They canceled the flight anyway — can I get a refund?

I agree with the comment about timing is everything. At the time of the cancellation, no one knew of the storm-related cancellations and both parties agreed to the terms of the cancellation. There’s no opportunity for “remorse” in such a transaction – that’s modern life when it comes to airlines. I don’t think you’ll get very much interest/sympathy from the airline on this one. The cancellations due to Sandy cost them enough as it was.

The lesson is to not cancel a restricted ticket like this until the last minute, just in case there’s a cancellation or schedule change that would give you the right to a full refund. Nothing unethical about that — you never know when the worst family crisis will be resolved, allowing you to make the planned trip.

United doesn’t charge the change fee until new booking take place. In that case all they need to do is say the original flight was cancelled due to weather. There is a good chance united will not charge the fee. If they would wait until last minute they could have received a refund. Also, if they book through a travel agency there is a $50 travel agency change fee on top of $150. Both charged by the airline. To avoid paying extra $50 fee the change must be made through airline website or directly with a travel agency. However online change is not possible if the original reservation already cancelled.

Despite buzz words like “I was too distraught” or “family crisis” or “97 year old aunt” designed to evoke sympathy, this case warrants mediation.

Since Lee is planning to visit New York anyways, I do not feel that a refund of the $300 fee is justified. Rather, mediate to allow Lee to receive a travel voucher for the $300 or allow Lee to reschedule her flight to a later date. By her own words, “it is important for us to make the trip to New York …” so apply the credit to the future flight.

I realize that timing is everything and rules are rules, but I do have sympathy to Lee in this case. Do I feel that Lee is entitled to a full refund of the $300? Heck no. Do I feel that Lee should receive a travel voucher as a gesture of good will? Yes, and hopefully someone in Customer Service at United will also see how this is a win-win situation.

Laura Lee made reservations to fly from Sacramento, Calif., to New York on United Airlines for Nov. 6. “Due to a family crisis, I had to cancel our flight on October 30. “Even if I hadn’t canceled, the flight still would not have been possible,” she says.

Why Elliott should leave this alone.

(1) Her dates do not merit free cancellation or changes. Hurricane Sandy hit us on the evening of Monday 29OCT. She cancelled AFTER the hurricane hit for a flight more than a week after the hurricane. While most of us did not get power back till the weekend, the area airports were only closed for about 2 days. Nov 6 was election day, and as far as I know, flights were already on a regular schedule before then.

(2) If she really had a family crisis, she could have used UA’s Fare Rules. No need for more help.

D. EMERGENCY PROVISION –
TICKET MAY BE USED TOWARD THE PURCHASE OF ANOTHER
TICKET IN THE EVENT OF AN EMERGENCY OF PASSENGER/
IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER OR TRAVELING COMPANION.
DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED CHECK WITH CARRIER.
—

Certainly the airline would be in the right to deny a refund. However, I voted “yes” for mediate, with the emphasis on “mediate.”

However, “No” would still be a correct answer, and I wouldn’t hold it against United for not providing the refund.

Maybe the most appropriate resolution would be vouchers for the fee (or a good portion of it?)

In the future to avoid getting raped by change fees she should fly Southwest.

Tell me which UA flight was cancelled for 6NOV due to Hurricane Sandy.

Good point, I was flying to BOS on Oct 28, and United issued a travel waiver on Oct 26 stating no change fees or fare increases for any flights to/from DC up to Maine if you keep the same destination, and no change fee, but you must pay a fare increase, if you cancel your ticket and use it later for another destination. I held out and on the 27th they canceled my flight entirely.

If she canceled on Oct 30, she canceled during the travel waiver, and the fee should be waived. Oh wait, never mind, I just looked at the story again. The waiver for for travel from Oct 26 – Nov 2. It says her flight was Nov 6, so she would not have been covered by the waiver. I still think its worth asking again, I don’t care if she is a business traveler or not, I still voted yes. Its worth a try.

Really good point! They were back to normal by then and as I posted above, it was after the waiver period ended. And why would orbitz say “Canceled due to super storm Sandy” I think there may have been some general message that some flights were begin canceled due to the storm. But her flight either sad canceled or scheduled. Orbitz doesn’t give reasons.

That sounds far more plausible. I bet that’s what happened.

Haw are things in your area, you are further up near where I used to live, so hopefully not too bad? The rest of my family is in Long Island. My grandma and my cousins on the south shore all had severe damage to their houses, my Grandmas and one cousins house are begin re-built, but they condemned my other cousins condo building. They were hit very hard. Still no power and water for my grandmother, but she is staying at a friends. My Aunt on the north shore still has no power, but she has water, a generator, a lot of reserve fuel, and her cell phone started working again this weekend. It reallyw as a super storm.

Those were the dates she gave me.

