Delta Air Lines Raises Ticket Cancellation Fees Up to $500 on Unbundled Premium ‘Basic’ Fares

Delta Air Lines over the weekend updated its official ticket change and cancellation fee structure for flights from the U.S. and Canada, introducing higher penalty charges for its new unbundled “Basic” fare classes.

While standard Main Basic and Comfort Basic fares still feature a $99 change fee, cancellations and adjustments for unbundled premium tiers—including First Basic, Premium Select Basic, and Basic Business—now carry penalties ranging up to $500.

According to the new rules, which Delta published on its website quietly over the weekend, changing a First Basic ticket now costs $300, Premium Select Basic $400, and Basic Business tickets up to $400 for date changes and $500 for total cancellations. When a traveler cancels a non-refundable Basic ticket, Delta deducts the applicable penalty from the original purchase value and issues the remaining balance to the passenger as a Delta eCredit.

Travelers modifying a Basic or Classic non-refundable fare must still pay any applicable fare difference on top of the penalty, and all flight adjustments or cancellations must be completed prior to scheduled departure. Passengers also cannot use the ticket change process to upgrade a non-refundable Basic ticket into a fully refundable fare tier.

In July, Delta made all of its all of its new premium Basic seats available for purchase—Delta First Basic, which has been available on some domestic and Latin America flights already, and Delta Premium Select Basic and Basic Business, which will begin flying in September.