Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Back on February 9, I booked a Delta Airlines award ticket for my friend to travel from Rome (FCO) to New York City (JFK) in business class for travel on October 1.  The award ticket cost 80,000 Delta SkyMiles and 329.23 euros (~$388.06) in taxes/fees.  Unfortunately, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the flight was cancelled.  In this post, I will share the timeline of when the Delta SkyMiles and award taxes/fees were refunded.

On July 13, Delta officially cancelled my friend’s FCO-JFK award ticket due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.  I assumed the 80,000 Delta SkyMiles would automatically be redeposited to my Delta account, but after waiting 2+ weeks, I decided to call Delta to see what was taking them so long redeposit the Delta SkyMiles into my account.

I called Delta on July 29 to inquire on the status of the redeposit and refund.  The agent said that the Delta SkyMiles would only be redeposited into my account when I called and requested the redeposit.  I wish I had known that sooner instead of waiting 2+ weeks.  The agent was able to instantly redeposit the Delta SkyMiles into my account and said that i would receive the award taxes/fees refund back to my credit card in the next 1-2 months.  Ugg, I hate waiting that long for a refund.

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see the $388.06 award taxes/fees refund post to my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  Better late than never!

Here are the complete timeline of events:

• February 2 – Delta award ticket booked for travel on October 1
• July 13 – Delta award ticket cancelled due to the Coronavirus Pandemic
• July 29 – I called Delta and had the 80,000 Delta SkyMiles redeposit to my account (16 days after the flight was cancelled and the same day I called Delta)
• September 2 – $388.06 award taxes/fees refunded to my Chase Sapphire Reserve (52 days after the flight was cancelled and 36 days after calling Delta)

In a perfect world, I would have automatically received the 80,000 Delta SkyMiles redeposited into my account as soon as the award ticket was cancelled and the award taxes/fees refund should be processed around the same time.  If you have a cancelled Delta award ticket, your best bet is to call Delta as soon as possible to start the clock on the refund.  If you have any questions about the refund process, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!

P.S. Here are 2 other anatomy posts worth reading:

• Anatomy & Timeline of a Cancelled American Airlines Award Ticket (LGA-DFW-SNA)
• Anatomy & Timeline of 2 Cancelled Air Canada Aeroplan Award Tickets