One of the biggest silver linings coming out of the pandemic is that airlines have continued offering unprecedented flexibility, allowing free change and cancellation on many tickets, new and old. And Delta makes it easier than almost any airline to take advantage, whether your travel plans change … or you just want to rebook a flight if prices drop to save even more.
Book a main cabin (or Main Classic?!) fare and get a Google Flights price alert that prices dropped? Easy: You can cancel, rebook, and pocket the difference as a Delta eCredit. It's even easier for award tickets you booked using Delta SkyMiles. So long as you don't book a Delta basic economy ticket (which can't be canceled without paying hefty fees), you're set.
And with flight prices dropping like mad recently, it's time to learn how to put this to use to save some money (or miles) on your upcoming Delta flights.
Not booked with Delta? The same concept applies to many other airlines – check our guide on how to get a voucher when prices drop!
How to Get a Delta Credit When Prices Drop
First things first: You need to know when the price of your flight drops.
The easiest way to monitor the price of a flight you have booked with Delta (or any airline) is to set up a Google Flights price alert.
Just enter the details of your upcoming flight, find your exact flight, and turn on the “Track prices” toggle – you'll need a Gmail account to do it. From here, Google Flights will monitor the price of the flight and alert you via email any time the price changes. Of course, you'll need to remember what you originally paid.
If your flight drops in price, you should be able to cancel it for a credit, rebook at the lower rate using that credit, and get a new Delta eCredit for the price difference. The Thrifty Traveler team has done this countless times over the past four years, getting eCredits to use towards a future trip in the amount of the price difference.
It's even easier using Delta SkyMiles. Just cancel your current ticket, wait a minute for your miles to go back into your account, then go back and rebook it using fewer miles.
Let me show you how this works. In the example below, I had a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). My dates were not flexible, so I had been tracking the flight via Google Flights price alerts. Once I ended up booking, I kept my price alert active.
A few weeks later, I got a Google Flights price alert email that the price of the fare had dropped substantially.
Once you get a notification that the price has gone down, you can start the process of cancelling your existing booking.
You'll want to make sure your flight is eligible for a free change – and it should be so long as you booked a main cabin or higher ticket. Delta Basic Economy tickets will not be eligible for free cancellations – you'll forfeit $99 for most trips or $199 on long-haul international flights.
If your flight fits the bill for a free change or cancellation, head to “My Trips” in your Delta account and pull up your “Trip Details.” From here, you'll have the ability to cancel your existing booking.
Within a few minutes, you should have a voucher for the amount of your booking. It's that easy!
Read up on how to use Delta eCredits and vouchers for your next trip!
Things to Keep In Mind
Rather than automatically inserting a new Delta eCredit into a traveler's online account, Delta may only issue it via email … and bury it at the bottom of a lengthy message, to boot.
Normally, any eCredits you earn from Delta should appear directly in your Delta profile, under “Certificates, Vouchers & eCredits.” That hasn't been the case for several of our team's recent rebookings. It makes it a manual process, meaning you'd have to save these nondescript emails with eCredits attached and then remember to enter them yourself at check-out to put them to use.
Read more: How to Make Sure You Don't Have Missing Delta Credits
Fortunately, Delta gives travelers plenty of time. Your credit will be valid for one year – not one year from the date you cancel, but from the day you booked the original flight.
Luckily, there's even a way to reset that clock if you're not ready to put it to use. You can book a “dummy” flight and then later cancel it for a voucher. Once you do that, it should be valid for another year from that “dummy” booking. With Delta, however, there is one small wrinkle: Your “dummy” booking must be more than the amount of the credit in order for them to issue an extension.
Read more: A Quick Trick for Extending Your Flight Credits Before They Expire
What About Booking with SkyMiles?
Book your flights with Delta SkyMiles? The process couldn't be easier … as long as you book a Delta main cabin fare or higher (basic economy won't cut it), you can cancel that booking for an immediate refund of all your SkyMiles and any taxes and fees associated with the booking.
Those SkyMiles should be immediately available in your account for another booking, while the refund of taxes and fees should show up within a few days.
As is the case with cash bookings, Google Flights price alerts are your friend for SkyMiles bookings as well. Let me explain.
We've noticed an undeniable pattern with how SkyMiles rates fluctuate: First, Delta might slash cash prices on a flight you've been eyeing – or maybe already have booked. Then, 12 or so hours (and sometimes 24 hours) later, SkyMiles rates eventually fall to reflect that earlier price cut.
We've noticed that lag again and again and again. It means that the key to booking many Delta flights for as few SkyMiles as possible is to watch for a price drop … then wait a while to actually rebook with your SkyMiles.
Read More: The Key to Getting Better SkyMiles Deals: Price Alerts & Patience
Bottom Line
If you have travel booked with Delta, keep an eye on the price of your flights. If the price drops, you can cancel your existing booking for a voucher and then rebook that same flight and pocket the difference with a voucher for a future trip.
If you have a flight booked with SkyMiles, you can simply cancel your flight, get a full refund, and then rebook at the lower rates.
Lead photo courtesy of Chris Lundberg via Flickr.
I just did this and saved so much money!! Thank you so much!! I’m giddy with joy 🤩
Great information. My wife and I have literally saved hundreds of dollars with this method in just a handful of flights over the last year. Spot on. I just had a situation where both the mobile app and website would not allow me to modify the original flight, but no issue using the Delta Message System. Thanks!!
Hi Nick, very intersting post, thank you, i did it for a domestic flight and it worked. Do you know if it applies to international flights with Delta / Air France? Thanks !
Delta does not honor this for basic tickets.
