Canceled flight for medical reasons... refund?

 
Old Jan 24, 2006, 8:54 pm
  #1  
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Canceled flight for medical reasons... refund?

I just had to inform my 5 year old that we are having to cancel a trip to Disneyworld for Thursday. My wife has developed recent symptoms that the doctor informed us will prevent her from flying or making the four day trip. Unfortunately, I did not opt for trip insurance and the Disney refund is another story. I am curious what others have experienced with AA when canceling flights for medical reasons. My search on AA.com revealed nothing other than the standard refund policy and the FT search was 3 years old. In today's environment- I suspect, even with a doctors note, the best I can hope for is $100 change fee x 3 for the Y tickets. They are DFW-MCO booked in S. Again, not looking for charity from AA but would like to minimize my losses. Anyone have a recent experience?
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 9:13 pm
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What do the fare rules say? The good news is most fares on this route seem to have a $50 not $100 fee. But the discount ones all seem to allow refund by voucher for death only not illness.
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 9:31 pm
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Originally Posted by flymeAAway
I just had to inform my 5 year old that we are having to cancel a trip to Disneyworld for Thursday. My wife has developed recent symptoms that the doctor informed us will prevent her from flying or making the four day trip. Unfortunately, I did not opt for trip insurance and the Disney refund is another story. I am curious what others have experienced with AA when canceling flights for medical reasons. My search on AA.com revealed nothing other than the standard refund policy and the FT search was 3 years old. In today's environment- I suspect, even with a doctors note, the best I can hope for is $100 change fee x 3 for the Y tickets. They are DFW-MCO booked in S. Again, not looking for charity from AA but would like to minimize my losses. Anyone have a recent experience?
If you belong to the Admiral's Club, try calling your nearest location and asking them, as sweetly as possible, if there's anything they can do to help.
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 10:10 pm
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More than a few American Airlines fare rules I have seen make some exceptions for death or illness, irrc. Hie thee to https://www.refunds.aa.com/, enter thy data and see what the detailed fare rules provide for you before pulling the refund trigger. THEN call, but become informed first; be prepared to get a letter form the doctor.
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 10:22 pm
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I had a look at the only published S r/t fare that is current on that route SR14C50N;

It says the fare is non refundable
It says that changes are USD50 for reissue and that it can be applied to a new ticket
and the only exception listed of note is that a refund in the form of a transportation voucher is available in the case of death of passenger,immediate family member or a travelling companion ( death certificate must be provided )

If you have that fare, looks like you can change for USD50, but no refund

Dave
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 10:33 pm
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do a search- i posted a thread on my experience with this last year
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Old Jan 24, 2006, 10:37 pm
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http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402022
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 2:15 am
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Don't refund, reschedule. 5 year old won't be 5 forever. Hope your wife makes a full and speedy recovery.
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 4:56 am
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Hey all,

I had to cancel an intl. trip booked in 'I' class as my doctor advised me not to fly (I was quite unwell at the time). I rang the AAdvantage desk who said I could get a refund if I provided them with a doctor's note showing he told me not to fly. I got a full refund (which I didn't think was going to be possible, as my understanding is 'I' fares can't be changed or refunded).

Just my experience!

Cheers, aanalyst.
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 8:51 am
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I ended up with a kidney stone just prior to a nonrefundable flight to Paris. International fares are fully refundable- so I was told- and they did cheerfully refund the full amount with a doctors note indicating I was unable to fly. On domestic, with a note, I was told that it is not refundable but you can use the funds for future flying within a year. I do not know how it affects other passengers than the actual sick person.

I would call after you have the letter and see.
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 9:17 am
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I suspect this would be covered by trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance which comes free if you made the purchase with a Citi Aadvantage Platinum MasterCard (up to $1500).

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...t-svbenits.jsp

Trip Cancellation/ Trip Interruption:
In the event you are prevented from taking or continuing a trip you billed to your Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage World MasterCard account, you are eligible to receive up to $1,500 in Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption coverage.
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 11:10 am
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AA gave us a break

Cancel your trip and of course you have a year to use your tickets (on most non-refundable fares), less the $100 per ticket fee. My wife needed emergency surgery on 48 hours notice, she had her operation the day our flight was to leave. AA Cust service said fax a letter with documentation, and I explained the prob, told about all the other hotel non-refundable deposits I was losing, and pleaded mercy, said "You know why I fly" etc.

