Sometimes the unexpected happens in life and you need to cancel a Delta booked award trip. When this happens, numerous factors including elite status will have an impact of the fees and even if your SkyMiles can be redeposited.
Love racking up the Delta Miles?
If you are looking for more ways to earn Delta miles, consider The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card or The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card.
Delta Award Cancellation Policy for SkyMiles Redemptions
The policy that applies to almost all scenarios is the 72 hour rule. Any booked award travel that departs within 72 hours is ineligible to be refunded or changed and the SkyMiles are forfeited.
However, as part of Delta’s Risk Free cancellation policy, if you book a flight within the terms of the customer service policy, you would be entitled to a full refund. (An example of Delta’s Risk Free cancellation includes the scenario where a customer buys a ticket at 12:01 AM on a Tuesday and then has until 11:59PM on Wednesday to cancel the ticket for a full refund).
A benefit of Delta elite status is waived award redeposit fees for Diamond and Platinum Medallion members for award trips that fall outside of the 72 hour rule. Gold, Silver, and General Medallion members are all charged the same $150 award redeposit fee. Some things to note include that the fee is determined by the SkyMiles member who is paying for the points.
For example if a Diamond Medallion is using their SkyMiles to buy their non-status child an award ticket and needs to cancel outside of the 72 hour rule, there will be no award redeposit fee. Additionally, the $150 award redeposit fee is only waived for Diamonds and Platinum Medallion’s who have elite status at the time of cancellation. To elaborate, if in 2018 a Diamond Medallion books an award ticket for Spring 2019 and fails to earn status for 2019, they will not have the $150 award redeposit fee waived when making the cancellation.
All awards purchased under Delta’s Risk Free cancellation policy are entitled to a full miles redeposit regardless of when the purchase is made. This is helpful in situations such as when you are making a booking 11 months out and immediately realize you have made a mistake with the dates of the trip after completing the booking.
A full list of Award Ticket FAQs can be found on Delta’s website.
Do you have experience canceling Delta award tickets? Any strategies you have for avoiding the redeposit fee? Feel free to share in the comments below.
Love racking up the Delta Miles?
If you are looking for more ways to earn Delta miles, consider The Delta SkyMiles® Reserve American Express Card, The Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card or The Delta SkyMiles® Gold American Express Card.
About Points, Miles & Martinis
Here at Points, Miles and Martinis, we love all things travel. We focus on topics relating to travel including destinations, airline, hotel, car rental and credit card reward programs. Our goal is to help people travel better. - See more at our About Us page.
Sign up for Email || Twitter || Facebook |
Hotel Offers || Airline Offers || Bank Offers || Cash Back Offers
What is the 72 hour rule? Even in the extreme example given in this article (12:01 AM Tuesday to 11:59 PM Wednesday), that gives you just shy of 48 hours to get a refund. Where does the 72 hours come in?
Thanks!
Last year Delta was kind and did not charge me any fees when my child died
Delta Skymiles are the TRASHIEST frequent flyer points you can earn. Within 72 hours is something happens you LOSE everything! Yeah, this airline HATES you if you are a customer of theirs.
so you will be 3x the amount of miles compared to most other airlines, fly on Skyteam, the worst alliance and the on top of that DL will keep your points if you have a last minute emergency.
DL flyers are lost in their own world