How often does Delta change tickets?
 

I am not a Delta flier - but a trip from Tallinn to the U.S. was so much cheaper on Delta, I figure I'd give it a try. I bought the ticket on September 22 - in the (slightly longer than a ) month since I purchased it, the ticket has already been changed FIVE times! Three were small schedule changes, but two were major routing changes. I started out:

Ticket 1 - Outbound TLL-AMS-JFK-CLT Return CLT-BOS-AMS-TLL
Change 1 - small timing change
Change 2 - Outbound TLL-AMS-JFK-CLT Return CLT-ATL-AMS-TLL
Change 3 and 4 - timing changes
Change 5 - Outbound TLL-AMS-ATL-CLT Return CLT-ATL-AMS-TLL

I am not traveling until January - how many more schedule/routing changes should I expect?

TLL-AMS-TLL is on one ticket on Air Baltic and has not changed. :)

You are experiencing Schedule Change Saturday. It could keep happening up to the weekend prior to the trip, but will most likely stop with 6 weeks to go.

it’s annoying and happens way too often from certain airports. JFK and BOS to CLT are regional jets, which I feel have schedule changes more often. Your new ATL flights should be better, since they are mainline jets.

While annoying, there can be a silver lining. Delta has very lenient policies for schedule changes. If there was a flight you preferred, but it was a lot more expensive, going through a schedule change opens up the possibility to move to that flight with no additional cost.

Thanks for the explanation, zeke3

Delta loves to adjust its schedules, yes this is normal! It can almost always be used to your advantage since this allows you a free change to any reasonable itinerary up to 2 days before or after your scheduled travel date. When I'm booking a trip several months out, I just book the cheapest itinerary and then wait for the schedule change so that I can select the much more desirable routing/date/time. Even tho the desirable itinerary is often much more expensive, the change is free.

January is probably mostly stable now, but one last tweak is possible.

I suspect any remaining changes for January will be minor, but as others have said I see this a feature not a bug. I dont like DL and only fly them when there is a very significant price and/or sheduel advantage but they are great about making changes after shedule changes. Last weekend I had a 1.5 hour change to the outbound of a trans Atlantic flight and not only did they allow me to change the outbound to anything I wanted, they allowed me to change the untouched inbound to an itinerary that eliminated an overnight stop and was 4 times the price when I was ticket shopping.

Thanks all - hadn't thought of it as a positive, but can definitely see the advantages from your explanations.

And remember that any change in operating carrier allows you to get a full refund (should that be desirable)...even a change between Delta/
Delta regional jet; or a reroute through CDG instead of AMS...etc etc