hogo74

I bought a fully refundable ticket in early March 2020 for travel in November 2020. When the flights were cancelled, I called and made use of the LATAM COVID policy as it was in effect then, which was to keep the ticket open and extend its validity until December 31, 2021 and call back before then for one free rebooking. I called in November 2021 to rebook for late May 2022 which worked without any problem.

I now won't be able to take that trip as planned, so I called to ask if I could cancel and refund since the original fare was fully refundable. The agent confirmed that she could see that the original fare was refundable, but also said that since it had been bought in March 2020, the ticket validity ended on December 31, 2021 so it could no longer be refunded. She also said it could no longer be changed unless there was another flight cancellation by the airline which doesn't apply in my case.

So essentially my rebooking under the COVID policy made my refundable ticket non-refundable because the rebooking was for a date beyond the (extended) ticket validity, something I didn't realize when I made the rebooking last November. On the one hand, the December 31, 2021 validity is consistent with their COVID policy when the flights first were cancelled ("you can reschedule your flight during the validity of the ticket. That is, until December 31, 2021 if your trip started in 2020, or 12 month from the start date of the original trip if the trip started in 2021"), but on the other hand, I had assumed that allowing a rebooking for a date in 2022 would extend the ticket under its original fare provisions.

Anyway, I've had good luck with either refunding or rebooking and traveling most other tickets booked in early 2020 (not on LATAM), so if this is the one "COVID-loss" I have to write off, I can't really complain.