daslax

DL canceled my LAX-BNA flight today. They have no other non-stops and AA non-stop is sold out, so only option was to refund/rebook on LCC. I am now booked in the Big Front Seat on Spirit’s non-stop. I still have my boarding pass for the DL flight and have not yet requested a refund. Original DL flight was at 5p, new Spirit flight is at 7p. With that in mind…

• Can I use the DL lounge with my original boarding pass for the cancelled flight?
• Do I have to show up at the DL lounge before that flight departs?
• Can I wait until I’m at the airport and past original departure time to request the refund? (Pretty sure the answer to this one is yes)
• Will DL give me ORC since I had no other option but to book on another carrier myself?

TIA for any advice!

Mr. Tickets

Refund and ORC should not be an issue. However, your boarding pass may become invalid prior to the flight and when they scan it, it may show no longer valid. I guess you won't know until you try.

DLASflyer

I think you have a pretty good argument for entry before original scheduled departure time.

Good luck with Spirit. They were the butt of yet another joke on SNL Weekend Update last night.

VFR

Spirit departs from T5 at LAX, is the Sky Club worth clearing security twice or taking the bus to TBIT and walking?

daslax

If it was the same T2 Sky Club no, but I really wanted to check out the new LAX lounge. I do know it will require a shuttle & walk, but worth it to me to check out the new digs.

flyerCO

OP wasn't rebooked by DL. No ORC. However a refund is in order. FWIW, You never get both a refund and ORC.

lastly, DL likely had connecting options available. Did you look in app using the self rebooking tool? Didn't even need be a normal connection. Ie LAX-JFK-BNA or LAX-AUS-ATL-BNA. Also DL will only rebook on AA if there's no UA options.

GagaPilot

You will definitely not receive ORC since you plan to request a refund. This is tricky to receive even when being rebooked/rerouted on DL and many agents don’t know how to do it. A cancelled flight for a refund definitely does not qualify.

You are entitled a refund to original form of payment here since the flight was cancelled. I would suggest calling and having a rep manually process this so your ticket doesn’t end up as an e-credit.

As far as the lounge goes, my first answer is no access once you have cancelled and rebooked with Spirit. If you are in the airport when the flight cancels, and you have the means to normally enter (membership, credit card, etc) then you can enter and have an agent assist with rebooking. Just because the flight cancels does not automatically entitle you to complimentary access.

Hope this helps. I remember years ago paying big money out of pocket to rebook on WN when DL had a meltdown in SEA.

Mr. Tickets

my bad. Of course this is correct

jetsfan92588

What credit card did you use for the purchase?

daslax

Thanks for all of the replies. To update, I’m sitting at the new DL Sky Club now and not regretting my decision to take the extra time to stop by. It’s fantastic.

I arrived at the lounge around 4:40p, 20 mins prior to the departure time of my cancelled flight. No issues at all gaining access - scanned the boarding pass at the kiosk and was welcomed in. Agent at the help desk set up the refund, so now I don’t need to hassle with wait times for phone agents to make sure it gets refunded properly.

Understood on ORC, but it does rankle that there is no accountability whatsoever when DL cancels a flight last minute, there are no reasonable flights to move to, and you’re left holding the bag.

Immaterial in this case, I assume. I used Chase Ritz Carlton, partly for its protections. Unfortunately, the ticket price of the DL flight was $329 and while it cost a total of $607 for the Spirit flight, $170 was for Big Front Seat and $53 was for baggage. Fare + tax is shown as just over $300, so I don’t think I’ll be successful with any reimbursement request, even though much of that is paying for what would I would have received on Delta for free.

13thandseven

Never hurts to request reimbursement for the fare difference, especially if the Spirit flight was nonstop. It'll probably get denied, but it worked for a friend of mine in a similar situation earlier this year.

jetsfan92588

Yeah, you may not be eligible, but it's more likely because Chase's protections on all their cards likely don't protect you if the airline cancels flights for things under their control, but who knows, maybe you get lucky and Delta tries to claim it was weather or something else outside of their control when you ask for compensation from them. Also, maybe Chase hasn't updated their benefits on that card since discontinuing, so I'd probably just take a quick look at the guide to benefits. Hopefully you at least got to use up part of your $300 credit on the "upgrade."