Narrow Seat

I got food poisoning and had an attack of illness while on the flight home. Once I arrived at the connection city I sleepwalked to the closest hotel and crashed for two days. My traveling companion was concerned about my health and also did not continue flying home. So both of us did not use the final ticket home. She contacted the airplane and explained the situation and asked to change my flight a few days forward to give me time to recover. She got nowhere with the Airline phone rep and was told the ticket would be canceled and we would have to pay the walk-up fare to get home. The walk-up one-way full coach fare for the final leg of our trip was about $450 per ticket.

If I made a bigger stink could they let me fly once I recovered from my illness? What did I do wrong?

(Why would an airline want a terribly sick person on the flight who was throwing up and rushing back and forth to the toilet?

Jaimito Cartero

Did you notify them when departing your flight of your illness?

guv1976

OP: Were the plane tickets purchased with a credit card that offers "Trip Interruption" insurance? If so, get a doctor's note and make a claim with the insurer. I don't know whether the cost for transportation home would be covered, but your food and lodging should be

Do you have frequent-flyer miles that could be used for the final leg home, if insurance won't cover cash tickets?

The airline does not want a sick passenger flying on its plane. It also does not want to forego the revenue it could earn by selling last-minute tickets on the final leg of your trip. And scam artists who decide that they'd prefer to stop over at the connecting point could easily claim illness in an attempt to get a free stopover. Insurers don't like to be scammed either, so if you did not seek medical treatment and get a doctor's note (perhaps from an urgent care facility), you might not prevail on an insurance claim.

mikew99

Getting sick in the midst of travel is one of those things I tend to worry about. You haven't given any details about your trip, but if you just skip your flight without notifying the airline, it (and the rest of your flights) get cancelled.

I think if this happened to me, I would try (if possible) to present myself at the gate for my next flight. The gate agent might take one look at me and decide that I have no business flying that day. If not, I would explain the situation and see if it's possible to be rebooked. At the very least, the agent can cancel your itinerary in such a way to preserve some value for future use, although it might not be much.

Either way, the travel insurance policy I bought triggers only after a doctor determines that I'm sick, so I would attempt to go to the airport health clinic before heading to a hotel, so at least I could recover some unforseen costs.

Ultimately, I think the main thing you could have done differently is to let the airline know about the situation prior to the flight. Depending on the airline, the terms and conditions of your ticket, and who you talk to, there are a lot of things the airline can do to help get you home.

FlyingUnderTheRadar

IMHO you both did the best thing possible. Given from what you wrote it would appear that your traveling companion contacted the airline before the last flight was taken my only suggestion would be to write the airline and ask for at least a refund of the portion canceled. Good luck

Narrow Seat

My traveling companion, unfortunately, called the airline after the final leg of the flight already left. So we were considered a no-show.

I was so sick that I did not have the energy to make it to the customer service desk or go to the other terminal to wait in line and discuss my illness with the gate agent. Or did I have the strength to drive to a doctor in an unfamiliar city to get a note. The only thing that I had the energy to do is go to a hotel, have my traveling companion check-in, and crash for two days until I recovered. I had no frequent flyer miles and did not have travel insurance, or a high-end credit card that would give me coverage.

There should be a system where sick passengers can just adjust their ticket to a few days forward, don't you think?

ft101

No, it would just be abused. Travel insurance should be used in your circumstances.

moondog

The combination of the timestamped phone call and diagnosis from your doctor *might* be sufficient to garner some sympathy from the airline.

SteveinA2

You should have gone to the connecting gate, then told gate agent you were too sick to fly and they almost certainly would have been able to rebook the final leg for 24-48 hours later. If you couldn't stand you were a safety risk and they would have taken care of a rebooking. Not much help now...but next time

If you were too sick to do my recommendation then you should have gone to an ER not a hotel

Travel insurance can help, but IMO you are better just "self insuring" these types of events and suck up the $900

RRROOO

Yep. Insurance will want to see a DR note anyway. You have none. The no-show/ no refund rule has been around for quite a while. You can always write a letter and see if the airline will feel sorry for you and refund something.

Loren Pechtel

This. Basically all insurance against small risks is a bad deal--only take it if there's something about the situation that makes you know it's mispriced. You insure against risks you can't afford.

moondog

I've had food poisoning several times. In each case, when it hit (12-24 hours post consumption), I wanted to get to comfortable bed IMMEDIATELY, so I completely understand the OP's course of action. But, also in each case, I went to medical clinics as soon I could move somewhat comfortably. In addition to getting tests and medicine, the doctors also documented my condition and I was able to show their letters to anyone who requested them (e.g. insurance company, employer, airline).

invisible

I have a question - in the US realities, how one can get 'a doctor's note' without the 15 min visit costing several hundred dollars, especially when you are so ill that you can't move? Will the cost of a doctor's visit be reimbursable as well?

I am serious - want to know what are the options. I have HSA medical plan from my work and before insurance pays anything I have to spend $6500 per individual or $13000 per family.

moondog

In one of my past food poisoning cases, the establishment that got me sick actually arranged for the medical clinic (same building) to bill them directly. I never imagined they would be so accommodating; the only reason I called them was to give them a heads up about their oysters.

For my other episodes, I paid whatever insurance didn't; small money.

LarryJ

Many pharmacies and grocery stores have small clinics staffed with a nurse practitioner. A simple appointment, or walk-in, shouldn't cost much. Less than $100. You can pay with your HSA debit card or reimburse from your HSA account later. I used one at a local Kroger grocery store for an official CV test last summer. Got the test quickly, an Rx, and a status letter for work. Easy and quick.

There are also a lot of urgent care clinics. They'll likely cost more than the small clinics but also have more services available and are still less expensive than a hospital emergency room and will take walk-ins.