Has anyone had success getting a non-refundable ticket refunded or changed without penalty after an announcement that the departure airport has been slated to have NoS installed before the trip? (On those grounds alone, of course.)

A few weeks ago I came *this* close to booking flights out of ALB for next year and hate to think I would have had no recourse other than to eat the loss.

Read the t&c of your fare bucket carefully. That will answer your question.

You probably know that T&C are not inflexible, I want to know if anyone has had any success dealing with a particular situation...

I think it takes the TSA from denying you entry into the sterile area, for whatever reasons to get a refund from the airlines, but at that point the TSA will probably demand your ID so they can do their evil deeds by filing a report on you that you will never know what they enter and you can never have it removed.

You have to decide if it is worth that.

Mr. Elliott

It takes denial of entry, not the pax refusal to comply with law. In other words, TSA boots someone because they are on "no fly" that's a reason. TSA finds firearm in hand luggage and turns pax over to LEO, that's a reason.

If the pax says they don't want to complete approved inspection (remember, there's opt out for those what don't like the machines) that's definitely not a reason.

Has to be that way becs. it would simply be the "out" for every pax who holds a non-refundable ticket and wants a refund.

And if the machine is not operating at the time should they track that and only offer refunds to people when the machine is running?

From what I've read on FT and know of first hand from one person I work with, the airlines have coughed up refunds whenever someone has been turned away or left. I would not advise it as a practice, but if you get to the airport and TSA refuses to let you through - even if you're the one refusing NoS or grope - you'll most likely get a refund.

I highly doubt it would work, for the simple reason that it would be way to easy for someone to change their travel plans and get their ticket refunded by refusing to go through the machine. I'm sure the airlines realize this. They might refund it, but I wouldn't count on it.

In that case the answer to virtually any question you can ask here is "yes." But how does that help you? For example, from my personal experience:

1. Has anyone sent a letter to AA, saying it was their honeymoon, and received an upgrade on an international flight? Yes, I did.

2. Has anyone complained that the hotel airline partner was no longer flying to a certain destination and had the hotel frequent flyer program agree to buy the customer 2 round-trip tickets from Taiwan to Hong Kong? Yes, I did.

3. Has anyone been such a frequent flyer that *before* they had status the customer service agent would walk them onto the plane and give them a first class seat on multiple trans-con flights (that were not oversold)? Yes, I did.

But do you think you can use any of those answers to your advantage?

P.S. - I suspect that a good customer and/or a polite customer would have a good chance of getting the refund if they actually took the time to go to the airport and were then denied entry, even if it was passenger "double opt out" choice.

Well, in defense of the pax, that's a fairly involved plan, to go through all the trouble of arriving at the airport, luggage and bp in hand, just to get a refund for a trip they don't want to take on grounds that the TSA denied them access.

True. I was thinking more along the lines of a passenger who decided to change flights/destinations at the last minute and got a refund for the original ticket by claiming that the TSA denied access.