Welcome to a weekly feature on the Renés Points blog. Each week this series covers in a “rookie” way either a Delta or travel related theme and attempts to break down to a basic level each topic. You can read up on all the previous posts HERE. Now on to this week’s feature.
Like most of us, I have a love / hate relationship with Delta IT. Much of it is amazing. Comparing the Fly Delta App to other airlines is like comparing a Jet airplane to a Cessna i.e. other than the fact that they are both aircraft the similarities simply end there. But there are also endless other bugs with Delta IT that can all drive us nuts. Like what?
Today’s rookie topic is when something happens that requires you to have your ticket reissued. As one example let’s say your flight times change and your first flight will now land at a time later than your connecting flight will depart the connecting airport. Unless you have learned how to time travel this just is not going to work. Sometimes (think rarely), Delta will email you and alert you that you “may” miss your connections. 😉
Delta, if they email you or you look online, may insert suggested alternative flights and want you to hit “accept“. I never EVER do that – I always call – and you should too. All it takes is one time for this to go horribly wrong and then you have to fight with Delta reps to fix what has gone really wrong. It is much better to be on the line with them and have them fix it and then you can refresh your screen to make sure all is just as it should be. But are you done at this point? Mostly…
You see what normally happens next is this. If your flight is weeks or months away you can sit back and relax (while still checking on your itinerary and seats now and then) and wait for your reservation to be “queued for reissue”. It may take a few days but you should get an email with your updated itinerary and that your ticket has in fact been reissued. If you do not get one of these e-mails from Delta you better call back and ask why, after the changes, you have not yet had your ticket reissued. What you will then be told is:
1) Just be patient it is still queued for reissue
2) Something is not right
3) It was never queued for reissue
4) You don’t need the ticket reissued
Again, if you are weeks out from your flight all of the above answers are no big deal and time could fix it. Or, you may want to wait an hour or so and HUCB and see if the answer is the same as the first rep who may not really be a “Strive for Five” type of rep.
Now if it is the day before your fight, or hours before your flight and you can not say check-in online or any other number of things don’t quite look right, you had better call ASAP as I would bet even money on the fact that there is something wrong and your ticket was not reissued as it should have been and that must happen if you intend to fly. What then?
Reps can help you if they want to. They can manually reissue the ticket or send you over to have it manually reissued to make sure your ticket is valid and correct and you can expect to fly that day. It really can be that serious. One customer service rep I talked to about all of this said they always manually reissue if the ticket is 3-7 days from flying as it may not make it when sent over to the queue. That should get our attention.
Now it is time for reader feedback on this topic. Have you ever run into a problem with your Delta ticket not being reissued correctly? Did it cause you any problems the day of flight like seats, upgrades or partner airlines? Let me know in the comments below! – René
PS – On a side note, as I talked about on Twitter, today is my favorite day of the year. Want to know why? See THIS post to find out what I am doing today.
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I never EVER do that – I always call – and you should too.
Great advice. Although I’ve yet to have an issue. I was able to change flights last minute using the app twice with success so far. I do know when 1 flight from BHM to ATL was canceled after we boarded, I was able to get 1 of 3 seats left on the next flight by using the app while still on the plane that was just cancelled. I deplaned the canceled flight and got right in the queue for the next flight. Meanwhile, passengers who called Delta were told that the flight was sold out. I know this because one or two of the passengers asked me how I was able to get a seat so quickly. Other than that, when I see flights have changed or been canceled and there are days or even hours to go prior to the flight, I always call to ensure that the changes I want along with seat selection go through and then wait for the email confirmation.
Holy Cow – YES, multiple problems on international flights. We had to laugh – sort of – return flight from AMS to PDX. The Amsterdam airport actually has a dedicated office needed to handle this very problem! Sheesh!
Also, happened the prior year from NAP to PDX. We actually made a special trip to the airport the day prior to try to sort it out when we could not check in on line. We were turned away – gate agents could not issue ticket. We were able to leave the next day as scheduled, but had problems out of Amsterdam again. And each time – seat selection had been changed as well.
And all it all started with a schedule change – and not on these return flights – on the flights to our destination.
Both cases turned out OK, but the time involved to get it straightened out was a major inconvenience!
So great advice – THANK YOU!
i have gotten that memo that you will be one hour late for your connecting flight!! It worked for us to be put on an earlier flight…
Flying ATL-LAX-OGG(Maui) there is a flight that bears the same # all the way, but changes equipment in LAX. If there are no available First seats on the leg to LAX (almost a certainty, given that route inevitably will have 30-40 DMs on each plane), the computer will not put me on the upgrade list for the second leg, since it has the same flight #. If I call,the DM line, they can “fix” it, but only by reissuing the ticket as 2 separate fights.
Once they reissue, all my Comfort+ seats disappear, and I have to fight at the last minute for a decent seat in back. The same “disappearing seats” trick has happened virtually each time I have a ticket reissued.
I too haven’t yet had an issue after clicking the accept button and then calling. I had always thought it was a prerequisite to starting the conversation about finding alternatives. Good to know that I don’t have to
Ran into a slew of schedule changes with codeshare flights with AF and KLM last fall where tickets weren’t reissued after a couple of days and I was getting the explanation about how my flights were months away etc. but it wasn’t being confirmed that they were in queue.
Turns out they still weren’t a week later — That or I was caught in some IT glitch and the changes got spit out. Luckily I reached an agent who “got it” and sent it all over to get done while I waited.
Now I won’t rest until I see the newly issued receipts. I’ll call every other day until it gets confirmed. It’s easy to get complacent when the new flights show up when you sign in and then I get busy and forget they really aren’t truly confirmed yet.
Sometimes agents have had to send it over a couple of times. And I’ve also wondered if they have a way to prioritize flights they send over to the manual reissue desk as some agents seem to be able to get things done faster. Or it was just a coincidence.
About a month ago, with some DL flights, an agent was seeing the newly issued receipt on their end but I was only seeing the old one. I think they thought I was crazy until they looked at it on Delta.com and saw what I saw.
No one had come across that before so they reissued a 3rd time and I finally got the email…and they told me they would notify the tech department about the error.
Managing and monitoring for flight changes can take up so much time!