Mercy! Airlines should refund tickets for cancellation, death, disease and other unfortunate circumstances

When should airlines refund a nonrefundable ticket?

More often than they do. A lot more often.

About 9 in 10 respondents to a recent survey say they should get their money back when a flight is canceled for any reason. More than 88 percent of the respondents to the multiple-choice poll also said airlines should issue a refund with a death certificate, presumably to the next of kin.

Nearly 80 percent said airlines should let passengers off the hook and refund their money when they have a communicable disease.

Only one-third of the respondents said refunds should be given when a passenger can’t make it to the airport for reasons beyond his or her control, and less than 5 percent said money should never be returned on a nonrefundable ticket.

Your comments were equally interesting.

Reader Joseph Vaughan said above all, airlines should be flexible.

There can be a set of uniform rules for when refunds will always or never be made but there should also be leeway for specific cases where airline customer service supervisors have the authority to consider exceptional mitigating circumstances beyond the uniform rules that warrant either partial or full refunds or some other type of compensation.

Others, like Nancy Carter, thought the refunds were only fair.

Funny that when an airline has a problem they will refund the nonrefundable ticket. But shouldn’t it go both ways?

Sylvia Prast thought of a few more exceptions she’s like to see:

• If you hold a ticket to somewhere when you need to go to a bedside or funeral elsewhere.
• If you need to extend your trip due to family illness.
• If war-type events break out at or very near your destination, threatening your well-being should you take the trip.
• Hurricanes, fires, floods and such natural disasters (or man-made natural disasters such as the recent Gulf oil spill) that affect the entire region.
• If an announced threat to the airlines themselves (flight hijacking or bombing) for your flight time or route.
• If illness epidemic outbreak threatens your destination (such as H1N1 flu in Mexico last year).
• If weather closes the roads to the airport from your location (officially!).

Whoa. That’s too many to fit into a survey, but definitely worth contemplating.

I also heard from industry expert Richard Eastman, who said making exceptions is easier said than done.

A non-refundable ticket is a business-decision on the part of the airline.

It is saying to the buyer that we’ll sell you this ticket on the basis that you will fill the seat in that specific airplane. When enough of those are sold, it ensures that the airplane will meet its operating costs on that particular segment.

I’ll concede that airlines sometimes lose their perspective and use the tactic to move market-share; but not as often as the consumer would imagine. It costs a chunk of money to simply fly an airplane from Point A to Point B. Making sure you meet operating costs on each segment is critical to survival. Therefore, the only time an airline should refund a non-refundable ticket is when the flight is canceled.

And in my opinion, they should not only refund the ticket – they should provide some sort of reciprocal penalty for not having provided the flight which the consumer was fully entitled to expect – with the exception of cancellations due to weather or some other act of God (in which case, the traveler should have the option of moving to another flight or getting a refund).

Documented death is a bit of a quagmire. The dead person won’t miss the enjoyment of the flight … and the paperwork involved in documenting and refunding the money will be more costly than the value of the ticket. That’s an “everybody loses situation” – both the airline and the dead person’s estate come out on the short end. But of course, logic rarely supersedes emotion in situations like that.

The problem with documented disease is that travelers will quickly devise ways to abuse the documentation process … either through false claims or through appeals to doctors. And like death, the labor and work involved in doing the paperwork will, in most case, cost more than the value of the flight to both the traveler and the airline.

Failure to make it to the airport, for whatever reason, is the passenger’s problem. As with a contagious disease, “documenting” that the problem was beyond the passenger’s control will both be abused – and incur costs beyond the value of the flight.

What do you think? When should an airline bend its nonrefundability rules?

The comments are open.

  • Carver

    With due respect to the industry expert, he cames across as a shill for the airlines.

    For exampe, he makes the argument that for illness “the labor and work involved in doing the paperwork will, in most case, cost more than the value of the flight to both the traveler and the airline.” If its a money loser for the passenger, then why would a passenger spend the time and money to get a doctor’s note that to obtain, “costs more than the value of the flight”. His position is logically flawed.

    I was sick in Paris, I postponed my trip by a week, it took one 2 minute phone call as well as presenting the hospital letter to the ticket agent. It was not a major undertaking. Further, an easy compromise is possible. Simply give the passenger credit with a reasonable change fee.

    But his biggest flaw is reserved for death. This shows how, when someone is so steeped in a position that they lose their common sense. First, having just recently probated an estate, obtaining a refund does not impose a cost on the estate. The attorney and adminstrator/executor receive compensation that is statutorily set in most states, so that’s just a false statement.

