rescheduling trip... what if different airline is less expensive?

We recently needed to cancel our vacation (broke my arm). Hoping to reschedule after my next set of x-rays give us a green light.

Our Chase card offers cancellation coverage with reimbursement of "non-refundable amounts paid ...if a physician has advised that making the covered trip is medically inadvisable". I will get a letter from my doc stating this. I cancelled our original flights with Delta, so funds are waiting to be reused, with $200 change fee for each ticket.

Question: What if a different airline is less expensive for our new dates? Is it ok to book with different airline, and let Delta funds "sit" to possibly (but probably won't) use at a later date? After 12 months from booking date passes, then the policy would be refund us the Delta funds? Or do we need to stick with Delta and reuse the existing funds for new dates?

Thanks for your help.

Peg with one wing

Depends.

You, the travel insurance, and the airline have to come to a written agreement that your travel insurance provider is NOT reimbursing you for the airline tickets.

You can't get reimbursed for unused airline tickets from the travel insurance AND bank the unused portion of your flights.

You CAN get reimbursed for the "change ticket" fee though.

Thanks klfrodo.

I understand your 2nd and 3rd point, but trying to clarify the 1st one.

So we need to get the airline and insurance to understand we would not be using the funds from the cancelled flights? Or we have to wait the year period to show the funds weren't used? Just trying to understand how this is typically handled.

Thanks klfrodo.

 

I understand your 2nd and 3rd point, but trying to clarify the 1st one.

 

So we need to get the airline and insurance to understand we would not be using the funds from the cancelled flights? Or we have to wait the year period to show the funds weren't used? Just trying to understand how this is typically handled.

If it works the way our claims have worked, you need a letter from the airline that you did indeed cancel the tickets (meaning, you didn't just let the tickets expire as "no shows") and that there is no residual value./no refund. IF there is a refund (credit usually), with some chance or cancellation fee, then that needs to be stated too.

Any "credit" from the cancellation might not be paid until the year (or any waiting time) is up, OR the insurer might let you tell the airline to cancel the credit as you will not be using them again with in the year/etc.

The bottom line is that you have a "burden" to mitigate the losses that the insurer needs to cover. But any actual loss should be covered.

It sounds like you are doing things just right so far.

Call your insurer, or your insurance broker if you had one. They'll explain how to handle that possible credit, such as to cancel it or to wait the time without using it. (TripInsuranceStore.com was especially helpful for us with the first claim.) We've found insurers very helpful in this regard, especially the first claim, which was a bit bewildering along the same lines you are asking about.

Seeing a physician asap, to get that letter that she/he advised you *not* travel is critical. So you've got that covered!

Who is your insurer. Some seem to have good reputations here on CC, and some perhaps not.

Hope you are feeling better!

GC

Thanks GeezerCouple. That helps alot.

I'm working with cancelled Delta flights and our Chase card coverage. SunCountry has flights for half of Delta's price on the new dates we're looking at... so we could:

A. spend $200 change fee (reimbursable by coverage) and almost $500 (using held funds and add'l cash) to rebook on Delta

or

B. get reimbursed for cancelled flights (now or after the 12 month wait) and spend $250-300 on SunCountry.

Don't want to take advantage of the situation, but if B. is an option, we may go with it.

Peg

Thanks GeezerCouple. That helps alot.

 

I'm working with cancelled Delta flights and our Chase card coverage. SunCountry has flights for half of Delta's price on the new dates we're looking at... so we could:

 

A. spend $200 change fee (reimbursable by coverage) and almost $500 (using held funds and add'l cash) to rebook on Delta

or

B. get reimbursed for cancelled flights (now or after the 12 month wait) and spend $250-300 on SunCountry.

 

Don't want to take advantage of the situation, but if B. is an option, we may go with it.

 

Peg

Sun Country is now charging lots of fees for everything. They are a running on a completely different business model than they were before the buyout last year. They are now more like Spirit.

They also laid off hundreds of employees and forced them to reapply for their jobs with lower pay. Employees are NOT happy and many are just sticking it out until they find something else or reach a service anniversary. Additional seats are also being added to planes reducing the amount of legroom, etc. (This info is from my neighbor who has worked at Sun Country for years).

I've been watching flights between Sun Country and Delta for our upcoming trip to NY and will probably go with Delta. After all the new Sun Country fees, Delta is actually slighly cheaper even with their checked bag fee.