Delta is refusing to refund a ticket bought from NYC to Santiago, Chile. The ticket was purchased on February 25th. The flight is for April 23. The hotel we had booked is no longer there.
Any advise?

I'm not sure there's anything you can do except make reservations to stay somewhere else in Chile. Is that possible? Your trip is still seven weeks away.

Delta and Jeff are right. Refunds are usually only offered when danger is immediate and flights are canceled. Once the danger period has passed (like now) and flights are running they are very reluctant to do full refunds. And they will never refund if something like hotel or other arrangements are changed; their job is transport and anything past that is outside their responsibility.

You have several options: find a different hotel, hope that Delta changes flight schedules by more than an hour or so in which case you can cancel for a full refund, cancel the ticket (pay a small penalty but still be able to use the residual), file a claim with your travel insurance, and so on.

Where were you planning on staying? Chile is a phenomenal country with so much to see and do. Most regions were not touched by the earthquake. I gather areas north of Santiago and south of Temuco are still fine. I'd look into other options for a trip there.

Or, as NoFlyZone suggests, you could cancel your reservations and generally have a year to rebook other flights. Look at the terms of your ticket. You'll pay a change penalty, but that's the best you can hope for under these circumstances.

One assumes that there are other hotels still standing in Santiago. Delta is under no obligation to refund your ticket.

Have you even asked about applying it to another ticket?

My BF is on a flight back from Santiago right now. He's been stranded there since the earthquake and today was the first Delta flight back to the states. Has been very choatic, even in Santiago. Restaurants with food shortages, plenty of road closures in/out of Santiago, lots of significant rebuilding needing to be done. My BF had to change hotels because his did not appear structurally safe after daylight broke on Saturday morning. It's a beautiful country but you should research the effects on the specific cities you were planning to go to before making a decision, esp. if you were planning to be driving or spending time along the coast. It may help you better decide whether the change fee is worth it.