    Moreover, he neatly sidestep the issue of a death or grave illness in the family. Yes, there are some scammers, but you don’t need documentation is every case. Request it for repeat offenders or on high value tickets. Give the refund and gain some goodwill out of it.

    What the industry expert fails to understand is that its this short sighted, heartless attitude that makes people feel perfectly fine in taking advantage of airlines fat fingered fares and other errors.

  • http://www.airlinereporter.com David Parker Brown

    I don’t think airlines should give refunds on non-refundable tickets for any reason. It is a gamble. Every passenger has the ability to choose a refundable ticket, but most choose non-refundable. I have had weather, deaths, etc make me lose money on my tickets, but I knew that was the risk I was taking when I got the non-refundable tickets.

    If airlines have to give more refunds, that just means all tickets will go up in price.

    David

  • Liz

    @David Parker Brown – “It is a gamble.”

    That logic fails in every other industry. Should I have to “take a gamble” that the new computer I buy will work?

  • Steve

    I have a few comments.

    One is that there shouldn’t even have to be a discussion regarding refunds for flights that were canceled. I don’t care if the ticket is nonrefundable or not; if the flight is canceled, you deserve a full refund. It’s only common sense.

    Second, while I don’t necessarily think a refund is warranted in some of the other cases (missed flight due to traffic, illness, etc), I do think that the airlines should be somewhat flexible and willing to exchange the ticket for a different flight (with any difference in fares and a change fee).

    Third, the argument that highly inflexible, use-them-or-lose-them nonrefundable tickets are the only thing keeping airfares down doesn’t make sense to me. Southwest’s nonrefundable tickets are the most flexible in the industry; you can’t get a refund, but you *can* apply the full amount of the fare toward another ticket purchase to travel within a year of the original purchase, with zero change fees. Yet their fares are not demonstrably higher.

    Fourth, and I feel most strongly about this one: I think passengers should be due a full refund even on a non-refundable ticket if the airline later resells the seat. Selling a seat with a non-refundable ticket, then reselling it if the first passenger cancels strikes me as highly deceptive and unethical. If cancelling that non-refundable ticket means that the airplane takes off with an empty seat, I agree that the customer is the one who should eat the cost. If, however, cancelling that ticket means that the airline sells it to a different passenger, why should the first customer be penalized? There’s no loss to the airline in this scenario (and in fact, if the seat is resold at a higher fare, the airline could actually benefit).

  • http://www.flyingwithfish.com Steven Frischling

    Liz,

    When you purchase an airline ticket you have the option to purchase a flexible or fully refundable ticket. If you choose to purchase non-refundable fares, then they are non-refundable.

    An airline seat is a ‘perishable’ item. Once the door closes, the airline cannot resell the seat as “refurb” or “used” at a lower fare to try and recoup some of the losses.

    When I am flying and my schedule may change I buy a flexible or refundable fare. Those fares do cost more … but there is a reason they cost more.

    Happy Flying!

    -Steven Frischling
    http://www.flyingwithfish.com
    fish@flyingwithfish.com

  • Josh

    I don’t understand why the airlines insist on making things as difficult as they do. I understand the concept behind a non-refundable ticket and that the airline needs a certain number of dollars to move the plane from place A to place B. the flaw in that logic is that if I cancel or change my ticket (with the required $150 change fee) there is a very good chance the airline is going to be able to resell that seat to someone else, probably for more money. So now the airline has taken my money for a seat, a change fee, and someone else’s money for the seat. Granted my money has transferred to a different flight/seat, but the reality is that no money way lost and extra money was made with the change fee. Should the airline not be able to resell my seat then they may have lost money since the seat went unused. However, based on the number of flights that are oversold, canceled, or delayed, it seems likely that the reality is that very few seats would actually end up being unused in this situation.

    Personally I think airlines should start using a tiered refund/change system involving how far in advance the change is requested and if the seat resells, etc. If I purchase my tickets 180 days in advance and need to make a change 120 days before my flight that is plenty of time to resell the seat. On the other hand if it is only 24 hours before my flight, while possible to resell the seat, it is much less likely. Why not have a low (or no) fee for changes made well in advance and a higher fee as you get closer to the flight date(s).

