Getting a refund or transferring reservations success anyone?

[evaready51]

The only airline I have found to be flexible with this is SWA. As for the $50.00 charge be happy it is that, on AA & UA it is $100.00. Good Luck!

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

The only airline I have found to be flexible with this is SWA. As for the $50.00 charge be happy it is that, on AA & UA it is $100.00. Good Luck!

Yes, Southwest is more flexible — Southwest has rules that are more flexible to begin with. Southwest enforces their rules. The legacy carriers enforce their rules. But the rules are different.

The point I'm trying to make is that it's not a case of a flexible or inflexible customer service staff. The flexibility comes from the rules themselves.

When I buy tickets on American or Delta, I'm aware of the rules.

The American Airlines tickets that I've bought to Florida this year have $50 change fees. But on most domestic routes, American has a $100 change fee.

 

[Brian Noble]

they aren't as stringent on their policies.

Every airline on which I fly regularly (NW, CO, DL, and KL) would have done exactly the same thing: issue a credit/voucher in the name of the ticketed passenger, good for one year from the original departure date, for the value of the ticket minus the rebooking fee. And, they would almost certainly not have made an exception because two teenagers don't like one another anymore.

The only airline I know for sure that provides more flexibility is Southwest, and I suspect a few of the smaller carriers might too.

I can tell you that NW doesn't waive these fees or policies (regardless of the reason) for anyone who is not a top-tier frequent flyer, and even those people don't get much consideration. They *might* make an exception if the ticketed passenger dies, but even then, I suspect they'd tell you that you should have purchased travel insurance.

 

[Lewisc]

Brian, and others, I don't think asking to have the credit in the name of the person paying for the ticket vs the name on the ticket is an unreasonable request. I understand an airline might not honor the request but I think its reasonable request. The OP isn't asking to preserve the original fare with a new passenger or even for a full refund.

What do the airlines do with business travelers that aren't using full fare tickets?

 

[hanncam]

I know this is a little off topic, if Delta changes your flight you can actually cancel and get your full refund? How long do you to cancel once they change your flight?

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

What do the airlines do with business travelers that aren't using full fare tickets?

My employer's policy is to encourage the use of nonrefundable tickets, unless fully refundable tickets are only $200 more. My employer's policy is that, in the long run, the company will pay less, despite having to pay change fees and occasionally having to eat the entire cost of an unused ticket.

The legacy airlines' rules for business travelers are the same as for leisure travelers. The rule for nonrefundable tickets is typically that the value of the ticket, minus a change fee of $100 ($50 on some routes), can be applied to future travel for the same passenger (for a limited period of time), if the original ticket is cancelled in advance; but if the passenger fails to cancel and fails to show up for the flight, then the entire value is forfeited.

When buying airline tickets in advance, business travelers and leisure travelers can choose between expensive refundable tickets and inexpensive nonrefundable tickets. It's a good idea to understand the rules before making the purchase.

 

[Lewisc]

I understand the trade-off. I just wondered if companies had a way to have the credit kept in a company account instead of belonging to the passenger.

What you're saying is if an employee quits they could wind up using credits for missed flights for personal travel.

My employer's policy is to encourage the use of nonrefundable tickets, unless fully refundable tickets are only $200 more. My employer's policy is that, in the long run, the company will pay less, despite having to pay change fees and occasionally having to eat the entire cost of an unused ticket.

The legacy airlines' rules for business travelers are the same as for leisure travelers. The rule for nonrefundable tickets is typically that the value of the ticket, minus a change fee of $100 ($50 on some routes), can be applied to future travel for the same passenger (for a limited period of time), if the original ticket is cancelled in advance; but if the passenger fails to cancel and fails to show up for the flight, then the entire value is forfeited.

When buying airline tickets in advance, business travelers and leisure travelers can choose between expensive refundable tickets and inexpensive nonrefundable tickets. It's a good idea to understand the rules before making the purchase.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I understand the trade-off. I just wondered if companies had a way to have the credit kept in a company account instead of belonging to the passenger.

What you're saying is if an employee quits they could wind up using credits for missed flights for personal travel.

No, I don't think I said that.

My employer would undoubtedly just eat the cost of the ticket before giving the credit to an employee who quits, retires, or is terminated — even though the company has spent the money. If it's used for personal travel, it becomes employee compensation, and must be reported as such. If the company eats it, it's a simple business expense.

The company won't use company funds to pay for personal (not business-related) travel for active employees — and certainly not for ex-employees, even though the money has already been spent.

All air travel is handled through a travel management company. If an ex-employee tried to call an airline directly to use a company paid (company reimbursed) travel credit, the use of that credit would be reported back to the company.

 

[TimeforMe]

I'm glad you appear to have some resolution of the cost issue here but it's sad that dd's friendship with this girl is apparently over. I know that friendships at 18 are often transient but it's always unfortunate when they have to end over something as silly as a boyfriend whose name in most cases will not even be remembered in a year or 2.

We're hoping to take a trip for older ds's bar mitzvah to WDW and book a grand villa and take along perhaps 3 of his friends for a long weekend instead of doing the traditional big party thing. We have some time but since you get the date 3 years in advance it's going to be hard to do that since at 11-13 "best friends" often change by the day. Not sure how we'll manage to book for his choices and not end up in the same boat as you when one of the friends backs out or decides he doesn't like ds enough to go on the trip.

Just have to hope we can narrow it to the friends who have been there for a while.

Congrats to dd on her graduation.

Thanks for the good wishes. Fortunately, I think boys have less of a revolving door of friends than girls do--at least in my experience. Still, if I were you I would wait until the absolute possible latest you can to book their airfare and then I would still have them make some sort of monetary commitment (even if you "refund" their money). DD was very upset initially but understands that things change and sooner or later this friend would have shown her true colors anyway.

Just for the record, I know JetBlue's policy is not to issue refunds or transfer, however, when my dh's secretary inadvertently booked a non-refundable fare for the wrong date last year, DH called to explain and they changed it for him free of charge. In my experience in life in general is nothing is written in stone EVER. I do understand the rules, however, and can appreciate the fact they were unwilling to bend them. (I can still hope though, can't I )

 

[Dis31]

We had a great experience with JB, we ended up having to change our flights becuase of illness as we couldn't fly, and they glady refunded me the 30 dollar change fee which ended up being 60 bucks total refunded to my CC. Very nice!

 

[Lewisc]

I didn't expect or mean to suggest the company would willingly let the former employee use the credit. I thought an informed employee would be able to use it by contacting the airline directly. An employee who did that could be dealt with, I'm not sure what the company could do if a former employee did that.

All air travel is handled through a travel management company. If an ex-employee tried to call an airlines directly to use a company paid (company reimbursed) travel credit, the use of that credit would be reported back to the company.