Change in cancelation process?
 

I've canceled tickets (refundable fares) before, has always been simple, just click and confirmed. Last night i had to cancel a flight i had scheduled for next week and it was quite a different process. I had to fill out a form with my info (name, address, phone #) and an explanation of why I had to cancel. In the past after i canceled I would get a simple email confirming i canceled, this time i got one confirming my 'refund' rather then cancelation. In the fine print it also now states:

'Credit Card Refunds could take up to two billing cycles to appear on your credit card account. Refunds for eligible tickets purchased with cash or check will be processed within 20 business days. Retain this refund confirmation for your records.'

Anyone else seen this?

Should not this post be over on the manufactured spend board?

Why?

What does OP's post have to do with manufactured spending? Or are you insinuating something?

Unless I have missed something, the OP does partake in a good bit of such. And this might likely be a security alert brought on by such.

Nothing at all illegal or immoral about those games. But it can cause the banks to want to see some details.

Im very confused here. Sure i do some MS, but what does that have to do with canceling an airline ticket? Your saying that my bank may have an issue with me doing MS and they then asked delta to totally re-design the way they cancel airline tickets......just because of little ol me?

I think you may also not understand MS, or airlines, at all if you were making this comparison. Delta is not a bank......they don't have security alerts for spend, how could they?

Are you seriously suggesting that Delta somehow has access to my bank statements/amex/chase spend and is taking it upon themselves to try to punish me for doing some MS by making it harder for me to cancel my fully refundable tickets?

Maybe when the airline detects a pattern of cancellation they make the process less straightforward for the person in question.
At this point it is not yet ascertained if the process has become what you describe for everybody else as well.

In the past, had you cancelled tickets that were booked more than 24 hours before the cancelation? When was this ticket purchased? Was this ticket purchased from DL.com or a travel agent?

Anytime I click on cancel on my Amex issued tickets it submits a "refund request" which looks a lot like what you describe. When I have used the risk-free cancellation I get what you were expecting to see.

I've had to cancel maybe 2-3 tickets this year. Hardly anything I would think would raise an eyebrow, especially considering that people cancel tickets all the time for work. If anyone else has to cancel id be curious to know if this is new or just a one off thing

The first 2 were within the 24 hour window, but still flex fares like this, this was the first one canceled outside the 24h window. All booked directly on DL.com using my Amex.

I got that same form today when cancelling a flight I booked about 2 months ago. I just phoned the DM line and got the ticket cancelled in a minute or less, no questions asked.

Interestingly, the ticket credit validity period is for one year from original date of ticket issue and not from date of cancellation. Never noticed that before.

It's been like that for a while. Basically your flights are canceled but the value remains on the ticket that was originally issued.

I think that is how it works. The easy version is for the risk-free cancelation. Next time, call to cancel if it is outside the risk-free window.

Gotcha :) thanks!