Cancelling airline tickets

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FB2020
Posts: 472
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:17 pm

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by FB2020 »

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
theMan
Posts: 300
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:03 am

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by theMan »

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.
honsum
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:16 am

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by honsum »

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.
FB2020
Posts: 472
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 10:17 pm

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by FB2020 »

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?
honsum
Posts: 39
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 4:16 am

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by honsum »

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?
gujjubhai
Posts: 50
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:53 pm

Cancelling airline tickets

Post by gujjubhai »

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