Changing Award Ticket - from Main to Basic Economy
 

Hello,

Can I change my award ticket from Main to Basic Economy ?
Is it still "72 hour before departure" a requirement to cancel award ticket ?

Thanks.

Are your flights available as BE award tickets? Does BE (for award tickets) have an advanced purchase requirement on your route?

1) Yes, there are BE award seats available for the date and destination
2) (I think) There is no advance purchase requirement for this award ticket
3) to make it simple, let us say that there is BE available when I go to My Booking and try to "Make Change" ....would I be able to switch from Main to BE ?

Thanks for prompt response

I have, in past, "upgraded" my award ticket from BE to Main to Comfort (by paying extra miles)

I was just wondering does Delta allow "downgrade" (in this casr from Main to BE) ? And does Delta refund the extra miles ?

What happens when you click on "make change"?

I suspect you need to book the BE ticket and then cancel your current ticket, although there might be a workaround (for instance, if you don't have enough miles in your account currently for the BE ticket) to change to some other flights/dates and then change back to the flights you want in BE.

How far out is the award? Why do you only "think" there is no advance purchase requirement (I don't ever recall seeing any BE awards without one -- nor for revenue BE fares for that matter)? It's easy enough to read the fare rules (at the "Fare Rules" link) to see whether or not that is actually true. Pretty much all domestic main cabin awards I've seen will also have advance purchase requirements for the cheaper award levels. Even if there no advance purchase requirement, you may find there is no longer bucket inventory for the award fare if you wait and you'll be stuck with a higher award level.

Some example routes -- LAX-SFO has 4.5K EST045 BE awards with 7-day AP and everything closer in look to be higher Main Cabin awards. LAX-SEA has 5K EST050 BE awards which have a 14-day AP and everything closer-in looks to be Main Cabin. LAX-JFK has an 11.5K EST115 award level with 7-day AP and everything closer-in looks to be Main Cabin. There's a somewhat cheaper 10K LAX-SEA-JFK broken fare BE option which involve a pair 14-day AP BE awards (LAX-SEA 5K + SEA-JFK 5K).

This is why I suggested trying to purchase the BE award ticket before cancelling the current ticket if possible.

If your date of travel is after 12/31/21 your BE ticket would be use it or lose it bar any significant schedule change.

Yes you can downgrade. Simply click modify flights. There's no need to make a separate booking 1st. You'll pay or get refund of difference.

Note if rebook for flight Jan 1 or later to BE they'll become non-changeable, no refunds.

Thank you, all....good insight, practical advice