A canceled Disney vacation, a missing refund

Question: I’m hoping you can help me. I read your column, and I really believe you are my last option.

My family and I were scheduled to visit Walt Disney World for six nights this spring. However, life got complicated when our daughter ran away. We called the police and reported her a runaway, and then finally canceled our vacation. She had not come home, and the police suggested we not leave the state while our minor child was missing.

While I realize that the running away of minor children is not a listed excuse for travel cancellation, how can it not be a bona fide reason? I imagine it’s not listed because it is not a common occurrence — but who in their right mind would not heed the advice of police officers looking for a teenage runaway? What kind of crazy family would go on a Disney vacation while their child is missing?

Disney Travel agreed to refund the hotel and park passes, but our insurance company refused to refund $588 in airline tickets. Disney said it was beyond their control. I’m hoping it’s not beyond your control. Any chance you can help me get my money back? — Terry Thompson, Chadds Ford, Pa.

Answer: If your airline tickets were nonrefundable, then Disney doesn’t owe you a refund, technically speaking.

But who cares about technicalities? Your daughter ran away, which is a legitimate reason for cancelling your vacation. As a company that caters to families — I mean, Disney is practically synonymous with family fun — you’d expect Mickey to show a little compassion.

I can understand why your insurance company would balk at a refund, too. Most policies have clauses that disallow claims for items such as pre-existing medical conditions. Unless you took out a “cancel for any reason” policy, a runaway child would probably not be a valid reason for a claim.

So where does that leave you? Disney sold you a vacation package and travel insurance that you believed would cover you. It didn’t. Your reasons for cancelling were good, but not good enough for your insurance company.

I think an appeal to Disney and your insurance company would have been useful. More than 90 percent of appeals on an insurance claim denial are successful. A brief, polite email is the best way to start. Here’s the online form.

Next time you book a vacation, consider shopping around for insurance before settling on one policy. Never take the first policy that’s offered to you by your agent. It might be the best one, but you need to do your homework before deciding on a particular insurance policy. At the very least, take the time to read the policy and all of its exclusions before signing on the dotted line.

I contacted Disney on your behalf. A representative contacted you and said Disney would cover your $588 in airline tickets.

(Photo: Mastery of Maps/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • Raven

    Ok, I think Disney did the right thing by refunding the room and park passes. BUT… expecting them to eat the airline tickets, too? C’mon…unless you buy a full cancel policy, the airlines are going to take their pound of flesh.

  • MeanMeosh

    I have to disagree on the part about shopping around for better travel insurance. If you’re the type that buys insurance, you probably anticipate it’ll be needed for things like medical problems, delays caused by connecting flights, lost baggage, job issues, etc. But seriously, who really anticipates that they’ll need to cancel a trip because their kid runs away? This is one of those one-in-a-million events that’s impractical to insure against. That basically says either buy the expensive cancel for any reason policy or book fully refundable tickets, or be prepared to eat the cost.

    I’ve been outspoken in the past about companies being bullied into issuing refunds where the traveler should have been more careful, but this to me is a case where a travel company should exercise some judgment, grant an exception, and give them back the money without having to be prodded.

  • Cynthia

    Disney did not have to do anything . . . but they did . . . and eventually stepped up further when they covered the flights too. Good for them.

    However . . . this all points up something our culture has lost sight of. We have become so very rule bound that there is no room for compassion when circumstances warrant. Both Raven and Mean Meosh take the approach that expecting Disney to refund the flights was too much, but I disagree. In a such as this particular one the compassionate and humane thing to have done was/is make a refund. Their minor child had run away, the police strongly suggested they not go anywhere while their child was missing.

    What are we? Heartless, money grubbing, capitalists who would make Ebenezer Scrooge smile in admiration? Or do we still have compassion and a heart?

    All this rigidity and hidebound obedience to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit–fairness in my view–paints a very poor picture of who we are as a people.

  • Tom

    Would like to know more about why daughter would rather run away than go to Disneyworld with her family. Reminds me of the girl that diverted a Hawaiian cruise rather than spend another minute with her family. The idea of a big, happy family going to the happiest place on earth sounds appealing, but the reality is that many families should limit their together time. Once worked helping family members try to contact their children in the military and it turned out that a lot of people join the military to get away from their families.

  • MeanMeosh

    @ Cynthia – I guess my post didn’t read the way it was intended. I actually side with the consumer on this one. What I meant to say in my second paragraph was, while I think some tend to be too fast to bully travel companies these days to bend over for any excuse that’s provided, the “excuse” in this case justifies some compassion on the part of the travel company. I think they should get their money back in this instance.

    My issue was actually with the idea that the consumer should have looked into shopping for a “cancel for any reason” policy – the idea being, your child running away isn’t something you would reasonably expect to happen and have to insure for.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Cynthia – “Disney did not have to do anything . . . but they did . . . and eventually stepped up further when they covered the flights too.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – -
    Because Disney sold the Thompsons both the vacation package AND travel insurance….Chris wrote “Disney sold you a vacation package and travel insurance that you believed would cover you.”

