Since I started taking questions on the comments of my Ask Rick post, some really interesting travel and airline issues have come up. The one I’d like to focus on today will touch a nerve for a lot of travelers I bet, because it highlights one of those airline policies that, to many, seems to defy logic.
Barbara writes:
My husband and I purchased airline tickets for ourselves as well as one for my stepson. My stepson was not able to make the planned trip. Because he was not checked in, the airline sold his ticket (that WE paid for) to someone else. How can an airline do that? Aren’t we entitled to something if we pay for it even if we don’t use it?
Barbara, in most cases in life, when you buy something it’s yours whether you use it or not. However, that’s not necessarily the case with the airlines. When you purchase a non-refundable ticket, it is governed by the exchange and cancellation rules of the airfare. Ironically these rules are in the category called “PENALITIES”.
If you call anytime just prior to the scheduled flight time to cancel your reservation, your “stepson” (the passenger, not the purchaser of the ticket) is entitled to a voucher for the cost of the ticket minus the “exchange fee” fee (varies between airlines, but generally $100 for domestic flights). The moment your stepson failed to check-in, his entire itinerary would have been automatically canceled, and his ticket would have reverted to having no value.
I know this seems crazy to some people, but the ticket is attached to the ticket holder’s name regardless of who purchased the ticket. This means that, from the airline’s perspective, the ticket is your stepson’s and not yours, and your stepsons seat was now available to others.
Now, your family shouldn’t have to walk away from this empty handed. I have spoken to a number of people who were unaware of an airline’s cancellation policy, but were able to receive a voucher (minus the cancellation fee) after something like this had happened to them.
You can write a polite email to the customer service department explaining your situation (include the record locator and electronic ticket number, normally a form on the airline site).
Reservation agents are generally not empowered to help you in this situation, it must be handled through customer service (you may also try to speak with them directly, but prepared for ridiculously long hold times).
Just know that the voucher will be for your stepson, and there will be a time limit on it (a year or less). One other point that doesn’t always go over well is that many airlines require you to book flights using a voucher over the phone which can add a fee (usually somewhere around $10-20) to the purchase.
I know this whole situation sounds simply absurd to most travelers. Unfortunately, the airlines usually have the upper hand when it comes to their policies. There are refundable tickets that make the whole process easier and more fair for travelers, but they often cost four or five times more than a non-refundable ticket.
Rick,
I know this situation is true and had it happen when we purchased a ticket for a friend of our family. He wasn’t able to make the original trip, but we did get a voucher. There was additional cost for the new trip, but he was able to make the trip later–had up to 12 months to do so. This was Air Canada.
Pat Harrington
Northwest Airlines told us when we canceled a flight that the ticket had to be used within a year, but when we tried to rebook a few months later, they told us that it had to be rebooked within 90 days! Since more than 90 days had elapsed, the ticket had no value. I couldn’t find this rule anywhere in the fine print and it was never mentioned to us when we called to cancel the flight.
Rick:
I had to rebook a flight (2 passangers) on Southwest about a year and a half ago. They gave me full credit for a year, and I was able to use it later. I was very impressed!
Carol
I’ve had the same experience with an unexpected trip cancellation. The airline offered us travel vouchers valid for a year. The thing is…there is 100$ charge to use each of the vouchers. I sense there will be a hassle using the vouchers and plan to purchase new tickets (currently they would cost 139$ each through Air Tran), and just let the vouchers go. It’s not worth the additional time/energy/hassle.
I have had to cancel a couple of trips for illness, etc. I use Northwest most often and they had advised me to make sure to cancel as soon as I know I won’t be going, but no later than about a 1/2 hour before the flight departs. If you do that, you will have the value of the ticket, minus a $100 fee, to use to a future flight within a year. I’ve never had any trouble. On an related note, I had to change the date of a ticket that I had purchased on Travelocity for a Midwest Airlines flight. I was told by Travelocity that it would be a $120 charge to change the return date (a $100 cancellation fee and a $20 rebooking fee). After waiting on the phone for a long time with someone in India who wasn’t getting replacement flights on her computer very quickly, I hung up and called Midwest directly. They charged me only $100 and I got my new return flight very quickly.
