more travel questions - booking backup (refundable) flight?

[basil]

It's complicated re: the timing. I was trying to simplify a bit. We would not miss the cruise if we arrived 2 days late, but would miss some very desired and probably nonrefundable and expensive activities.

Our original ticket is split between 2 airlines for departure and return anyway. My understanding is that by law, they need to offer a full refund if the flight is cancelled or "significantly delayed". So if they canceled our original flights, we would be refunded the original money. Of course the refundable back up flight is more $$...but not as much as you may think. It's about $1000-1500 more total than the original (for 6 tickets). I think I would rather pay that than miss several days of our vacation.

SnuggleBuggles - I hope you get home on time and without delays!

[georgiegirl]

It's complicated re: the timing. I was trying to simplify a bit. We would not miss the cruise if we arrived 2 days late, but would miss some very desired and probably nonrefundable and expensive activities.

Our original ticket is split between 2 airlines for departure and return anyway. My understanding is that by law, they need to offer a full refund if the flight is cancelled or "significantly delayed". So if they canceled our original flights, we would be refunded the original money. Of course the refundable back up flight is more $$...but not as much as you may think. It's about $1000-1500 more total than the original (for 6 tickets). I think I would rather pay that than miss several days of our vacation.

SnuggleBuggles - I hope you get home on time and without delays!

Yes, we got a refund from American for the first half of our trip that was cancelled/delayed. If your back up tickets are fully refundable, I’d purchase those as well. With a group of 6, it would be difficult to find an immediate rebooking. We we still waiting for our travel insurance to process our claim of $1900.


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[AnnieW625]

Be lucky the $1500 isn’t a stretch for you then. If your gut is telling you to book back up tickets then do that. Check to see if the pre cruise activities are refundable now. Also stay off the FB pages for travel those seem to be a breeding ground for people who only have problems and kind of like Dr. Google cause unneeded anxiety. Good luck though and hope everything goes as planned.


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[georgiegirl]

Definitely get back up tickets. My friend just had her one of her return flight legs cancelled after having the same issue on the way there. (DC to Hawai’i) Stranded In random airports and flying to extra ones. It’s less of an issue if your flight is direct.

[gymnbomb]

The only thing I would worry about and check into is what happens if you don’t travel on the first leg of your original ticket. I seem to recall that you can’t simply not show up for your starting flight but still board the return trip. But I’m not sure if I’m remembering that correctly. Not sure if it’s OK as long as you let the airline know you still intend to fly home with them.


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This is definitely something to be aware of. I have not taken a connecting flight on the way to my destination before (it was cancelled and I rented a car and drove the rest of the way instead) and it was not a problem BUT I talked to the airline employee before leaving the airport and made sure that it would be ok. My best guess is that it usually isn't a problem if your flight on the way there is cancelled IF you properly notify the airline. But it is very likely to be a problem if you just don't show up and don't talk to anyone.

[georgiegirl]

This is definitely something to be aware of. I have not taken a connecting flight on the way to my destination before (it was cancelled and I rented a car and drove the rest of the way instead) and it was not a problem BUT I talked to the airline employee before leaving the airport and made sure that it would be ok. My best guess is that it usually isn't a problem if your flight on the way there is cancelled IF you properly notify the airline. But it is very likely to be a problem if you just don't show up and don't talk to anyone.

Yes, we notified the airline. It made getting the money back a little trickier, but it wasn’t that complicated. It was called “out of order flight” or something like that

[AnnieW625]

……We we still waiting for our travel insurance to process our claim of $1900.


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Nosy but how does this work? The only time travel insurance was purchased for me was when we went on our cruise in 2019. We didn’t need to use it and we had no cancelled, or re scheduled flights. So I would assume that if you buy trip insurance and you have to cancel or change your flight or you are late to the connecting flight the
insurance covers it? In your case though you had to rebook your whole trip right?


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[ahisma]

I have done this, for this exact reason, and needed to use it. I've also regretted NOT doing it a few times too. One tip - make sure that the refundable flights are refunded to CASH (or points if that's how you book). There are only so many travel vouchers one family can use -and they're often tied to an individual which makes it more tricky. We're rolling with about $3K in travel vouchers right now thanks to COVID cancellations.

[ahisma]

I keep hearing stories about people whose flights were cancelled 8-10 hrs beforehand, and had such difficulty being rerouted that they missed big parts of their trips. I guess a lot of those stories are about travel to Europe, not sure if going to AK is different. And of course there is selection bias in who posts to Facebook - People don't typically post "flight was on time, bought some chips in the airport, foot fell asleep, didn't get COVID"

Our flight from CA to MI was cancelled - 20 minutes before boarding. No rerouting options for days. I had our family positioned at various anticipated gate agent windows just in case, so we could be first in line for limited options. We wound up flying into Nashville, snagging the last available car in a snowstorm, and driving overnight from Nashville to MI. Pretty miserable. Had we not anticipated it and been first in line, we would have been stuck in Oakland for days.

[3isEnough]

I would 100% buy tickets for the next day provided they’re fully refundable and the price is within your travel budget (refundable tickets always seem to be more expensive than non-refundable). If it ends up that you don’t need them, then it takes you 5 mins to cancel. If you need them, they’re priceless.