    Disney should sell travel insurance that cover everything because stuff does happen like children having to take summer school, reaching the championship game\match as well as rare but yet tragic events like being abducted, kidnapped by a parent in custody cases, running away, etc.

    Given the economy (i.e. people getting laid off), changes in the society, environment (i.e. storms, volcanos, etc), etc., Diseny and the other travel providers (airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, etc.) should sell travel insurance that covers everything. Yes, it will cost more but it will eliminate these situations.

  • Tom

    I guess to answer my own question, the letter writer spends more time worrying about her MONEY than about her CHILD. She writes to Elliott for help getting her MONEY. She doesn’t even bother to mention what happened to her CHILD. If that was my mother’s priority, I think I might run away as well.

  • buckstersf

    When will people actually start stepping up and accepting responsibility for themselves?!?! A child running away is a horrible thing but its a family issue. Disney is a business with employees and shareholders. Why should they pay for someone’s misfortune? That doesn’t minimize the misfortune, but Disney could have done nothing to prevent or alleviate it and they held up their end. At most they should have offered them an exchange for a different date, so at least they get paid for something.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Cynthia – “What are we? Heartless, money grubbing, capitalists who would make Ebenezer Scrooge smile in admiration? Or do we still have compassion and a heart? All this rigidity and hidebound obedience to the letter of the rules rather than the spirit–fairness in my view–paints a very poor picture of who we are as a people.”
    - – - – - – - –
    I think that the people of the US are the most generous and compassionate people in the world. Look at the recent earthquake in Haiti. The US government gave the most aid to Haiti among the countries and individuals from the US gave the most money to Haiti. How much money and aid did the governments of China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and the other current or past communist and socialist countries gave? For China, the argument could be made that all of their money is for the financing of the US debt.

    Look at Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, who are giving away billions of dollars a year. That is because we live in a capitalist country (or used to). How many rich people in these socialist and communist countries are doing what Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are doing? Look at how much money churches in the US are giving for humanitarian projects and causes. Look how much money that the American people donate to charitable organizations.

    You talked about compassion for the travelers, how compassion for the employees of the travel providers, the employees of the vendors of the travel providers, the vendors, etc. who might not work a shift (they could lose their house or get kicked out of their apartment because of a lost shift), lose their job, might not get paid, etc? Are you expecting the vendor to refund the traveler and still pay their employees, their vendors and when they run out of money, what are they going to do?

    Why have retail companies have changed their refund policies? Because people were ripping them off. Someone ‘purchased’ a dress for a party, don’t remove the tags then return after the party. Someone purchased software; they install it then return it. How about the people who pirated music and movies? Back in the days when airlines had bereavement fares, people made things up in order to get a bereavement fare. I know a former co-worker that use to run a lawn care business during the summer of his college years…he used to purchase residential weed-eaters from Lowe’s with a lifetime warranty which he used for commercial applications and he return three to five weed-eaters a summer after wearing them out.

    Things do happen unfortunately no matter how much planning you do, no matter what type of insurance you have, etc. My philosophy is to plan for the worst and expect the best. Even if you plan for the worst, there are still deductibles, co-payments, etc. because you need to assume some of the risks and responsibility.

    Which is more important? $ 588 or the safe return of your child?

  • http://noaddedsalt.blogspot.com Elisa

    Just a guess Tom, but I’ll bet that she DID include the happy ending in her email to Chris. He often edits for brevity or space (as he should – because it wasn’t relevent to the outcome).

  • Laura

    Tom, there is also the possibility that there is no outcome & the child has not been found. Kids run away for more reasons than just crummy parenting. My sister had a host of mental health issues and ran away and/or tried to kill herself several times as a teenager (depending on whether she was in a manic or depressive stage). Once, she ran away to another city and then was afraid to talk to my parents, let alone go home because she felt stupid about it, so she spent a few nights in Philly before showing up at my college in VA for me to take her home. My parents are wonderful people who only wanted the best for either of us but still would probably have worried about getting money back for a vacation had one been planned during one of her episodes. Take a step back and don’t judge so harshly. You don’t know enough facts to do so.

  • Mr.Airport

    Put me on the HEARTLESS list. This is so lame to get a refund because the child ran away. Abducted: Yes; Runaway: No.
    As was pointed out by another poster, spending more attention to the money instead of the child causes this reaction.
    We have created a generation of whiners – if it doesn’t go our way, we want a “do over”.
    Losing money on unused tickets and non-refundable deposits is just another cost of raising children. Grin and bear it.

  • Aem

    I agree with Laura. None of us have all the facts, so don’t be so quick to judge. It may have been edited for all we know or a re-occuring thing.

  • noah

    did the daughter ever come home???