They were very gracious, sent a letter, and gave me vouchers for the full amount. I'm lifetime gold with almost 2 million miles, so that may have helped, and I pointed it out to them. So your mileage may vary, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Our tickets were like $900 each.

AA is cool in my book!

we also included all the documentation from the Doctor plus the correspondence showing we cancelled the hotel and rental cars, it was about 15 pages long what we faxed

Last edited by Flyer1965; Jan 25, 2006 at 11:14 am Reason: added
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 11:53 am
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Red face

Originally Posted by rrgg
I suspect this would be covered by trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance which comes free if you made the purchase with a Citi Aadvantage Platinum MasterCard (up to $1500).

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...t-svbenits.jsp

Trip Cancellation/ Trip Interruption:
In the event you are prevented from taking or continuing a trip you billed to your Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage World MasterCard account, you are eligible to receive up to $1,500 in Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption coverage.
A few responses to your questions:
First, I did my FT search under "illness" but not "sickness." Point made, I'll get out my thesaurus next time. Secondly, the previous post refers to a refund for illness but that is an INTL Q not a domestic flight. Third, I posted before I called so I would know all options since they always seem to very by which agent you get. Unfortunately, I did not save the booking/fare details and I do not know a way of retrieving them. Last night I found the ticket number on refunds.aa.com and I got the following message when I put in the PNR to get the tickets numbers: "The refund request you submitted is for a non-refundable ticket. In some cases, you may be able to apply this value towards the purchase of another non-refundable ticket. Certain restrictions and fees apply. Please call American Airlines Reservations at 1-800-433-7300 for further assistance." No other details.

What I learned:
Thanks to rrgg for his post. In fact, this purchase was made with a Citi AAdvantage Master Card. The credit card benefit of trip insurance is something that I would never have thought of. I will investigate this further, thank you! Just the kind of the "out of the box" idea that I was looking for from the post. Fortunately, we are going to reschedule for the first of March if everything works out. Based upon my calls, it looks like there is no illness clause for any domestic routes other than full Y, not even a Y-up. I was presently surprised by only a $50 change fee per ticket X 3. I have now canceled my trip on AA and I have 12 months from ticket issuance to use the credit amount less change fees. If I book on-line, hold the reservation and then call to have the tickets reissued- I can avoid the $30 in ticketing fees. I am holding a new trip for March. One other option I found in my searches:

"Extenuating Circumstances
We understand that many extenuating circumstances can affect a passenger's need for a refund. If you feel that you have such circumstances associated with your refund request, mail all documentation supporting your request to the address below.
American Airlines
Passenger Refunds
P.O. Box 582880
MD 755
Tulsa, OK 74158-2880
US"

Off topic, Disney only charged a $10 administrative fee to reschedule the trip.
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 1:56 pm
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Originally Posted by flymeAAway
I just had to inform my 5 year old that we are having to cancel a trip to Disneyworld for Thursday. My wife has developed recent symptoms that the doctor informed us will prevent her from flying or making the four day trip. Unfortunately, I did not opt for trip insurance and the Disney refund is another story. I am curious what others have experienced with AA when canceling flights for medical reasons. My search on AA.com revealed nothing other than the standard refund policy and the FT search was 3 years old. In today's environment- I suspect, even with a doctors note, the best I can hope for is $100 change fee x 3 for the Y tickets. They are DFW-MCO booked in S. Again, not looking for charity from AA but would like to minimize my losses. Anyone have a recent experience?
This is the only reason I am sticking with the Citi Worldmaster card as it offers trip insurance/interruption coverage free of charge. As I have 3 young kids it was costing almost $200.00 for the coverage. The annual fee on the card is only $85, therefore after one trip I more than make my money back. Without a doctors note, you should be able to get the $100 change fee x 3. Hopefully the note will give you a better deal. Sorry about your wife...
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Old Jan 25, 2006, 1:58 pm
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Originally Posted by rrgg
I suspect this would be covered by trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance which comes free if you made the purchase with a Citi Aadvantage Platinum MasterCard (up to $1500).

http://www.citibank.com/us/cards/car...t-svbenits.jsp

Trip Cancellation/ Trip Interruption:
In the event you are prevented from taking or continuing a trip you billed to your Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage World MasterCard account, you are eligible to receive up to $1,500 in Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption coverage.
I posted my response without seeing this, but again, I think this is one of the best features offered by any cc especially if you have young kids.
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