Originally Posted by
Roadkill
I have to disagree here, based on actual experience. The written stuff sounds good, I was even talked into buying some--worst mistake.
Don't believe these things can actually ever be refunded, no matter what the fine print leads you to believe. The written rules say these are refundable if the ticket rules say so, when buying the "Fly for Less"-- (NOT the "Fly for Even Less", always non-refundable). HOWEVER...
- you must work through special non-rev agents on the tickets, not normal Delta reservationists
- I bought one of these after 20 minutes on phone with agent looking at the fare rules to be ABSOLUTELY SURE it was refundable. When I later needed to refund it, the special agent refused to even look at the fare rules, told me flat out it was non-refundable within 5 seconds. When I pressed her about it, trying to ask her to actually LOOK at the fare rules, she said she had already told me the answer, and she then threatened me, stating that she would have my non-rev privileges revoked if I continued to argue and disagree with her.
- I ended up losing the $$ for the entire family's vacation, 5 tickets, around $2400, because I had 3 kids sick unable to fly and had to cancel ahead of time.
- After months and months of working through the system with all my paperwork proof of original refundable fare rules (printed right non the receipts!), I finally was able to get a "refund" like 6 months later... MINUS THE $150 change fees each way per ticket, $300 per person X 5-- that's right, the "refund" was shortened by $1500 because I "changed the ticket" by NOT FLYING IT even though I cancelled early so Delta could sell the seats!!
- You WILL NOT be treated as a paying customer. You WILL NOT be treated under the published rules. You WILL NOT be treated fairly. These are not normal agents, these are folks who only work with employees and don't see you as a paying customer with rights.
- I have never been treated so rudely and unfairly by a company as I was by my own company in this situation, as if I had no expectation of them having to follow the published rules because I could be threatened as an employee. It remains my primary data point on how I can expect to be treated as a Delta customer, unfortunately.
- Someone will get on here and say "I bought them and flew them, great deal no problem!"... fine, as non-refundable tickets they're ok. But it's like saying "I played russian roulette and it worked out totally fine, do it!"
DO NOT PURCHASE a "Fly For Less" ticket if you have any possibility whatsoever of actually having to try to refund it. If you treat it as a throwaway non-refundable (so get the fly for Even Less ones) they're ok, but not really much cheaper than what you might find elsewhere.
Had something very similar a couple years ago with my wife. Her 80+ year old mom fell and broke her back the day after she arrived for a 2 week visit. She ended up having to stay for 6 weeks, so called a week into the visit to change the ticket. After $150 change fee (which I could have done on TravelNet) and additional flight fee, it was cheaper for her to fly back on Continental. Bottom line, depending on the fare class, you are treated like only other pax. If you buy full fare, then you most likely will get a refund, but always remember that change fee