TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Rebooking charter is only half the fun

The Moorings was quite prompt in responding to my request to move our 07/2020 charter to 07/2021. Armed with confidence about how easy that was, I started the process with Delta to move our flights from Houston to St. Thomas to 07/2021.

First up was a trip to delta.com where I discovered for the first time that due to flight cancellations, Delta had turned our 1 day trip to St. Thomas into a 2 day trip. Not a problem since we weren't going until next year but it would have been nice to have received a notification about the change. Getting the 2 day trip back to a 1 day trip in 2021 probably adds a layer of complication to the process.

So I continue on to try and change my flight on delta.com. Well that didn't go very far since the 07/2021 flights aren't posted yet and won't be for another 3 months or so. I thought about just canceling the tickets and using the credit when rebooking in August. However the tickets were first class tickets purchased with miles + cash, so I figured that would complicate things even more.

Next up was a call to Delta where the very helpful automated attendant recognized my phone and called me by name! Turns out that was about the only positive part so far. I went through the voice menu process and was told wait times are very long, I didn't mind. Had my cup of coffee and could continue to work on my computer while my phone was on hold. Well that wasn't an option since Delta hung up on me after telling me about the long wait times. At first I thought I had done it so I went through the process once again and got hung up on again.

Ok, what next. Oh Delta has a chat option! Tried that one which after answering questions from the automated attendant, finally entered "representative" since my problem couldn't be handled automatically. It dutifully printed out the long wait message. Not a problem. Except that the delta.com website would log me out, even after I clicked on the "keep me logged on" box. I went back in multiple times with the same results. After trying this for a couple of hours, I finally gave up.

Next up will be doing like the guy in the State Farm commercial who calls at 3am and ends up talking to Jake.

I dealt with a Delta refund just last week and it all worked out without too much trouble. There were two different Delta numbers that I called, 1-800-323-2323 and 1-800-847-0578, the latter of which is the refund line that's staffed during regular business hours EST (I believe until 8PM).

You can also submit a refund request online at https://www.delta.com/contactus/iropForm

I was admittedly late in contacting Delta... our flight was scheduled for Fri 5/15 and I first called Weds 5/13 after normal business hours. Since I wasn't sure if I would be able to get in touch with a Delta agent prior to the flight I proceeded to submit an online refund request.

I called back on Thursday evening 5/14 around 6PM, and with speakerphone turned on I went about chores at home while waiting on hold. The agent picked up around 7:30PM. I made the agent aware of my issue... our nonstop flight from JFK to STT was changed to a connection in ATL, and the first flight from JFK to ATL was scheduled to land an hour AFTER the ATL to STT flight was scheduled to depart. I also gave the agent the case # for my online refund application. The agent quickly acknowledged that I was eligible for a refund, not only because Delta had rescheduled me to an impossible connection, but also because the change from nonstop qualified as a "service downgrade".

The agent placed me on hold while she processed the refund. She returned 5 minutes later and told me that it would take approximately 30 days to process the refund, and may take up to two billing cycles for the refund to appear on my statement.

I received the refund earlier this week, less than 5 business days later. Hopefully you have the same luck.

With regard to US airlines, the rules are pretty clear--if the flight doesn't go at all, or if there is a significant change in the itinerary, like changing a non-stop to a connection, you are entitled to a REFUND, not a credit, period.

Carol belated thanks to you for driving home this point. Absolutely true on the itinerary change and it seems clear that Louis is entitled to a refund based on the original post. I've seen your other posts on the subject and they encouraged me to go get the refund rather than accepting the e-credit. I have no qualms with Delta but also don't want to be beholden to them when rebooking or booking other travel in the future.

Hi Carol, I've got a SEA-IAD non-stop that was changed to a connection (for this Saturday), but still leaving at the same time and only getting me into IAD about 2 hours later than my original flight (this is United). I've reviewed the various DOT links that have been posted, and this change doesn't technically meet United's criteria for getting your money back. Do you have a specific link I could review that says that changing from non-stop to connection entitles one to a refund?

Thanks,
Rick

EDIT - just spoke with United. Then would not do the refund even though it changed from non-stop to connection because the time did not change > 6 hours. Even checked with a supervisor.

The first number is the one that so helpfully said my name before sending me on eventually to the representative queue where I was immediately disconnected. I did this routine twice before figuring I'd wait in the same line by trying their chat option. Still no luck with that.

My first preference is to be able to rebook the same flights around the new charter dates. A second choice will be a credit that could be applied to buying tickets when those dates kick free. I'm not really looking for a refund both because options from Houston to St. Thomas (and San Antonio to St. Thomas where 2 of our party will originate) are more flexible on Delta. Also, the tickets were bought with cash + a significant number of skymiles which I'm sure would have less value by the time Delta figured out the refund

I can do the get credit option on-line without any help from a Delta representative, but I'd like to talk to them first. I have about 40 days before our original departure date so I guess I can do what the recordings say and wait until the last minute. However I think I'll just start with a daily contact Delta ritual until I get through.

I booked 1st Class non stop to STT for this past May and cancelled for obvious reasons. I booked with Miles and Cash and was given a miles credit for the full amount which I'm good with as we never fly anyone but Delta.

Thanks for the info Rick.

Today I sat in the message queue for 2+ hours before giving up. Then I called, was personally welcomed once again by the friendly automated response system and eventually got to the wait queue for an agent. This time I was given the option to have them call me back when someone was available -- which was estimated to be in 7.5 hours. I'll try again tomorrow.

The 1st Class tickets I booked last August for this July's trip were miles and cash but I guess I caught them at a good time because the miles part was only 62k. I'll be happy to take a full miles credit if it will get me the same 1st class seats that I had for this year's trip.

If you aren't using the 1-800-847-0578 number you should give it a try. You may have better luck getting to an agent and getting the miles credit you are after. The other number also was telling me either that the wait was over 7 hours or otherwise hanging up on me.

Well it took a few days and waiting 4 hours today for a callback from Delta, but I finally got this resolved. Delta converted the miles + cash used to buy our tickets to miles and put them in my Skymiles account. Hopefully in a couple of months when the flight window for 07/2021 opens up we'll be able to get first class tickets once again.

Other than having to deal with an overloaded phone and web message system, I was pleased with how quickly Delta was able to deal with this.

Delta and American seem to have dealt well with this situation from the beginning. Others, like Jet Blue and United, have had to be 'prodded' by the DOT to refund tickets on flights that are not flying, as opposed to initially stating they would only give credits for future travel.

We have had to deal with Delta on 3 flights this spring. Canceling the girls spring break NY trip took 15 min on the SkyMiles phone line. Another trip cancellation took 45 min. We got a refund by chat in 5 minutes on the ATL-STT tickets after the hold time was going to be 90 min on the phone. All $ credits showed back on my Delta AMEX card in 10 days rather than the 4-6 weeks they told me. All experiences were relativity pain free.

Now just wondering when we should book flights for the charter we should be in now but moved to early Dec

I envy your short wait times. I still have one more issue to resolve with Delta. The 4 tickets we purchased with miles + cash have been converted to miles and put into my Skymiles account which is perfect. The 5th member of our group had a ticket purchased with cash. I went through the online cancellation process which appeared to work fine and should have placed an ecredit in my account but that has not yet happened. I'll give it a couple of days to get past the holiday and give them a call if it hasn't shown up by then.