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I purchased a flight to Miami from Chicago on American Airlines about a month ago. The dates are for Thanksgiving (Nov 26-30).
I just found out I'm traveling to Tokyo for work the 2nd week of December. I may add on 1 or 2 days to this trip because my brother lives there, I haven't seen him in 7 years, and I've never been to Japan/Tokyo. Also, I may be paying for most of my mother's flight to join me on this trip as well as her expenses (food, etc.). So this could be expensive, and with about 6 weeks or so to plan, I don't have much time...or money, either because I just returned from a week (vacation) in Italy (yikes).
Anywho, although my mom is very excited about going to Miami for Thanksgiving as she never ever travels anywhere, I know she'd prefer to see my brother with me. I just don't think I can afford to keep the Miami vacation on and go to Japan 2 weeks after that.
Am I right that there's 0% chance of me getting any portion of my flight costs back? I've never just let a flight go like this before and I hate to see that money go down the toilet! (Luckily I hadn't booked the Miami hotel or my mother's ticket yet so those costs aren't an issue.)
Can you book your Tokyo tickets with the same airline? Unlike Annerk, I've been successful several times at getting the money transferred to new tickets. Not a refund, but credit applied to another ticket. Maybe I'm just nicer on the phone than *others*, and I admit I used the sympathy card to help it along (in your case, it would be "I really want my elderly mom to see her son" and "I haven't seen my brother in 7 years!") Say please a lot.
If you get anywhere, be sure to say thank you on Facebook, twitter, whatever.
I'm not optimistic, but WTH have you got to lose but some of your time and energy. But do the phone people a favor and don't get pissy with them.
Can you book your Tokyo tickets with the same airline? Unlike Annerk, I've been successful several times at getting the money transferred to new tickets. Not a refund, but credit applied to another ticket. Maybe I'm just nicer on the phone than *others*, and I admit I used the sympathy card to help it along (in your case, it would be "I really want my elderly mom to see her son" and "I haven't seen my brother in 7 years!") Say please a lot.
If you get anywhere, be sure to say thank you on Facebook, twitter, whatever.
I'm not optimistic, but WTH have you got to lose but some of your time and energy. But do the phone people a favor and don't get pissy with them.
Actually I can't use the same airline. Miami flight is booked with AA and my job flies pretty much strictly with United so the Tokyo ticket will definitely be a United flight...
Most people will harp on travel insurance, but.. In most cases that wouldn't even help here.
Everyone above I agree with. You can cancel it, and they'll whack you with a $200 change fee per ticket, and let you use the balance on another flight within a year.. But once the 24 hour window passes, non refundable is pretty much set in stone.. And often, they won't even waive the change fees for any reason.
Elliott - A site that advocates for you. is a wonderful travel advocacy site, but.. I'm not recommending that you post your story there.. They'd probably boo you out of the building.. But, you can see some of the items that do and don't get successful outcomes.
The airline stance will be that they offered a refundable fare.. You could have paid 4 times what you did for the non-refundable fare and been able to get it refunded.
While you would still not get your money back with them in this scenario, you would have been able to use the funds on a future trip without any stupid change fees.
That really is the dumbest thing for most airlines to gough you for this, but in a free market, I just vote with my feet and fly SWA instead of the legacy's
Can you book your Tokyo tickets with the same airline? Unlike Annerk, I've been successful several times at getting the money transferred to new tickets. Not a refund, but credit applied to another ticket. Maybe I'm just nicer on the phone than *others*, and I admit I used the sympathy card to help it along (in your case, it would be "I really want my elderly mom to see her son" and "I haven't seen my brother in 7 years!") Say please a lot.
If you get anywhere, be sure to say thank you on Facebook, twitter, whatever.
I'm not optimistic, but WTH have you got to lose but some of your time and energy. But do the phone people a favor and don't get pissy with them.
Maybe 10 years ago you could do that,. or if you have high status, but otherwise they will do the transfer--after they take the steep fee and if there's anything left.
It has nothing to do with sympathy cards and everything to do with them following the rules and not being empowered to change them as they see fit.
Ugh. I guess it could have been worse. I could have already booked the hotel and/or my mom's ticket. Maybe I could find a way to still go to MIA. If I only have 1 personal day in Tokyo and/or my brother will change his mind and accommodate us maybe I can still swing Miami and not just let the money go down the toilet. Highly unlikely but I simply can't see just letting the cost of this flight go.
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