Last edit by: Zorak
Delta rolls out schedule changes pretty much every Saturday, though the scope/impact can vary. During this time, seat maps may be locked out, may show the wrong aircraft layout, etc. while changes are occurring. If you are not traveling immediately, FT conventional wisdom is to wait until Sunday (or even Monday in the case of major schedule adjustments where things take longer) for things to settle down, then take stock of your upcoming itineraries to see what changes have occurred and what changes/refunds you may be entitled to.
You are entitled to a full refund to original form of payment, even for a ticket that was purchased as a non-refundable ticket, if any of the following occur as a result of schedule change:
The airline would rather keep your money than refund it, so they will frequently accept any vaguely reasonable rerouting that you propose. This includes, by policy, changing origin and/or destination within 100 miles, rebooking +/- two days, and changing outbound/return date to keep the length of the trip the same post-rebooking.
If none of the above conditions for a refund is true, you may still be entitled to a free change -- in your trip summary there will be a notice about changes/refunds, and per the "conditions apply" popup link in that text:
If possible, you may wish to try modifying your flights online first -- there have been data points where the site allowed a free rebooking even though it did not technically fall into the above categories. NOTE however that self-rebooking online is known not to work if you have (1) any trip involving upgrade certificates (whether cleared or not), (2) if you have self-upgraded by picking an upgraded seat that said FREE (instead of waiting for the automated upgrade system sweep to reseat you in an upgraded seat), this seems to inhibit self-rebooking as well.
Otherwise, suggested best practice is to research your preferred alternative rebooking beforehand (whether DL flight search, Google Flights, ITA Matrix etc.) so that you can speak with an agent already knowing what you want, and ask for it; this will be much more efficient than having an agent find alternatives for you.
Other notes/FAQs:
You are entitled to a full refund to original form of payment, even for a ticket that was purchased as a non-refundable ticket, if any of the following occur as a result of schedule change:
- departure or arrival delay of 2hrs or more
- increase in the number of flight segments (non-stop to connecting, 1-stop to 2-stop, etc.)
- change resulting in a connection below the Minimum Connection Time for a given airport (do a Google search for "site:flyertalk.com minimum connecting time XXX" with the airport code to find the relevant thread if one exists)
- any change in operating carrier, i.e. operated by Delta mainline before the schedule change and Delta Connection after the change
- it is also a commonly-held belief that a change from Delta Connection to mainline, or from one Delta Connection carrier to a different Delta Connection carrier, also qualifies for a full refund -- if anyone has documentation of this, a link would be great...
The airline would rather keep your money than refund it, so they will frequently accept any vaguely reasonable rerouting that you propose. This includes, by policy, changing origin and/or destination within 100 miles, rebooking +/- two days, and changing outbound/return date to keep the length of the trip the same post-rebooking.
If none of the above conditions for a refund is true, you may still be entitled to a free change -- in your trip summary there will be a notice about changes/refunds, and per the "conditions apply" popup link in that text:
If a Delta schedule or routing change has delayed your departure or arrival by more than one hour, you may be eligible to select an alternate flight at no additional charge. Note that the below conditions may apply:
- Your origin, destination and travel date must remain the same
- Alternate flights must be available, and you can only modify once as subsequent changes may result in additional fees
- Voluntary changes to other flights not impacted by a Delta schedule change may result in additional fees
Otherwise, suggested best practice is to research your preferred alternative rebooking beforehand (whether DL flight search, Google Flights, ITA Matrix etc.) so that you can speak with an agent already knowing what you want, and ask for it; this will be much more efficient than having an agent find alternatives for you.
Other notes/FAQs:
- Even if you voluntarily choose a preferred rebooking, you have a high likelihood of success claiming Original Routing Credit since the original reason for the change was involuntary.
- If you booked through a travel agency, including online travel agencies (OTA) such as Expedia, Chase Ultimate Rewards, etc. you will have to contact them, not Delta, to request rerouting if the automatic rebooking is not satisfactory to you.
- There have been reports of an agency insisting that a change of 2 hours was required (per the "pro" site) for a free change, even though the popup on the DL site says 1 hour
- You can sometimes get Delta to take over a travel agency ticket; this is subject to a $50 fee to take over the ticket, although sometimes agents decline to collect it
Consolidated Delta Schedule Change Discussion Thread
#1786
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Arlington, VA
Programs: DL DM, 1.5 MM; AS MVP Gold 100K; HHonors Diamond; AMEX Platinum
Posts: 487
Looks like another change is coming today. I have two flights in August (one mid-August and the other late August) where the seat assignments have disappeared. Fasten your seat belts!
#1787
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,327
#1792
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2012
Location: MCO
Programs: AA, B6, DL, EK, EY, QR, SQ, UA, Amex Plat, Marriott Tit, HHonors Gold
Posts: 12,809
#1793
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 92
Discovering this wiki "Consolidated schedule flight change" plus mention of "Saturday" is explaining a lot. But always happy for insights from others on any aspect of my story (I'm a transit geek.)
I was reviewing my itinerary for travel out on 5/30 and back on 6/16, wanting to check my seat assignments. Discovered I was missing seat assignments on some flights (perhaps seat selection hadn't been available when I booked on 3/21/21.) Also some flight changes, most notably BOS-SEA on 6/16. It has a new flight number (from 334 to 320) but pretty much the same times. (Don't have the info on whether it's a plane change. In the bus world we'd say "fleet change" - same for planes?)