  • http://www.racingwinds.com Taylor

    @Liz

    Your logic is equally as flawed. When a passenger buys a non-refundable ticket, the name says it all. It is NON-REFUNDABLE. Whether you get sick or have a family member who passes away, the airline has done nothing to impede you from using that ticket. While such occurrences are unfortunate, maybe even wrong, you bought a non-refundable ticket knowing that any number of things can happen that prevent you from using it.

    You’re effectively buying a service, not a tangible product. While there might be some decisions made based on whether the plane has IFE, the level of service, etc., in effect you are paying for the plane to get you from Point A to Point B. You’re not paying for hardware, which is something that can be exchanged, repaired, fixed by tech support. You’re paying for services, and, if you choose to be bound by those “nonrefundable” rules, it’s your job to make sure that you can make the flight.

  • atlmom

    We went to Ireland many years back in 1999. My husband went to the hospital and we had to cancel the trip. But we didn’t actually cancel, we just postponed it, took the trip a month or so later. We had to pay something because the flight was a little more expensive, and maybe a change fee of $35 per person or something (this included hotels and airfare). Quite reasonable. I don’t understand all these change fees, it’s crazy.
    Yes, if the passenger dies -they should get a refund. And for most of those situations – the passenger should get a refund. if the airline CANCELS a flight – not only should one get a 100% refund, each passenger should get an amount equal to the change fee ($150 on most carriers, right?) – AND a credit equal to their cost of the flight. why are they canceling a flight anyway (unless for something like weather, I suppose).

    In any event – when all of you are whining about how much it would cost the airline – you are WRONG. The reason the airlines overbook in the first place is because they know that on every flight there will be a certain number of these ‘exceptions’ so they oversell – they have powerful good algorithms to tell them pricing and how many seats to oversell. So the cost of all of it is *already in the cost of the ticket*. Due to what they do already.

  • andi330

    “As with a contagious disease, “documenting” that the problem was beyond the passenger’s control will both be abused – and incur costs beyond the value of the flight.”

    Wow, perhaps this is poor word choice, but it is a horrible statement. Catching a contagious disease is always BEYOND the passenger’s control. Nobody that I know tries to catch the flu, or strep throat or any other contagious illness. That’s the nature of contagion, if you are around someone else who has the illness, you are exposed to the germs, and may get sick. For people who have health insurance, getting documentation that you have a contagious illness likely costs much less than the price of an airline ticket as well, so that part of the argument is out as well.

    I can’t find an official recommendation by either the FAA or the CDC regarding flying while sick and I don’t have the time to dig deeper, but certainly no one wants to sit near a sick passenger. In addition, the recirculated air in an aircraft would seem (at least to me) to make it more likely to cause other passengers to get sick, including flight staff such as pilots and cabin crew. Sick crew failing to make a flight could be a cause of a flight cancellation due to a lack of crew. Some airlines (according to the articles on this site) have even tried to call a lack of crew beyond their control, so that they don’t have to refund customers canceled flights. If a passenger can provide a doctors note indicating that they are sick with a contagion, they should be allowed (at least) to change their tickets with no change fee to prevent spreading the illness.

    Yes, there are some unscrupulous doctors who will write letters for people when they aren’t really sick, but the majority of illness related refunds will likely be legitimate. Considering that airlines can deny boarding to a sick passenger if they choose, there is no reason not to let responsible people, who want to avoid spreading their illness to others, reschedule or cancel a flight when they can provide documentation when they are sick.

  • Carver

    @Steven Frischling

    I think you misunderstand Liz point. If the airline fails to deliver as promised, it can’t keep your money.

  • Carver

    @taylor

    Perhaps I am missing something in Liz’ post. Liz responded to David’s post that airlines should never give refunds for ANY reason. Which is of course ridiculous if the airline cancels the flight for its own benefit.

    Liz never suggested that if it were the passenger’s fault a refund was due.

  • http://www.flyingwithfish.com Steven Frischling

    Josh

    The term ‘non-refundable’ is not a hidden fee, or an unknown restriction. Passengers know it is non-refundable.

    Additionally, chances are the airline will not be able to resell your seat. The majority of canceled tickets are ‘last minute’ 72 to 24hrs before a flight. Within that time-frame the chances of a seat being resold, unless at a very peak time, is limited.

    Seats are perishable items that cannot be resold and repackaged. Once that plane flies there is no getting that lost revenue back.

    If you want a refundable ticket, or a flexible ticket, purchase a refundable or flexible ticket. There is a reason refundable tickets are far more expensive.

    Happy Flying!

