Nearly three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are still picking up the pieces of our travel plans. Airlines have helped by offering some unprecedented flexibility, with free change and cancellation on many tickets, new and old, throughout the last two years.
And Delta has gone farther than most by allowing free change and cancellation – including for travel far in the future on main cabin or higher tickets. Even award tickets booked using SkyMiles can be changed or canceled free, though you must book at least main cabin to qualify for free changes. Canceling a Delta basic economy ticket means you'll forfeit $99 to $199.
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! It's been one of the silver linings of the pandemic, something our team and readers have taken advantage of repeatedly. And while Delta has made it a bit harder recently, it's still an option.
Keep reading to see how you can get ahead when the price of your Delta flight drops after booking it.
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 Voucher When the Price of Your Booked Flight Drops
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, other than Southwest) 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 reach out to Delta – or make the changes yourself in your online account – and get a voucher for the price difference. The Thrifty Traveler team has done this countless times over the past two years, getting eCredits to use towards a future trip in the amount of the price difference. After a major extension, those eCredits will last at least through the end of 2023.
Let me show you how this works. Last fall, 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, there are two easy options: Simply use the “Modify Flights” button in your Delta account online or message Delta (via the Delta app).
Modify Flight via Delta.com (Easiest Method)
First things first: Make sure your flight is eligible for a free change. It should be so long as you booked a main cabin or higher ticket. Delta Basic Economy tickets will not be eligible for free cancelations – 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.” Then click “Modify Flight.”
Then under “Change Flight” click “Start Flight Change”. Check the boxes for the flights you would like to change (all of them) and select the same dates and flights you originally booked. You can, of course, change the dates for free as well without paying a fee. However, Delta may charge you more if the replacement flights are more expensive.
Once you select flights, you should see a screen showing you the original price you paid and the new price – the difference will be issued to you as an eCredit. Once complete, you can find the voucher in your Delta account. Within a few minutes, I had an eCredit in my account for the $38 fare difference.
It's that easy!
Read up on how to use Delta eCredits and vouchers for your next trip!
But in some cases, this method will no longer work. Delta may prevent you from reselecting the same flight you already have booked in order to get that eCredit so easily.
If you run into issues, you should try using the Fly Delta app as opposed to online at Delta.com, as you might get a different result.
But here's perhaps the best way to do it now: Simply cancel the flight altogether for a Delta eCredit for the full amount, use that to rebook the same flight, then pocket the difference as a new eCredit.
Otherwise, move on to the next method.
The Delta App Method
It will take more time than using the method above – especially as airline customer support centers get hammered with calls and requests – but you can also use the Delta app and message Delta.
In our experience, this could be the better option if you run into any issues on Delta's website. If that isn't the case, stick to the method above: It will always be easier and faster.
But as always, if you don't get the answer you are hoping for, we recommend hanging up and calling again – or starting a new online chat with a different agent.
From there, just ask the agent for a voucher for the price difference of your flight, including all the details of your flight. That includes your confirmation number, the routing, the dates of travel, and of course your name.
Read: How to Use Delta's Message System to Get Help
Things to Keep In Mind
We have to stress: Your mileage may vary.
Some flights won't work properly in the “Modify Flights” area, and some agents seem more willing to dole out the voucher credits than others. If that is your experience, try again later – we always suggest chatting with a different agent to see if the answer changes.
At the end of the day, the worst that can happen is they say no. There is really no reason not to ask if the price of your booked travel goes down in price – assuming you booked at least a main cabin ticket. Again, we highly suggest at least trying to modify your flights online first (with no call or text required) as it will only take a few minutes.
One thing to note is that if you have already made a request for a voucher for the fare difference to the itinerary in question, you may not be eligible to do it again. It seems Delta will only allow you to do this one time – even if you have canceled the itinerary yourself for a voucher and rebooked.
That means you may want to wait to request the voucher until there is a substantial price difference – not just a few bucks.
And there's one more new issue to watch out for: 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.
That's a big and potentially problematic change. 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 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.
Fortunately, Delta has given travelers plenty of time: All eCredits don't expire until the end of 2023 … and Delta has suggested they'll eventually make these credits good for life.
Bottom Line
If you have travel booked with Delta, keep an eye on the price of your flights. Delta will likely dole out vouchers for fare differences if prices drop. You can get these via your online account or simply messaging Delta.
Lead photo courtesy of Chris Lundberg via Flickr.
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.
Thank you! That was way better than waiting to talk to a Delta agent.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
Couldn’t you just cancel, get the E-credit and then rebook the same flights?
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.
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
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.
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.
Just saved $950+ on a family trip that we can use to go somewhere else! Super easy through the app. Thank you!
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!
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.
They straight up said no. The agent said they no longer do it. Who knows.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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 !
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!!