Go Back  FlyerTalk Forums > Miles&Points > Airlines and Mileage Programs > Delta Air Lines | SkyMiles
Reload this Page >

Consolidated Delta Schedule Change Discussion Thread

Old Jul 10, 2016, 5:48 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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:
  • 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
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:
  • 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
Print Wikipost

Consolidated Delta Schedule Change Discussion Thread

Old Aug 26, 2018, 6:14 am
  #781  
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 5,104
I know many people who “missed the boat” by flying in on the day of a cruise.
sydneyracquelle is offline  
Old Aug 27, 2018, 10:37 am
  #782  
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 189
Originally Posted by horseymike
Hi CARDSQC,

I see one on dec 14 leaving DTW at 6:05 pm arriving in FLL at 9:23 pm. I don't know what friday you were looking at , but hopefully they will have a flight that works for you. That flying in on the day of the cruise always worries me , feel better going the day before and start your vacation a little earlier ! Hope it all works out well for you.
December 21st is actually the date we'd hoped to leave. Delta used to have a flight that left at about 8:30pm and got in around midnight that they dropped a few weeks back, pretty sure it was there for most fridays (and had been for quite a while, I've flown the route enough that I've seen that flight offered). The 8:30 flight would have worked for us, the 6:05 one is too early to make it because of my wife's work schedule. There's a flight to Orlando that would still work and get in there around midnight, but I'm a little leary about that just because if something does go wrong and that flight doesn't go, getting stuck to a flight on orlando the next morning would make things pretty tight (even assuming that we'd even be able to get onto one of those flights, which is iffy since they all tend to be full anyways). There are about 3 flights saturday morning that at least get in early enough, I just hate doing that.

I'm just a little surprised that they've dropped that flight now. I could certainly see doing it in the summer months when there's not as much cruise traffic, but middle of winter, especially on a friday night when saturdays tend to be a big port day seems like they'd want the flight there. I know not all the traffic on those flights is driven by cruise traffic, but there's definitely a fair number of people that are.

(Heck, I've been scheduled to fly out the day before and still ended up being the last person to get on the ship once before because of flight problems - my luggage caught up to me around day 4 of a 7 day cruise. Doing this in december always makes me nervous.)
cardsqc is offline  
Old Aug 30, 2018, 5:16 am
  #783  
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 88
Originally Posted by cardsqc
December 21st is actually the date we'd hoped to leave. Delta used to have a flight that left at about 8:30pm and got in around midnight that they dropped a few weeks back, pretty sure it was there for most fridays (and had been for quite a while, I've flown the route enough that I've seen that flight offered). The 8:30 flight would have worked for us, the 6:05 one is too early to make it because of my wife's work schedule. There's a flight to Orlando that would still work and get in there around midnight, but I'm a little leary about that just because if something does go wrong and that flight doesn't go, getting stuck to a flight on orlando the next morning would make things pretty tight (even assuming that we'd even be able to get onto one of those flights, which is iffy since they all tend to be full anyways). There are about 3 flights saturday morning that at least get in early enough, I just hate doing that.

I'm just a little surprised that they've dropped that flight now. I could certainly see doing it in the summer months when there's not as much cruise traffic, but middle of winter, especially on a friday night when saturdays tend to be a big port day seems like they'd want the flight there. I know not all the traffic on those flights is driven by cruise traffic, but there's definitely a fair number of people that are.

(Heck, I've been scheduled to fly out the day before and still ended up being the last person to get on the ship once before because of flight problems - my luggage caught up to me around day 4 of a 7 day cruise. Doing this in december always makes me nervous.)
hope it all works out well for you your family.best of luck.
horseymike is offline  
Old Sep 2, 2018, 7:52 pm
  #784  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: USA/Canada
Programs: UA Premier 1K, AC SE, Delta Platinum Medallion, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 448
Originally Posted by CMK10
FWIW I've had a lot of these schedule changes the last few months. Delta has always been happy to accommodate me on alternate flights when I call. I do wish the online change flight tool would work though, but I'll take what I can get.
Were they <5min schedule changes, or were they significant changes?
MDFFlyer is offline  
Old Sep 2, 2018, 8:27 pm
  #785  
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: HSV
Programs: Bellevue Lifetime Premiere Mega Elite Supreme
Posts: 1,495
Originally Posted by MDFFlyer
Were they <5min schedule changes, or were they significant changes?
Dude... check the post date.
TheHorta is offline  
Old Sep 3, 2018, 7:46 pm
  #786  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: USA/Canada
Programs: UA Premier 1K, AC SE, Delta Platinum Medallion, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 448
Originally Posted by TheHorta


