I am wondering at the airlines policy that allows you to cancel a flight but for a fee reschedule it within a year. Is anyone familiar with this policy? I am finding it very difficult to get travel insurance as I have a pre-existing condition that pretty much leaves me out of the loop. I will be traveling with daughter and my two grandsons. Actually,I am concerned about the Coronavirus and needing to cancel if the situation gets much worse. Too late for cancel for any reason and finding a medical waiver doesn�t work either.

Air tickets are by far our greatest expense with 4 business class tickets from DEN to LHR.Another $700 in tickets from LHR to Rome. It now seems the easiest and perhaps my only option is if deemed necessary to cancel flights and rebook or reschedule for same trip within a years time. Just wondering if anyone has done this or is more informed thanI am about the process.

The idea is that you cancel the reservation but you still hold a ticket that has value. You exchange that for a new ticket (and reservation) later, paying a fee to do so and possibly a fare difference. Probably no changes to origin or destination, That, or maybe a $ credit with the airline. The "within a year" part is within a year of the ticketing date and not the travel date.

But it depends on your airline and fare rules. You need to read the change/cancel rules that apply to your ticket.

The contract of carriage (COC) for your tickets should spell out how this works. They may be nonrefundable, but you should be able to change them for a fee, and you wouldn't have to know now when you plan to reschedule. You'd cancel your reservations, and you'd get credit toward future flights, minus the amount of the change fee. You'd have to use that credit within one year. If you can't find the COC info for the tickets, call your airlines and ask.

If I check the BA website and look at restricted business class fares from DEN to LHR and I click on ticket conditions, I see that you can change the ticket with a change fee of USD500 plus any fare difference. It says you can retain ticket value for future travel only if flight reservation is cancelled prior to ticketed departure time i.e. you don't just no show. It also says the fares are non refundable. I guess this is the fare type you are referring to and what you have booked. You might be able to find the fare conditions applicable to your booking on your confirmation or if you access your booking on the BA website and look for fare rules/ticket conditions, just to be sure.

The fare differential (ie the difference between what you paid and what your new itinerary would be) can be quite significant. There will also be service fees to pay.

It sounds as if you have separate tickets LHRFCO on BA, there are similar conditions except the change fee will be much lower, but you will have to pay fare differential and possible service fees, depending on whether you cancel or rebook and whether you do that online or off and will apply per booking.

I do that all the time, I just did it twice last year with United airlines. I thought they had bad fees, but $500 is outrageous (United is $300). Of course you have to pay the fare difference, that's a given, it's just like you have a credit for that amount of money in their bank. I don't know what "service fees" the above is referring to, that's what the change fee is. I have never paid any additional "service fee" on top of the change fee. If BA also charges a so-called "service fee" plus a change fee,that's really gouging. I dona't like that airline, this is another example why.

On United, it's just a credit you have for that amount, you can buy any ticket you want with it to any destination. Their website keeps track of it, of course I have a United online account and FF number, but I would presume you have an online acct with BA, I would hope so. The BA website doesn't say anything about any "service fees" if you do it online, only if you call them (changes).

It is not a given that everyone knows a fare differential is payable in addition to a change fee.

The BA website says they charge �15 to cancel the booking online or �30 by phone. Changing a booking does not have a service fee if done online but it costs �30 to do this by phone.

The change fee on UA is USD450 for changing business class tickets, this may depend on the route booked as fare rules are not one size fits all.

Depending on what happens with the virus in Europe, Italy specifically, the airline may allow changes or cancellations at no charge. Cathay Pacific recently did that for flights to China (and maybe other destinations, not sure on that) with flights booked for travel until February 29. I’m curious to see if they extend that date, as it doesn’t appear the virus will be under control by the 29th.
We have flights through Hong Kong to Perth in early April but in our case the flights were booked with points so if the same offer was extended we would be able to change without charge but not cancel altogether.
I’m not too worried but keeping an eye on things for sure. Very much a wait and see situation. I doubt airline executives are getting much sleep these days.

I just checked the Cathay Pacific website. As expected the period of flight restrictions and special arrangements has been extended, to March 28th."In view of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and the subsequent drop in market demand, we have reduced around 90% of Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon flights into Mainland China. There will also be significant short-term reductions – approximately 40% of our capacity – across our network over the next two months."

Flights out of Newark, Rome, Milan, and LHR are among those affected. So what might happen in your case is anybody’s guess but with Italy a virus hot spot at the moment it may affect ‘market demand’ sufficiently that the airline needs to act.

good luck

A Toronto paper reported this morning that Air Canada is allowing passengers with flights to northern Italy to rebook without charge. They are referring to this as a “goodwill gesture”.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...hern-italy-as/

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