pfreet

Is there any option other than to call in? How difficult is it to find a good flight a couple of months out? Want to fly DAB-FCA for a ski trip. Not particular about day of week. Any suggestions for a strategy?

xliioper

Go to certs/credits/vouchers selection in Profile and select a companion cert and then Continue -- https://www.delta.com/myprofile/certificates
You will likely have much better luck out of MCO than DAB and better prices and schedules. Requires LUTXV fare bucket availability. Finding anything after mid-Feb looks to be challenging. You will also likely have to settle for mid-week travel. I'm assuming you are looking to apply on main cabin fares. If you are attempting to apply Reserve cert to FC fares, that has it's own set of challenges.



Unfortunately, you can't use Flexible Dates search when applying a companion cert. However, you can use Google Flights calendar view as a sort of proxy. Below is a search for a 5-day trip for MCO-FCA. Basically, anything pricing at $437 or higher roundtrip below looks to only have K or higher fares available in one or both directions and thus can't have cert applied. After mid-Feb, it looks like LUTXV availability is not there until the end of March (Mar 31 - Apr 5th trip).

findark

You can also use ITA Matrix with a restriction to the highest relevant fare class (L or I) if you don't like using the Delta website to search for things.

vulnox

Hi all, trying to work out our best strategy for using companion passes. It may come down to being unworkable or more trouble than its worth, but trying to do the homework as we have yet to actually use any of them.

We have three companion passes that are Platinum Delta (two on my Delta account, one on my wife's). We have one companion pass from a Delta Reserve (my wife's).

We have a trip planned for November 2022 and it will be us two, our two kids, two friends of ours, and their daughter. I would like to use up as many of these companion passes as possible.

If we focus on just using the Platinum companion passes and somehow find six seats that we can reserve in main, would we be able to likely upgrade them after purchase to Comfort+? It seemed like it from an earlier post I scrolled back to, but want to confirm before we start using up certs.

Will you have the option to upgrade with points if so? Or is it cash upgrade only?

Lastly, just to confirm, we can use a companion pass for two of them even if one of us isn't on that exact booking? So for example my wife and I use one companion pass, then I want to use another for our friends, and another for our kids, it is all pairs of two and we pay for one of the fairs, we will still be good to use companion pass for each? I got the kids their own Delta SkyMiles numbers since it sounds like that is a requirement at least.

Thank you all!

onebobobo

So I have platinum and reserve companion certs to use (tied to my SM account) and my wife has almost $3k of ecredits to use by 12/31/2022. Is it possible to use my certificates with my wife as the primary (to use her ecredit) and me as the companion? I have >200k rollover MQM and very slim chance at getting to $15k MQD, so I�ve almost resigned to achieving only PM in 2022 (unless I can find some creative partner itineraries for TATL trips).

Zorak

Yes -- the primary card member does not have to be the primary traveller on the reservation, or even be on the reservation at all.

See above -- the card holder(s) don't need to be one of the travelers on the reservation. However you can only book two passengers at a time if using the companion cert, so you will have to book 6 of you as 3 pairs, as you described. I've only ever used Reserve certs so don't have any further info on paid upgrades beyond what others have posted to the thread (I am inferring that none of you have Delta elite status, but if it happens that 2 or more of you do, you may want to split the elite members into different reservations to maximize the chances of complimentary upgrades for the most number of people; also you might want to do parent1+kid1 and parent2+kid2 depending on the kids' ages and also in the case of IRROPs)

dbuckho

Just want to reconfirm the current cancellation behavior.

I have flights for my family booked for July. Used one certificate for myself + 1 child; and another cert for my wife + other child (two separate reservations). I have never been able to use my DL Amex companion certs before, so was amazed to be able to use two on the same flights! But looks like our plans are changing and we now need to do an open jaw for this trip.

I know I will lose the two certs if I cancel -- not concerned about that since without this trip/city pair they likely would have expired without use anyways. But from a credit perspective, I am assuming I will get one ecredit in my name but that the other ecredit will go to my wife? Or is there any chance that both ecredits would go back to my account? Ideally I would be able to use both together to rebook one of the one-ways so that we are all on the same reservation.

herzmeh

Trying to book D1 but it only gives me refundable fares that are ~$300 more than non-refundable fares. Is this norm when trying to use cert?

Edit: was able to book JFK-SFO D1 using two certificates, but it would only price into a refundable fare

kersie

I have a call into Delta but wanted to know if anybody had a sense as to whether the current covid waiver puts companion certs back in your account if you cancel. The website is entirely unclear on this.

We could just rebook, but the system doesn't seem to be properly crediting the excess from the original ticket as an ecredit on the primary reservation so canceling and rebooking seems to make more sense if we get the certs back.

xliioper

Not sure which waiver you are talking about. There's nothing Covid specific that allows you to refund non-refundable fares or re-issue companion certs if that's what you are asking. They may do it as a favor, or there may be internal guidelines, but there is no formal published policy that I'm aware of.

Adelphos

EDIT - delete

kersie

There's a note that you can get back the cert if the covid policy applies when you go to change or cancel the ticket. But the good news is that a Delta agent on the Plat line was able to change the tickets for us and get back the appropriate credit of $80 that online wasn't showing.

whooperatw

Able to book a Reserve cert in first - ATW-SAN in mid-February. Prices in FC are a bit high I would say - but it is extra savings!! (In a Kohl's coupon kind of way I would consider). Main comments though were needing to call in - FC booking engine is still very broken and need for both parties to have an ecredit to use any. Per rep both parties needed their own credits to use any on the ticket. Supposedly support desk confirmed this; makes it inconvenient at best in my eyes to have this ability since many will have spouses who don't have credits.

Maybe some bad info, but an FYI.

brkandjfk

I canceled a trip with a companion cert applied. Initially, the two individual tickets had an e-credit on them (my companion's for the taxes portion). A call got that refunded to the original payment and the other credit remained specifically in my name and was applied to a different (solo) trip that I was booking.

Hope this info helps your situation.

hurnik

Wow, that sucks (both passengers needing an eCredit in order to use *any* of the eCredits).