    -Steven Frischling
    http://www.flyingwithfish.com
    fish@flyingwithfish.com

  • Steve

    @Taylor: “You’re paying for services, and, if you choose to be bound by those “nonrefundable” rules, it’s your job to make sure that you can make the flight.”

    I agree with you to the extent that the rules are reasonable and fair to both the consumer and the business. In my mind, refusing to refund a ticket then later selling a ticket for the very same seat is not reasonable. If the seat goes unfilled and the airline would thus have to take a loss if they refunded the nonrefundable ticket, then I agree with you.

    Imagine you go to the store and buy a product. Let’s say that this particular store has a no-return policy, either in general or on this particular product. If you later come in and ask for a refund, the store will tell you no, but you’ll keep the product. What they will *not* do is tell you you can’t have a refund, but take the product back and sell it to another customer. That’s essentially what airlines do when they refuse to refund a nonrefundable ticket, but later resell the seat.

  • http://www.racingwinds.com Taylor

    @Steve – I do agree that the practice you described above is not reasonable, and even morally wrong. I think, though, if you know where to look, exceptions can me made. If you’re on Twitter and tweet Delta’s team, I have seen them respond in a most human way, even going out of their way to make sure the consumer is happy. If I go to the phone and lay into the airline customer service team, I’ll likely get a negative response. From what I’ve seen, the way you approach it can make a difference.

    @Carver – I took Liz’s post to disagree with David saying that buying a nonrefundable ticket is a gamble. I would agree that it is wrong for an airline to not refund the customer’s money for a flight that is cancelled due to airline problems, but I have never had this happen to me. The majority of (better) US airlines are willing to pay for alternate flights due to an airline cancellation.

  • Teresa

    In general I agree that airlines are fully within their rights to make nonrefundable tickets nonrefundable. Of course, that’s as long as they actually provide the service — if they cancel the flight, they should refund the passenger’s money plus be required to pay compensation similar to the new European rules.

    The only exception I think should be made is in case of the death of the passenger, upon submission of a death certificate (perhaps at least a certain period before the flight takes place). I know that that means asking the airlines to bear part of the risk for something completely beyond their control, but it is a rather infrequent occurrence, passengers also bear part of this same risk, and I think it would be just to share the risk when death is at issue.

  • atlmom

    @Steven: again, it’s all priced into the ticket…all those no shows, etc, for whatever reason. the airlines do extensive modeling to figure out how many tickets to oversell by flight…and that’s why the flights are typically full – they sell so many seats over and above capacity for the flight. so it’s already priced into the ticket. and chances are they aren’t so unhappy, since they’ve oversold the flight…

  • Carver

    @Taylor

    Fair enough.

    Although it did happen to me. I was gong to Louisiana when Katrina hit. American only offered a credit which I felt was really lame. But I had enough other travel plans that it wasn’t a big deal.

  • Cassivella

    @Liz

    Buying a new computer is actually a gamble – it’s just the odds are usually in your favour.

    The difference here is that if the computer arrives damaged, the computer company is responsible for replacing the product because they did not deliver their side of the contract – you pay money, you receive a working computer.

    But, if you purchase a non-refundable ticket, then YOU decide to not fulfill your side of the contract by showing up on the date/time/flight that YOU chose, then you are solely responsible for any of the problems encountered. You are the one who has not held her side of the contract, and therefore you should suffer a penalty as proscribed by the contract of carriage.

    For example, I am contracted with a cleaning service. I pay money and provide access to the house and the cleaning service cleans. If I don’t hold up my end of the bargain by providing access to the house, even if I have already paid, I will not get cleaning service. I also will not get refunded because a) I signed a contract saying so (that would be your contract of carriage that no one reads) and b) the cleaning service had real expenses to send a team out to my house to clean it. Yes, there is a chance there is another house scheduled in the area, or a chance they could pick up another house in the area, but, according to my contract, I pay for the assumption that will not happen.

    By the way, if all the people who complain about not getting refunds on non-refundable tickets actually show up for their flights, then the overall price for airline tickets would go down significantly. And, in the cases of death, or even those “flat tire” excuses from the days of regulation, you would find the airlines much more sympathetic to your needs. But frankly, the whole travel insurance industry is built to accommodate issues of illness or death.

    It really all comes down to “You get what you pay for”. If you want the assurance of being able to change/cancel your reservation, every airline offers a fare that allows you to change with no fee.

