Anyone ever deal with getting a refund..

Jabroni

Jabroni

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..on non refundable airline tickets?

Long story long...

My wifes grandmother is turning 100 next month, so last November we plan a trip to visit her. Airfare was not cheap..my wife insisted on first class partly due to fear of flying..its safer up front right? She thought she picked refundable tix...mistake in not confirming this at the time... She booked travel via The airline site. Paid using paypal tied to checking acct.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, Grams health takes a drastic turn for the worse. Hospital, pacemaker, and almost dying due to dehydration once she was sent home. Since our flights were refundable...we cancel the trips next month, new flights are booked for wife and pa inlaw to get out to visit grams for what they think is final time. I get to watch the dogs for a week.

Well, wife got home last night. Tonight i ask, "hey, where is our refund?" So wife checks...looks like tix are non-refundable.. excuse me? Call airline who basically says your screwed unless you book new trip, plus change flight fee of 200, all before 1 calendar year has passed from original purchase.

You gotta be kidding me....wife is now out of vacation time for the year, and while a fun trip by myself sounds good, that s**t aint happening.

Airline refers us to customer relations to file a grievance or something..so I am sure thatll get denied tomorrow...

So...anyone go through this before? Do i need to just prepare to bend over and bite my lip hoping theyre gentle?

Since tix werent paid via cc, not sure what course of actions I may have, we migth try paypal, then the bank, but I am pretty sure we are screwed.. losing over 2k doesnt sound appealing..not to mention the costs of the flight she booked after cancelling the first...

On the bright side, grams is doing better and should make it to be a hundo..
 
Yeah pretty much just need to book another trip. My wife has dealt with this before and same kind of deal.
 
All you’re likely to get is an offer to reuse the value of the tickets for another flight, less a $200 change fee. In order to do this you must have the unused ticket numbers when you book the new flights, so make sure that you have it.

I am pretty consistently one of the top couple frequent flyer tiers on American each year and spend about $100k annually; I haven’t gotten anything better when I’ve had to cancel a trip on a nonrefundable ticket.
 
Unfortunately, I highly doubt you will get your money back. Plan a vacation for next calendar year; you should have 1yr from the original flight date not the purchase date.

For future reference, it’s best to do the cancellation and new trip together, let them tell you it’s non-refundable, pay the $200 change fee or ask for a waiver given the health conditions (crap shoot on the waiver). I’ve had good luck getting change fees waived a couple times on business travel using our travel agency but never for personal.

Edit: I was wrong, it is 1yr from purchase date.
 
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Will have to see what they come back with, but figure we are totally screwed... never had to worry about this sorta thing before..all my other cancelled trips were on the corporate dime..

The year from purchase will be this november, and wifey is out of vacation..so we will end up eating the loss.. sucks.
 
JimB said:
All you’re likely to get is an offer to reuse the value of the tickets for another flight, less a $200 change fee. In order to do this you must have the unused ticket numbers when you book the new flights, so make sure that you have it.

I am pretty consistently one of the top couple frequent flyer tiers on American each year and spend about $100k annually; I haven’t gotten anything better when I’ve had to cancel a trip on a nonrefundable ticket.
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good lord that’s a lot of traveling...unless all first glass to Japan. Work send you all over?
 
Jabroni said:
Will have to see what they come back with, but figure we are totally screwed... never had to worry about this sorta thing before..all my other cancelled trips were on the corporate dime..

The year from purchase will be this november, and wifey is out of vacation..so we will end up eating the loss.. sucks.
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I think you’ll have a year to purchase the new tickets, but the new travel date could be several months longer and maybe as much as another year.

Sigequinox220 said:
good lord that’s a lot of traveling...unless all first glass to Japan. Work send you all over?
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Lots of first class flights, but gonna have very little int’l this year due to flu scare.
 
JimB said:
Lots of first class flights,
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That used to be me...after a while, those 1st class upgrades just mean more days away from home. It's really not a fair trade.
 
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You may still have to pay the $200 fee, but would they let you transfer to a family member or friend? It might be way to recoup some of your money if you sell them under the table. Or convert your 2 first class to several coach tickets and take the whole family on a weekend trip.
 
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Maybe you can negotiate with the wife's boss for more time. Have her do some comp time. Borrow from next year.
 
Need to see what they come back with...thought about it some more last night..might be able to use it after all..we had a weekend trip planned for Asheville in sept. Thinking change that to a long weekend trip to Boston ( ive never been there) or something along those lines...check out the freedom trail or museums or somethung....Wife could possibly do a day w/o pay if need be. Would be better doing that then being out a ton more.
 
I would definitely bring up the health reasons as the reason you had to make the change. Ask them to extend the time you have to use the funds. That seems like a reasonable request and that way you have more time to choose somewhere you want to go vs have to go.

Another tip is to try to pay for travel with a credit card that has built in trip insurance. The medical issue might have qualified you for a refund from the cc trip insurance.
 
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Tim said:
That used to be me...after a while, those 1st class upgrades just mean more days away from home. It's really not a fair trade.
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Now that I’m an empty nester I thought the wife might come along, she always saidshe envied the first class travel, 5 star hotels and fancy restaurants, I burned out on them years ago, but so far there is always a reason for her to stay home. Maybe Austin and Phoenix aren’t interesting enough. I skipped Hawaii in Jan, that woul have been the real test, she says she’ll come to Anchorage, we’ll see.


wvsig said:
I would definitely bring up the health reasons as the reason you had to make the change. Ask them to extend the time you have to use the funds. That seems like a reasonable request and that way you have more time to choose somewhere you want to go vs have to go.
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It’s worth asking, but American started sellin their own travel insurance, and making customers explicitly accept or pass on it, in part so they don’t have to negotiate these issues. The traveler decided not to protect their purchase, the airline doesn't feel obligated to do so.
 
Was the re-booked flight on this same airline? If so then you could ask for the credit to be extended to one year from the date of that purchase. The way it should have worked was that the re-booked ticket was using that credit (- the $200) anyway. Explain the mental distress from the health concerns and that she thought she was cancelling and re-booking off that same credit.

If she re-booked on another airline, then you're screwed.
 
Ferrisfan said:
Was the re-booked flight on this same airline? If so then you could ask for the credit to be extended to one year from the date of that purchase. The way it should have worked was that the re-booked ticket was using that credit (- the $200) anyway. Explain the mental distress from the health concerns and that she thought she was cancelling and re-booking off that same credit.

If she re-booked on another airline, then you're screwed.
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Same airline..

The whole thing was just fubar due to distress and then believing the originals were refundable..had we known they were not, thst would have been the course if action.
 
Yep, I lost out on a flight to Wyoming for an antelope hunt due to a family member's death. Had 1 year and a $200 fee to rebook, but I never did and lost the money and airfare.
 
I heard a funny story once, Ill mess up the details, but it was how a guy "worked the system"...he purchased a first class ticket on some swank airline, and then proceeded to visit their lounge at the airport, enjoy the free food, and then rescheduled his flight. Then, he repeated the process...eat, enjoy, reschedule. After a number of times doing this, he cancelled the ticket and ended up with a bunch of free lunches and his money back.
 
Voice of experience, book ALL of your travel through a travel agency, and cultivate a relationship with one particular agent!! They have forgotten more about the "system" than the average traveler is ever going to know!!
I'm still using the same agent I started with over 20 years ago and she is the Magic Wizard when it comes to anything travel related....
 
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