Best Airline Change/cancellation policies?

[CaliDave]

I know with Southwest you can change or cancel anytime and at least get credit for a year without any penalty.

Are there other airlines with good policies regarding fare changes or cancellations?

[rsonc]

I had purchased a ticket for my daughter to go to Mexico with us last year, at the last min. she was not able to go with us.

Horizon/Alaska airlines policy is the person who purchased the ticket is the owner and they will allow that person to use the ticket towards a new ticket without paying a fee for the namechange.

I ended up using the ticket for my mother to go to Canada and I only had to pay $50 to change the ticket destination and traveler name since the price was the same for both locations.

Susan

[camachinist]

http://www.jetblue.com/travelinfo/ho....asp?topicId=3

Not bad...

Likely, you'll see the best policies on the LCC's.

That said, with the legacies, if you know how to extract the flights which seem to get hit with schedule changes, you can garner free changes that way. IME, hub feeders get hit the most, but YMMV. If a feeder changes, sending the cx illegal, you can then change both the feeder/mainline flights at no cost, or declare a trip in vain if the changes aren't acceptable and get credit towards a future flight. I most recently did this with DL and used the credits for completely different dates/O&D....

Pat

[Jennie]

If you wish to cancel your outgoing or return flight, JetBlue not only issues a credit good for a year but allows you to use the credit to purchase a ticket for anyone else, or to transfer the credit into the "True Blue" (frequent flyer) account of another person of your choice. The fee for doing this is around $25..

You can stand-by for an earlier flight on the date you have reserved, without any extra charge.

If you still wish to make the trip but need to change to a different date, you must pay the $25. cancellation fee and the difference in the fare. However, I have found that they are quite accommodating in waiving the change fee if you have a complelling reason, or if they see that you will be paying a fare difference. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Once you make a reservation, check back at the web site often. If a lower price is subsequently posted for the exact same date and flight, you call JetBlue and they will issue a credit (good for one year with same terms as noted above). They will do this repeatedly, even if the price drop is only $10.. I booked tickets for a Saturday morning flight in February from Ft. Lauderdale to NYC. This is a very busy time due to all the people returning from cruises. I booked at $219. per person one way to assure the flight and seats I wanted. I fully expected price reductions along the way. Over the next 6 months, I called in and received credits of $29. plus 10 plus 25. per person, bringing the cost down to what I thought was a good deal. Then 3 weeks before the flight date, I saw a $99. fare and called in right away. They honored that price difference as well. The agent stated that perhaps a large group had cancelled reservations for that flight. So I have $109. credit for each of 4 people which we plan to use for our flights to Aruba in February 2007.

My daughter was on JetBlue's first flight to Buffalo years ago, as a college student. She and her college friends used the airline extensively to travel back and forth between NYC and Buffalo or Syracuse. I have used Jet Blue for numerous flights to California, Las Vegas, and Florida. The price has always been the lowest available and the service is top notch. Just love that airline!

[camachinist]

Another B6 plus is you sometimes get to watch yourself on live satellite TV....

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,170076,00.html




Pat

[Jennie]

But they did land safely and have never had any other accidents. Within days days of 9/11 they re-inforced all of the doors to the cockpits. It took the traditional airlines months to accomplish this. This airline is small enough and concerned enough to keep make safety their #1 priority. They also treat their employees and customers very well.

And no, I have no ulterior motive or connection to this airline. I'm just a very satisfied customer.

[camachinist]

Absolutely.... B6 is a great airline and did an outstanding job of handling the entire situation at LAX. I just wish they flew to and from where we are and need to go. Also, not too many of the LCC's offer free (as in award) first class (or even economy) tickets to Asia, Europe and Australia

Pat

[Liz Wolf-Spada]

I wish Southwest would let you transfer to an earlier flight. We often end up in airports for hours, but we are always told we would have to pay the current cost of that flight, which is always more than we paid. Other than that they are great, you can go to the travel center button and change flights, you get the credit back and can use it for any flight for yourself or someone else that you pay for.
Liz

[Luanne]

Originally Posted by Liz Wolf-Spada

I wish Southwest would let you transfer to an earlier flight.

I've done this several times, with no change in fare. I've also tried to do it a couple of other times and the fare would have gone up. Just depends.