“But with flight prices dropping, we had a question: What would happen if the price of a ticket we already had booked with Delta dropped? Would the airline give you a Delta eCredit or voucher for the difference? The answer? Yes!”
That is correct. You need to have booked at least a main cabin ticket or higher.
I purchased my trip to Europe using miles and cash on Delta. Now the # of miles for same dates has gone down a lot. Will Delta credit back my miles immediately if I cancel in total and then do a new reservation using miles and cash again for same dates as original? If so, is it best to use their app to perform all of this ?
Hi Ginny, that is correct. You should be able to cancel it for a return of miles and an e-credit for the cash portion. You should then be able to rebook the fare at the cheaper rate. It might be easier to do through the desktop version of the website, but you should be able to complete through the app as well.
Interesting to see these most recent comments. I tried to “change” to the same flight and it is not an option online. In the list of available flights it just says “original flight” with no price difference or ability to select it. I was going to chat with an agent until I saw how long the wait was. Now I am not hopeful.
The easiest thing to do is cancel your existing booking for a voucher and then rebook the same flight with that voucher.
Just tried this and Delta became VERY snarky and rude, and flat out said no. The representative then rhetorically asked me if they should come after me for more money if the fare goes up (no joke).
I tried to reason with him to say I could just cancel the ticket, get the eCredit, then just rebook the flight at the new price and he agreed, but then I asked him how that is different than just crediting me the difference (in an eCredit, NOT a refund), and he kept beating me over the head that because I booked it more than 24 hours ago, I couldn’t get a refund.
Someone should get them on the record on this…
They straight up said no. The agent said they no longer do it. Who knows.
did you need to ‘rechoose’ seats if you do it thru Chat? and if so, were you able to get your original ones?
The agent should be able to reassign seats, but using the “modify flights” option is the best way to go here if it works.
ok, so the going online to ‘modify’ flight wouldn not let me choose same flight… so I’m trying chat now, fingers crossed… ok chat finally worked after about an hour of back and forth! Thanks for the info, calling may be quicker tho if the ‘modify’ doesn’t work.
Was surprised as I tried to re-price a Delta ticket after the price went down.. And it didn’t work. First, went to ‘modify/change flight’ — and the option for re-booking the same flight was “unavailable”. Second, tried chatting directly with a Delta rep — and they refused (“per policy”, they said) to re-price the ticket. Any other suggestions? Thx!
Just saved $950+ on a family trip that we can use to go somewhere else! Super easy through the app. Thank you!
Hi! Does modifying your flight through the app require you to rechoose your seats or does all stay the same?
Yes, you would need to re-select seats.
i woke up this morning unhappy to see that the price for our upcoming trip to Europe (family of 4) went down. I immediately wondered if I could cancel for credit and rebook and started searching the web, and came across your post, which was so helpful! I had no idea I could just use the “change flight” option to reissue our tickets on the exact same flights! Got $500 back and I’m super grateful! Thank you!
Hi Paula, I love to hear it! Glad you found this story helpful.
Thank you for posting this. I followed the steps that you outlined for message text and received $900 back for an international flight for 4 people. Thank you!!!
Amazing! Glad it worked for you
My husband is not a frequent flyer and this is first time he has flew in over 10 years. He will not use the ecredit, if I change out the ticket, can the refund back to his card? It says no ecredit, if same day, destination, etc, it don’t say if same time, any clarifications?
the ecredit must be used by the person whose name it is under. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely you’ll be able to get a full refund for the ecredit amount.
Couldn’t you just cancel, get the E-credit and then rebook the same flights?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I was able to get 17,500 miles back!!!! I used the modify flight method and choose my same flight.
I just did this! I am going to Hawaii next month with my husband and total for two ticket difference is $350, I called in there was only 10 minutes wait (i couldn’t do the change on my app or on the website), call took less than a minute and we both got $175 credit to our Skymiles.
Hey this works! We just used the message approach (took 4 hours!). But we got a significant credit on international tickets that we had booked back in April. Delta credited us the entire price difference without question.
Thank you for posting this very helpful information.
Hi,
Can you tell me where you found the verbiage from Delta laying out that this is a violation? I cannot find it in the pages below? Is it possible that they have removed it?
I ran into some issues in trying to do this yesterday (after doing it no problem twice before). Eventually they allowed without a problem for me to change the itinerary using MSP as a connection instead of DTW. After the agent made the change and issued the eCredit, I went online and immediately changed back to the DTW flights at the same lower rate.
I’m happy to follow the rules and asked the rep multiple times, after being told no, where this was listed as excluded/forbidden and they were unable to tell me. So I think they were also struggling to find a rule that forbids this practice, since, as best I can tell, it doesn’t exist.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/coronavirus-faqs
https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/change-or-cancel-your-trip/cancel-change-requirements
https://www.delta.com/us/en/travel-planning-center/change-or-cancel-your-trip/flying-made-simple
https://www.delta.com/us/en/legal/contract-of-carriage-dgr
Thanks!
Hey Ezra,
It’s very possible they have removed this from their site. It is from when the article originally published back in March.
Thanks Nick!
i booked to one ways instead of RT and i just did this for the 2th time i got skymiles credited on way there and i on way back instead of ecredit i just moved up to main cabin. i used the delta site messenger about hour half wait
Thank you! That was way better than waiting to talk to a Delta agent.
I have booked a trip to Alaska using sky miles and the required miles has now dropped. And now there is also a more convenient connection on the return flight. I booked this flight before April 30. I assume I can rebook this with no penalties, but do I give up the right to cancel the flight later for a full refund of my miles? It is basic economy.
Hey Kris, you can absolutely rebook and there will be no penalty later on if you decide to cancel. SkyMiles are a very flexible way to book right now.