By Nathalie Voit

Delta is giving its customers the option to change their flights at no cost ahead of an “operationally challenging” Fourth of July weekend, a staff writer for Delta wrote on June 28 in a blog post.

According to the news release, the Atlanta-based airline is issuing a systemwide fare difference travel waiver for July 1-4, allowing customers to reschedule their flights before or after the busy holiday weekend.

Delta said the travel waiver is good for rebooked travel between the same origin and destination until July 8. The global air carrier said the option to change flights is free of charge–with no fare difference or processing fees.

“Delta people are working around the clock to rebuild Delta’s operation while making it as resilient as possible to minimize the ripple effect of disruptions,” Delta said in the announcement. “Even so, some operational challenges are expected this holiday weekend. This unique waiver is being issued to give Delta customers greater flexibility to plan around busy travel times, weather forecasts, and other variables without worrying about a potential cost to do so.”

Delta added that the airline is “expected to carry customer volumes from Friday, July 1, through Monday, July 4,” at levels “not seen since before the pandemic.”

According to Tuesday’s announcement, customers can adjust their travel plans via the Fly Delta app or My Trip.

The travel waiver is particularly unusual for the aviation industry as it grapples with various operational challenges, from staffing shortages to general mismanagement.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. airline industry lost a lot of senior management and cabin crew to early retirement, layoffs, and furloughs. Delta, like most other airlines, was not immune to this phenomenon.

A U.S. pilot shortage has recently left the air carrier struggling to stay operationally afloat. According to a letter from Delta Air Lines pilots, the pilots currently working Delta flights are being severely overworked and will have logged in more hours by the fall of 2022 than in 2018 and 2019 combined, their busiest years to date.

Meanwhile, flight-tracking service FlightAware found that Delta had the most cancellations of any major U.S. airline over the Memorial Day Weekend. Those recent events are particularly worrying for an airline that once prided itself on being the most operationally reliant domestic air carrier.

As such, the waiver does not appear to be so much a “free pass” for consumers to change their travel plans but rather a calculated step in expectation of projected operational difficulties. In this sense, Delta’s unprecedented-in-the-industry offer is more like a Get out of Jail Free Card than the product of any true act of generosity or charity on the company’s part.

Click here to check out the update.