Who knows, by the time you need to leave, Mexico maybe banning passengers from the Seattle area and your flight will be cancelled for you.

Fine with me. That would make it a very easy non-decision.

But you always can cancel and rebook a flight using the credit within a year, standard policy.

No you can't always do that. Depends the kind of ticket you bought.

That's what I thought too. I'm just taking it one trip at a time and maybe the situation will resolve itself (with flights being cancelled).

I'm surprised on a travel forum people don't know that different types of plane tickets have different rules and restrictions.

It is absolutely not "standard policy" that you can rebook any ticket for full credit and reuse within a year.

That isn’t too surprising, really.

I was recently in a conversation with seven other women, six of whom travel internationally at a minimum, once a year.

Only one knew there was a difference between non-stop and direct. Actually, that did surprise me.

Thread has been moved to Travel Tips.

ibobi - If you really feel the need to move this thread, shouldn't it go to the Air Travel forum?

How in the world is this a Travel Tip?

suze

It is on the Air Travel forum . . . Maybe it was moved it again??

**It is absolutely not "standard policy" that you can rebook any ticket for full credit and reuse within a year.**

I think it's standard on Southwest.

Southwest sent an email upgrading their cleaning and I also got an email from Delta about their fogging, etc.

I fly about every two weeks and it involves four flights each time. Just booked a ticket last night for the end of the month - very cheap price. Hoping the plane is empty.

janisj - Yes, obviously, it was moved again, but without a note from ibobi this time.

Lufthansa group (including Swiss Air, Austrian, and several others) is waving rebooking fee for all tickets no matter the purchase type. Can rebook flight dates up to April 30 for rebooking onto flights until end of the year. I am not positive of the advantage. In theory, summer months should mean greatly reduced virus transmission (as is true for most viruses), as where April is predicted to be the peak month. Our flights are for April.

If I rebook, it makes sense to go for summer, as fall and winter will see increased rates of transmission. But I am also worried that more and more people will have it. I am going to Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania. Numbers are limited so far to clusters, with Bulgaria having almost no cases right now, but a big Flu epidemic at the moment.

Posted this in my thread on this topic, but sharing here too:

JetBlue is now allowing cancellations and changes without penalty for travel through April 30, regardless of when you booked. My travel starts May 2nd, so I'll keep an eye on this policy. For now I'm still planning to travel but would appreciate the option if it comes to it. (Refunds are really just travel credits, but as I usually only fly JetBlue, that's fine with me)

I have been trying for the past 2 weeks to cancel my flight to Zurich, Switzerland through Orbitz and I can't online or you're on hold for a long time viz phone.
I am flying out of the US with Lufthansa and back to the US with United. Any Ideas?
Trip isn't till May.

Can you just wait it out on the phone? That's what I was thinking of doing here from my office job. Just stay on hold for hours if necessary to hopefully/eventually speak to someone.

Do you have to cancel this week? I know Princess Cruises is asking people with requests for cancellations not in the near future to wait until next month while they work through the nearer term reservations.

Are you calling the airlines? Your post doesn't make that clear. Yes, you might have to wait it out on the phone for a long, long time. With my flights, I can rebook to the end of the year, but it's looking doubtful that the situation is going to change to the extent that it becomes ok to fly. I fear that I am going to have to eat the money for the plane tickets. My slim hope is that they cancel the flights in which case I could get a refund. My flight to Zurich, and then on the Athens, is April 5.

Some travel agencies and airlines are advising customers to not bother calling unless they're leaving within a week as they're bombarded with calls. I'd leave it alone for a few weeks. We've got a trip planned for Portugal in late April and don't plan to cancel for a few weeks for this very reason. The system is just overwhelmed.

If things are still a mess by May never fear, they will cancel the flight without any input from you.

It was absolutely impossible to get through to an airline or train service via phone or on line when I was desperately trying to get out of Spain last week and I needed to go immediately. It probably didn't help that those with trips several weeks away were also trying to call.

In the end we just turned up at the airport (which was on the verge of being closed) and waited until we got a flight. All the gory details to follow in my trip report. It was a disaster of a trip.

Priceline has a form you can fill out. Airlines and websites are generally asking you wait until 72 hours before your trip to call or contact. My outbound flight to Greece for April 5th no longer appears on my trip itinerary with the airline, so I assume it's been canceled.

Sorry the trip was a disaster, at least you made it home (waiting to hear the gory details). It seems in the last few days with all the prohibitions on international visitors, there are very few commercial international flights left.