Should airlines waive fee for cancelled Feb break?
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, many New York school districts have been forced to make an unprecedented cancellation of vacation days to meet the state standard of 180 day of school.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today urged the airline industry and cruise line industry to devise a special Superstorm Sandy credit or refund policy for parents and teachers who must cancel their scheduled vacations due to Superstorm Sandy’s impact on the school calendar. http://www.schumer.senate.gov/Newsro....cfm?id=337970
My 10th grade daughter's President's week vacation was cancelled. Luckily I hadn't planned any vacation as she was going to go to Nicarauga to help build a school with Students For 60,000 http://www.sf60k.org/index.php?page=projects. The trip has been cancelled.
Even though I have no skin in the game, I think the airlines and cruise companies should make an exception. It's good PR if nothing else.
The airlines and the cruise industry should not have to take the burden for people buying non refundable tickets. If he wants to change something, have him get rid of the stupid 180 day rule that drives so many school districts crazy trying to get in 180 days before June 30th.
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No. Schools have to be in session but is there anything saying the parents can't take the kids on vacation anyway? Sure they will have to work harder to make up assignments, but things happen and life is not fair.... Might be a good life lesson that things can't always go as planned and don't expect someone else to alway bail you out.
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Should they, as a gesture of goodwill? Yes. If a major natural disaster intervened in a contract between a client and I, I'd seek to do the right human thing - even if the contract was written in a way that gave me the right do otherwise.
In this case, a credit seems like a fair and just thing to do (not a refund). It's what I felt like the airlines, hotels, and local governmental agencies should have done on the Tuesday morning of the storm regarding the NYC Marathon.
No. Schools have to be in session but is there anything saying the parents can't take the kids on vacation anyway? Sure they will have to work harder to make up assignments, but things happen and life is not fair.... Might be a good life lesson that things can't always go as planned and don't expect someone else to alway bail you out.
From what I've read, many school districts are completely and utterly unreasonable about this sort of thing, and refuse to countenance any planned absence for practically any reason. I'm not sure about the NY school districts.
From what I've read, many school districts are completely and utterly unreasonable about this sort of thing, and refuse to countenance any planned absence for practically any reason. I'm not sure about the NY school districts.
What do you mean specifically that school districts are unreasonable?
If you bought a policy that covers cancel for any reason it would be (or any policy that allows it).
And yes, they do exist, cost a bit more than cancel only if you are hit by a plane load of bowling balls falling from the sky on a Tuesday of a full moon when it's raining run of the mill policy
Quote:
Originally Posted by WillTravel
From what I've read, many school districts are completely and utterly unreasonable about this sort of thing, and refuse to countenance any planned absence for practically any reason. I'm not sure about the NY school districts.
We just did a trip with the neighbors over Thanksgiving, a ten day trip that required only four days of vacations for the kids. The school was not happy about it at all, saying they could be reported as being truant for being out for four unexcused days in any month. The parents said go ahead and report them if they wanted to. Vacations do not count as excused absence days in Connecticut. The laws (in this case Connecticut State Law) while well meaning and certainly probably valid in many cases, is just plain silly in others.
I don't think that they should but if they do, then I think they are opening themselves up to other types of events where groups of travelers would then have a legitimate beef
I say this as someone who could be in this boat one day
on that note, i would take my kids out of school anyway.. no matter what the school said
why do they need to cx spring or was it winter break..
why not go an extra week at the end of the year, why not go on saturdays, why not go an hour longer each day, why not do a combination there of.
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is there anything saying the parents can't take the kids on vacation anyway?
Actually, there is. School attendence is compulsory in New York State. Ditching school for a vacation is deemed an "illegal absence" (That's the term used in our school district)
US Airways apparently is - someone just posted a thread asking about it.
I used to think the minimum school day requirements were stupid, until several years ago when a few districts in our state were out for several weeks and made no attempt to make up the days. Now our state says that if the schools have to miss more than x amount of required days they can ask for a waiver but must show how they have made a good faith attempt to make up as many days as possible. A much better policy than the free for all we had before - sounds like NY has the opposite problem.
Actually, there is. School attendence is compulsory in New York State. Ditching school for a vacation is deemed an "illegal absence" (That's the term used in our school district)
ours calls it unexcused abscence
however, there is not a court in the land that would call you in to the truant officer in this situation
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No, I don't think travel companies should be on the hook for this - if it is an issue, then the school boards need to pass an 'exception to the rule'. Besides, a long slog doesn't improve productivity - no break will result in tired and crabby kids, and tired and crabby teachers.
Not to mention all the non-US travel comapanies, airlines, hotels etc. that likely won't even consider credits asked for by a US government official.
Not to mention that people schedule life events around school holidays - my teacher friend is getting married during spring break, for example - should she get full credit from all her wedding vendors in the same situation because has to work?
Moreover, if, say, 80% of the people on a flight used the credit instead, what is the betting the airline would cancel the flight, leaving the 20% who are not affected (adults, people from out of town on a connecting flight etc) stranded.
If you HAVE to make up the time (and I don't think you do), why not tack an hour on to the school day a couple of days a week instead?
In any case, I can see a lot of 'sick' kids that week, whose illnesses have a strange side effect of smiles and a suntan!
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