michal9

Hello,

A few weeks ago I purchased 2 tickets from ORD to IST. The price was a bit over $1,100 for a flight in May through AMS and JFK on the way back. I thought the price wasn't great but expected that if it dropped I would get a price difference refund from Delta as I was used to this policy on Alaska Airlines and also on Orbitz. Today I found out that the price dropped by $150 per ticket. I called Delta and requested a refund. They informed me that they don't refund differences in prices. This was disappointing considering that I am a Gold AMEX Skymiles cardholder and I'm traveling with my wife who has an MVP Gold status with a partner airline - Alaska. Has anybody had experience with refunds from Delta? I assumed all airlines followed the same practice of issuing a travel voucher if a price of their tickets dropped. After all it encourages people to buy tickets sooner and spend money with Delta faster. If this is not the case is there any reason not to use a site like Orbitz which provides a price guarantee? Needles to say I will avoid flying Delta in the future.

AndyTLe

If the airline raises the price, would you pay more to the airline if they sent you a bill? Airline pricing isn't linear.

mattsteg

I don't know of any airline other than Alaska that does this. Refunding fare drops is not a common practice. Orbitz only does it if someone else books it cheaper.

PHXflier

They will refund the difference if the price drops within 24 h after purchasing the ticket, but not after that. Makes sense to me. It is always a bit of a gamble of whether fares will be going up or down, but certainly for international tickets it pays to wait a bit and see how pricing develops.

Tony10s

I think you assumed all would be the same with all airlines but sadly not the case.
AS is great about that and their reciprocal benefits don't extend to price guarantees
Third Party bookings usually are ok, but once there is a problem the blame game starts and you get stuck in the middle .

Josephmay

Alaska doesn't refund but issues a credit toward a future flight. I know JetBlue used to issue a credit if asked (don't know if they still do.) I'm not aware of any airline that refunds if price drops.
Orbitz only sends you a refund check for the difference ONLY if another Orbitz customer books the same flight for less. Not if the published price drops. So the price drop refund is not from automatic.

Delta offered the flight for sale. You bought it. No coercion etc. The price drops and now you are never going to fly them again because someone will get a better deal than you and you feel cheated. I understand.

BUT
You entered in to a contract with Delta when they offered you transportation to IST and you accepted their offer at the price they quoted and you agreed to. Now you are bent out of shape because you want to renegotiate the contract that you agreed to. I really don't understand.
Airlines tickets are priced according to supply and demand and they constantly adjust prices to fill their planes. You paid to guarantee a seat on this flight. If you waited and the price went up or the seat wasn't available , would you still be annoyed with delta that they were selling the seat cheaper before or selling too few seats?

Delta has done nothing wrong here except expecting you to honor your part of the contract that you freely entered into.

MSPeconomist

The OP can always cancel the ticket, get a refund as an ecredit for the price minus the change fee, probably $250 in this case, and then buy the ticket again at the new price using the ecredit. The problem here is that the price drop is less than the change fee.

When my M fare dropped by about a thousand dollars, I was able to do this, even keeping my SWU upgrades and seats.

The Orbitz "guarantee" only applies when another Orbitz customer books EXACTLY your same flights for exactly the same dates, an event which would be extremely rare so that IMO this highly advertised feature is essentially worthless.

SFO777

So the price dropped, although I'm not sure a 13.5% decrease qualifies as a BIG price drop. You were happy to pay $1,100 when you bought your tickets. Stop complaining and enjoy your trip. Oh, and welcome to FT!

RFDMinnesota

When I've called the Platinum desk about situations like this, they have refunded me the difference as long as it was in the same fare bucket.

rusrocket

I would advise you to forward your resume to Delta. They would love to have you become their new CFO.

Josephmay

OP is a non medallion. Plats might have a little more negotiating leverage. Just saying....

Then again, I could furnish the OP with the top secret (as in fight club secret) Kryptonium Hotline phone number..... but I won't.

T.J. Bender

"Do you know who I am?! I have a gold Delta Amex. A GOLD Delta Amex. And my wife has status on a partner airline!"

Just like any commodity, once it's bought and paid for, it's bought and paid for. You can't go back to the gas station the day after filling up and ask for a partial refund because the price dropped, can you? Likewise, the station can't raise the charge on your gold Delta Amex because the price went up by two cents a gallon a week later either.

It's the same principle here. When you bought it, you assumed the risk that the price would go down between then and the time of your flight. When you're buying tickets this far in advance, that's a very real possibility.

javabytes

Have you looked at the way the Orbitz Price Assurance program works? Another customer has to book the exact same itinerary on Orbitz for a lower price in order for you to get any refund. How likely do you think it is that someone is going to book the exact same flights as you? (Same dates on the outbound and return, same times, same airline, same flight numbers, same fare refundability/restrictions?) Orbitz doesn't really pay out on this all that often.

MSPeconomist

Agree. This is what I said in the last paragraph of post #7 above.

Zomba

It would be an interesting 'enhancement' if Delta started charging 'fare insurance' as an option when buying tickets. I am sure that they could set it up in a way to game folks out of some dough.