I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum but figure you all would have the most experience with Delta... but I called Delta SkyMiles customer service today to ask a few questions in order to book a flight to New York next April for myself and wife using our own separate miles. After my questions were answered, I was going to hang up and book them online so I wouldn't get charged but the customer service rep said she would save the itineraries under both our names because I needed time to transfer some miles after I hung up.

Here's where I need help... when I logged into my account as well as my wife, both of the itineraries are under "Upcoming Trips" with a confirmation number and NOT under the "Saved Trips" section. Both of our flights have confirmation numbers and I could not see anywhere where I could activate and confirm the flight with either paying or using miles. The only thing that alarms me is under the Payment Details section, it says Not Available. From what I can tell, it looks like the flight is actually booked without me using my miles or paying for it. Both of our miles total has not changed.

So is it possible the customer service lady screwed up and booked my flight somehow instead of just saving it for me? She was super nice, possibly on purpose because we talked about both having a 2 yr old kid and other things? LOL Am I missing something? I will probably call tomorrow to make sure it's a confirmed flight, but I could not find anything to think it's not...

Thoughts? Thanks much!

It sounds to me like your reservation is on hold. I forget how many days it'll stay on hold for. TICKETED is a different story. Without a ticket number associated with the reservation, you'll never get a boarding pass, but depending on how soon your trip is, I'd say that after X number of days on hold, the reservation would probably cancel if it isn't ticketed.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, that's exactly what one would think, but the customer service person knew I was going to go online to finalize the "purchase" but I don't see anywhere that I can actually activate and either pay or use miles to get "ticketed."

That could be one of the many glitches of the new website changes that went into effect yesterday. There's a huge thread about it.

Actually as another poster said it probably is on hold. DL can create on hold itins where supposedly the seats are held (which MOST of the time they are) and you have until the next night midnight before it expires (sometimes DL can extend this if you ask).

OP, call DL to confirm if you want this itin, otherwise you can just let it sit and it will disappear shortly.

If you didn't get an email with an E-ticket receipt in it from Delta, then it isn't ticketed. Regardless if you are paying via miles or money. It will eventually disappear after the hold expires.

Learned this one the hard way.

Click on the Itin in the upcoming trips tab and an option for "redeem now" should appear. This should allow you to complete the booking process and get the itin ticketed. One word of caution - make sure you are logged into the account that you want the miles to be deducted from.

DL should have sent an email to him if this was the case though, right? I did the same thing booking from BNA-LHR last month and received an email at the end of the day; same hold for 24 hours. I didn't bother to check if it was under "Upcoming Trips," though.

Thank you, but I have done your suggestion above many times and there is no "redeem now" or any other option like this. I just looked again and nothing but a confirmed flight status. It's very possible it is just glitches in the new website, but there is absolutely no option to redeem the ticket.

I am calling now and will report... I'm just hesitant to call because it will ruin any possibility of getting an absolutely free flight! LOL But I know realistically it is just on hold and will disappear if I don't do anything.

I believe when you use a phone rep they can disable the Redeem Now so that you have the pay the phone booking fee.

Is it possible for you to recreate the itinerary online and book it without the phone rep?

Well after 46 minutes of being on the phone with customer service, I am ticketed!?!

It was a website error. I was forwarded to their online help customer service and she told me to click the "redeem now" button in the itinerary. I told her there wasn't any such option that I could see. Her system was having errors logging into the itinerary so she couldn't see what I could and it finally worked after 8 minutes or so. She then realized I was telling the truth and it was a website bug. She put me on hold for another 10 minutes while she was discussing with a product specialist. She came back and said I need to just click on "My Trips" and it should be there. The website was having errors and then the option still wasn't there when I got in. So she confirmed and ticketed me on the phone because I could not and waived the phone fee and said she will report the bug to IT.

What a hassle and waste of time! For all that, she said she will give me a few thousand miles for my trouble, but no comps or anything else. I would've been much better off just booking my own trip instead of the original customer service person putting the flights on hold for me. What could've taken 5 minutes, turned into 3 hours of my time from figuring out how to redeem the ticket because I didn't see any option to do so, googling how to do it, posting here looking for help and then calling customer service again for 46 minutes today...

Very disappointing.

And just to add on to my other comment about "comps" etc, the only reason I thought this might happen or am disappointed they didn't do more is because during our conversation I told her because I couldn't find any way to redeem the flight that was being held, I was starting to think the original customer service person made a mistake and ticketed my flight instead of holding it. She said "well if I can't figure this out for you, I will take care of it." So I assumed she meant she would comp the flights because of all the time and problems I was having trying to figure it out.

So I'm not trying to be greedy, just I started to think she was going to comp my flights based on what she said and when I learned she wasn't and laughed about it, just made me realize I spent a lot of time figuring this out and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Thanks again for all your comments and trying to help me figure this out.

you thought you would get completely free flights because of the time it took to do this???? No offense newbie, but I think you were lucky they threw miles your way for the little hassle you endured. People with the highest status and insanely bigger flight issues don't even get completely free flights.

She did exactly what she said she'd do... she took care of it and got it to work. A couple thousand miles is a nice gesture. Would you expect Best Buy to give you a TV for free if they're having trouble ringing it up in their system?

No offense taken, I completely agree. I didn't think or expect anything from this until she made that comment. I took her comment the wrong way, but still thought that's what she meant. I would bet other people would've thought the same thing given the context and manner in which she said it, newbie or not. I'm not complaining about it, just saying it leaves a bad taste in my mouth from the experience.

And for what it's worth, there are no miles credited to my account like she said would happen.