    It is all very nice and well to say “airlines should always refund” because that is the empathetic/sympathetic answer. But it doesn’t make good business. And, even if you want to think of the airlines as the evil empire, an airline doing well in business and making money is a good thing for all travelers – employee morale goes up and ticket prices go down.

  • DaveS

    For the most part I think “nonrefundable” means just that, “nonrefundable.” There are so many scammers out there; the trouble to investigate each case and decide that, yes, Passenger A’s claim is valid and that no, Passenger B’s claim is not valid, is just cost prohibitive. You take a risk when you buy a nonrefundable ticket. If you don’t want to take that risk, don’t buy a nonrefundable ticket, or travel Southwest.

  • Alan

    There is one obvious way to make non-refundable tickets fair: allow passengers to freely resell tickets they can’t use. This would totally satisfy the economic argument for non-refundability, that an airline ticket is a wasting asset, losing its value when the plane takes off.

    But note that no airline actually lets passengers do this, even though there would be an opportunity to charge another fee for recording the name change in line with federal rules. What this tells me is that the economic rationale the airlines give for non-refundability is pure hokum. It’s just another way of shaking down the passenger.

  • Mark K

    If you buy a ticket to a concert or a movie or any thing else like that and something happens so you don’t get to go, does the venue owe you a refund? I don’t think so. Even though some concerts now cost more than the air tickets I recently bought, I can’t and don’t expect a refund when I don’t bother to show up. Now if I show up and the event is canceled, then I do expect a FULL and prompt refund. Why would anyone expect different from a similarly offered airline ticket.

    I think some airlines are more than flexible with even the nonrefundable tickets in situations where they cannot fly you when and where you expected. The recent East coast hurricane and the tropical storm through Texas both prompted Continental to offer no-fee changes or complete refunds on any ticket even though they didn’t cancel a noticeable number of flights. (Can’t say what other airlines did since I didn’t check, but what I have heard is most were more flexible than expected.)

    I don’t have a problem with “NONREFUNDABLE” tickets. If you buy the cheapest nonrefundable and inflexible ticket and don’t fly because you change your mind or have auto trouble or whatever reason, sorry, but you took a chance and it didn’t pay off. Surprised no one has mentioned this, but isn’t this one of the things travel insurance is supposed to cover? But I think there is some confusion over nonrefundable vs. NON REUSABLE tickets. Southwest tickets are nonrefundable but the funds are reusable if you decide not to go on your flight. You can get your Federal Taxes refunded from Southwest, but the money you pay for the air fare is never coming back to you. You have to spend that money on another Southwest ticket. Most other airlines simply take your money and that’s it. You don’t fly on a nonrefundable ticket, and if you don’t reschedule and pay the change fees (which can sometimes be more that the original ticket price) soon enough before flight time, you lost what you paid.

    The fact that there will be a sufficient number of no-shows who purchased the nonrefundable tickets is factored into the overall cost of tickets making them lower. While it may be frustrating to those who miss their flights for whatever reason, tickets would be much higher priced for all of us if there weren’t those travelers who are no-shows. Same with all of the ridiculous fees. Unless we want to see a huge increase in the basic fares, all of these ways for the airlines to take and keep our money are here to stay.

  • carver

    Liz

    Please clarify your post. To me your post relates solely to David’s assertion that refunds should never be given for any reason. I understood your post to be that if the airline screws up, a refund is due. However, everyone else seems to think that you are saying otherwise. Please elaborate

  • SirWired

    - If the passenger or somebody in their immediate family (sibling, spouse, parent, child) dies. (Should require production of a death certificate.)
    - Jury Duty or subpeona These are civil obligations, and the airlines should co-operate.
    - If the State Department issues a recommendation for US Citizens not to travel to the destination.
    - If the passenger has a contagious disease (diagnosed by a doctor) for which the CDC has requested people restrict travel.

    I’ll note here that if your flight is canceled your ticket is ALREADY refundable. Even by low-end shops like Spirit. (They may not offer proactively, but they WILL cough up that refund.)

  • David Z

    @Carver

    In fairness, Mr. Eastman did say “And in my opinion, they should not only refund the ticket – they should provide some sort of reciprocal penalty for not having provided the flight which the consumer was fully entitled to expect”.

    @Chris E

    Some of the specific conditions Ms. Prast mentioned are already being done by some (if not many) airlines. At least, that’s what I’ve noticed in my numerous experiences dealing with them.