I had the same problem with a ticket I purchased through Continental for an exchange student that was staying with us for a while – we were travelling to Germany. When she left us early, I wrote to the customer service department and got a letter stating their policy that a new ticket could only be issued to her, although she was already back in another country. I wrote directly to the President of Continental and got a quick reply via a phone call from someone in his office. They did issue me a voucher in my name, which I subsequently used for a ticket to Germany for myself. So if you don’t get the right response from customer service, contact the head of the airline.
Is it still possible, after purchasing a RT ticket, to get a refund of the difference when the fare is decreased? You used to be able to go to the airport ticket counter and be refunded the difference. What airlines still allow this?
Recently, my daughter who works for a non profit organization had to make a last minute trip to fill in for a collegue who was unable to make the trip due to a last minute family emergency. The collegue’s ticket was in the $250 range, and my daughter’s ticket (purchased at the last minute) was over $700. Shouldn’t there have been a way that my daughter could have used the ticket that had already been purchased by her organization, rather than incurring the additional $700+ cost?
My husband is in the US Army and is getting ready to deploy to Baghdad Iraq for 1 year and I was wondering if you new of any special airline or hotel deals for people before they leave? We are doing a lot of traveling to say goodbye to family etc before he goes. Just wondering?? Thanks for your great website!
My husband and I purchased airline tickets through the airline website. We printed out our boarding passes 24 hrs prior and upon boarding our flights, we found our seats were assigned to people who had REAL tickets. In this case, we were not accommodated and were told to walk around and look for an empty seat. There was plenty of empty seats in first class but because we paid for coach, we had to look for seats in coach. needless to say, we weren’t able to seat together. This happened both ways on our round-trip flight. We were VERY annoyed but when we mentioned something to the airline personel as well emailed them, all they said is it must have been a computer glich!! Of course, blame it on their website computer systems. They did offer us 2 vouchers to be used within a year at a reduced rate but since we will be entitled to one free ticket next time through our mileage program, we doubt we’ll want to use it. Not sure again if we can get seats sitting together without calling by phone and ending up with a fee. Is there any possible way we can avoid this confusion from happening again? Needless to say, our travel was very unpleasant. We couldn’t wait to get off the plane!!
When is the best time to book a reasonably-priced round-trip flight (within the USA) for the end of May 2008?
September 27th I purchased two round trip tickets from Atlantic City to Las Vegas from Spirit Air. This was one of their Cyber Specials for travel in late January. The deal was outstanding. But yesterday I got an email telling me that one or more of my flight segments has changed. They have us going from Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas with no mention as to how we are to get to Florida from New Jersey! They didn’t even mention the return trip. I checked all their flights and discovered that January 7th is the last flight between ACY and LAS. I guess they don’t plan to have any this winter? How can they book something and less than 3 weeks later do this? I have not been able to talk to a human yet with the overloaded phone lines. What are my rights in a case like this?
Cancelled Flight
Purchased tickets from AA December 2007 to Cancun from Richmond, Va. Received notice approximately April 10th of this year that the flight was concelled. It was scheduled for June 21 2008. The total cost of the flight was $515 for both parties, $257 each.
I was told, from our travel agent, to reschedule to another flight. In this case Continental. The cost of the flight was $386/pers. I am being refunded from AA the $515 but I am out the difference paid to Continental.
Should AA have attempted to reschedule me on another airline at the same price as I paid to them?? Should it have been the responsiblity of the travel agent to pursue this? Were there any other approach I should have taken?
We have two tickets on Air France from JFK to BCN departing June 25 and returning a week later that we will be unable to use. The change fees and resulting higher fares make it prohibitive to go through the process of actually changing the tickets, so we have pretty much resigned ourselves to eating the cost.
But is there any way these tickets can be donated to some bona fide charity or other worthwhile cause? I don’t care about a tax credit, simply don’t want them to go to waste, if there is some organization like the Red Cross, Doctors without Borders, etc., that qualifies under a double secret rule that permits gifting of unused ticket.