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Swine Flu Travel Change Policies by Airline

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Swine Flu Travel Change Policies by Airline

Posted by George Hobica on Friday, May 1, 2009

The Good, the Bad and the So-So.


Not all airlines are treating customers equally when it comes to handling travelers disrupted by the Swine Flu crisis. One airline is actually offering a full refund in the form of original payment (very good, WestJet!). Some airlines are allowing customers to apply the full value of their fares to any alternate destination for travel up to one year from the original ticket's issue date (great job, Alaska, American, Continental, Copa, JetBlue, Spirit, Taca, and USA3000!).

Others are not so kind.

The Good: AirTran, Alaska, JetBlue, Northwest and United are taking their passenger needs into consideration by having easy and simple rules for changing your airline tickets. Even our mascot, Browser, can understand them!

The Bad: As usual, airlines get caught up in "legalese" when it comes to writing their airfare rules. Sun Country and USAirways have some of the more difficult  to understand rules for when a passenger can and cannot change their flight to Mexico. If you have a ticket on either airline, I would advise you to call them directly to fully understand all your options.

The So-So: The rest of the airlines have the standard rules for changing tickets where additional fees may apply if your revised fare is higher than the original ticket. In addition, several airlines are offering travel vouchers in place of a full refund. US Airways requires that if using a voucher to travel to an alternate destination other than Mexico, your trip must begin within 14 days of your original departure date, which isn't terribly generous of them.

As any seasoned traveler knows, please check with your individual airline as these ticket rules and regulations can change daily. 

Here is a snapshot of some of the ticket rules for changing your flights to/from Mexico.
   

Airline Original Travel Dates Changes allowed during these dates Voucher valid for alternate destination? Comments
 Aeromexico  4/24 - 12/10/09  4/24 - 5/15/09  Not Specified A US$150 fee for No Shows may apply for some Intl cities.
 Air Canada  4/28 - 5/31/09  Up to 5/31/09  Not Specified Suspending all operations to Cancun, Cozumel, and Puerto Vallarta until June 1st.

 Air Tran

  4/29 - 5/15/09  4/29 - 5/15/09  Not Specified Call AirTran directly to change travel to/from Cancun.
 Alaska  4/27 - 5/20/09  4/27 - 5/20/09  Yes Possible credit if new destination fare is lower than original ticket.
 American  4/25 - 5/31/09  Not Specified  Yes Non-refundable fares will be refunded via a travel voucher.
 Continental  4/24 - 5/31/09  Not Specified  Yes If traveling on a OnePass Reward, call Continental to rebook.
 Copa  4/24 - 5/15/09  Not Specified  Yes Add'l fees may apply for revised itineraries starting May 30th and beyond.
 Delta  4/26 - 5/16/09  Not Specified  Call Delta Canceled ticket may be used to purchase a new ticket good for travel one year from original travel date.
 Frontier  4/27 - 5/16/09  4/27 - 5/16/09  Not specified Those already enroute to Mexico, your adjusted return date must occur by May 20th. Otherwise, revised travel must be completed within 30 days of original travel date.
 JetBlue  4/25 - 5/15/09  5/01 - 5/15/09  Yes Revised travel dates must occur no later than May 20th.
 Mexicana  4/24 - 5/06/09  Not Specified  Not Specified Refund by travel voucher valid for one year from date of issue.
 Northwest  4/26 - 5/16/09  Not Specified  Not Specified Use NWA.com "Mange My Reservations" to change your flight.
 Spirit  4/24 - 5/15/09  Not Specified  Yes Non-refundable fares will be refunded via travel voucher, good for one year from original ticket's date of issue.
 Sun Country  4/27 - 5/16/09  Not Specified  No Starting 4/29/09, those passengers departing Cancun will undergo a breif temperature and flu symptom check.
 Taca  4/24 - 5/06/09  Not Specified  Yes New travel dates must occur within one year excluding Dec. 10-24, 2009 and Jan. 2-10, 2010.
 United  4/26 - 5/31/09  Not Specified  Not Specified Call United to make any changes to your purchased ticket.
 US Airways  4/24 - 5/31/09  Not Specified  Yes If changing destination, travel must originate within 14 days of original departure date. US Airways has revised its policy and now allows departure after 14 days from original departure date but does not specify when alternate travel must be completed by (most likely within one year of original departure).
 USA3000  4/25 - 5/13/09  Not Specified  Yes Revised travel must end by Dec. 15, 2009.
 WestJet  4/28 - 6/20/09  Not Specified  Will provide full refund Service to Mexico ends 5/4/09. Flights resume 6/20/09.

 

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Unfortunately these waivers are applying mostly on travel to and from Mexico. Our trip was also cancelled to Asia, as we have been asked as an international groups of 50 people to not enter the prefecture of the area our group was planning on visiting.

American Airlines is charging us the full penalty of canceling and rebooking fees and will apply fare changes for a later date.

In addition, we booked two round trips separately from Argentina to NY and Ny to Tokyo all on AA to save money, as both AA and Expedia charged more if we booked a round trip passage from Argentina to Tokyo.

So now we must multiply these fees times 4 not 2 for our family. The fees are costing us alone over $1000 US dollars.

We have no control over this cancellation and EXPEDIA, BERKLEY CARE our travel insurance provider and AMERICAN AIRLINES are all turning a deaf ear, as we are not going to Mexico.

Now that more and more cases of this flu are actually becoming public all over the world, we are anxious to see what will happen for people who are in the same situation as us.

It's a shame we didn't book with Air Canada, we were told that other people in our tour group will only have to pay a $100 US dollar penalty and will receive the remaining credit to their next flight with no penalties or rebooking fees.



by Lotus on Saturday, May 09, 2009
I have been trying to change flights with US Airways from Mexico to California. I had used a $200 voucher to purchase the Mexico tickets and paid the rest $287.00. On top of charging $150.00 per ticket to switch destinations, I was told that the voucher was no longer usable since I had applied it to the Mexican ticket (that we did not use). I supposedly talked to a supervisor who kept repeating "sorry, maam, those are the rules" Very disappointed in USAirways customer service.
by daisy on Tuesday, May 05, 2009
I think it's great that the airlines are recognizing that they need to assist travelers heading to Mexico. I would be very happy with a voucher from American Airlines but they are not making it as easy for me and my husband. Our predicament is that we were scheduled to travel to Mexico on a Royal Caribbean cruise. The cruise was departing from LA so we purchased 2 roundtrip tickets to LA from Boston. As soon as our cruise was diverted, I contacted AA and was told they would not issue me a voucher or refund the tickets since we were not flying into Mexico. I told them I wanted to change the tickets to travel to San Juan but was told I would uncur the change fee of $150 per ticket. I offered to email or fax my cruise confirmation to show we were heading to Mexico but they would not budge. Their only recommendation was to email customer service. In the meantime, I needed to get airfare to San Juan so unfortunately we ended up using frequent flier miles.
I have finally heard back from AA. They suggested we change the tickets to another destination, pay the change fee's ($300) and then email customer service with the new record locator and they will issue us a voucher for the $300 to use at a later time! This all has to be completed before the original departure date of May 24th. Where is the customer service in this? If it were up to us we would still be heading to Mexico but due to current events we can not. I don't see why we should incur additional charges only because our ticket does not read "Mexico".

by lisabonista on Monday, May 04, 2009
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