Rescheduled flight question

I don't know of any government regulation requiring a free change over 2.5 hours. Mostly likely the determination is by the airline. I generally found the airline fairly flexible when they make the change but you do need to talk to some one.

I tried contacting Delta yesterday and their message said the phone system was completely crashed. They suggested doing chat through the website for immediate problems. My problem wasn’t immediate so I don’t know how that worked for those who tried it.

There was the Amazon outage yesterday that apparently affected the Delta Reservations system. I am not a techie so have no idea other than this was on GMA this morning, lol.

I've not had good luck rescheduling online for international trips with Delta but that was also back in the summer.

If you now have a longer layover, I'm guessing your arrival time has substantially changed, yes? Then you can cancel the flight or change to something else in the same ticket class without paying additional airfare. Unfortunately, you need a live person to do that.

I do know Amazon music was down yesterday. (I couldn't play my Christmas music. :( Maybe Delta is better today? Every time I have been told I'd get a call back, I have. Usually at least a bit longer than what was projected. Once I missed the call somehow, and I was so upset, but 20 minutes later I got a call so I wonder if they continue to attempt a call? If systems were overloaded at Amazon and possibly impacted Delta, that could explain why you got lost in the queue.

Years ago I'd get so mad at Verizon and my husband would say, "They are the best of the worst". I'm not sure that is still the case, but I often feel Delta is the best of the worst. When I actually get a living person, I typically am more than happy with the result. Just this last time they changed my daughter's flight so she'd get back 12 hours later. She needed the 6am arrival because she needed to work that day. There were no longer economy tickets on flights that would work. I explained it was a family trip with complicated logistics. I was put on hold for a bit (Ugg!) and the agent came back and a seat at that price level was made available for her, essentially they took a main cabin ticket and gave it to her for the economy price. I don't think they had to do that. They could have been "Take what we have or cancel". I am convinced that if you treat the reservation person in a respectful manner and if the request is reasonable, they will help.

The rules are found in the Conditions of Carriage on the airline website. In these uncertain times with travel it is a good idea for everyone purchasing airfare to download and save this document at the time of purchase. It is the contract governing your flights, and when they change it you may not be able to get ahold of the old one.

I had made a booking in the pre-covid era for a trip that was to happen in May 2020. Under the rules when I bought my ticket I could get a full refund if the scheduled flight changed by more than a certain number of hours, I think it was 2 or 3. By April when things were under lockdown and flights cut back, my flight was changed by many hours and the Conditions of Carriage had been changed on their website to only give refunds for much longer delays. I got a full refund after the customer service agent I called claimed I wasn't entitled to one. I submitted a letter on the United website customer service site citing terms from the contract we actually had, not the one they had on their website when I requested the refund. I got my refund.

I finally got thru via chat. She said that if it is allowed to be rescheduled due to the time layover overage, and agent has to do it for you to have the cost not be more. You can’t just change it yourself online.

Lulu, you are exactly right. Its not that you are not allowed to make a change without paying an additional amount, its that you have to do it with a live person. I was told they are trying to work on that piece of it, to make the traveler to be able to make the change themselves. As I think of that, it seems it would be a bit complicated to automate that.