This morning I attempted to book a fare on Delta.com in September from RSW to STL. As i went through my purchase, reviewed and selcted my seats and arrived at the total for all passengers screen it gave me a total fare of $260.80. After entering my credit card information and completing my purchase with that total I went into my emaill and printed my receipt and itinerary that showed a fare and total of $416.80. Immediately i called Delta and spoke to a CSR who had to transfer me to a Delta Web Site specialist in Montego Bay. While on the phone with Delta I replicated the fare numerous times and was treated rudely and as if I did not know how to use a computer and book a fare. Finally she transferred me to a Supervisor in Dallas and again replicated the fare and exact same flights numerous times while on the phone with the supervisor who told me I needed to clear my browser history, my cache and my cookies and he did not know why I was showing that fare. I printed out several times while speaking to the supervisor the trip summary where I was able to select that fare and even took pictures of my monitor screen with my cell phone and offered to fax or email him the information instantly with him advising that he does not have access to email or a fax machine. At that point I was tired of arguing with them and had them cancel my reservation at $416.80. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am about to say goodbye to DL and take my business elsewhere.

This happens allllllllllll the time on Delta.dumb. DL is well aware of it and refuses to fix it. (Though the specific CSRs you spoke to may not know about it.) They fall back on the "inventory changes all the time" BS when that clearly cannot be the case if you are constantly quoted the lower price prior to payment and then asked to pay a higher price after payment and you can do this 100 times in a row in the span of one hour, obviously that is not inventory fluctuation.

One solution that many have reported, but I can't personally vouch for, is to price the trip out on a third party site like Kayak or Travelocity and make your purchase there, you can usually get the same fare and you don't get screwed after putting in your credit card info.

Unfortunately, this happens all of the time with Delta.com. This happened two times to me earlier in the year and both of those times, the people at Delta helped me out. The first time, they gave me a voucher for $100 so that I could purchase my desired flight at the original price. The second time, they called me back and booked the cheaper ticket. However, the most recent time this occurred, they ignored my e-mail for over a week. After getting a response back, they said there was nothing they could do. I wrote to a higher executive (Toby Broberg) and received a response that they cannot do anything but that I would be receiving communication soon to resolve the problem. Two days later, I am still waiting to hear back.

I understand that flight price changes do occur but it is "bait and switch" if the price changes after you enter your credit card info, which has happened to me 3 separate times. It is ridiculous that they "lure" you in to a specific flight and then change the price at the last possible step. I am an FO and am loyal to Delta too...the least they could do is honor a fare.

The last time this happened to me was earlier this year when I was looking for a trip to HND/NRT. Delta.com kept telling me "We're sorry this fare has just sold out" for a period of several days. I tried calling the medallion line and web support and neither was able to honor the lower fare. In the end I discovered that expedia had that fare available and I was able to book it through them with no issues. You may want to to see if you can get the ticket for that price on Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.

This fare change has become standard operating procedure for DL. It is a pain now, at some point in the future they will get in trouble.

Keep copies so you can collect on actual damages instead of the gestimated, here's-a-$100-voucher restitution.

-=tg=-

Keep track of all your documentation, call your credit card company and tell them that you were overcharged. Let the CC company fight on your behalf.

You aren't actually charged until you hit 'confirm' when the new price appears. Sounds like a good strategy, but they won't side with you on this one is my guess.

Which could be why delta.com has the following disclaimer on the Trip Summary page:
The advertised price is not an offer, and is subject to change prior to the completion of the purchase, which may take up to 3 minutes to verify seating availability at the advertised price and your credit card information, so please be patient. When you click PURCHASE, you agree to accept all Fare Rules for each flight and all terms in Delta's applicable Contract of Carriage and authorize Delta to charge your credit card. No contract exists until you receive confirmation that your credit card payment has been accepted.

This is BS and will NOT hold up in a court of law.
The terms of contract are laid out on the screen including the fare. Clicking PURCHASE implies you and DL agree to those laid out terms and 'sign' the contract. Unilatteraly changing those terms AFTER having clicked PURCHASE (i.e. after signing) is fraudulent.

Does DL give you a chance to confirm you still wish to purchase if the fare changes? Or does it display $200, you click purchase, and you're confirmed at $400?

I'm pretty sure it gives you a message that indicating that the fare has sold out and dumps you back to the advance booking page. I've never seen a case like you suggest in my experience. However, as with all things delta.com it wouldn't surprise me...

Happened to me when I booked SAN-ICN rt a few weeks ago. The original price ($1800) displayed increased by $400 after entering cc info, but on the last page with the purchase button the new price was shown.

So basically DL.com increased the price before purchase was clicked.

I tried to book the same itinerary on EX and Kayak but no luck, original fare was shown, but increased with "... sold out" message on EX or without any messages after redirecting from Kayak to DL.com.

Since then I really checking all the info, not only name of the PAX and itinerary, before purchasing.

That's not what it is saying - this just means that Delta has to 'sign' the contract too, which may take up to 3 minutes.
If Delta does not 'sign' it, it just doesn't sell you the ticket and you have to start over. The contract has never been signed by both parties so it never was valid to start with.

did you check the fare on expedia or travelocity?...i wonder what they had?

Not sure if it is the same situation, happened to me twice while booking SFO-SVO: delta.com would quote the price, then error after entering CC (something to the point of not being able to book).

Both times I was able to call and get the fare.
If it happens, do NOT agree to be transferred to web site support (agents sometimes would do it right away without giving you time to stop them.) website guys are only good to tell you to clear cookies and restart the browser. They do not appear to be able to change the price.

Regular supervisors can: both times they were able to replicate and eventually agreed to match.
Second time the manager was very friendly and told me that sometimes Delta's res systems are loaded with codeshare KLM flights so that system sees, for example KLM605 and Delta9380 as separate flights even though it is physically same aircraft thus creating false availability.