Dude... check the post date.
I'm aware of the post date; however, instead of starting a new thread, I used the "search" function and was hoping someone would answer my question.
MDFFlyer is offline  
Old Sep 4, 2018, 4:39 am
  #787  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: LAN
Programs: DL Skymiles, AF/KL Flying Blue
Posts: 304
Originally Posted by MDFFlyer
I'm aware of the post date; however, instead of starting a new thread, I used the "search" function and was hoping someone would answer my question.
To answer the question (so that we may let this thread RIP), no - schedule change needs to be > 1 hour, not ~5 minutes.
eastindywalrus is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 10:43 am
  #788  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: LAN
Programs: DL Skymiles, AF/KL Flying Blue
Posts: 304
Curious if anyone has experience with this... had a CRJ-200 flight that just switched to a CRJ-700 today. Was in 5D, which was Main Cabin on the former and is a Comfort Plus seat on the latter. The seat map is visible and populated with my seat and others' occupied seats at this point. Delta still shows me as Main Cabin but in a Comfort Plus seat, and I've got all of the paid upgrade prompts on my itinerary now, including one for Comfort Plus.

I know the schedule change isn't complete this early on a Saturday yet, but I'm curious... am I going to get booted from 5D back to one of the many empty Main Cabin seats once everything is said and done, or did I just luck out here?

Edit: Well, it's Sunday morning now, and I've been booted to 10D. Oh well.

Last edited by eastindywalrus; Sep 30, 2018 at 3:49 am
eastindywalrus is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 10:51 am
  #789  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: DUS
Programs: DL PM (was DL DM for 3yrs), HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,067
I was looking to buy a one-way to JFK yesterday to connect to a TATL flight, but today the flight doesn't seem to exist! I'm hoping it will come back once the schedule change is complete, but this makes me wonder…

If I had purchased yesterday and they cancelled it, might DL be willing to rebook both tickets to go via ATL? Or would I be stuck with having to depart my origin at 6am or go via LGA?
EZEDoesIt is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 10:55 am
  #790  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Hilton Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 26,950
Originally Posted by EZEDoesIt
I was looking to buy a one-way to JFK yesterday to connect to a TATL flight, but today the flight doesn't seem to exist! I'm hoping it will come back once the schedule change is complete, but this makes me wonder

If I had purchased yesterday and they cancelled it, might DL be willing to rebook both tickets to go via ATL? Or would I be stuck with having to depart my origin at 6am or go via LGA?
They would change the ticket you just bought. They wouldn't change the TATL ticket.
flyerCO is offline  
Old Sep 29, 2018, 4:45 pm
  #791  
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: DUS
Programs: DL PM (was DL DM for 3yrs), HHonors Gold, Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,067
Originally Posted by flyerCO
They would change the ticket you just bought. They wouldn't change the TATL ticket.
Luckily the flights reappeared. Guess it's always best to have the entire journey on one reservation!
EZEDoesIt is offline  
Old Oct 12, 2018, 10:43 pm
  #792  
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 10
Howdy!
Have an award ticket using DL miles SAN-LAX-ICN-HKG one way (SAN-LAX is DL F, LAX-ICN-HKG is KE J). Would like to switch to CI which seems available. There have been a couple of schedule changes, all less than an hour though. However, SAN-LAX was originally operated by Skywest, and now is on Compass. Is the whole itinerary eligible for a refund because one leg changed operating carriers?
Thanks!
stevvc is offline  
Old Oct 13, 2018, 7:19 pm
  #793  
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Hilton Contributor Badge
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 26,950
Yes. Though some agents aren't aware of this.
flyerCO is offline  
Old Oct 15, 2018, 9:27 pm
  #794  
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: UA Premier Gold
Posts: 151
Cool Update to my DL schedule change

