djibouti

A coworker is having a hard time getting US airways to get her to Illinois for an event on Tuesday. She asked for a refund so she can buy a one-way on another carrier and they said the $200 fee isn't waived for cancellations, only changes. I understand that the US Airways travel advisory covering the midwest is excluding refunds preemptively, but if your flight is CANCELLED and they can't re-accomodate for 2 days, can they really refuse a refund without a change fee?

ETA: Her original flights were cancelled and she was re-accommodated. They put her on a flight that arrives after her event, and is 2 days later.

Railtester

I can't answer your question..... But for what it's worth I have similar issues with UA.

MSPeconomist

AFAIK for flight cancellations DOT rules mandate a refund to the original form of payment.

What the agent seems to refer to is the passenger cancelling a ticket. Sometimes the waiver only allows rescheduling, not completely cancelling the trip. This is very different from the airline cancelling the flight for whatever reason.

djibouti

Yeah, I think this agent is an idiot, but with 2 hour waits times HUCA doesn't work. I think this might be a "buy a round-trip on UA and e-mail CS later, with a follow-up to DOT if they refuse".

aztimm

As this applies to US Airways, I'll move to the appropriate forum.


aztimm

djibouti

Crap, did I put it in the combined one? Sorry.

Dave Noble

Has the airline cancelled Tuesday's flight yet? If so , then this would seem to be easy to just address by taking it up with credit card company

djibouti

No, but she was originally scheduled for today. Her original flights were cancelled and she was automatically* re-accommodated for Tuesday flights, for an event that's Tuesday morning...

*I think? Maybe they called and she said "OK", I'd have to check but I doubt it.

Often1

If the coworker's original flight was cancelled, she is due a refund. Period. If the coworker accepted a reroute and that reroute has not been cancelled, she is not now due a refund. Period.

If there is another carrier, unless it is WN which does not have interline ticket agreements, the corworker ought to ask US to book her on that.

If it were me and I knew that I had not accepted a reroute and US refused to rebook OA, I would go ahead and purchase the new ticket and seek the refund from US later and pursue a chargeback dispute if need be. But, this is a third-hand complaint, so I would not want to undertake this.

GNRMatt

There is absolutely no way they can legally not refund the money in this situation. If the airline cancels a flight, they MUST provide a refund if the passenger does not want to be re-accommodated on a different flight suggestion that doesn't work with their schedule.

Dave Noble

if she agreed to the change, then not much can do about it , but if not, then simply could dispute it with the card company and get on and buy another flight

djibouti

I apologize, but I was unclear about this and that is my fault.

Her original flight was cancelled. She is now trying to simply cancel the ticket after re-accommodation. My fault, I wasn't clear...

Dave Noble

Did she agree to be re-accommodated?

If no - get refund
if yes - is the new flight cancelled? - if no, then the agent is correct that passenger cannot cancel

Can you detail the exact timeline of what has happened?

MSPeconomist

By re-accommodation, you mean that she has purchased another ticket on her own, right? Not that the original carrier has re-accommodated = rebooked her onto another flight?

djibouti

Full timeline:

1) She had a ticket to fly to CMI today
2) Flights cancelled and she was automatically re-accomodated (confirmed it was all automatic and she never agreed)
3) Re-accommodation was for Tuesday. Event is Tuesday morning.
4) Agent couldn't find a Monday itinerary.
5) She wanted to cancel for a refund so she could buy a ticket on UA, who had a Monday itinerary to ORD (thinking she'd rent/bus/train to Champaign).
6) She was told that would be $200.

So far, she's still on Tuesday on the automatically re-accommodated flight, and has not booked a different ticket. This is all still the original ticket.

ETA: At this point it's moot, because I have since learned that:
1) She wants an itinerary all the way to CMI, not ORD, since trains and busses from Chicago to Champaign are all sold out
2) There's an event on Wednesday as well, and our boss has decreed that Wednesday is better than nothing. So, canceling for the UA flight to ORD is off the table, and this thread has become academic.