Am I Entitled to a Refund??

[teacherman]

We have 2 non-refundable regular coach RT tickets on Delta.  We originally booked these in early February before all of the Covid changes hit the country.  Some of our flights have been changed twice, non over a 90 minutes difference.  BUT our original flight numbers have disappeared and we have been change to different flight numbers.  It would seem that the original flights have been canceled, and we have been moved to "consolidated" flights.  I have canceled our flights and was told that I can only have e-credits because non of the flight changes are more than 90 minutes.   But when I looked at most recent FAA rules it says that if your original flight is canceled, then you are entitled to a full refund.  So, which is it?  A refund or an e-credit.  The e-credit is through Sept, 2022, but the way things are currently, I need the refund.  I am asking some of you very knowledgeable people what I should do?  Any information is most welcome.   Thank you.

[FlyerTalker]

The cities involved and dates of travel could always help out.

 

At first blush, you are only due the credits.  Airline contract of carriage usually allows for changes in routing and timing by the airline.  The big bugaboo with "cancelled" deals with when all service for a city-pair is ended, such as LAX to Shanghai.  Or many other international routes.

 

So the devil is most assuredly in the details.

[mchell810]

7 hours ago, teacherman said:

We have 2 non-refundable regular coach RT tickets on Delta.  We originally booked these in early February before all of the Covid changes hit the country.  Some of our flights have been changed twice, non over a 90 minutes difference.  BUT our original flight numbers have disappeared and we have been change to different flight numbers.  It would seem that the original flights have been canceled, and we have been moved to "consolidated" flights.  I have canceled our flights and was told that I can only have e-credits because non of the flight changes are more than 90 minutes.   But when I looked at most recent FAA rules it says that if your original flight is canceled, then you are entitled to a full refund.  So, which is it?  A refund or an e-credit.  The e-credit is through Sept, 2022, but the way things are currently, I need the refund.  I am asking some of you very knowledgeable people what I should do?  Any information is most welcome.   Thank you.

 

For domestic flights I believe any change by the airline of more than 60 minutes  and/or if the flight is cancelled your would mean they have to give you a refund if you did NOT accept the change.  If you did accept the change and then later cancelled it seems you would have to take the eCredit instead. It can't hurt to call the airline and try once again to get a refund.

[Ashland]

I believe you are eligible for a refund...call the airline directly and speak to someone. I recently went through the same scenario with AA and a change to our flight and was refunded the entire cost of my 10 round trip tickets for my extended family LAX-MCO for May 2020.

[purduemom1]

What is a consolidated flight? Not sure a change in flight numbers or equipment qualifies as a cancellation. 

[Suzanne123]

I also have a refund case with Delta, and my flight times In September were changed by 12 hours to London and “ you may miss your connecting flight” time on the way back.  I requested a refund on June 1st, but their web site cannot find my case number.  I have called every Delta phone number I can find, and none of them will let me talk to a representative.  There is no offer to put me in a queue for a return call.

I am so aggravated with automated responses telling me to go to the web site.  At this point I would take a credit to my account, although I believe I am entitled to a refund.  I just don’t want my $3k to disappear when I don’t show up for the flights.

 Anyone have a suggestion?

[FlyerTalker]

Well, the OP hasn't come back with details - yep, those ones that make it possible to give informed opinion rather than anecdotes.

 

As for Suzanne, again details.  Just how did you "request a refund"?   Though DL has ended twitter and facebook channels for customer support, I find it hard to believe that you can't talk to someone.

[mchell810]

3 hours ago, Suzanne123 said:

I also have a refund case with Delta, and my flight times In September were changed by 12 hours to London and “ you may miss your connecting flight” time on the way back.  I requested a refund on June 1st, but their web site cannot find my case number.  I have called every Delta phone number I can find, and none of them will let me talk to a representative.  There is no offer to put me in a queue for a return call.

I am so aggravated with automated responses telling me to go to the web site.  At this point I would take a credit to my account, although I believe I am entitled to a refund.  I just don’t want my $3k to disappear when I don’t show up for the flights.

 Anyone have a suggestion?

 

In the situation you describe I would dispute the charge with my credit card company.  This will force the airline to respond.

[Suzanne123]

3 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Well, the OP hasn't come back with details - yep, those ones that make it possible to give informed opinion rather than anecdotes.

 

As for Suzanne, again details.  Just how did you "request a refund"?   Though DL has ended twitter and facebook channels for customer support, I find it hard to believe that you can't talk to someone.

I requested the refund through their web site on June 1st as directed by their main phone number. I received a confirmation and a case number from Delta immediately.  In the confirmation letter they said they would process the claim within seven days, but it might take longer because of COVID.  I signed on yesterday to the link they provided to “track your refund”, but the site is unable to find my case ( along with the ticket number that I had to use to start the refund.) I have used their main number, the number to track refunds, and the Delta rewards number. Maybe if I were platinum or titanium or whatever they might give me the time of day, but as soon as I enter my Delta Rewards number they know  I am not.  
I fully understand they are busy, but if they cannot find the case number that they gave to me, how are they going to resolve anything?  If I could have two minutes with a person, I just want to make sure they have my request somewhere in their system, even I have to wait additional time for processing.

