In late 2020, Delta Air Lines removed its rule that SkyMiles award tickets changes or cancelations made less than 72 hours before a trip would be subject to penalty. Usually, this resulted in some kind of fee or forfeiture of miles.
Ditching the 72-hour rule was a good move on Delta’s part and, quite candidly, long overdue.
But a Delta ticketing agent reportedly said something rather startling to a FlyerTalk member.
FT user sydneyracquelle wrote:
I just tried to cancel a domestic (Main Cabin) award ticket within 72 hours and the agent said the points would be forfeited. I thought this rule was eliminated in in [sic] December 2020. She said it was recently reinstated. I never saw any announcement of this reinstatement. So I asked her to please even exchange the ticket for any dummy date in the future with the same mileage amounts. Once this was done with the new dates I asked her to then cancel it for a full refund of my miles which she did. Who makes up these crazy rules?
Uh-oh.
So, Can You Cancel a Delta Award Ticket Without Penalty?
I contacted a Delta corporate representative who assured me the 72-hour cancellation rule was NOT reinstated. The only exceptions are Basic Economy bookings. Read the rules here on Delta.com.
So, if sydneyracquelle’s recounting is accurate, it seems the Delta agent was mis- or uninformed.
And, frankly, some Delta agents dishing out incorrect information seems to be a rather disturbing trend lately. I frequently hear from readers who still are told all sorts of conflicting and wrong things about Delta’s new upgrade certificate policy.
I hope this all gets sorted out soon. But in the meantime, go ahead and book those SkyMiles trips (but not Basic Economy ones!) with peace of mind.
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First paragraph is a bit incorrect. Prior to December 2020 no one (PM/DM or anyone) could reinstate award ticket mileage within 72 hours. The DM and PM privilege of the waived $150 redeposit fees related to award bookings more than 72 hours in the future.
@Frankie – The T72 rule was imposed on us 15AUG2011 under the false wording that it would increase lower level awards (see this post).
The rule was so set in stone that no matter what your status you could not get your points back (one reader even when so far as to complain about everything ever flight for a year to get the points back that Delta would not return inside T72).
Then things slowly started to change but not official in print from Delta. Some readers told me they got their points back but were charged a fee to redeposit. Some, think Delta 360* members, T72 was simply waved and points were back no worries.
Before the rule changed it seemed Delta had scrapped the T72 for everyone. At least that is how I experienced the progression.
The larger point, and why I like the post from Chris, is that reps are trained so poorly now that you may be told almost anything even when you know better or if Delta.com has other information you can read them.
Interesting. I had an agent tell me the same recently. Of course it may have been the same agent… I checked after and found the same info you published, that this is not true.
Just tried cancelling an award online, it tells me miles will be forfeited as within 72hrs of departure. It’s a Europe to Asia ticket and I am DM. Trying to call in to do it now.
Let us know what happens!
I am a Diamond and was wondering is there a cancellation fee for award flight originating in ZRH to JFK? Seeing contradictory info. Thanks for the help.
There shouldn’t be…
Thank you