Itinerary Changes by Delta, Passengers' Rights

[Patina]

A minor change in our international itinerary was made by Delta. The change is only a 5 minute difference but I clicked on 'Conditions Apply' link to see what my rights out of curiosity. It does not appear that you can cancel your entire ticket and be refunded under these terms. Here is the pop up window:

If a Delta schedule or routing change has delayed your departure or arrival by more than one hour, you may be eligible to select an alternate flight at no additional charge. Note that the below conditions may apply:

• •Your origin, destination and travel date must remain the same
• •Alternate flights must be available, and you can only modify once as subsequent changes may result in additional fees
• •Voluntary changes to other flights not impacted by a Delta schedule change may result in additional fees

EDIT: We have no intention of challenging this change or canceling our airline tickets. I posted this for reference only for those that have been erroneously told that any itinerary change made by an airline gives the passenger the right to cancel their ticket. This topic has come up several times over the last few weeks on this forum and even had a dedicated thread saying as much. I am not seeking advice, just wanted to share the info!

 

[Barry Graham]

That is correct. I don't think it's worth making an issue over a five minute delay especially since Delta usually gets me where I want to go more than 5 minutes early and I've never seen a complaint about that happening!

 

[Patina]

That is correct. I don't think it's worth making an issue over a five minute delay especially since Delta usually gets me where I want to go more than 5 minutes early and I've never seen a complaint about that happening!

We definitely have no plans on canceling this trip! I just wanted to share this in case people think that a change to their itinerary gives them the ability to cancel their entire ticket. A couple of weeks ago someone created a thread saying they were able to cancel their airline ticket over a couple minute itinerary change. The advocates on here said that was an anomaly and not the norm. I've had itinerary changes before but never a pop window where the conditions were spelled out. I figured I'd share it with others.

 

[Barry Graham]

Thank you for giving the information, it's very helpful.

 

[Neil Maley]

The change usually has to be at least 90 minutes or two hours, depending on airlines.

You are right posting this- you remember that person that posted that she disputed a 5 minute time changed and advised everyone to fight a 5 minute change they can win.

 

[JVillegirl541]

Thank you, the change would need to be far greater than 5 min. Unless that 5 min resulted in an illegal connection time to a connecting flight.

 

[Patina]

In this case with Delta, the change needs to be one hour and only the affected flight can be changed without penalty.

 

[Neil Maley]

Thank you, the change would need to be far greater than 5 min. Unless that 5 min resulted in an illegal connection time to a connecting flight.

We had someone who posted that they got away with getting their flight changed with a 5 minute change and we advised them that this is very unusual and not the norm nd that we don't recommend others trying it.

 

[Neil Maley]

Here is that original thread:
http://forum.elliott.org/threads/yo...the-airline-changes-your-departure-time.2618/

 

[jsn55]

We definitely have no plans on canceling this trip! I just wanted to share this in case people think that a change to their itinerary gives them the ability to cancel their entire ticket. A couple of weeks ago someone created a thread saying they were able to cancel their airline ticket over a couple minute itinerary change. The advocates on here said that was an anomaly and not the norm. I've had itinerary changes before but never a pop window where the conditions were spelled out. I figured I'd share it with others.

Good work, Patina ... I do remember someone going on about a few minutes change and how you could get a refund, but I didn't pay any attention because it made no sense. I just got a notice about a Delta flight myself ... the new aircraft has lie-flat seats in front! Now THAT's the kind of change I like.

 

[Patina]

Good work, Patina ... I do remember someone going on about a few minutes change and how you could get a refund, but I didn't pay any attention because it made no sense. I just got a notice about a Delta flight myself ... the new aircraft has lie-flat seats in front! Now THAT's the kind of change I like.

Absolutely!!!!

 

[Tricia K.]

I appreciate you posting this. It doesn't make any sense that Delta or any other airline would let you cancel your entire flight based on a change that really doesn't affect your connection or destination arrival time at all. I got similar notification on our upcoming flight to Dublin, and to be honest, I had to study it fairly carefully to figure out what exactly the change was. When I followed their link to "manage your flight" there was a notification that passengers MIGHT be eligible to change or cancel the flight if the schedule change was unacceptable.

 

[Patina]

I appreciate you posting this. It doesn't make any sense that Delta or any other airline would let you cancel your entire flight based on a change that really doesn't affect your connection or destination arrival time at all. I got similar notification on our upcoming flight to Dublin, and to be honest, I had to study it fairly carefully to figure out what exactly the change was. When I followed their link to "manage your flight" there was a notification that passengers MIGHT be eligible to change or cancel the flight if the schedule change was unacceptable.

In our case, Delta highlighted the change. It was actually really nice the way they did it. I did't have to have our original confirmation email up on the screen to compare all the flights to find the change. Everything on the screen was easy to read, not too much info but enough that I didn't have to dig. Could they be aiming for a more customer friendly approach than the rest of the legacies?!?

 

[jsn55]

Customer friendly? It won't be hard to beat the competition, will it? I flew Delta lots for several years to MSP, and I always found them easy to get along with. I think lots of people really like Delta. Tricia, did you know that they kept the old NorthWest call center in Chisholm? I've always gotten a kick out of that.