I have a tentative LAS trip planned in the next couple months but really won't know if it will materialize until 48 hours before expected departure. A 'flex' ticket on DL in coach is $2400 r/t

I was wondering if there are any DL fare classes or ways to purchase that work like Southwest where you can turn even their cheapest ticket back into the dollars you spent to use towards a future flight as long as it occurs within 12 months? DL's non-refundable cheapest fare for the dates in question is currently about $410 vs Southwest at $447. Would rather fly DL but don't want to throw away money for no reason if I don't end up going. I couldn't find anything on their site about it other than checking 'refundable' on the search screen and seeing what it gives you, which resulted in the completely ridiculous fare.

Fully refundable is your only option. You cant even use miles as you can't cancel within 72 hours without losing them. I would book WN since no change fee.

Hmm, if I put some pressure on the others who are the deciding factor I could probably have a decision made 72 hours before departure. I forgot that was one of the platinum benefits. I'll see if there are any low reward options; I've been saving up my miles so the wife and I can go somewhere distant so I don't want to waste a ton of them for what would have been a cheap trip to Vegas.

Thanks!

Most DL nonrefundable fares can be canceled and turned into an voucher/ecert minus a $150 change fee. Some B fares are refundable and cost less than full Y, but they come from a slightly restricted inventory as do the refundable (more expensive!) P fares, although many Ps are nonrefundable.

Why not just wait until 2 days before departure? Chances are you're not going to end up paying more than $2,400.

Or book now and just get the non-refundable ticket. You will typically get it back in the form of an eCredit, non-transferable and only usable for 1 year from the date of purchase, less a $150 ASC. Easily re-usable if you are going to fly DL again in the next year.

It's just a leisure trip, I think I'm just going to pay the extra $37 for the Southwest ticket now rather than risk the DL non-refundable fare going up if I wait until the last minute to buy it, or spend a $150 cancel fee. I should be DM before the trip in question but I don't see anything on the benefits chart that looks like it would make any difference from a cancellation fee standpoint. That would be a good DM benefit though, maybe something like free cancellations for e-credits if done before 48 hours out.

DL would never agree to this. Many of their top-tier elites travel for business on expensive last-minute or flexible fares, paid for by the company, albeit sometimes with a nice discount contract. Waiving change fees would cost far too much for too little benefit to DL.

You never know, if a flight is full, which they are getting better and better at, and me hopefully reaching DM before this trip, I could have lucked out and upgraded to an FC seat at the window, on a $400 round trip. By letting me cancel for free, they would have been able to sell that seat to someone last minute who was willing to pay a lot more for it than what I did two months in advance. Or, worst case, if I didn't get upgraded, they could still sell my $400 round trip coach seat to someone for a lot more than $200 one way if the person is booking with only a few days to go. Plus they get to hold onto my cash until I apply it to a future purchase, which will help them with their poorly timed shorting of crude prices lol.

I have to think this strategy actually works or Southwest would not do it since they're pretty good at packing planes and making a profit even without luggage fees.

Southwest is a different business model.

That's true, and I'm suggesting their model is flawed if their goal is to actually make more money; and it has the side benefit of being an additional DM perk. I believe Delta makes less profit off $150 cancellation fees from last minute DM cancellations than they would by letting DM's cancel for vouchers free no closer than 48 hours out, and then re-selling those seats for last minute prices.

We already know they probably wouldn't put the vacated FC seat back into upgrade inventory and would try to sell them as jacked up P fares until gate upgrade time, so nothing would really change in that regard, and coach tickets always jump up last minute too, so someone must be buying them, why not give DM's a perk that lets them sell these pricy last minute fares?

If they've done their job right, they wouldn't have sold you that $200 ticket if they can sell your seat later for much more. They don't get enough interest on keeping your money to make this worth it.

No it's not. Paying a change fee isn't ideal, but it is much cheaper than a fully flexible ticket.

Depending on my trip odds, I'd certainly wager paying 37 less and flying delta if i fly vs. being out of pocket 113 more if I go with WN and don't make the trip (not to mention being stuck with $447 of WN travel that I need to use!)

It's also worth noting that a lot of the people paying change fees are using OPM, which no doubt influences how palatable that fee is.

Also, while WN has no change fees, you're stuck paying the fare difference for same day changes. That's a significant bummer.