? About airfare cancellations..
 

I thought I knew a lot about travel but I admit, I don't know the answer to this question so can I get some advice?

I'm seeing some really excellent airfares during prime season to Cancun (we want to go to Tulum), but I'm soooo hesitant to book this early for February because who knows what could happen with hurricane season. Anyhow, if we buy air now, and a hurricane wipes out the caribbean coast of Mexico between now and February, what are our options?

Would trip insurance cover the refund of our airfare? If we don't buy insurance can we change our sirfare to another destination, or are we stuck? If we can change, are the fees expensive (ie, more than the cost of insurance?)

Thanks!

Book and buy travel insurance.

Make sure your travel insurance includes "Acts of God".

Also check with your travel agent and/or airline. If the unexpected happens, you may have other options you can work on with hotels and your airline, so ask questions before you book the trip and insurance is a really good idea.

I'm not so sure about the insurance. If the hurricane was raging in February, then sure, it should be covered. But I wouldn't bet that insurance will cover a trip that takes place several months after a disaster. I would think that as long as the airport is open and you could find a hotel, you would not be able to cancel due to a hurricane that happened in the past.

You'd have to read the really fine print to make sure because trip insurance is designed to make the insurance company money, not protect the traveller.

There are some policies that cover just about any reason for canceling a trip. You could say you are ill or some other thing. I know, I'm going to be "struck down" for encouraging lying..just make sure you know what insurance you are buying and buy it at the time you book your trip or buy your ticket. Some policies are useless if you don't buy them immediately. Read the fine print.

Let me piggy-back on your question... if I want to cancel air reservation without a valid reason, can I use the money (or miles) toward another flight?

Assuming you're talking about a non-refundable ticket, yes you can change your destination. The airline will just charge you a change fee. It's usally $100 but I think it varies by airline. If you're not sure where you want to go, they can mail you a credit voucher minus the change fee. If I remember correctly, you usually have to use that credit voucher within a year. The best thing to do is to check with the airline you'll be flying for their own rules. I'm going by my experience with Continental Airlines.

Actually now that I think about it... I think Continental gave me a credit voucher for the entire amount and charged my credit card the change fee.

I'm not disputing <b>caribtraveler's</b> experience, but as far as I know, no airline will give you a voucher for cancelled non-refundable ticket. What they will do is hold the value, minus the change fee of the ticket for a year so only the traveler can use it for another ticket. If they did give vouchers out then it really wouldn't be a non-refundable ticket, would it?

Oh, so doesn't matter what, I won't lose all my money if I travel within a year! Good to know!

Faina..I assume you are talking about a domestic airline ticket,non refundable.These days, there is no &quot;valid&quot; reason to cancel.So if you choose to cancel, you can use the monies in that ticket,less the change fee,for future travel.In most cases,all travel must be completed within a year of when the original ticket was issued.So, if you buy a ticket today, May 26, then all travel associated with that ticket must be completed by one year from today, not one year from the date any voucher were to be issued.Hope this helps!

Thank you, BeachBoi, yes, this is what I meant, only why &quot;domestic&quot;? If I cancel an AA flight to London, is this different from cancelling a flight to New York?

yes, but if you are dealing with AA make sure you write down the <b>ticket number</b>, not the record locator. Record locators get recycled as soon as the flight is done or if you cancel. There is no way for the airline to locate your credit without the ticket number.

The only difference between domestic or international? a bigger cancellation fee.

and again, there won't issue any vouchers......

The credit will be stored electronically and you MUST have the original ticket NUMBER, no ifs buts ors.....

I know this is a minor point regarding Faina's question, but it's not entirely accurate to say that airlines hold the value of the cancelled ticket, minus the change fee. That may be the policy with some, but not all.

I cancelled a ticked on America West/USAirways, and I was specifically told the change fee was NOT taken out of the original $432 cost of the ticket. Instead, when I decide to rebook, I will pay the change fee, and my original $432 will be applied to the cost of the new ticket. If the new ticket is less than $432, that's my loss (plus the change fee). That's different from saying they'll subtract $100 or $50 from my original $432, leaving me with either $332 or $372 to use towards a new ticket.

<b>Faina</b> was asking about AA :-)

Actually, she didn't mention AA until after the relevant advice had been given regarding change fees and credit vs. vouchers. :)

Ahhh, yet another be-u-teeful thing about Southwest...You dont have to cancel your ticket in advance...and, anybody can use the credit from an unsed/cancelled ticket...AND, NO change fee......But, alas, I dont fly them that much....

Actually, I used AA as an example, and my question was about any airline...

Just checking my theory that it's not really necessary nor much cheaper to buy travel insurance (assuming the health coverage is worldwide) if not using the Priceline.

We had to cancel our trip to Israel (on Continental).

