KLM Nonrefundable Ticket Help
 

My parents, who are approaching 80, purchased nonrefundable tickets in J LAX-AMS-LAX for August. They are legitimately nervous about flying to Europe (again they are almost 80) after the incident in Brussels. My father called and wrote to KLM about getting a refund, but was denied.

Anything that can be done to get the refund? I know they aren't entitled to it, but just seeing if there is anything they may have missed.

Thanks!

No, not a chance. KLM has no reason to refund the ticket.

I can understand your parents nervosity but there is no reasons at the moment to assume its not safe in Europe. Not more or less safe then in the United States.

I completely agree with you. During events such as this I thought it may be reasonable to allow changes by airlines.

Looking at http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/...322-story.html there are some american based airlines who do allow you to change or refund your ticket, but only if you are flying somewhere these days.

Airlines will usually allow changes or refund if the national authorities of the country they operate from (typically foreign affairs ministry/foreign office, in the US the CIA) recommend not to travel there, and most fortunately travel to Europe is not discouraged in such a way.

Apart from the fact that there will be no flexibility allowed by KL, I can promise you that for better or worse, your parents will not be facing any more danger wherever it is that they are going in Europe than wherever it is that they are living. Terrorism is, most sadly, a global danger and no place can be guaranteed to be safe from the action of those horrible lunatics.

In the US, it's the State Department that issues travel advisories.

They issued a Europe-wide alert yesterday that expires on June 20.

However, it is only an alert - not a warning - and is not grounds for offering free cancellation or rebooking, and anyway given that the date of travel is still 5 months away, a desire to cancel appears unnecessarily cautious.

Turkey is the subject of a current travel warning, and I don't see any of the US airlines (AA, UA, DL) offering any change/cancellation mechanism to customers travelling to/from Turkey.

There simply isn't a valid reason to request a refund from the airline. The chances of being caught up in a terrorist attack are, thankfully, vanishingly small - your parents are not increasing their risk by taking their planned travel, no more than they would decrease their chances by electing to remain at home.