Originally Posted by steveholt
If you want to wait to see whether SFO-BOS restarts with D1 service, why would you call immediately? Wait until a few days before and make the change to whichever flight you want. (You could theoretically end up with zero open seats on your given day to fly between JFK and SFO, but that seems very unlikely.)
I waited until this past weekend to rebook my itinerary based on a dramatic DL schedule change since my father's heath had been a bit unstable. Since he has stabilized, I decided I would plan on making the trip as close to originally scheduled as possible. The DL schedule change changed me to a SFO-DTW-BOS outbound flight and a SFO-SLC-SFO return in G class (F class no recline.) I called and got a reservations agent that looked at my reservation and agreed to rebook me to my requested routing of SFO-JFK (D1) -BOS and BOS-JFK-SFO (D1 on the transcon.) He did put me on hold for about 20 minutes though and in the end transferred me to someone that had to "manually validate" the ticket. Honestly I don't know why I spoke to the last representative except that maybe that having that extra layer prevents fraud on the employee's behalf. So, yes I was able to change my SFO-BOS D1 flight to one that connected via JFK to maintain the D1 service instead of the "schedule protection" via a connection without D1 service. Thanks to all for the advice!

FYI,
misterfuss
misterfuss is offline  
Old Oct 27, 2018, 3:04 pm
  #795  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: LAN
Programs: DL Skymiles, AF/KL Flying Blue
Posts: 304
Well, schedule change isn't complete yet, but I think I had another DTW-LAN flight canceled on an itinerary back from Germany next March. Only other DTW-LAN flight on that day that I can catch (and that DL could switch me to) will get me home many hours later, so I'll be eligible for a change.

Current itinerary is:

Saturday:
FRA-DTW
DTW-LAN

I know that officially, travel days can't change in the free itinerary change permitted with a qualifying schedule change; however, I don't really want to get home any later than I'm already arriving on that Saturday. What are the odds that Delta would allow me to do this instead?

Friday:
FRA-AMS
Overnight in AMS at my expense
Saturday:
AMS-DTW
DTW-LAN

That schedule would allow me to catch the earlier DTW-LAN. If I depart Frankfurt on my original travel day, there is no Skyteam itinerary that gets me to Detroit in time to catch the earlier DTW-LAN flight.

Also, for what it's worth, this does not appear to be a normal itinerary sold by DL or AF/KL - requires a multi-city itinerary for the overnight layover.

Edit: Schedule change completed. DL moved me to the earlier DTW-LAN flight that departs before my prior leg even arrives in DTW, resulting in a broken itinerary. Called DL this evening and asked for the above - was offered to shift my entire itinerary one day earlier. I countered that I wouldn't even be in Frankfurt in time for the departing flight (true). Rep countered with an afternoon departure FRA-AMS-MSP-LAN flight on KL TATL - no thank you. I'll try again tomorrow morning with the good ATL-based reps.

Edit 2: I got impatient, called back. Told my story to the new rep. "Oh, yeah, we can definitely do that for you." He was super happy when I mentioned I had the three flight numbers I wanted. I've never had a itinerary modified and a ticket reissued so quick before. My Comfort+ upgrade on the TATL even saved - I was extremely impressed that I didn't even have to ask about that, and was shocked when I noticed it as I was reviewing the updates to my PNR. HUCA proves successful once again.

Edit 3: Well, days later, I notice my itinerary is now just LAN-DTW - that's it. Appears the rep I spoke with didn't actually reissue the ticket. Called today when I noticed. First girl, bless her heart, didn't have a clue. Kept telling me the KLM flight that was part of my new itinerary didn't exist. HUCA. Second lady immediately sent me to the manual reissue desk, where the woman took care of it. Got me into all the same seats again (low loads on these flights, so temporarily losing my bulkhead C+ seats didn't end in "disaster", if you will), including a call to the KLM desk to get them to get me back into my Economy Comfort seat on the KLM flight. Confirmed I got a correctly reissued ticket and receipt this time, so fingers crossed that this is it.

Last edited by eastindywalrus; Oct 31, 2018 at 3:34 pm
eastindywalrus is offline  

Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.