We didn't buy insurance and when I called Continental they told me there's $200 fee per ticket and the rest is credited towards a future trip. I was told I had to &quot;buy&quot; the new ticket by the issue date of the original ones but had a year to travel from the new date. They also told me they'll waive the fee when I send them proof of the reason for cancellation (death of close family).

AAFF, my tickets were electronic. How do I get a ticket number? Should I call and request before the date of original flight (tomorrow)?

AAFrequentFlyer: Well you are actually disputing what I'm saying. Maybe you call it something else and not a voucher, but Continental sent me 3 pieces of paper with the value of each ticket on each paper (mine, my husband and my son). All 3 had a record number on them and when we finally decided where in the Caribbean we wanted to go, I purchased our 3 tickets online with Continental and when it was time to pay I used the record numbers on my vouchers. Period. Nothing else to it.
I'm sure it varies for each airline. That's why I clearly stated you should always check with the airline you're flying with.

All right. I still have the receipts from Continental. It's called an electronic travel certificate.They were the same value of the original tickets. We had ONE year to use it from DATE OF ISSUE. There was pin code on it. When I was ready to purchase my next ticket I had to use the pin code to get the value of the credit. The $100 change fee per ticket was put on my credit card when I called Continental to CANCEL our trip. It was NOT taken from the ticket value. Same difference any way.
Again, every airline has its own rule.

caribtraveler, did you have e-tickets for the &quot;first&quot; travel? I plan on calling Continental about this myself.

They told me to mail documents when they became available and they'd waive the fee. They also told me travel was not limited to original destination (I expected it to be).

Thanks for the replies, I haven't been online all day.

I don't use a travel agent, so I couldn't really ask their advice, but I'm thinking theweasel has a very good point, if there is a hurricane in the fall, then the airport will be up and running in February, even though my hotel may be gone and I won't want to vacation there.

I think I'll have to see how much insurance is to see if it's worth buying the tickets now ($409 total from NY to Cancun), or risk waiting until after Hurricane season to purchase.

I'm not a good long-term planner, I really hate to plan a trip more than 6 months out.

esm: Yes they were e-tickets. I spoke to a customer sevice rep when we had to cancel our trip. She said she could book something else right away for us. We didn't know where we wanted to go so that's why she issued us the travel certificates. They came in the mail very quickly. When I rebooked, I was able to do it online with no problem to a totally different destination.
This all happened at the end of '04 and we had till the end of '05 to use the vouchers.
You should definitely call them as you never know when rules change.
Wow, $200 per ticket for a change fee now?! Hope they definitely waive the fee for you. I've actually had good luck with Continental about cancelling change fees when we've had good reasons (on 2 occasions). Good luck.

ems: Another important thing you need to know about the Continental vouchers (if the rules haven't changed). Let's say your current ticket costs $480. They'll issue you the voucher for that amount. Now when you finally use it, if the flight you book is $300, you will LOSE the remaining $180. Continental will not issue you another voucher with the balance.
For us it was not a problem because our next flight happened to be more expensive than the first one.
But so you know.

Thanks for the replies caribtraveler. I'll call them right away.

Our tickets were over $900 each so I'll make sure to ask about all their rules.

With apologies to nina; didn't mean to take over your thread. Too much going on and all I managed to do about the trip was to call around to cancel.

No worries, we can all learn something from eachother!

Nina: yes sorry! and good luck with whatever you decide. I have 2 trips booked to the Caribbean this summer and I'm hoping for a less intense hurricane season than the last 2 years! We're chancing it (no travel insurance).

esm: If you don't think your next flight will be that much ($900), see if Continental will split the $900 into 2 vouchers per person. One for $500, and a second for $400. I believe they can do that. I'm sure you'll take 2 trips within one year and you hopefully won't lose much money, if any. If you can, please let us know the outcome. I'd love to know if things have changed with Continental.

I just got off the phone. Continental will allow travel anywhere (original passengers only) and if the new ticket costs less than the original, a credit voucher will be issued.

I was told to make sure to book and purchase by original purchase date. They said they've made a note of the reason and I can provide documentation at the airport for fee-waiver.

This was a timely post for me and it was fortunate that I checked here.

Good luck nina. Thanks again caribtraveler. I'll ask about breaking the vouchers when the time comes.

carbitraveler and esm -

Let me clarify something about CO vouchers. Both of you are correct, but there's a distinction. Say you decide to cancel your current $900 ticket (and pay the $100 or whatever change fee). You can either:

1) get a $900 voucher issued. You can only use it once - meaning if you then use it to buy a $500 ticket, you lose the remaining $400 of value;

2) book the $500 ticket immediately, and then you can have them issue you a $400 voucher.

So, if you're certain about a future trip, you should do 2) and get that booked and have the remaining value issued on a voucher.

esm: It sounds good for you. Thanks for the update!

rkkwan: Thanks for the distinction. It absolutely makes sense.