Originally Posted by
stephem
I just had to cancel a weekend trip to SoCal, woke up with 2 kids with fevers and the other two of us with clear signs of illness. I pushed the flights out by paying for same day change to see if we could get to the doctors in the morning and potentially salvage. Three ear infections diagnosed. I eventually got our same day change fee refunded, but no flexibility at all on the underlying tickets, we just had to kiss them goodbye. I would love to have seen the situation if we showed up in our current condition on the plane, I have to guess that would have made our fellow passengers uncomfortable. I told the agents I was speaking with that I was not taking the flight this afternoon as much for public safety as for our own preferences. Since I booked 2 one ways, I will check in for the return and at least inflict a bit annoyance on them at the gate on Monday morning when they have to deal with us not boarding, and at least prevent them from reselling those seats over the weekend.
Why do you want to inflict pain on AS for adhering to the rules of the ticket you bought and now don’t want to fly because your kids have ear infections? How is that any different than anyone else wanting to not fly because they have a cold or sprained an ankle or a sick dog or whatever? If you need the flexibility, buy flexible tickets. But if you buy non refundable tickets and then want to cancel, why blame the airline and try to inflict pain on them for that? Own your (correct) decision not to fly and don’t be so petty as to blame AS for not letting you cancel for free when you bought non-ref tickets and then try to punish them and other flyers who may want to buy those seats. I just don’t get that. That’s what travel insurance is for. If you had non-transferrable concert tickets, do you think you’d get a refund from them because your kid is sick?