xliioper

It seems that every time in the past I've attempted to cancel a flight within the Risk-Free Cancellation window online in order to get a refund, I've been punted out and told to call in to cancel the flight. Today, I was able to successfully complete the cancellation online without having to call in. Is this something new, or have I just been unlucky in the past?

TTT

Unlucky. I have done countless online and only had to call on two or three that I can remember.

javabytes

This. I have been able to do it successfully quite often, before I went into mileage burn mode.

FlyingHigh20

I suspect "luck" or lack there of had nothing to do with it. Risk free cancellations work 99.9% of the time online so long as its all on Delta metal. If you have any AF/KLM/AS flights in your itinerary, that is the only time where cancellation's online do not work.

nycatl

All,

Does the risk free policy (24 hours) extend to changes to purchased tickets? Waiting on a client for the go-ahead to change a ticket from August to September, but, limited availability on the new flight in question.

Can I hold that seat on the September flight for 24?

javabytes

Did you originally buy that ticket more than 24 hours ago? If so, not a chance. Once you change, that is it. If you did buy the ticket yesterday or today, I'm not sure... my thought would be that you are able to freely change multiple times or cancel within the window, but I'm not sure.

nycatl

java,

Thanks for the quick reply..

No...purchase 1+ week ago. Understand that if I change now, the change is final...that is until the client changes their mind again

Oh well, lemme see if I can make a MR/SR out of this!

bgriff

I didn't find anything about this in this thread -- if I book a flight on Delta.com for a Delta-coded, Air France-operated flight departing from the US, does the risk-free cancellation still apply? The T&Cs seem to suggest it would, but does anyone have any firsthand experience that could confirm this?

huge

Has anyone ever figured out definitively what DL is doing with this (the $64 time-zone question)? Before the above-quoted 2.5-year-old post, there were lots of different, contradictory guesses which veered in the end toward the idea that you could tell what time zone governed the purchase/issue date by the "Place of Issue" and "Issue Date" listed on your email receipt (for me "Place" is always "LAXWEB" so I think the date is always PST, but one poster said he/she got "WWWRES" - who knows what time zone that implies).

And then there are the couple of people who have been hit with situations where they had <24hrs to cancel, which seems completely messed up.

And then there's the post I just quoted saying it's the credit card computer location that governs purchase date.

I'm sort of on a crusade to figure this out, which is perhaps a poor use of my time, but sadly that's typical for me ... I've tried before and read lots of confident posts that say "The answer is simple...", but I've never seen anything that explains the behavior that I and others have seen. Possibly the best reply I've seen is the uncertainty expressed in Stripe's reply to my thread

I've always tried to buy tickets after midnight PST (I live in PST and am usually up late) and then cancel them before midnight EST (9PM PST) the next day, just to be on the safe side. But that means that if I'm doing it repeatedly, which I am sometimes, I have to either book/cancel once every 24 hours OR risk having the fare go up or losing my seat entirely if I roll the dice and leave myself unticketed between 9PM and midnight PST. It would be much nicer (and easier on Delta and my credit card) if I knew exactly what time zone was used so I could cancel a few minutes before midnight *ST and then rebook just after midnight *ST, taking only a few minutes risk of losing the fare/seat.

A mildly interesting data point is what happened to me last night. I had booked two tickets on November 1st around 1AM and 2AM PST, on both receipts the place of issue says LAXWEB and issue date 01NOV12. OK no problem - I know I should have until midnight of November 2nd (IN *SOME TIME ZONE) to cancel, but because I don't know which zone, I plan to cancel before 9PM. But I forget because I'm watching "The Walking Dead", and I get to the computer at 10:05PM PST. The Cancel Tickets button is gone, replaced by the "Request Refund" button, which I've never seen before. If I click it I get a form to fill out with my info and an explanation for why I want a refund. That didn't seem promising so I called the PM line and she canceled my tickets without any fuss. I wish I knew whether the "Cancel Tickets" button had gone away at 9PM or 10PM PST, but maybe that's irrelevant.

Presumably this means they would have let me risk-free-cancel until midnight PST before getting into "maybe we'll make a one time exception but don't do this again" territory, but I don't want to test that theory.

If anyone has more definite info, fire away (but if it starts with "The answer is simple..." I'll be pretty skeptical).

LedgeT

Unused award tickets can now be cancelled within 24 hours of purchase.

This does require a call to DL.

paul21

I booked at 130AM EST, and I just tried a risk-free cancellation with the web system the following calendar day. It denied my request, but a call in worked fine.

monitor

The website has never been able to handle this matter and call-ins have always been necessary.

USirritated

I agree with monitor, I have always found the website unable to cope with what it should, however, a call in has always handled it fairly simply, fortunately, but I have always been conservative with my time calculations.

Teamstone

Quick question:

I have purchased a flight yesterday using a e-credit (plus just a little on the credit card). I know I have up to 24 hours to cancel (or technically midnight tonight in SOME timezone)

I still don't know if I need the flight and the flight is still available at the same fare and cost. (most likely will not be there tomorrow)

If I cancel now:

Does the e-credit part of the cancel go immediately back to an e-credit which would allow me to rebook the flight today (and potentially cancel tomorrow) or is does it take some time to repost the e-credit?

Kitzkatz

I had the same experience, except the rep said several times that their records indicated that I had booked on the 19th when my email confirmation said I had booked at 1:30 a.m. on the 20th. When I mentioned that I was EST, she backed down immediately and issued the refund.

I almost didn't catch the problem because I was convinced Delta was being underhanded and defined midnight as 0:00 rather than 23:59+. I tried to cancel about half way through the second day, but after going to "request a refund" I was told it could not be refunded. I decided Delta was being sneaky about the times, my bad, I would just stick with this itinerary. I was then asked if I wanted to cancel, hit that button by mistake and found myself with a credit less the $250 change fee. Frantic call to Delta, 45 minute wait, explained my mistake, rep reversed the fee but wanted to book the same flights, when I said the real reason all this happened was that I was trying to take advantage of the risk free cancellation. She explained that because I booked on the 19th, I had until the end of the day on the 20th to cancel, and that's when the lightbulb went off. I know my memory is failing, but I had the email in front of me that said I booked on the 20th.

All things considered, it worked out, but the website should be able to handle time zones. My purchase date was in the body of the email, not just my headers, so they did have a record of it. I'm just glad midnight means the end of the day!