Decided to upgrade to first class on the BOS-SEA flight. I picked out a seat and entered my CC number. Got an error message on the browser but the charge went through. Now my record shows FC for that flight but on the website all the seats for the flight are either "occupied" or "unavailable." I'm calming down even though I have a new charge and no seat (ultimately it's Delta's problem-they'll get me home.) Saturday is probably not the best day to do these things!
Also, does "consolidated" mean it's a system-wide schedule change as opposed to tweaks and adjustments to individual flights?
I was reviewing my itinerary for travel out on 5/30 and back on 6/16, wanting to check my seat assignments. Discovered I was missing seat assignments on some flights (perhaps seat selection hadn't been available when I booked on 3/21/21.) Also some flight changes, most notably BOS-SEA on 6/16. It has a new flight number (from 334 to 320) but pretty much the same times. (Don't have the info on whether it's a plane change. In the bus world we'd say "fleet change" - same for planes?)
Decided to upgrade to first class on the BOS-SEA flight. I picked out a seat and entered my CC number. Got an error message on the browser but the charge went through. Now my record shows FC for that flight but on the website all the seats for the flight are either "occupied" or "unavailable." I'm calming down even though I have a new charge and no seat (ultimately it's Delta's problem-they'll get me home.) Saturday is probably not the best day to do these things!
Also, does "consolidated" mean it's a system-wide schedule change as opposed to tweaks and adjustments to individual flights?
#1794
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SJC/YUL
Programs: DL PM, Marriott Gold
Posts: 3,869
Consolidated means that instead of having 500 threads talking about schedule changes, the moderators are trying to keep it all in this one thread
#1795
Join Date: Jun 2013
Programs: DL Diamond, UA Premier Gold
Posts: 2,904
Discovering this wiki "Consolidated schedule flight change" plus mention of "Saturday" is explaining a lot. But always happy for insights from others on any aspect of my story (I'm a transit geek.)
I was reviewing my itinerary for travel out on 5/30 and back on 6/16, wanting to check my seat assignments. Discovered I was missing seat assignments on some flights (perhaps seat selection hadn't been available when I booked on 3/21/21.) Also some flight changes, most notably BOS-SEA on 6/16. It has a new flight number (from 334 to 320) but pretty much the same times. (Don't have the info on whether it's a plane change. In the bus world we'd say "fleet change" - same for planes?)
Decided to upgrade to first class on the BOS-SEA flight. I picked out a seat and entered my CC number. Got an error message on the browser but the charge went through. Now my record shows FC for that flight but on the website all the seats for the flight are either "occupied" or "unavailable." I'm calming down even though I have a new charge and no seat (ultimately it's Delta's problem-they'll get me home.) Saturday is probably not the best day to do these things!
Also, does "consolidated" mean it's a system-wide schedule change as opposed to tweaks and adjustments to individual flights?
I was reviewing my itinerary for travel out on 5/30 and back on 6/16, wanting to check my seat assignments. Discovered I was missing seat assignments on some flights (perhaps seat selection hadn't been available when I booked on 3/21/21.) Also some flight changes, most notably BOS-SEA on 6/16. It has a new flight number (from 334 to 320) but pretty much the same times. (Don't have the info on whether it's a plane change. In the bus world we'd say "fleet change" - same for planes?)
Decided to upgrade to first class on the BOS-SEA flight. I picked out a seat and entered my CC number. Got an error message on the browser but the charge went through. Now my record shows FC for that flight but on the website all the seats for the flight are either "occupied" or "unavailable." I'm calming down even though I have a new charge and no seat (ultimately it's Delta's problem-they'll get me home.) Saturday is probably not the best day to do these things!
Also, does "consolidated" mean it's a system-wide schedule change as opposed to tweaks and adjustments to individual flights?
#1796
Join Date: May 2008
Location: NYC
Programs: DL PM; UA 1K; AA 1MM
Posts: 4,486
Some 90 minute connections are now 3 and 4 hour longs. I'll have to work on fixing that in a few days over the phone since the website won't let me (despite the white bar taking up screen real estate that tells me I can make my own changes. Well yes, in theory I can. In reality it's much more hit and miss. And right now for these itineraries it's all errors unfortunately)
#1798
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Idaho
Programs: Delta PM
Posts: 352
BOI to OGG and back on September 1-6 were just changed for us. Mostly minor changes going out. Coming back from Maui our flight to SLC leaves an hour earlier (wonder what time the Sky Club in SLC opens). Our connection from SLC to Boise was moved up by 3+ hours, which I don't mind because we had 4.5 hour layover previously (now it's 2.5 hours).
Thankfully we're still scheduled on a 767-300 in and out of OGG, so we should have the lie flat seats (fingers crossed).
Thankfully we're still scheduled on a 767-300 in and out of OGG, so we should have the lie flat seats (fingers crossed).
#1800
Join Date: May 2019
Location: BOS YYZ
Programs: DL PM
Posts: 52
I'm surprised to see my afternoon BOS-LAX was cancelled and moved to 11 am, also the connecting flight to PDX moved to an earlier one. But the afternoon ATL-PDX is upgauged to 764 and has open RUC availability! After one hour call back, happily switched through ATL and cleared to F, although I have to sit in ATL for 3h.