The Air War begins
I just had a looong chat with a Delta rep and follow-up with a supervisor. First, it appears they don't want to deal or make promises about upcoming issues until it is an actuality- it appeared to me they are hoping for policy changes and updates in the meantime??? While I don't want to wait, run out of time, or be be stuck with no options and lose over $12,000. Refunds are not an option.
Anyway, we have two sets of flights- one to change/cancel and book new and the other to change/cancel and re-book: XMAS Mkts 2021 to Jordan & Egypt 2022 and Greece 2021 to Greece 2022. Due to previous re-bookings, changes, etc. the expiration dates and expiration dates of vouchers that could result from cancelling will come up quite soon and they affect our ability to avoid losing REALLY BIG bucks and ability to re-book.
According to what I was told, right now it looks like we may need to change both sets of overseas flights to a quick/cheap domestic flight and complete those flights very soon, so the excess value can be turned into vouchers which we can use to book next year's international flights. Additionally, one flight can not be booked until one day after the eventual voucher may expire- a catch 22 so we will need a waiver. While the supervisor couldn't do anything for us right now because we aren't in the 330 day booking window for either set of overseas flights, she still held out hope that Delta would work with us just like the person I talked with a month or so ago told me. They just couldn't do it now since next year's flights are not on the the Delta schedule yet.
I need to call back and see if I can get a good Customer Relations email address so I can send them in writing what I understand is my situation is. I'll ask them to confirm it my situation, tell me if a waiver of the expiration dates or modification of the process is possible, and if we can avoid taking two wasted, short flights
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Alan, this is why we have booked flights with Tauck during these uncertain times. My upcoming tour of Japan with another company in September, we are going to book ourselves because if they book, it puts up their insurance a huge amount, hundreds of dollars, unlike Tauck. Whereas, we normally book as early as possible, we are not even thinking about it yet. If the tour goes, we will get there somehow, but we doubt it’s going to happen.
We have been reading that flights will be cheap for a while when travel bounces back, they want customers to return, they don’t want people getting used to not going far from home.....if this goes on much longer, I’ll just enjoy going somewhere differently in the US, until things stabilize a lot, and I think I’m not the only one, even thought we are hard core exotic travelers. Our next tour would have been Madagascar.
Alan - if you need to do a short flight, Claudia wants you to visit for a snowball fight.
Another option to having easily refundable air fare is using points. Over the past year, I’ve cancelled four flights purchased with United points - and within the hour, all points (and monies) were redeposited into my account. I’m still holding flights that will probably need to be cancelled - and as long as I cancel more than 30 days prior to the flight, I can get all points/monies redeposited.
You are correct. It is much easier getting miles back than money. I had United tickets to Hawaii that they would not refund, but I knew if the arrival time changed by more than two hours, or ‘they’ canceled, I could get money back. So I waited. I signed on some weeks later, and there was a notice that I could now get my money back. So I did. I got ‘seat’ money back from KLM very quickly after they canceled my flights ... rebooked on Delta who was supposed to call me back an hour ago ... now on hold.
We rarely have enough points, except for short domestic flights- we are going to Maine in August on points- and sometimes we will book the first and last leg of a big trip using points to get us from RDU to JFK or ATL then back from either to RDU upon return to the US. One of my big issues is not having anything in writing and having to trust the agent and my understanding of what was said. As I understand it, Delta is actually telling me I should "game the system" by booking a little flight to better use my vouchers and avoid losing big bucks.
The big problem was re-booking twice- the expiration date is what it was the first flight. We might have made it work if Tauck hadn't cancelled the XMAS Mkts trip almost a year early.
I only use my points for all of my international flights. I have used multiple carriers for particular trips without issue. I - like Cathy, am strategic in my spending. For personal and work expenses, I use multiple airline-linked cards to United and British Air. These give me access to One World Alliance and United’s Partners. BA (which is used to be better but now they charge huge fees for their rewards flights. But in the past, I snagged great flights to Asia on Cathay Pacific. I am sour on AMEX.com - they refused to refund my points on an international flight UNLESS the airline made a time change of >5 hours. Thankfully that happened.
You must be a blood relative of my wife!
I know, Happy Wife, Happy Life.