Cancellation Fees

[Julieh22]

I have no experience flying... if you book your plane tickets and then have to cx for some reason... do you pay a cx fee or the whole price of the ticket? (ex. off somewhere like priceline or expedia?).

 

[abeyst]

Cx with Priceline you will lose all your money, Expedia charges cx fees IN ADDITION TO cx fees from airline. Please, book directly through an airline!! Booking through a travel site will cause you nothing but headaches and they charge more for the ticket than the airline will booking directly.

Southwest is the most forgiving of cx/change fees (I believe they are still zero), but fare is still non-refundable. You get a credit for future use.

You can check cancellation/change policies at each airline web site, usually under "Terms and Conditions" per flight, where it will list flight details and fees.

 

[Julieh22]

Thank you! I will book through delta's website directly (they are the same price as the travel sites anyways).

 

[DebbieB]

Thank you! I will book through delta's website directly (they are the same price as the travel sites anyways).

Delta has a $50 change fee.

 

[Julieh22]

Change? As far as if I change dates or fly times? That I can handle... My travel plans are set, they might change if something happened to my grandfather (he's in a a nursing home).

 

[DebbieB]

Change? As far as if I change dates or fly times? That I can handle... My travel plans are set, they might change if something happened to my grandfather (he's in a a nursing home).

Yes, if you have to change/cancel and want to reuse the tickets, they charge a fee. You would also have to pay for any increase in fare on the new tickets. So if your current ticket is $200 and the new ticket is $250, you would have to pay the $50 difference plus the $50 change fee. One thing also to consider - the credit for the old ticket is only good for a year from the original ticket purchase. So if you buy tickets now for next December and have to cancel, the credit will only be good until March 2008.

 

[bicker]

Also keep in mind that the specific fare code you book may have additional fees, over and above the standard. US Airway's standard change fee is $50, but I had this really excellent low rate last year, but had to cancel the trip because my wife got sick. Because of the low fare, the airline ticket was subject to a 100% change fee (in other words, miss the flight, forfeit the entire amount of money paid for the ticket).

 

[Julieh22]

Thank you so much for everyone's help! I am excited about finally flying to WDW (because of it only being my 3 year old and myselft I don't want to do the 10-11 hr. drive). Hopefully everything will stay stable and our vacation will go without any glitches!!!

 

[CarolA]

You might consider insurance. www.insuremytrip.com Generally it has to be purchased within a certain timeframe after you buy your ticket, but it would then cover something like a death in the family.