Thinking it would be wise to book well in advance of a trip to get the best ticket price, my wife and I purchased 2 Delta One tickets on July 5, 2018 for a trip to Europe for this coming April. Today I was curious as to how filled the front cabin would be as of this date, and to see seats assigned, I went through the process of booking identical tickets, stopping just short of the actual purchase. To my amazement, I found that my original total purchase price had dropped from the $ 9,589.82 I paid in July to $ 6,203.06 today. The ticket receipt I have makes no mention of it being able to be changed or cancelled, but with a price difference of $ 3,386.76....I have to see if there is relief for this change.

I was advised to include the details of the tickets:

2 Tickets - Delta Airlines Delta One
April 20, 2019 Flight Delta 178 from Portland (PDX) to Amsterdam (AMS)
May 29, 2019 Flight Delta 37 from London-Heathrow (LHR) to Portland (PDX)

I haven't talked to anyone at Delta yet, just submitted an online request for information on how to re-coup the price difference, less any change fee. Their auto reply indicated that their actual response could be up to 30 days from now, and I'm worried that the available equal seats will disappear so that they will prevent me from any recovery. Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Thanks, Steve

Just call them ASAP. Without knowing the fine print for this specific ticket, most tickets sold in the US (and almost all business class tickets) can be changed after paying a change fee.

Worst case, you will have to cancel the original ticket and use the value leftover after any change fees to buy the new tickets. You would almost certainly get back at least a couple thousand bucks. Note, however, that they may not refund in cash, but you'll have a credit you can use for your next ticket(s).

Thanks for your kind help. I did finally call Delta’s mileage plan service center and they were willing to help me get most of the price difference back as a credit card refund. They did impose a $500 change fee on each ticket, but at this point I am elated that I managed to get the balance back and not lose the tickets that I so wanted back in July. My wife and I are in our 70’s and this is possibly our last trip to Europe. We have never sprung for the front cabin before, but our old bodies don’t take kindly to sitting for 10 hours and then have to do the customs thing, etc.

The Agent did say that one strategy is to book way in advance with fully refundable tickets, and then make the ticket change when the price is as low as you think it will go. That way you don’t have to incur the change fee. Food for thought for those who do a lot of traveling.

Fodor’s Forum has again been an invaluable source of real-life information. Thanks.