Refundable ticket rules/queries
 

With all the cancellations, and Omicron issues going on I have been wondering if I should book a separate refundable ticket as a backup for my return to the US from Colombia. I am taking a different airline but am considering booking a refundable ticket on Delta as a backup return flight. I was wondering if anyone could help with telling me what the cut off is for canceling the refundable ticket. I haven’t been able to find anything on if I can cancel up to 60 mins before departure, once I am checked in or some other given time frame. AA flight departs Bogota at 1AM while Delta leaves at 9 so I would have several hours to figure things out and my return test to still be valid (thought will have extra emed kits just in case).

Generally fully refundable fares don’t have cancellation deadlines. Someone here suggested DL is actually ignoring the deadline in general given phone line delays.

But if there is a cancellation deadline / no-show penalty, it will generally be disclosed in the “Penalties” section of the detailed fare rules. If you see only “Changes/Cancellations Permitted” then it’s fully refundable.

In general… For refundable tickets, you need to cancel the reservation before departure for a full refund to the original form of payment. If you fail to do this, Delta will usually store the value of the refundable ticket as an credit which can be used for a future flight.

It gets converted, but if you call/request they'll refund it. I also believe the request refund page tells you by requesting refund you're agreeing to cancel reservation and request can't be canceled.

How close in can you cancel a Delta backup flight?
 

I need to book a back up flight from Denver to LAX on Delta. My current flight on American leaves at 4 PM. There is a Delta flight that leaves at 6 PM or 630, I forget, but because of extenuating circumstances I need to be able to get back to LA that night. If the Delta flight is only two hours after the American flight, can I still cancel the Delta flight if the American flight leaves relatively on time? I think I would book cash refundable because then I would not have to speculatively transfer American Express points to Delta to cover the backup flight

If it's a fully refundable fare, you can cancel at any time, even after the flight has been completed. (Technically you don't need to cancel the reservation, that will happen automatically when you no-show, so you can just request the ticket refund at any time afterward).
If it's non-refundable, I believe the fare rules technically require you to cancel the reservation prior to the departure of the flight in order to get a credit for the value, but I believe Delta is not enforcing that because of long hold times to speak to reservations (as not all itineraries can be canceled online).

omg that's awesome and takes so much stress away! Thank you so much ijgordon ! I think I'll do fully refundable for cash - keep my MR points and get $$$$ back eventually.

How long does the refund take?

Would this backup delta flight still be refundable if I checked in? It’s 2 hours after my original flight so I wouldn’t have much time to check in if I needed to take the backup delta flight.

Yes. Also note it doesn't need be a refundable fare. Unlike AA, DL grants 24hr (technically midnight day after purchase so up to 48hrs) free cancel for all tickets.

oh ok. I bought it Wednesday for a Monday flight. So I'm beyond the 24 hours. I read somewhere else that, if I check in and then need to cancel, it's fully refundable until the flight takes off.

But if I check in and do not take the flight and do not cancel before it takes off, it is no longer refundable.

Last week I abandoned a flight ATL-TPA when it became three hours late. I also booked a backup flight myself while I waited. It also started to show delays (past a midnight departure). So I left. Tried to stop at the ticket counter as I left the airport to cancel. Jammed. Called while driving home to cancel both trips. When they called back at 1AM, they told me both had been automatically cancelled and already refunded. So they are still being lenient.

This has never been true for fully refundable tickets (where fare rules “penalties” section says “Changes/Cancellations Permitted”).
It is true for nonrefundable tickets but has even waived given the difficulty in speaking to an agent to cancel.

Whether or not you checked in is irrelevant. If you haven’t, the reservation will be auto cancelled at the checkin deadline (T-45/60m). If you have checked in it will be canceled at the boarding deadline (T-10 or 15m).

Checking in has no bearing at all. (No airline im aware oawards about checkin status)

DL hasn't imposed no-show penalties since before CV19 hit. Too long wait times on phones being reason. When you don't board the reservation will auto cancel.

If it's refundable, you just need request a refund. (Either on phone or website) Can be done at anytime if refundable fare. Request needs to be put in online by midnight day after purchase for the "24 hour free cancelation" refund.

Turns out I didn't need the flight so I called to cancel. I have no status with Delta. I was greeted with "Your wait time is approximately 0 minutes". I thought for sure that meant the wait was so long it broke the system lol. Sure enough, 2 seconds later I'm talking to the rep and getting my flight refunded. I was in shock!

Isn't the check in deadline (often the same as the deadline for checking bags) still T-30 for domestic flights from many USA airports?