Long time lurker here who is now sufficiently motivated to post. I'd like to warn everyone of a bug on delta.com.

I booked a Business Class fare to BOM from DCA. After selecting the flights and going to the page where it provides the price, right below the price it said "This itinerary is refundable." The price was excellent, and since my plans were up in the air and the fare was supposedly refundable, I thought I may as well go ahead and book it. I could always cancel and get my money back, right?

Well, not so fast. When I called today to get my money back, I was told the fare was NOT refundable. Sure enough, when I went to check the fare rules in the cyberspace equivalent of the fine print, I could see that the fare was not refundable. But that's not what the Web site said at the time of purchase.

The customer service rep was less than helpful, even though I told her it was possible to reproduce the same "This fare is refundable" statement on the site. She then transferred me to the support desk in India. It took three tries of them putting me on hold to get them to go to the DL Web site before they finally agreed to actually do it. When they did, they came back on the line and agreed that the Web site said the fare was refundable, but since I had purchased a nonrefundable ticket, I was out of luck.

I politely but firmly replied that this was unacceptable. I relied upon DL's Web site's representation to me that the fare was refundable. After 18 additional minutes on hold, they agreed to "make a one time exception" and refund my money, but not before upbraiding me for not cancelling the ticket within 24 hours. Whatever. I'm just happy to get my money back. (Or so they say; it will take 3-5 business days.)

This whole process took me just shy of 55 minutes total. Pass the Excedrin.

As of now, you can still reproduce this error on the site. The dates I chose were 11/21/08 - 11/30/08 from WAS to BOM in Business Class. After choosing your flights, you'll see the message "This itinerary is refundable." Perhaps so, but not without a fight.