As far as I know, airlines preemptively cancelled NY flights for 29 and 30 October. My brother was able to fly into JFK on an evening flight on the 28th (Sunday). The winds were already getting stronger by the next morning and by noon everyone was told to get out of Dodge. I evacuated my Son from Manhattan (since he lives somewhere between Zone 1 & 2) before the trains and subways stopped moving. The second week of November (election week) was definitely a lot better than the first even if you count the 6-8 inches of (wet/heavy) snow we got last Thursday. The hurricane was certainly not an excuse to get out of flight on the 6th of November. But UA may exempt her from change fees if she had a family emergency. I wonder if she even asked.

Too many possibilities without more information. If she was flying overnight, her leg into New York could have been affected by he 7NOV Nor’easter (and either she or Orbitz got the name of the storm wrong).

Well the Nor’easter was NOT Hurricane Sandy, was it?
Even if she was planning to take the latest flight out of SMF to NYC on UA, she would be in NYC before 7AM. The snow flakes started falling after noon on the 7th. I live here so I remember having to get ready for snow removal.

Just out of curiosity, why is there a fee to cancel? I understand the fee to change the flight time, but to cancel? It’s her seat that she paid for, and the airline has been compensated whether she shows up or not. Actually, by not using her ticket, there is one less suitcase taking up overhead bin space, one less person using the beverage service, and one happy passenger who gets a bit more room thanks to an empty seat. If anything, it’s beneficial to the airline to have ticketed passengers not show up.

Forthe record, I recently thought about canceling a Delta flight, and there was no associated charge. it was,however, $150 to reschedule.

To discourage passengers from abusing the system. If there’s no fee to cancel, people would much more often book bargains when they see them, even if they are not 100% sure they will take the trip. They could cancel without a penalty until the day of the trip, right?
There would always be legitimate reasons to cancel, but where would you draw the line and how much resources would you dedicate to investigating cancellations on a case-by-case basis?

It’s really a change fee, not a cancellation fee. When she cancels the ticket she has up to 1 year from the original ticketing date to re-use the value, and pays the $150 fee at that time + any fare difference. Just like Delta.

If she no-shows, she can’t re-use the ticket at all.

So she bought the deepest discounted tickets at USD$200 per person to fly transcontinental. Now she does not want to pay for the cancellation, even though the flight never flew that day? (Or even if the airline subsequently allowed changes with no fees because of the storm.)

Absurd. Makes as much sense as finding out the person next to you paid 50% of your fare, so you deserve a refund of 50%. Huh? Read the rules of your ticket and follow them. The rules force the carrier to fly you from one point to another.

Say the airline downsized the equipment on that flight and reduced seats by 1/3. Can it then just say, so sorry, and tell the passenger to wait a few days? Nope, compensation is due, just as fees were due when she cancelled.. Works both ways.

Agree, the lowest UA and WN fares between SMF – LGA are almost the same. Neither have direct flights so WN has the advantage with no change fees and 2 bags fly free.

My issue with this is that lots of people find themselves in situations that you could make the case they deserve a sympathy credit for. For example, last month I was supposed to fly to Las Vegas but I found out at the last minute my dog had cancer and needed to start radiation treatments immediately (true story). I cancelled my trip and accepted that I had to pay a $150 ticket change fee for my cancellation. I don’t like it, but those are the rules I agreed to and it is certainly not the airline’s fault that I had a change in plans. My point is, I am one of probably hundreds or thousands of people who have emergency change in plans every day. How do you decide whose stories are sad enough to warrant a change in fare rules?

Stephanie, when you buy a [restricted] airline ticket, you have 4 options:

(1) use it as is

(2) do not show up (NO SHOW). You lose the whole value of the ticket.

(3) cancel before departure and reschedule for a later date or flight.

(4) cancel before departure and refund the segments not flown.

(Note: you may also cancel and reschedule or refund your return segment after you have already departed.)

The unused portion of your ticket is usually good (holds value) for up to one year from the date of issue. But for RESTRICTED tickets, reissuing new tickets for a different date will entail an administrative [change] fee plus the difference in fare [if any].

SK gave a great explanation why airlines have a change penalty.

United’s cheapest one-way fare between SMF and NYC is $109. Their lowest priced UNRESTRICTED one-way fare is $457. A change penalty fee is one way an airline can differentiate a cheap RESTRICTED fare from a more expensive but less restricted fare.

Please note that there is a distinction between trying to re-use the used portion of your ticket (CHANGE) versus trying to get your money back (REFUND) for unused portions of your ticket. Trying to REFUND a non-refundable ticket is very difficult.

I’m on the fence with this one. Seems to me it’s pretty similar to asking the store to give you a refund because the item you just purchased went on sale a week later. That said, many stores now offer to refund the difference if the item you purchased does go on sale within a month. Does United need to offer her a refund? No. Given the circumstances would it be good customer service to do so? Yes.

If they were my clients, perhaps they would! :)

Chris, it would be very interesting to know exactly what that family emergency was. Why was she too disraught? The natural tendency of relatives is to rush to the aid of an ailing or very old aunt during one of the worst catastrophes that ever hit the area. In that case why cancel?