Tricks to extend eCredits
 

Let’s suppose I have a bunch of eCredits that expire 3/1/24. I’d like to extend them to 5/1/24.

I think I’ve noticed that the expiration date does get extended in some circumstances but not in others. I’m thinking maybe if I add another $1 in fresh cash then the whole thing gets extended?

In other words, book a fake itinerary for the amount of the eCredit + $1, wait a couple of days and cancel for eCredit.

Anyone know for sure?

eCredits expire when they expire. Booking a dummy reservation to try and extend will still result in the original expiration date.

Close to the date of ecredit expiry book a dummy flight around 330 days in the future. Then you can always change this flight to the real ticket you want.

Can you change destination when doing this?

This is not correct. It does not extend the expiration date.

Except in certain cases, it does. I just did it last night. The caveat is it only sometimes works.

It depends on steps agent takes. By rule the original date should carry over.

I used an ecredit to pay for a flight change last week, and not only did the remaining balance appear as a new ecredit with a new expiry date, 3 extra certificates also appeared all for the original amount and all with new expiry dates. I messaged Delta to advise they should review and remove the dummy certs, and they replied to say they had passed the info over to the relevant dept. and closed the ticket. The certs still show though. I now have the ethical dilemma of whether to ever try and use them.:confused:

I ended up with an extra $2500 thanks to DL messing up a ticket. Agent said thanks for saying something, but as far as DL is concerned, its valid money for me to use. They rebooked me and had no issue flying.

My experience last week suggests that's not always the case. However to be clear, my bookings were not dummy bookings - they were trips we intend(ed) to take (just one destination change due to cold feed).

Ticket purchased Fall 2021 US-Italy RT. Cancelled, ticket credit issued, expiration date 12/31/23.

March 2023 - booked new flight US-Peru RT and utilized ecredit; there was a fare difference that was paid with credit card at time of booking.

April 2023 - cancel US-Peru RT, ecredit issued, expiration date 1/31/24 (so 1 month added to original ecredit expiration), and within 24 hours we rebooked US-Portugal RT; small fare difference paid with credit card at time of booking.

This was actually super relevant for us, as our return flight from Peru was on 12/31/23 (last day of validity). When I cancelled, I noticed that it extended it to 1/31/24, which allowed us to book our US-Portugal return flight on 1/1/24 -- which would not have been possible with the original credit.

I had experience that:
1, the eCredit was under my ex-GF's name but paid by my credit card, so DL agreed to use it for my flight as well.
2, booked refundable flight tickets with partial eCredit through phone support, but ends up cancelled that. Which ends up with new eCredit and new expiration date.
Not sure if any special cases here, but it did change the exp date.

Mrs Huge has recently purchased and refunded 2 cheap ($100-200) tickets, both times within the 24 hour cancel window, both times the tickets were purchased entirely with eCredits (no CC spend). In both cases the expiration date of the eCredits *WAS* extended.

Update to the above DP and possibly some new specificity. I have 2 eCredits ($10 + $30) that expire 12/31/23. Last night I used them to book a Main Cabin ticket LAX-LAS for $75 (as far as I know the cheapest Delta main cabin ticket). This morning I canceled the ticket (within 24 hours) and it offered me the options to take $75 eCredit which it clearly showed would be expiring 9/15/24 (one year from booking) or the option to refund to original payment methods. I chose the latter to see if my $10 + $30 would get extended, but they did not - still expiring 12/31/23. So I'm guessing that what happened with my wife's tickets back in May is that she was offered the same 2 options, chose the first option "get eCredit", and thereby extended her expiry dates.

I think Delta may have recently made a change. I used 12/31/23 expiring eCredits to book a future flight, put the rest on a credit card. I needed to cancel and selected refund as eCredits. Credits were extended to 1 year from date of purchase (mid 2024 in this case).

Just a week or two ago I did the same for my parents trying to extend their certificates that expire 12/31/23 and when refunded they reverted to 12/31/23, even the portion that I had paid with a credit card and should definitely have had a mid 2024 expiration.

Same here - after all the bad DL news lately, a pleasant surprise (for as long as it will last).