Refunds on Flights Cancelled by Alaska
 

Does anyone have any recent experience on how Alaska is handling refunds on flights cancelled by Alaska? I have a flight to Hawaii in April that is obviously cancelled as all flights to that destination in that time period have been pulled from the schedule. I know they are hoping I will take the easy way out and cancel first for a credit, but I would prefer not to do that.

If AS has cancelled the flight, then you are due a full refund.

However, the fact that AS is not selling does not mean that it has cancelled yet.

Thus, call AS and ask whether the flight is operating. If it is cancelled, as for your refund. Let the phone agent try to peddle a credit, decline it and ask for a refund and you should be set. If the flight is not yet cancelled, do not cancel it yourself. Wait until the last minute. If by some chance AS operates the flight, you are then stuck with its Covid-19 policy.

AS is still running daily SEA-HNL and LAX-HNL flights in April. PDX-HNL is cancelled for first half of April (until April 16th) and not simply zeroed out, so you shouldn't have an issue with getting a refund if you are on a PDX-HNL flight before the 16th.

The flight is actually PDX-KOA and has been pulled from the schedule if you try to book a flight. I just called reservations and was told the flight had not been cancelled yet. Therefore it was only eligible for a refund. I will just need to be patient.

This is a common practice across many carriers. Don't presume that a flight is cancelled because a carrier is not selling it. It usually means that it may be either on the chopping block or rescheduling is coming.

It seems that AS has just zero'd out availability on a number of their Hawaii flights but have not actually cancelled them. They are clearly playing games to avoid having to give refunds and they are pushing people to take vouchers instead. I also have flights in April which are shadow cancelled. I'll play chicken along with them and wait up until the day of my flight's departure to wait for them to cancel so I can get my full refund.

Pretty slimy tactic they're taking here.

Schedule changes don't happen until Saturday night or Sunday morning. If they are to cancel those flights from the schedule, that's when it will happen. Them zeroing out inventory is a sign that will happen. Nothing slimy about this.

Agree.

And things are changing hour by hour.

Not sayin' it will happen with AS, but there is a carrier that basically just shut down operations in Alaska. And they probably won't be the last in the USA before this is all done :(

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...mmunities.html

Looking at whether it is bookable or not does tell you whether or not it is still in the schedule. The flight has now been "pulled from the schedule" for flights before before April 16th. For flights from the 16th to 30th, it is still in the schedule, but the fare bucket inventories have all been zeroed out so it is not bookable. Inventory availability sites like flightavailability.bcdtravel.com and ExpertFlyer can tell you definitively whether or not it has actually been pulled, or whether it is still in the schedule with all fare buckets zeroed out. There's probably a decent chance the flights in later April will be removed tomorrow with new schedule load. Before everyone jumps to the conclusion that this is only about avoiding refunds, consider the impact of cancelling thousands of flights at once on already overburdened call centers.

If you go through the weekly OAG Changes posts on airliners.net, you will see that the airlines have been reducing April schedules each weekend for the last month or so. It is not actually the case that all the changes are being made on a last-minute cancellation basis.

DW and I got store credits for an April 8 flight a few weeks ago. Yesterday Alaska sent us a notification that our flight was cancelled and that we should call them. Not that it matters much to us, but does that mean we are entitled to a refund rather than store credit? Maybe I’ll text the elite number, being on the phone is bound to be a mess.

Yes, you are entitled to a refund to original payment method for a flight cancelled by Alaska. I called yesterday for something they couldn't handle via text and got through right away, so should be relatively painless.

The DOT has also been reminding carriers that it is not an option to refuse refunds for cancelled flights. They will take enforcement actions if carriers refuse.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/coro...-are-axed.html

Similar situation for my mid-April flight.
Is it really common for us to have to wait UNTIL THE DAY OF for them to officially cancel the flight on their end?!

If so, then how does one go about trying to get cash refund?
Their policy is that the ticket has to be cancelled prior to the departure time.
If they cancel the flight 2 hours before or something, well I presume there's a long hold time on the phone (can't cancel for cash refund online, correct?), and I'm also working.

Seems an impossible situation, unless they announce cancellation at least 24hrs prior.

If you still have a reservation for the flight. If you previously cancelled, and then the flight is cancelled, I'm not sure if you'll have luck in then having them converting mywallet funds back to a credit card refund.

I'm curious how you went about asking for it. Judging by that response, you must have laid out the case for why you deserve a refund more than others?