r2i forum

Folks,
We booked our india trip tickets last month via continental. Bought economy class tickets which said they're are non-refundable.

Unfortunately, we had to have an urgent surgery done for my kid last week. Due to this, she cannot travel for several months, per doctor's advise. We have hospital and doctor's letters.
Tried to contact the agent and airlines both, they say its difficult to get the full refund back - but have asked us to send the medical paperwork substantiating the need.
Best case we'll like to cancel all tickets and get all refund back.

We'll send the paperwork to them, but trying to see if someone has experience/knowledge about this and how to proceed. Any tips will help.

TIA

FB2020;375379Folks,
We booked our india trip tickets last month via continental. Bought economy class tickets which said they're are non-refundable.

Unfortunately, we had to have an urgent surgery done for my kid last week. Due to this, she cannot travel for several months, per doctor's advise. We have hospital and doctor's letters.
Tried to contact the agent and airlines both, they say its difficult to get the full refund back - but have asked us to send the medical paperwork substantiating the need.
Best case we'll like to cancel all tickets and get all refund back.

We'll send the paperwork to them, but trying to see if someone has experience/knowledge about this and how to proceed. Any tips will help.

TIA

Sorry to hear about the surgery. Hope she has recovered. As for the non refundable ticket, consider yourself lucky if you get anything back. Write a polite letter to the airlines and see where it goes. If not for the money, they may give you some miles which can be used for another trip.
By default, almost all booking sites give the option to buy insurance for such situations. The cost is usually about 6-10% of the ticket cost.Going forward, taking the insurance is a good idea for folks, especially for tickets booked months in advance.

You can cancel this trip and use the same ticket within a year from date of booking. All airlines allow this for non-refundable tickets if you can show the medical docs. I have done enough research on this and got it done 3 months back. We had tickets to travel in December but couldn't make it due to my daughter had fever. After talking to Lufthansa they cancelled the tickets (they were non-refundable) and gave us one year to travel on same tickets. Any difference has to be paid if fare is more for new dates. If fare is less then you will get upgrade.

honsum;375445You can cancel this trip and use the same ticket within a year from date of booking. All airlines allow this for non-refundable tickets if you can show the medical docs. I have done enough research on this and got it done 3 months back. We had tickets to travel in December but couldn't make it due to my daughter had fever. After talking to Lufthansa they cancelled the tickets (they were non-refundable) and gave us one year to travel on same tickets. Any difference has to be paid if fare is more for new dates. If fare is less then you will get upgrade.

Thanks, this helps. I assume they didn't charge you anything to make the tickets open dated, correct?

No they didn't charge anything. Call to customer service during US business hours. After business hours these airlines transfer the call to offshore offices and those guys are not given enough authority to make such decisions.

FB2020;375450Thanks, this helps. I assume they didn't charge you anything to make the tickets open dated, correct?

Check your credit card policy too if you bought the tickets using a credit card. Some of the cards carry trip protection.