Award cancellation-refund of fees?

My husband and I have one way first class seats on Delta BCN-AMS-IAD in May which we purchased using FF miles. We have no status with the airline. Each ticket was booked on a different FF account.

 

We had planned a transatlantic cruise ending in Barcelona.

 

Unfortunately we will soon be cancelling due to the recurrence of an ongoing health issue. Before I phone Delta to cancel, I have a few questions I am hoping someone can answer.

 

1. Each ticket incurred taxes and fees of $302. This was paid at the time of booking.

Can I expect these charges to be refunded?

A Delta credit card was used for the purchase.

 

2. Would a doctor's note help in having the charges waived to redeposit these miles back to our account ? Or am I stuck with that fee regardless? I think it is $150 per ticket.

 

We have insurance, and the other costs for the trip are fully refundable at this time.

I am not sure it would be of benefit to bother with all the claim forms if our out of pocket costs were minimal. We may be able to roll the monies we have already paid into insurance for a future trip if we do not make a claim on this one.

 

Thank you so much for any assistance you can offer.

Unfortunately typically there will be no refund. You can apply those to the purchase of a new ticket with the applicable change fees.

My husband and I have one way first class seats on Delta BCN-AMS-IAD in May which we purchased using FF miles. We have no status with the airline. Each ticket was booked on a different FF account.

Business class? DL does not have international F awards.

1. Each ticket incurred taxes and fees of $302. This was paid at the time of booking.

Can I expect these charges to be refunded?

All taxes will be refunded to the credit card used for the transaction. All fees NOT related to the cancellation will be refunded in the same manner.

A Delta credit card was used for the purchase.

Makes no difference here, but thanks for complete info!!

2. Would a doctor's note help in having the charges waived to redeposit these miles back to our account ? Or am I stuck with that fee regardless? I think it is $150 per ticket.

The redeposit fee is the same for whatever reason.

We have insurance, and the other costs for the trip are fully refundable at this time.

Having "insurance" is a statement SO open ended that no one can say what you should do. It completely depends on what is covered ON YOUR POLICY. Anyone else's experience has ZERO relevance to your case. So the question is...what does YOUR policy cover? If you don't know, then perhaps this is a time to reflect that we need to make sure of just what we have for coverage before we buy the policy. Different plans from different providers - there is no "standard" in the travel insurance business. Know what we get covered for and what not.

 

Sidebar thought problem: If you live in an area with woodlands and deer populations, would you intelligently buy auto insurance that didn't cover hitting a deer on the road? Should we check to see what is and isn't covered? Same for coverage for fees on award redeposits caused by our choices.

I am not sure it would be of benefit to bother with all the claim forms if our out of pocket costs were minimal.

If you are covered for the $300 of redeposit fees, are you saying that your time to do, at most 30 minutes of paperwork, was not worth that money. Even in my best working times, I never had a billable rate of $600 per hour.

We may be able to roll the monies we have already paid into insurance for a future trip if we do not make a claim on this one.

I have NO idea what that means. How are you rolling monies already paid into something entirely different by not doing anything??

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

Unfortunately typically there will be no refund. You can apply those to the purchase of a new ticket with the applicable change fees.

 

As Flyer Talker mentioned, this is untrue. The taxes/fees will be fully refunded, and you will be charged the cancellation fee (usually separately).

 

Check with your insurance company to see if they cover the cancellation fee or not.

I am not sure it would be of benefit to bother with all the claim forms if our out of pocket costs were minimal. We may be able to roll the monies we have already paid into insurance for a future trip if we do not make a claim on this one.

 

I have NO idea what that means. How are you rolling monies already paid into something entirely different by not doing anything??

 

If you cancel a trip for which you have purchased travel insurance, and you don't file a claim, many companies let you roll over that policy to cover a new trip.

 

So, if OP paid $300+ for the insurance policy, and by filing a claim that would pay out $300, it might be better to take the loss and roll the policy over to cover a new trip.

Edited February 8, 2016 by 6rugrats

Thank you for the input.