I am trying to make a reservation for the Mr. and myself for his brother's wedding this winter. Unfortunately the timing is such that he's vulnerable to deploy during that time. I looked up AA's policy on changing tickets due to military orders and found this:
Military personnel and their immediate family or accompanying passengers with tickets for any published, non-published or private fares are eligible to make changes without charges or to receive full refunds if a copy of the military orders are submitted with the request.
Refunds for the military passenger's ticket are made to the original form of payment. Tickets for immediate family members or accompanying passengers will be exchanged for transportation vouchers.
Does this include non-refundable tickets? I realize non-refundable is non-refundable, but the fact AA breaks this into a separate question makes me wonder if it applies to those as well. Also, do it matter if it's my name on the reservation and not his?
Please no flaming that we're wanting special treatment (I've read some of the FT military threads). It's hard enough to deal with some of this stuff without putting our lives on hold for every little thing that can pop up. I'm just trying to figure out what we're actually entitled to per policy. And yes, buying refundable tickets is out of the question.
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Thanks for the phrasing of the question (IIRC this has not been covering) and my interpretation of "any published, non-published or private fares" is that, yes, a non-refundable fare is without any doubt part of this set of fares.
Quote:
Also, do it matter if it's my name on the reservation and not his?
I don't understand the question, as the reservation is always and only in the passengers's name. If he's not a traveler, it doesn't look like you can get a refund from reading the language you posted (I interpret it as the benefit applying to the military personnel's tickets and extended to those who are traveling with him/her).
means any published, non-published or private fares. So you should be good to go. You may want to call AA to get the confirmation that this is correct.
Enjoy the wedding, and hopefully you will be able to attend together!
Thanks for the phrasing of the question (IIRC this has not been covering) and my interpretation of "any published, non-published or private fares" is that, yes, a non-refundable fare is without any doubt part of this set of fares.
I've never seen the phrasing before - so I can't tell if they're trying to include everything or trying to exclude something.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hillrider
I don't understand the question, as the reservation is always and only in the passengers's name.
My name's on the reservation, not his, was my question - but I think I just misread, because it does say "ticket", so I guess I'm covered there.
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Originally Posted by Zaynab
You may want to call AA to get the confirmation that this is correct.
I may do that when I get around to purchasing it. But I know you get different answers from different agents!
Refundable fares don't need a special policy. They're refundable no matter who you are and for any reason.
The language you've centered on is intended to be all-inclusive, as non-published fares are often accorded second-class status. Not here, where ALL fares you could have bought are refundable.
My reading of it would be that if 2 passengers are travelling together and one of them receives orders that
the passenger who has the orders will get a refund back to original form of payment or can change to another date
the accompanying passenger will receive a voucher for the full value of the ticket or can change to another date
I would suggest that the best place to ask would be AA itself
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I would check with AA that non-refundable tickets purchased by relatives to visit a military person / family would be refundable in case of deployment orders. I think the intent is to allow cancellation by immediate family (probably spouse and children, perhaps parents,) and in case of deployment of the military member.
I personally would not bet this means a sibling or other non-immediate relatives could make changes without fees or receive full value vouchers in case the military member (and conceivably in PCS moves their immediate family members).
Quote:
Military personnel and their immediate family or accompanying passengers with tickets for any published, non-published or private fares are eligible to make changes without charges or to receive full refunds if a copy of the military orders are submitted with the request.
Refunds for the military passenger's ticket are made to the original form of payment. Tickets for immediate family members or accompanying passengers will be exchanged for transportation vouchers.
I'd e-mail the question via the online webform and persist until I got an answer I could print out in case of the need to cancel or change.
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Refundable fares don't need a special policy. They're refundable no matter who you are and for any reason.
Not true really. It is quite common to find tickets which are refundable but do have a cancellation fee. e.g. fare might be $2000 and refundable but has a $300 cancellation penalty, so cancelling would only get a $1700 refund
I would check with AA that non-refundable tickets purchased by relatives to visit a military person / family would be refundable in case of deployment orders. I think the intent is to allow cancellation by immediate family (probably spouse and children, perhaps parents,) and in case of deployment of the military member.
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Wow, my OP was worded very badly.
Just to clarify, my husband is possibly deploying, not his brother. I understand in the above situation we wouldn't get tickets refunded.
I guess you could say I've read "non-refundable is non-refundable" too many times on FT.
Well, non refundable fares are generally non refundable but they can still have exceptions. A common one is that they are waived in case of death; if AA has a waiver for passengers who have to cancel due to receiving military orders, then I would not be surprised if it covered tickets which would otherwise be non refundable
If it only covers refundable tickets, I would be surprised that they would set up a special rule specially to just avoid a cancellation penalty on a refundable ticket
best thing to do imo , is just to contact AA and get clarification
