Stygian7

Purchased non-refundable ticket that I now need to either change or cancel. I'm guessing I eat it, but any chance of getting the $300 change fee waived? If I were to change it, destination would likely be different; otherwise, will likely have to just cancel. DM status.

Mr. Tickets

The only way you will know is to call. They may do a one time "fee waiver" depending upon the reason you are asking for the change (health issue, death, etc). Some DM's will claim they never pay change fees, but I claim BS. Doesn't cost anything to ask. Give it a try.

Stygian7

I called and didn't get an answer I liked without at least checking here first. Not a really good reason other than that I had a meeting scheduled the weekend of my anniversary; the meeting has been cancelled. My flight is May 11-14....wedding anniversary is May 15th...pretty sure my wife isn't going to react well to me going on a weekend trip by myself. It's too far to bring her and my 4 year old son for a weekend, so taking her on a mini-vacation to this particular destination is out. I could, easily consider a short trip to Vegas or Seattle for the weekend though...

miraclebear2003

You're not entitled to anything, so I would't expect anything. That's why nonrefundable tickets cost less. As Mr. Tickets indicated DL will grant relief for health reasons, etc., but I wouldn't play games.

jrl767

hang tight for another month or so ... DL may publish a schedule change that breaks a legal connection, forces you onto an unpleasant alternate routing, outright cancels a segment, or lots of other possible scenarios ... in which case you'll be able to cancel without any penalty

Often1

Back in the day DL agents used to have a lot of discretion. Now, the front line agents generally need a supervisor's approval and need to document the PNR notes with a satisfactory reason. $300 is a lot of revenue and has to be made up somewhere.

Mr. Tickets

Domestic or International trip? Isn't your employer responsible for the cancelled meeting? Otherwise, as someone pointed out, you can buy higher priced tickets that allow for more flexibility (usually quite a bit more expensive). Sometimes you just have to suck it up. You may luck out with a schedule change.

Stygian7

I am the employer. Not trying to play games, just wondering if there's a chance on getting the change fee waived. If not, no big deal.

Psyduck1

Has anyone tried getting change fees waived because you need to book a different trip during that same time?

I would imagine DL might be more flexible in that situation.

bstv69

I've had success several times and im a lowly Silver Medallion. Its honestly a numbers game. Last time I called 5 times a day for 5 days before I got a rep that waived the change fee for me. So my best advice would be call as much as you can and wait until you get a nice rep who sympathizes with your situation. Make sure you tell her that you are planning an extravagant surprise for your wife, yada yada.
Best of luck!

Mr. Tickets

Keep in mind, being honest is the best policy. Delta does keep track of the "waivers" they provide to people. Some day, you might actually need something important. Change fees are a part of of air fare rules. Don't expect to regularly work around them.

Stygian7

Like I said, not trying to play games. Just wondering what the average experience was. It is somewhat frustrating that some assume I am trying to game the system for a few hundred dollars. I genuinely thought that DMs regularly had change fees waived. I have only dealt with this type of situation once before and the agent said something to the effect of "since you're a diamond medallion, of course we'll waive the change fee."

Its my understanding that not all agents know the rules equally or apply them uniformly. Thought maybe I just encountered one that was possibly less helpful than others. I find actual experiences to be of value in setting my expectations.

gooselee

That would just be a change, then, and the entire point of a change fee. Usually when I need to change a trip, I call in fully expecting and prepared to pay the fee. Every now and then, a DL agent will volunteer to waive the fee, citing that I'm a PM and/or that my new ticket is much more expensive so they'll waive the fee. I take it and say thank you and that's it. Last time this happened, I was on a paid FC ticket and was just trying to drop my outbound because I was now coming from a different city. Agent saw my other ticket and how much I paid for it, then saw that the new one-way fare was more than my previous RT fare, and immediately volunteered to waive the fee.

I save far more in buying nonrefundable tickets and paying a change fee every so often, vs. buying loads of flexible tickets on the off chance one of them may need to be changed for some reason.

This is not good advice IMO. As others have said, DL tracks this sort of thing and might then be less willing to extend a favor when you really need one.

nichelle

To share my experience....

I will say that as a Platinum or Diamond, I have never paid a change fee when I *called* in to make a change or cancel. The last few years were filled with various health issues for my parents. Whenever I called, I was truthful about the situation and I didn't ask for a fee waiver. But, it was done.

A few times I used the online form to cancel a flight which automatically brought up a refund request form. I included the reason for the cancelation and the fee was waived 3 times with the direction to call in for a new reservation as the fee waiver was placed in the notes. I have a credit in my wallet now for which the fee was waived when I needed to cancel a trip due to my mother's illness.

Anyway, I've also done my fair share of changes online and simply paid the fee. My parents are no longer here but I really appreciated Delta being as generous as they were during that period of time.

Again, just my experience

Psyduck1

Maybe I'm not clear on what a change is then, but my thinking was that tickets are valid for one year so a standard change might be moving a ticket out to a future date within one year and paying a change fee. I'll make up a reason and say you have a work event come up. Delta picks up the change fee and you still have the original trip at a later time.

If you move the original ticket out to another date, and buy an additional ticket for the original date that is incremental revenue for Delta, where in the first case there is no incremental revenue without a change fee. Not sure if you got what I was saying first time or not, but thought I'd explain what I meant a little better.

The reason I ask is that I have regular trips home or even certain vacations that I'd like to book in advance, but have to wait to make sure that work travel doesn't come up. I know it's not policy but DL really doesn't lose much in this case. At any rate I agree, it's generally better for me to lose on a change fee than buy up to refundable.

Also, there's not really any clear verbiage on what change fees are for so I guess it's just any itinerary change of any type besides same day?