divemistressofthedark

I just found out I get to pay $200 to cancel an itinerary for self and spouse I booked using Skymiles from BNA-ORF 4th of July weekend - which DL will absolutely be able to resell at a premium.

I xferred MR points to DL to actually book this award and for them to charge me this kind of money to get them back?? It's going to be a LONG TIME before I ever fly DL again.

I could understand if it were any kind of last-minute deal or if any of this had been spelled out when I actually booked the award.

When I called customer care I got a clueless agent who wouldn't give me a name or any contact info, only some P.O. box to which I can allegedly direct a complaint.

Anybody got any ideas on this? Simply outrageous/unbelievable. I guess I could go buy a trip insurance policy and wait a few more weeks to cancel, then file a claim...if I were completely without scruple, I mean...

I did pay the associated fees using my PLAT, maybe AMX will be some help. I may xpost this to the AMX forum, come to think.

NoPlaceLikeHome

Beware, there will be a distinct minority who support that inane practice, all or nearly all...DL employees.

I am in Singapore now, having just flown SQ as the only passenger in F. Fascinatingly, SQ's financial performance on an ASM basis is no worse than DL's. Yet, SQ does it right. So that tells us a great deal about what DL insists upon doing wrong in terms of mistreating passengers.

DL will wake up, or perish (probably with a few others in the USA).


Anne

atlantacane75

Unless you have Platinum Elite status (and even then, there are now limitations), all Award bookings incur a redeposit fee if cancelled. That language is very clear at the front-end of the award booking process. They will not budge on this one, even if you write to the CEO of Delta.

NHFL9

I agree the fee is very high. However, it is in line with or lower than international change fees on almost every carrier.

What was the cancellation fee when you booked the ticket? If the cancellation fee was less when you booked your ticket, that fee should apply. They can't unilaterally change the terms of the contract after the fact. That being said, I think the fee has been $200 for some time.

WBurcham

I take it you don't cancel awards with any airlines often do you? AA & UA charge the same as DL (others do but I didn't check).

UA- http://www.united.com/page/genericpage/1,,52608,00.html
AA- http://www.aa.com/aa/i18nForward.do?...ardDetails.jsp

Deal with it.

divemistressofthedark

Thanks folks. I really appreciate the info...I deffo. would have read fine print more carefully had I any idea any airline would maintain such a monumentally idiotic policy. What REALLY stinks is this is 4th of July weekend - you know they'll be turning customers away over that period. And they have the audacity to charge me $200!!!! to get the capacity back.

Confession: I fly WN a lot, and you can cancel an award ticket on the day of travel with absolutely zero penalties....it simply didn't occur to me to think about anything like this.

Come to think, I may be able to get satisfaction from PLAT's travel protection since I used that card to pay the $20 or so attendant ticketing fees.

At least I don't live in ATL, where DL is the only option. ARRRRRRRGH!!! Sorry, I'm just absolutely boiling livid mad over this. I'll try to stop writing posts now.

ETA: I wrote this after I saw the first two responses in the thread.

zman

Cancelled respose

TTT

Deleted. Questions answered.

happydad100

This would be my response to this thread also. Additionally for Delta, the issue of charging this fee is all about generating extra revenue (in your case $100 per ticket). It really doesn't matter if they can/can't re-sell the seats (to either paid or award travel). Delta has stated a goal is to get an average of $100 annual in non-travel revenue (e.g. changes to award travel) from each SkyMiles member. This fees are part of this plan ....

FlyAO2

Clearly you realize that the Airline cannot have different policies for people who cancel on "hot weekends" vs people who cancel on crappy Tuesdays.

Of all the whining you hear on these boards - this is a pretty ludicrous complaint. If I came on here and was ticked that Delta charged me a change fee to cancel a paid ticket you would think I was crazy....even if I was cancelling a ticket on the Wed before Thanksgiving.

AMEX should not give you a refund per the terms, but sometimes they cave pretty quickly.

WBurcham

Actually no. What I take consistent offense to is that people tend to come on here and b*&ch and moan about a stated policy of all of the major airlines and suggest that they are getting screwed. It may be an unfriendly policy but everyone on DL/AA/UA etc.. who books an award ticket has those conditions attached to them.

It sucks but that's life.

If you had paid for a ticket on any of those airlines you would be out at least that and wouldn't be getting a refund but a credit. You booked the ticket far in advance and are canceling it now, your decision.

If you didn't want to pay the $150/ticket you could have declined but you wanted the miles back.

jbatl

+1

divemistressofthedark

Hmm. So WN, which I clearly stated is the airline I fly about 90% of the time, isn't a "major airline?"

Interesting position y'all have taken, considering its market capitalization is higher than that of DL (5.62 billion as opposed to 5.5)

ETA: Look, I get it. You'll notice from my join date that I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. I know there are often a lot of people who come on here with a condescending, know-it-all attitude, who have nothing better to do with their time than to to lord it over folks with fairly legitimate complaints.

Just save it, seriously. This stinks, I'm not the only person in here saying this policy is consumer-unfriendly, and I personally plan to put my money where my mouth is by curtailing my occasional travel on DL severely. I'll also write a letter to Amex, with which I do six figures a year in business, and let them know how unhappy I am that their only realistic airline partner as far as transfer of MR points is conducting itself in this manner.

If you think that's unreasonable, fine. We'll have to agree to disagree. But I don't remember reading anything in the Flyertalk user agreement stating which airline policies and the like member users can find untenable and which things they cannot.

I draw the line at statements like "deal with it." Obviously I may have no choice. But considering that there *may* be some way for me to get around this ridiculous fee? And that Flyertalkers will know what it is, if anyone will? Good luck stopping folks like me from posting issues like this and the 99,000,000 similar bugaboos I read about every time I log in here.

ExNonRev

Airline employees don't support fees. Why would they, it would be so much easier for them if fees didn't exist at all. But the fees exist, read the T&C before purchasing.

Redeemed

I do think it would be a good situation for all involved (airline, ticketed passenger, and others hoping to get available award seats) if there was some sort of gradation in the fee structure for cancelling award seats, i.e. If the seat was cancelled 90 days out there would be no charge, 60 days out a $25 charge, 30 days out a $50 charge, and less than 30 days out a $75 charge, so on to $100 for last minute. As of now there is absolutely no incentive to cancel a seat you know you won't be able to use as you are charged this large fee. It's best just to hope for a schedule change and be able to redeposit at no fee. In the meantime the airline loses out on reselling the seat and other frequent flyers lose out on available award seats.