highlanderfil

I just applied for and was approved for an Amex Platinum Business card. Given its rather exorbitant minimum spend requirement to get the full 75K bonus points, I was hoping to put a recent (<24 hours ago) $2K Delta ticket purchase on it. Problem is, I probably won't get the card until Monday or Tuesday (assuming they send it via UPS). Will Delta throw up any red flags if between now and then, on a daily basis, I keep canceling the ticket I bought and re-purchasing it (assuming, of course, the price holds, which I will be checking before canceling) until such time that my new card shows up and I can finally put the ticket on it?

flyerCO

Yes. Do not do this. It look like you're playing games with the system. Best case the understand what you did and why. Worst they close your account out and you lose status and miles.

highlanderfil

Fair enough (the general concern over any airline's ability to screw over anyone, anytime), but is there anything specified in Delta's TOS that I would be violating by doing this?

highlanderfil

The question has been rendered moot by Amex Platinum Travel booking the trip for me without the card (and somehow saving me $140 in the process by booking the return leg as a Virgin codeshare), but still, it's an interesting question to ponder. Would be good to hear some fellow travelers' experiences with this policy.

jdrtravel

I see that it is now a moot point. That being said, I don't think that doing this 2 or 3 times until the card arrived would be an issue. Maybe if someone was doing this a lot DL would say something, but I've never heard of anyone being confronted by DL in any way for doing this. I myself have used 24 hour cancellation to hold a price for a few days while I was waiting on final confirmation from work that I could be on vacation for certain dates. The 24 hour cancellation window is not a feature of the Sky Miles program, it is DL compliance with federal regulations (unless the ticket is purchased less than 7 days in advance, in which case they are not mandated to provide this, but still do to all customers, including customers who don't have a Sky Miles account).

flyerCO

True. However DL could say you booked a ticket you had no intent on flying. Yes each ticket might be for same flight, but each ticket is distinctly separate.

Often1

Just for purposes of information, it is not a "policy" but part of the contract to which you agree when you purchase a ticket. Take a look at Rule 100(2)(d). Took <30 seconds to find, yet this question arises regularly.

Just to be clear, the fare rule which one would be evading is the rule for your ticket which makes the ticket non-refundable but, of course subject to DL's very favoable cancellation policy.

HWGeeks

Amex gives you a temp card number to use, did you not ask for it when you applied? Call to get one.

jdrtravel

Right, so I fail to see how this violates the rule that you cite.

I checked and that rule reads: "Tickets are valid for travel only when used in accordance with all terms and conditions of sale.....a ticket is invalid......If Delta determines that the ticket has been purchased or used in a manner designed to circumvent applicable fare rules."

Cancelling a ticket for a refund within 24 hours is permitted. I am not aware of any conditions placed upon this, or of Delta stating in any way that the reason for the cancellation matters, but maybe I missed that.

PHXflier

So, why not just cancel the ticket now, and then purchase it again when the card has arrived? Or am I missing something?

Lux Flyer

The risk is that the price of the ticket goes up. OP wants to charge the ticket to his Amex card, but doesn't want to pay more than they've already paid for it. It looks like they resolved it as AMEX was able to book the ticket for them and charge it to their new card. So it's a hypothetical scenario at this point.

FWIW, last December I made 4-5 changes on my ticket bouncing back and forth between two flights because of a huge fiasco about what time of day I would be available to fly (wanted to take a morning flight, but there was confusion if I would be able to make it to airport for the morning flight). Essentially I booked the ticket, then each time I changed flights to the afternoon and vice versa within 24 hours it reset the count down for 24 hour cancellation. I didn't have any issues come up from Delta. In fact I think I eventually ended up with a $3 credit because the flight I eventually took ended up being slightly cheaper than what I had booked.

flyerCO

However doing so repeatedly is doing so in a manner to circumvent applicable fare rules, unless such ticket is fully refundable.

flyerCO

You were making flight changes. OP simply wants to cancel and rebook the same exact flights. There's a difference.

jdrtravel

I mean, I think we're getting into theory here. I can for sure see how the rules would be read in the way you describe, but you could also say that the fare rules include an unconditional 24 hour grace period.

ethernal

Since OP has to rebook each ticket anyway - meaning that if the price changes s/he will have to pay the difference - it isn't really circumventing any fare rules.

I agree if OP did it for months on end on all of his tickets it might get flagged and cause issues, but for a few days? Not likely. Seems like it's a moot point now anyways since it got resolved.