  • SirWired

    If I was the insurance company, I would not have covered either. Unless you get a “cancel for any reason rider”, you should EXPECT claims for reasons not listed to be denied, even if the reason was totally out of the consumers control. The “any reason” riders exist for exactly this sort of situation! Now, if Disney or the airline or the insurance company choose to cover anyway, great, but I don’t consider it any sort of outrage if they didn’t.

    Caveat: For reasons that are obvious if you think about it, the “any reason” riders do not provide 100% cash refunds. From 3rd-party companies, they provide 50-75% refunds, and from provider-sold policies, a 75-100% credit for future travel.

  • Pamela

    @ Tom

    I agree with you. Children just don’t wake up pending a nice vacation and decide to JUST runaway. There most likely was some distress already in that family. I am happy the family recovered the airfare. However, they need to stop planning long distance trips and focus on some counseling for their child.

  • Mike

    Ok, I’m on the fence here. Insurance policies typically spell out exactly what is not covered and if running away or abduction was not listed, then one could argue that it should be covered. Also, it should be noted that the police advised against leaving the state. In the end, I think it was a good thing to do as a refund did not add insult to injury so to speak.

    Personally, I wouldn’t call the parents out about worrying about their money. It is entirely possible this girl was 16 or 17 and has done this before, or has a boyfriend that she ran away with. Without knowing all the facts, we shouldn’t rush to a judgement about family life.

  • Duke Nukem

    I’m more worried about the stability of them parents and/or runaway child…

  • Steve

    I think the comments stating that she “obviously” cares more about her money than her child are missing the point. I never understand people who see things in black and white, and assume that if someone’s concerned about one thing they’re clearly not concerned about anything else. She wrote a letter to Chris in an effort to get her travel insurance claim approved. How does that hurt her/law enforcement’s effort to find her missing daughter?

    To put it another way, how is eating the cost of the airfare going to help find her daughter? If your answer to that is “it won’t,” (and I’d love to hear an explanation of why it *would*, if you believe that), then what logical basis is there to say she shouldn’t try to obtain a refund?

  • Ernest

    This is not the type of thing that Disney (or any company) should sell insurance for. This is the kind of thing that any company exec should look into their heart and realize that there was no intent to scam the company and they should do what is right. In this case, it would be to give a full refund regardless of the insurance coverage.

    I believe that most travel insurance is a scam because you pay a lot for nothing. At least that’s what you get when the loopholes are exposed. Every family I have every met has their own issues and problems but a child running away is difficult and stressfull. Disney (with a little help from Chris) did the right thing by looking at the whole picture. I believe that Walt would have supported this decision if he was still alive.

  • jonbad

    Disney didn’t owe a refund for the airfare, they already showed compassion by refunding the hotel and park tickets cost. What about the airline? Why couldn’t the airline step forward and deem this as a good enough reason to refund on non-refundable tickets? In the end though, I would’ve just eaten the airfare if my child ran away – it’s what you have to be prepared to do when you book non-rufundable airfare.

  • KennyG

    @Arizona Road Warrior.. Amen 110% ..you said it all better than I could have. A hearty thank you for your courageous post in the middle of all of the “I don’t think anyone should take any personal repsonsibility” posts.

  • Nunya

    A runaway child is a horrid, tragic event. I can’t even begin to imagine how I’d feel other than heartbroken. But, Disney went well above and beyond. I’d have expected them to work with the family to reschedule perhaps, maybe even waive the change fees, but expecting money back was wrong. Yes, I realize the police “strongly advised” that they not leave the state while their child was missing, but… I’m wondering why on earth the family even had to ask and how that conversation with the police went! “So, while little Gertrude is gone, do you think it’s okay if we go to Disneyworld…we booked non-refundable tickets, you know; perhaps you could do us a favor and swing by the house periodically and see if she’s returned home in our absence? Thanks.” That poor kid didn’t win the parent lottery, I suspect.

  • John Baker

    @Arizona Road Warrior. Couldn’t agree with you more!

    Disney’s T&C allow for refunds almost up to the day of check in (I’d have to double check but for packages I’m pretty sure its 7 days & for rooms its check-in time)

    Why did Disney get the arm twist to refund the tickets and not the airlines? Probably because of Disney’s history of customer service. If anyone was going to receive the Chris arm twist, it really should have been the airlines.

  • rob

    Sorry Chris, as much as I usually like your posts, I think this one was way off base.

    This is not Disney’s responsibility. The traveller did not buy a refundable fare, or insurance to cover this eventuality. How is the behaviour of the traveller’s child Disney’s responsibility? Clearly the responsibility for this problem lies entirely within the traveler’s family, and not at all with Disney or the airline.

    There’s a reason non-refundable airline tickets are cheaper. It’s because they’re non-refundable. We trade a little risk for a much lower price. Like most people, I do it almost every time I travel.

    Frankly, I think Disney was more or less blackmailed here. A harsh word, I know, but they paid up not because they were responsible, but because saying no would have resulted in bad publicity on a widely circlulated travel publication.

    I’m a fan Chris, but I think you crossed a line here.