Prepare to Pay if You Plan on Canceling a Flight Ticket
During the beginnings of nonrefundable airline tickets, customers who cancel cannot get their money back unless they have a valid excuse—an emergency. Since falsification of emergency documents come easily, air companies decided to make cheap tickets nonrefundable yet reusable with a fee. Cancellation penalty used to cost $25 only.
Now, policy on flight cancellation and exchange fees are steep.
If you plan to cancel your nonrefundable domestic ticket and use its value in exchange for future flights, an exchange fee cost $150 on American Continental, United or US Airways. Exchange fee on AirTran, Alaska or Virgin America costs $75; $80 on Spirit Airlines; whopping $100 on Delta, Frontier, JetBulue, Northwest or Midwest Airlines.
Then, international flight exchanges depend greatly on the air company and the destination. Bear in mind that exchange fees can cost as much as $250. There are even airlines that only apply exchanges with fee on the return portion of an actual two-way ticket. Worse is that some consolidated discount tickets and even online purchased tickets are totally nonrefundable and non-reusable.
To balance the recent fee hikes, some airlines may allow fee-free cancellations for cases of death provided a death certificate is presented.
Only Southwest Airlines allows application of the full value of our plane ticket for future use without a fee. They also sell fully-refundable fares for senior citizen that cost less than refundable tickets for younger travelers.
Nonrefundable tickets are real financial risks. But there are some trip-cancellation insurance offers that you can consider, but you must have at least an extra 5 percent of your travel cost to avail regular travel insurance (pricier for travelers aged 70 and up). Travel insurance may cover cancellations, medical, and baggage.
Airlines may have different versions of their travel insurance and online ticket sellers may have travel insurance that are typically fixed rate for all ages. Expedia’s cost $15 while Priceline’s is at $16.
