boeingguy1

Hi FT -

I am currently booked on an award ticket from AUS-JFK on 9/10. A last minute work trip has changed my plans, now traveling on a different DL flight out of AUS on the same date.

The current travel waiver for Austin only extends to 9/7, so no hope there.

I am now only a lowly FO - so redeposits are $150. Am I SOL on these miles? Not devastated if I need to give these up, but wanted to throw it out to the community for any advice.

Thanks all!

FSUnole03

Have you even tried to call and explain your situation?

Otherwise, pray for a delay that lets you cancel for free.

MSPeconomist

Just be sure to cancel your award ticket at least 72 hours in advance or you will lose your miles.

boeingguy1

I did - I got the $150 fee line from the CSR. Unfortunately, it seems as if these miles will be poured out.

kop84

If your job is forcing you to cancel personal plans, it's them that should be compensating you, not Delta.

MSPeconomist

Very true, but not all employers do this.

There's always the chance that the travel waiver will be extended, there will be a schedule change, or DL will change the operating carrier (including from one DL Connection carrier to another) to permit the free refund.

boeingguy1

In a bit of advice from this fourm, I did a HUCA and the agent completely waived the fee and redeposited the miles.

Alls well that ends well, thanks folks!

jrl767

in an ideal world, and at a small company, that's probably true ... I don't know if OP's screen name reflects his employer or his personal preference among airliner manufacturers, but I spent 21 years at Boeing (granted, a long time ago, and the corporate culture was rather different) and I'm not aware of anyone who even tried that gambit, much less succeeded at it

absent a really good and mutually respectful relationship with your immediate supervisor (and at least one and probably two or three higher-level managers) and/or being in a job that's absolutely critical to the success of a particular program or project (or the company as a whole), I seriously doubt the career-progression value of such an attitude when you're one of 80-some-thousand employees

excellent result, thanks for reporting back!

kop84

That's great it worked out of the OP!

But there should be something done either through standard custom, regulation, or legislation. If you have approved time off, and have made non-refundable plans, and your company rescinds your time off, they should have to reimburse you for change fees, lost deposits, hotel costs.

There are obvious exceptions, but I don't think it should be unreasonable to ask for that...I also agree that at the moment, it would feel uncomfortable at best to ask my boss for that as well, but it shouldn't be.

pvn

If you're not comfortable asking your boss about that then you should start looking for another job. Any manager who will treat employees like that isn't going to hesitate to do even worse stuff.

matthew64832

I definitely agree. I wouldn't hesitate to ask my boss about something like that, especially if the plans had been made far in advance (and he had been notified).

And I work at a company with 200k+ employees.

Mr. Tickets

Delta does keep track of waivers and favors. You have now used one for business reasons (not that there is a set number they keep travel of), but some day you might need one for personal reasons.

ijgordon

What "attitude" are you referring to? The one that says "why sure, I'm more than happy to cancel my personal plans on behalf of this project. Just one thing, there will be some additional expenses incurred as a result of this request, so I assume you'll be able to work with accounts payable to ensure that I get reimbursed for those?"

If that's considered attitude, then yeah, find another employer!

ekozie

Is this confirmed?

javabytes

The poor attitude in this type of environment is held by the employer, not the employee. If the employee has previously gotten time off approved, and has made non-refundable air/hotel bookings, the employer should be prepared to foot the bill for the direct, out-of-pocket costs incurred by asking the employee to cancel those bookings. This is common practice. If the employer is unwilling, then a response of "Sorry, I am unable to travel on Sunday, but I can travel Monday morning" is perfectly within bounds. If it's not important enough for the business to pay the $150 change fee, then it's not important enough for the employee to upend their personal life either. If that truly presents a problem, it doesn't matter whether you're one of 80,000 non-critical employees - time to move on, because you're not at a place where it would be healthy to progress your career anyway.