Airline ticket refund possible for illness?

[cmacf1]

Several months ago, we bought a bunch of tickets for my family, including my mom, to fly down to Orlando for our January 2008 cruise. Unfortunately, my mom has been diagnosed with kidney cancer, and while they anticipate full recovery, her surgery is scheduled too close to our departure date for her to feel comfortable going on the cruise. That means (first that we'll miss her terribly and wish she didn't have this wretched disease) and also that we have an airline ticket that we paid for that we won't be using. It's not SW airlines which I know would give us a credit. It's Airtran and of course it's "non-refundable." Do they give any pity to people who have this kind of issue? This, of course, was not something we expected. Anybody have any suggestions of how to approach them to try to get at least part of our money back? We paid for my mom's ticket and she feels awful that we're losing money. I want to relieve her mind (though I've already told her not to worry about it.)

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[NYDisneyKid]

Maybe with a Dr's note of some kind. Sorry to hear about your mom. Thats really sooooo sad. ºOº

 

[cbrfan]

It never hurts to ask. But AirTran will give you a credit for the cost of the ticket (less a $75 change fee) that's good for one year from the date of original booking. You can use the credit to purchase a ticket for anyone, not just the originally ticketed passenger.

 

[DMRick]

Any chance you bought trip insurance? Sometimes people buy it through the cruise place and don't realize it might cover their air.

 

[bicker]

Yes, trip insurance is how folks can ensure they can be made whole if they have to cancel or move a trip due to illness. Try www.insuremytrip.com for price comparisons.

 

[Jeanne B]

This is where having trip insurance can be important but you should at least be able to get credit for future travel less the change fee as another poster stated.

 

[bicker]

One more thing to keep in mind: Many airlines will not grant credit-minus-fee if you don't cancel your flight reservation prior to a certain amount of time before the flight. The last time this affected me, it was US Airways, and their requirement at that time was that you cancel by midnight prior to the flight, in order to qualified for credit-minus-fee.

 

[Disney Ron]

Just wanted to say that I'm happy to see that your mom's prognosis is for a full recovery.

Best wishes.

 

[ktbugsmom]

First of all - I am sorry to hear of your mother's illness. That has to be very stressful for everyone involved. My heart goes out to you!

As for the plane ticket - a refund can be done, but you must call and ask. My daughter got sick a couple years ago a couple days before we were supposed to leave for Washington DC. She had rotavirus (sic?). It is a highly contagious kid thing and we could not travel.

My husband always does the negotiating on things like this. He called and kept going up the supervisor chain until he got to the person who could make that decision. He is very persistent, yet very very polite.

Finally, he spoke with a manager and explained our case. We had to provide a letter from our pediatrician, but he was able to get us full credit with out any fees for all of our seats.

My husband's theory is - be very polite. NEVER yell at people who are answering the phones. They are just doing their jobs. You need to get to the person who can make the decision - ask for supervisor. Again - be very polite. Explain your situation and basically - don't take no for an answer. It has worked for my husband more than one time... Good luck.

 

[cmacf1]

Thanks for all the kind wishes and for the advice. I haven't called Air Tran yet (gotta get the kids out of the house and make sure I have my calmest and most determined, yet polite, attitude about me before I call.) I do appreciate the time everybody took to help me out!

Cathy

 

[cbrfan]

I hope everything works out for you and your mom comes through with flying colors!

 

[karliebug]

Airtran will definitely give you a credit minus whatever their cancellation fee was. I did this just last November. I'll say a prayer for your mom .

 

[ktbugsmom]

Good luck to you Cathy! And - best wishes to your mom.

I am sure you will be great. Just offer to provide any medical documentation they want and when my sister has gotten out of tickets, she cried! However, she had to have emergency surgery to have her gall bladder removed two days before they were to leave for Disney! So - she had a right to cry! Disney was awesome for her (got her Cindy's breakfast again, upgraded her room at the GF etc) - the airline was not so kind, but again - her doctor wrote a note and helped her out. She was going to postpone the surgery and go on vacation - but her doctor said it was not an option - it had to be removed!