OK, I've never been a very frequent flyer - perhaps once or twice a year domestic, transatlantic every couple of years. I've always been a price and convenience shopper. I have an Amex Delta Skymiles card, and for the first time, had enough miles to use.

I needed to go to SFO in September to spend a long weekend with my best friend and take an Irish language course. I've been watching the fares - from $280 to $580, for the last couple of months. Yesterday it went down to $275, so I figured that was a low point. I could either pay $275 cash, or buy the $375 Delta tickets and use 35,000 miles - which left me paying $30. I did the latter, and was happy with it.

Today, I checked the fares again for the hell of it. Fares were now $179!!!! Crap, I just spent more miles than I needed to. I went to the Delta itinerary - and saw that it was eligible for a refund of both miles and cash. I pressed the button to cancel itinerary - and the miles were instantly back in my account. I went back and bought the SAME itinerary with only 25,000 miles, and no cash - and it worked out perfectly fine. Woohoo!!!

Delta had no change fee, no hassle, no delay in crediting my miles. I am a very happy camper, and I never thought I'd say that about ANY airline. Wow.

They now have my loyalty.

Sorry, I mistyped - $139 right now on Delta rather than $179 - cheap from PIT to SFO!

In general, airlines have a 24 hour grace period in which trip reservations can be changed or cancelled without penalty.

It ain't Delta, it's all the planes.

That being said, Delta is the worst flying experience(s) that I've ever had. I only fly them if I absolutely have to.

Fair enough. US Air and United have that honor for me. I've never had problems flying with Delta, SW, Continental or AA.

I can honestly say I've never had such a horrible experience with ANY airline that I'd refuse to ever fly with them. I did have a bad experience with Aeromexico that involved several itinerary changes that effectively shortened our one-week vacation to two days, and it took some firm insistance to get them to agree to refund our money (and 3 months to credit my credit card), but that's about it.

I think it's nice to see someone post something positive....

I don't know about other airlines, but Delta has a 24 hour cancellation policy. I've used it several times. If you had waited 25 hours to change/cancel, you probably wouldn't be singing Delta's praises.

ky, if that had been the case, I would have been kicking myself for not waiting longer to buy in the first place

United still has until-next-day hold if you pick the Western Union option for payment. If you see the same or better fare next day, then just cancel the old one and re-hold till the next day and so on....

If you have time to checked this every 24 hours, and don't mind the hassle....