Saw this tonight while browsing.
Apparently US Airways is standing by a decision to not refund fares to a family after cancer diagnosis of one of the passengers.
In a story posted on www.FoxNews.com a family had spent $4200 for tickets for a dream trip to Belize after one of the family members was cleared of breast cancer. However before the trip was to take place, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer and was ordered by her doctor not to fly.
US Airways is not refunding the fare, standing by the fact that the airfare was non refundable.
I don’t understand why US Airway would simply not refund the fares as a goodwill gesture. Apparently the passenger provided all the medical documentation supporting her situation but it did not change US Air’s position.
To US Air: The $4200 in refunds is a small drop in the bucket compared to the potential loss in future revenue by this event. Sometimes its just better to the right thing vs. just following policies.
Please let me know your thoughts. Is US Air right in their strict interpretation of their policies, or was this one of those situations where a little bit could have gone a long way?
US Airways refunded the money after the story broke in 9 News Now. http://boardingarea.com/blogs/pointsmilesandmartinis/2011/11/us-airways-reluctantly-does-the-right-thing-gives-terminal-cancer-patient-refund/
I think its a fallacy to think just because US airways refunds this family, every one else will ask them to refund theirs in similar situation. If they did refund it, we may never even hear about it. It might seem good to follow the rules to the letter, goodwill generated by bending the rules once in a while is much more valuable to a business.
Us airways did the right thing. It is obviously very unfortunate that she was diagnosed with cancer, but if the ticket she bought was refundable, why should she get a refund? Why didn’t she buy an insurance? When us airways refunds her, that means the rest of people who fly us airways are actually paying her, why should they?
I agree with flyer. Although I feel bad for this family, US Airways is also in a tough spot. If they refund this family, a lot of other passengers may try to get refunds as well in the future. So who will be granted a refund and who will not? US Airways will end up upsetting even more customers in that case.
Back in 2008 when I was hospitalized and could not fly (DVT and O2 dependent) I had 4 flights I had to cancel. I just accepted the fact that I would apply the balance (after the $150 change fee) to some future ticket. These were nonrefundable tickets.
When I recovered and the time came to apply the remaining balance of the ticket, I mentioned to the agent that I had to cancel them because I was in hospital. She told me if I provided a doctor’s note I would get a refund. I had no idea and did not expect to get a refund at all. I provided the note and the entire amount was credited back to my credit card. This was on UA, in pre-Smisek/CO days. I cannot say they would do the same today.
Considering the cost of the trip and the condition of one of the passengers, it would have been prudent to have some type of insurance. However, not everyone knows the ins and outs of flying and purchasing tickets and under the circumstances they were probably just focusing on getting the cancer patient there. I am not familiar with US ticketing, but wouldn’t they at least be able to pay a change fee for a future date in case the doctor changes his/her mind once again?
I think while it may seem mean or heartless, I also think that there’s the notion of equality- or treating all customers in the same situation (or materially the same) the same way..
While I can empathize with this case I also think that once the airline, or any business starts making waivers to established and known policies, it “opens the door” to a situation that the next passenger in a roghly same case isn’t granted the waiver- then claims unfair, unequal or unjust actions.. In otherwords “what about me?”
POSTED THIS ON FLYERTALK but thought I’d share my experiences here as well.
US AIrways was right although in the end might come out the loser. That is what trip insurance is all about . Trip insurance can cost between 6 and 9% of the cost of a trip and some comes with waivers of pre-existing conditions. Why do people try to get by and then complain when they take a hit? Also, didn’t US Airways give them a credit subject to a rebooking fee or something like that.
I had similar situations twice with Delta. Once was an award trip and Delta waived the re-deposit fee (I was Gold at the time). The second was a planned trip to Mexico and I had back surgery a week before the flight. Again, Delta waived rebooking fees for all three of us and gave us a year from the original ticket date to use the credit.
That year from the rebooking date worked with me because we fly often enough using the credit was not an issue. But for someone planning a dream trip over Christmas, rebooking might not have been that easy since the ticket was purchased in September.
My back got me a third time and I had an award ticket through AC on LF. AC did not waive the fee. My trip insuance picked up that fee (minor) and the cruise line forfeiture (not at all minor). As far as I am concerned AC had every right to its fee. My real loss was the AC devaluation of my points. I had two FC tickets TATL on LF for 100,000 miles each. Now I will be lucky to get BC for that. Oh well.
Right after my back did me in for (hopefully) the last time, while still in recovery I booked a trip next summer to Russia. I was not eligible for a pre-existing waiver and so I passed on the insurance. I am still in the 100% refund period and now more than 120 days without treatment or restrictions, so I am going to insure that trip as my back no longer counts as a pre-existing problem (it’s good thank you), but I worry that it or something else could cause us to miss the trip and, if so, the forfeitures would be substantial.
Rule of thumb, never insure a trip where you can afford to absorb the loss. At 8%, unless I miss one in 12 or fewer trips I come out behind. Before last year I never missed a trip. We are headed to Mexico in January with under $1,000 non-refundable dollars at risk. No insurance.
Back to topic, you always feel sorry for families that take a loss. You wonder whether their travel agent advised them to take insurance. If so and they refused, how sorry do you feel for them? That was a risk they took. They put their money on red, and black came up.
They should have had insurance for any unforeseen circumstances like this.
US Airways opens themselves up if they concede on this matter and refund the money, as unfortunate as it is.
My wife miscarried a few days before a domestic trip in October, and we did not have insurance.
Life’s a bitch.
yeah, and who would spend $4200 on airfare to Belize? give them their money back US Airways!
Shame – from a Platinum Elite