Many many months ago I booked the wife and I an Italian vacation and secured Envoy on US 330 using miles to upgrade our tickets. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we were forced to cancel the trip and eat US's $200 per ticket international change fee :eek: Luckily I had secured the upgrade before they instituted the penalty for redepositing miles, so the cancellation ended up costing $400 total.

Immediately after cancelling that trip, we booked ourselves on a 9 night California vacation on US, PHL-SFO, LAX-PHL departing 7-15. Got a decent price and used 20,000 miles each to secure the upgrade (I know that many would never have burned the miles for a domestic upgrade, but I have plenty of miles, I'm no longer preferred and it is so rare that an award or upgrade seat is even available, sometimes I feel like I'm going to take these miles to the grave. . . and I'm in my 20's!!). Anyway. . . . the wife is now pregnant and having a very rough time. Not to get too detailed, but she is sick enough to make us start thinking about cancelling the CA trip. It appears as though cancelling these tickets will now cost $100 per ticket plus $50 (or is it $75?) per upgrade to have the miles redeposited.

Is there anything I can do about these fees? I feel like I keep paying US and the value of the tickets keeps going down! The original Italy tickets cost us $1100 each. Take away the various fees assuming we need to cancel CA (200,100,50), and I will be holding two vouchers for $750 each (that means $700 in fees!). . . and we haven't gotten to go anywhere yet!!!!!! Any advice? Any chance they will waive these fees for someone who has been desperately, yet unsuccessfully, trying to take a vacation for the past year? I'm happy and all about the pregnancy (our first), but this kid is already costing me money and he is no bigger than a nickel!

I'm not exactly sure what the rules are, but you may get the fees waived if you can medically prove she's too sick to fly. I know there was another thread on that recently, and it didn't turn out well, but it may be worth a shot.

What credit card did you book the original tickets on? I know Amex charges for the ticket insurance or whatever, but a lot of Visas and MCs dont charge you extra for the trip cancellation insurance assuming you paid entirely with the one card, and theres a "legitimate" reason. As for the miles, I'll let somebody else answer that since I'm not sure.

Gagan

Call and tell them that she will be within a week of her due date. Ask if this is a problem. Of course they will say she can't fly because they don't want a birth on the plane. Then they will reschedule you or something, maybe even let you cancel.

Hey, when is the trip? Assuming she's pretty early in her pregnancy, she'll feel fantastic from 12 weeks to about 28 weeks (at least that's how my wife felt, and she had twins!) If it's before the third trimester, you shouldn't have problems with her traveling, and although she feels terrible now, she'll soon be feeling better.

Congratulations! My boys turned one this month, and it is a great experience. Off topic: do yourselves a favor and before the baby comes, read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. As a parent of twins, I feel qualified to state that this is the sleep bible and will make your life better and give you happy children. Good luck!

You think the kid is costing you a lot now? Just wait...... Congratulations.

Try calling Consumer Affairs and plead your case. Sometimes, they will do things that even the CP desk will not.

Case in point. I royally screwed up and booked tickets for 7 of us to return the day BEFORE our cruise ended. I realized this 1 week after making the reservation and 3 months before the flight. I called the CP desk and they said they NEVER waive the change fee. S**T, a $700 mistake. To make it worse, 4 of the tickets were for friends who were traveling with my familiy. Do I ask them to pay or just eat it? :confused:

I thought it over during lunch then decided to try Consumer Affairs. They put me in touch with a reservations supervisor who said, "I will make an exception and take care of this for you."

They could have charged me the $700 but were flexible. I didn't even mention I was a CP until after it was all ticketed (they looked at my daughters reservation first and agreed before they got to mine). I also was very nice and honest and said I royally screwed up.

I already give them 100% of my business and now I am even more loyal thanks to their flexibility.

You think the kid is costing you a lot now? Just wait...... Congratulations.


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LOL....!!

Sounds a little like my Mom--I think she said something like she had about a nickel left after I left to go off to college.... :p