Delta Drops 72 Hour Rule for Award Cancellations
 

Per TPG and OMAAT:

Delta has removed the requirement to cancel awards more than 72 hours before transfer, otherwise forfeit all miles used. Obviously agents made exceptions here, but nice to finally not have to deal with this nonsense anymore.

Still not as good as AA, which has eliminated change and cancel fees on all awards as well (including redeposit fees) but TPG notes the redeposit fee no longer applies in these cases anyways, regardless of whether you’re PM/DM or not:

• Booked on or after Aug. 31, 2020, for travel within the U.S. (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands).
• Booked on or after Dec. 9, 2020, for travel originating from North America to anywhere in the world.
• Booked on or after Dec. 9, 2020, for travel between the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean.

But nice after nearly a decade of the stupid 72 hour rule, to finally have it gone. It seems to be a “permanent” change. Thoughts? Discuss. :)

.

This is both good and bad. It increases the motivation for speculative bookings. I can now book 3 outbound flights and 3 return flights and then just decide at the last minute (instead of 3 days before) which ones I will take and as a PM or DM get a full refund for the others. This hogs the cheapest inventory from others.

My hope is that agents will be allowed some flexibility for the flyer who booked their domestic ticket on say August 15, 2020, particularly if travel restrictions are in place during her/his travel.

I am glad to see the 3 day rule go away. I understand what they were trying to prevent, but I think that their new way of selling flights (i.e. not giving away firesale miles seats the day before travel) kind of negates the need for that silly rule which just felt mean spirited to me.

This was the official reason for instituting the 72 hour rule to begin with.

Maybe DL will start to be more aggressive about detecting conflicting reservations and cancelling them (like AA reportedly does).

Quote:
Originally Posted by sydneyracquelle View Post
.
This is both good and bad. It increases the motivation for speculative bookings. I can now book 3 outbound flights and 3 return flights and then just decide at the last minute (instead of 3 days before) which ones I will take and as a PM or DM get a full refund for the others. This hogs the cheapest inventory from ohers.

Yes, and at the time, DL claimed that more than 80% of award flights were canceled within a day of travel indicating widespread abuse with this practice.

And assuming this was indeed correct (not implying it wasn’t), the abuse would have been by their (supposed) most valuable customers. Not a great situation from my vantage point.

There is plenty of inventory to go around. They needed to get in line with their competition. I wish they would do what AA does - allow a refund even after departure. There’s always standbys to fill empty seats at the gate.

Plus, haven’t you posted in the past that you’d call and ask agents to change the date of travel to outside 72 hours to get around this rule, and then cancel? Seems like the pot calling the kettle black.

Let’s enjoy a win for what it is. No need to find a fault in every move they make.

One of the more punitive Delta rules finally done away with. There was a theory at the time, debated on this board, that there were a few abusers of the system, especially for prize overseas and Hawaii awards. Supposedly, they continuously started and rearranged bookings and then never flew them, for the fun of it. Some others on here might understand that better, but I never believed that 80% of all award bookings are cancelled — that always seemed like Delta-spin.

Finally. I've waited years for this.

DL's solution now is to make their pricing so exorbitant that nobody can hold more than two or three international J reservations at the same time.

Did they run the 98K J roundtrip sale to Europe/Asia this year?

The last two years, it was in mid November, around November 14, as an unadvertised sale.

I didn’t even bother to look this year, with COVID and all, but also didn’t see any threads on it, as in years past.

If I remember correctly, it was because of people cancelling last minute without repercussion and also because some would hold 1J seat for a TCON. At the 45-1hr min mark right before check-in ended, they could call and cancel. This would guarantee at least 1 spot for an upgrade.

About time. I get what they were trying to do, but this was always a stupid rule IMO. If people really were booking numerous duplicate reservations these should have been auto-canceled by the system. AA does 5 day AAward holds and you can cancel and reuse awards within a year right up to departure, and yet somehow their availability is still usually better than SkyPesos.

Just before DL started this, I think they used stats from NW, too.

One problem with such stats, is NW had a promo that awarded you for each reward booking. No requirement to fly. No penalty for upper elites to cancel.

I booked enough simple awards to max the promo out. I didn’t book difficult flights, or cancel just before the flight. But a 50k mileage promo, with very little effort isn’t that common. Especially as everything could be done online.