[FlyerTalker]

Amazing.

 

I was able to call DL and was in the hold queue.  I wonder why your particular call can't reach any single person at Delta.

 

And again, without details, it's impossible to give accurate information.  There are different policies for different tickets and situations.  It all depends on:

 

City Pair

Date of Purchase

Date of Travel

Fare rules for ticket

Details of Flight change (if applicable)

Date of Flight change (if applicable)

Date of DL-initiated cancellation (if applicable)

Date of Passenger-initiated cancellation (if applicable)

 

This is not an exhaustive list, but different situations have different applicable rules and procedures.

Edited June 22, 2020 by FlyerTalker

[Suzanne123]

Can you tell me which phone number you used?  Thx.

[FlyerTalker]

The first two of these for sure.

 

800-221-1212  General number

800-323-2323  SkyMiles member number

800-241-4141  International sales number  (since you are going via London)

800-847-0578  Refund line number

 

[Free2bMeForever]

My refund showed up on my credit card yesterday.  The claim was filed April 28 and was listed as pending on the website until Thursday (6/18).  It disappeared from the website on Thursday so I called the refund number.  By following the prompts I was able to speak to a representative after waiting about 30 minutes.  The representative used my ticket number to locate and process my request.  As soon as the representative processed the claim, I got an email confirming that the claim had been processed and informing me that it could take up to 45 days to show up on my account.  The number I used for refunds (in the US)  was 800-847-0578.  One of the prompts asked for my SkyMiles number, which I was able to provide (no Medallion status was required).

[Suzanne123]

OK.  Thank you both.  I will try again today.

[Suzanne123]

Update - Main number said that due to the extremely high call volume we are unable to answer your call.  Thank you for your patience.  Silence. 
Skymiles let me get into a queue for a call back in four hours and 39 minutes.  Never happened.
Refund number told me to go back to the internet.
Tried International Sales, Success! Rep said that my refund hadn’t  been looked at yet and further, the tickets were not canceled.  She was able to cancel the tickets and process the refund herself. Got email confirmation and refund should appear in seven days.  
Thank you so much for that phone number.

 

Success with international sales!  Thanks so much.

.

[purduemom1]

Glad you were successful. My personal experience with Delta is that if you can actually talk to someone they will try hard to take care of you. In your case persistence paid off along with FlyerTalker’s help.

[thinfool]

On 6/22/2020 at 8:30 AM, Suzanne123 said:

I also have a refund case with Delta, and my flight times In September were changed by 12 hours to London and “ you may miss your connecting flight” time on the way back.  I requested a refund on June 1st, but their web site cannot find my case number.  I have called every Delta phone number I can find, and none of them will let me talk to a representative.  There is no offer to put me in a queue for a return call.

I am so aggravated with automated responses telling me to go to the web site.  At this point I would take a credit to my account, although I believe I am entitled to a refund.  I just don’t want my $3k to disappear when I don’t show up for the flights.

 Anyone have a suggestion?

This may be of some help...

https://elliott.org/airline-problems/coronavirus-airline-canceled-flight-refund-guide/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+elliottorg+(Elliott)

 

Edited June 30, 2020 by thinfool

[mauimary]

On 6/19/2020 at 12:50 PM, teacherman said:

We have 2 non-refundable regular coach RT tickets on Delta.  We originally booked these in early February before all of the Covid changes hit the country.  Some of our flights have been changed twice, non over a 90 minutes difference.  BUT our original flight numbers have disappeared and we have been change to different flight numbers.  It would seem that the original flights have been canceled, and we have been moved to "consolidated" flights.  I have canceled our flights and was told that I can only have e-credits because non of the flight changes are more than 90 minutes.   But when I looked at most recent FAA rules it says that if your original flight is canceled, then you are entitled to a full refund.  So, which is it?  A refund or an e-credit.  The e-credit is through Sept, 2022, but the way things are currently, I need the refund.  I am asking some of you very knowledgeable people what I should do?  Any information is most welcome.   Thank you.

We were told by Delta rep back in April that all that we needed to qualify for a refund was to have Delta make any change in our itinerary.   Well Delta changed our Itinerary from a direct non stop to AMS  to one that made two stops. I tried for several weeks to get hold of someone when we finally gave up and made a trip out to the airport and spoke to an agent during a quiet time.  The Delta agent was very nice and she spent 15 min on hold on a direct line with someone who said we would see the refund on our credit card in about three weeks.  We had the refund in three days!! 
 

We have also had friends who made a refund request on June 1st which couldn’t be found online. They called the refund line and after 17 min on hold  their refund was processed and they saw theirs in three days as well. 
 

Hope this helps