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
#2341
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 5,190
I’ve searched for the answer here and Google-ated but to no avail. We had a 4+ hour schedule change for an international trip that DL made months ago. I’ve sat on it in case we needed to use it as a reason for a refund but then I was talking to an agent from AA who said they had a time limit after notification that you can make a free change / refund on AA. Is that the case on DL? If so, how long do we have after the schedule change email arrives? Looks like Europe is in for some rough times this holiday season and I’m not sure we want to go anymore…
#2342
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SJC/YUL
Programs: DL PM, Marriott Gold
Posts: 3,878
No deadline but I have had many situations where they make a big schedule change and then a few weeks later they change it back to close to the original (i.e. a 4-hour schedule change is now only a 1.5-hour schedule change) so you have to take advantage when the going is good. If you are not sure I always call and ask the agent to put a note in the PNR that I am thinking about it and will call back. This gives you more flexibility.
#2343
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 5,190
#2344
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SJC/YUL
Programs: DL PM, Marriott Gold
Posts: 3,878
The question is, why do you believe that calling DL and telling them you are thinking changes anything? I must have missed the "customer is thinking" exception to that rule
#2345
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 5,190
If there is a note in PNR that I am now changing hotels/car rentals/other non-DL connecting flights/friends, family flights based on a 4-hour schedule change then I protect my right to change.
#2347
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: SJC/SFO. EWR/JFK
Programs: AS MVP 100K, DL PL
Posts: 542
#2348
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,067
BOS-MEM/YYZ are gone (however, WS operates BOS-YYZ)
JFK-IAH is gone until Sep 12th
MSP-ALB/AZO/HLN/LAN/ROC/MBS/SYR - only MSP-AZO/HLN are gone completely. The rest are currently scheduled to restart in September. Some of these reductions may be due to MSP routes added last week to go up against Sun Country.
SLC-FAI/PIT - FAI is gone, PIT restarts in August
SEA-YYC - gone, but another WS route.
Last edited by xliioper; Nov 22, 2021 at 9:29 am
#2350
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: DTW
Programs: Alaska, Delta, Southwest
Posts: 1,663
I'm not sure if it goes further, but I just got a change to a flight on 5/27.
The 8:30 AM nonstop DTW-PDX is discontinued, so I got rebooked via SLC, leaving around the same time and arriving 2 hours later. I was hoping to arrive before noon since I'll only have a day and a half there - my options as I see it are to keep what it gave me or rebook through ATL. (A 5:30 AM departure would get us there about when we were originally scheduled to despite being 3 hours more travel time, but I'm not sure if that hour would be palatable to my family.)
The 8:30 AM nonstop DTW-PDX is discontinued, so I got rebooked via SLC, leaving around the same time and arriving 2 hours later. I was hoping to arrive before noon since I'll only have a day and a half there - my options as I see it are to keep what it gave me or rebook through ATL. (A 5:30 AM departure would get us there about when we were originally scheduled to despite being 3 hours more travel time, but I'm not sure if that hour would be palatable to my family.)
#2352
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: ANC, NYC
Posts: 327
#2353
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,067
It should be fairly stable through February at this point. The weekend update had around 240 routes updated and only 9 of them impacted Jan/Feb schedules (the rest were for March schedules and later). They did a big Jan/Feb update back in mid-October.
#2354
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,067
You can get route update summaries on Tuesday morning on this site -- https://www.patreon.com/Enilria
Some other notable weekend updates not mentioned above --
DTW-OKC, MSP-TUL/TYS, and RDU-ORD route restarts were moved back from March to June. RDU-PHL restart moved from Mar to May.
Some other notable weekend updates not mentioned above --
DTW-OKC, MSP-TUL/TYS, and RDU-ORD route restarts were moved back from March to June. RDU-PHL restart moved from Mar to May.
Last edited by xliioper; Nov 23, 2021 at 10:23 am
#2355
Join Date: Jan 2013
Programs: Marriott LTT, DL FO
Posts: 185
My mid January LAS-ATL red eye got shifted from 764 to A321 during yesterday's changes. Hurts to get dumped from a PS seat back to regular C+.