditions often forget how to speak in the logic of normal language without lawyering up.
Pretty much -- you see the same complaints about deciphering UA/AA refundable fares in their forums.
The main way to tell is from the "Penalties" section of the Fare Rules (available at check-out at "Fare Rules, Change & Cancellation Policies" link).
Click on the Expand All link
This is what it says for non-refundable fares:
This is what it says for refundable fares:
You'll notice the fare basis codes differ in the 4th and 8th positions. For DL domestic fares, refundable fares all look to have a 2, 3, or 6 in the 8th position. If it ends in a letter or the number 1, it's non-refundable. The 4th position all look to have an R, Z, P, or 2 on refundable fares.
If you don't have a copy of the fare rules, you can look up your fare basis codes in the "Fare Details:" line of Delta email receipts. The following is for a AZO-SAN roundtrip and has a XAWNA0ML X fare outbound and a VAWSC2ME V fare on the return. The 'M' in the 7th position means these are Main Cabin fares (BE fares have 'B', C+ fares have an 'I' or 'C', FC fares have an 'F', and D1 fares have a 'D'). Since the fare basis codes don't end in 2, 3, or 6, they are non-refundable fares.
