Much of the U.S. has recently been hit by some of the coldest weather in years. Which, even if it doesn’t mean that airports are closed and flights are canceled, may be enough to discourage many travelers from flying.
And cancellation does usually mean paying a $150 penalty to reuse the ticket. But not always — A little homework, or a phone call to your travel agent, could save you some money.
In some cases, a flight that a traveler cancels in the morning, could be canceled by the airline in the afternoon. Even nonrefundable tickets booked on canceled flights ARE refundable. But the airline is not going to call travelers to inform them of that. And by the time you are ready to rebook, the information that the original flight was canceled will probably not be in the computer.
In other cases, the airline may put in a waiver to affected parts of the country. This means that travelers ticketed before a certain date for travel within a certain period during the bad weather can reschedule without a penalty and in some cases even get a refund. But again, this is not something an airline contacts passengers to let them know. (They do usually but not always try to contact passengers in advance when their specific flight is canceled.)
So if weather is making you decide that a trip is not worth taking, call the airline or your travel agent first and see if a cancellation/rebooking waiver is in effect. If not, call within 24 hours of the flight and see if the flight was canceled. And even if the flight wasn’t canceled, if it’s a day like today where a number of flights WERE canceled out of O”Hare, consider writing to the airlines customer relations department. Explaining that a reasonable person might expect the flight to have serious problems might just get you a travel credit.
The only thing NOT to do – no-show the flight without going online or calling to cancel it. It doesn’t matter what the weather or excuse is, a “no-showed” flight is like an unused theater or sports ticket, absolutely valueless afterwards.
photo of snow at Denvier International by nafmo/flickr.com/creative commons
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