  • Steve

    @Alan: that’s a great point. I would have no problem with nonrefundable tickets if passengers had the option of reselling them on a secondary market. The airlines’ current policy, for the most part, is what I find to be extremely one-sided. Essentially, it’s: we’ll sell you a nonrefundable ticket that can only be used by you, and if you don’t show up, we’ll do our best to resell your seat and profit twice from the same transaction.

    Since everyone has said that the comparison between airline tickets and tangible goods doesn’t hold up because an airline seat is a perishable commodity, let’s compare it to a concert ticket, then. Concert tickets are almost always nonrefundable, but you almost always have the option to resell them if you find you can’t make it. I believe Ticketmaster, for all of the (justified) criticism they face, even provides a venue on their website to facilitate this for some shows.

    Even if the airlines don’t want to make reselling an option: in my mind, refusing a refund (with perhaps a small processing fee) is only justifiable – even on a nonrefundable ticket – if the airline cannot resell the seat. When that happens, I’m fine with the current policy. I don’t expect the airlines to take a loss because a traveler’s plans change. But it’s just basic fairness to offer a refund if another customer buys the seat and the plane still takes off full.

  • Heather

    @ Mark I’m with Steve on the concert ticket comparison. It’s not the same as your tickets cannot be used solely by you nor do you have to pay a change fee if you cant go but want to recoup some of the cost. You can sell the ticket all by yourself to someone else. Airline tickets come with a lot more red tape.

    The airlines also resell your seat and charge you a change fee at the same time profiting from your cancellation. Not to mention they all too often oversell the flights to begin with. If they flew with empty seats I’d say they were losing money, but that is not always the case.

    Lastly the contract between you and the airline is extremely one-sided. They have all sorts of stipulations for themselves and very few for passengers. They particularly like to reference the fact that they are not responsible for “Force Majuere events” when passengers make claims. A lot of the time they are right in cases like weather etc, but what they forget is that we have our own events as well. I’m not saying if you get stuck in traffic on the way to the airport that you should get a refund because the traffic was beyond your control. That’s your fault for not leaving early. But things like death, illness, etc are things we actively try to avoid. Don’t we deserve at the very least deserve equal protection under “Force Majuere”? If not a refund maybe a credit.

  • http://www.airlinereporter.com David Parker Brown

    Ok, I did mis-speak. Airlines should not give refunds for anything that is beyond their control. If an airline has to cancel a flight due to lack of passengers, mechanical issues or crew issues, they should get you on another flight or offer a refund. There are already rules that govern that already, so I didn’t see them as an issue!

    David

  • Kenneth

    Refundable or not… why isn’t the travel industry amenable to the reservation being transferred to another person (a relative, friend or sold through eBay/Craigslist). This is a win-win situation for all parties involved.

  • Mark K

    @Heather. I was thinking more along the lines of last minute events preventing your arriving in time for the concert and you then losing what you paid. Even if you know a couple weeks out that you may not be able to get to an event there still is no guarantee you can find someone else to buy the ticket. With Ticketmaster moving toward paperless tickets, and requiring both your ID and the credit card you bought the ticket with in order to get into the event, they are getting more and more like the airlines. While you can transfer the paperless event ticket to someone elese, there is a fee to do so and the person you sell the ticket to will have to give their ID and credit card info so the transafer can be made (or so it seems from what I was able to find on Ticketmaster web site).

    All of this effort by most of the airlines to keep your money have pushed me more and more toward Southwest where, even if you have checked in and have a boarding pass, you can simply choose to not get on the plane and the money you spent on that ticket is available for you to use on a future flight with no fees or other restrictions. (Although some of the flexible features of this at Southwest are moving toward less flexible options, you still don’t lose your money.)

  • Diane

    Just last week I called Continental Airlines to find out how I could cancel a flight for my mother. My parents are due to fly from FL to NJ for their grandson’s wedding in October. My mother is recuperating from surgery for a broken kneecap, which was preceded by a surgery for a knee replacement which let to a very serious infection. Last week she asked the doctor if she could fly north for the wedding, and he said ‘absolutely not’. When I explained this to Continental, they said there’s no refund and we could only receive a credit which could be used when booking a future flight by Feb 24th. The rebooking would involve a $150 change fee, which we could then submit a request for reimbursement saying the doctor made her cancel the original flight (but no guarantee we’d get the refund). Continental also told me the credit could not be transferred to someone else. She’s 82 and who knows when she’ll fly again. Given the medical nature of the cancellation, why can’t we receive a full credit? It’s a month before the flight and the plane will sell out.