When my husband and I planned a last-minute trip to Europe this summer, I was excited and nervous at the same time—we would end up leaving our kids and dog in strangers' care and going very far away. But we'd been saving up for a kid-free trip, so we decided to take the plunge.
On the day of our trip, while we were carrying our luggage downstairs to meet our Lyft driver, my husband decided to check the status of our flight. We were shocked when the word “CANCELLED” appeared on his phone screen. Not only was the flight canceled with no other information than “mechanical issues,” but no information was immediately provided about rebooking.
And I didn't even get an email from the airline saying, “Sorry, your flight is cancelled.” If I hadn't checked the flight status, I probably wouldn't have had to go to the airport.
Well, to make a long story short, we arrived in Europe after a lot of hard work and a day late. But this story has more than a happy ending. In fact, over a month later, we're still fighting with our credit card company and our travel insurance company for a refund.
When plans go awry
After learning our flight was canceled, we immediately called the airline to ask when we could rebook. After being put on hold for over an hour, the airline representative initially told us the earliest flight we could take was scheduled to depart in 48 hours. They then agreed to book us on a partner airline for the next day, but that was still over 24 hours after our scheduled departure.
Ah, but here's the problem: we live in NJ and were scheduled to fly out of NJ, but our flight was changed to departing from NYC, which cost us extra money to get to an airport that was quite far away. We also lost one night of our prepaid hotel stay due to travel delays and last minute flight cancellations.
Credit card and travel insurance not accepted
Although the last-minute flight cancellation was infuriating, our initial solace was that we had travel insurance, and because we booked the flight with the airline's credit card, we figured the issuer would sort it out, especially since the credit card agreement stated that we would be covered for expenses incurred due to travel delays.
Well, we have filed claims with both parties and so far they have been denied. The travel insurance company claims that mechanical problems with the aircraft are not covered, and the credit card company claims that they only cover reasonable expenses incurred due to the trip delay. They do not cover losses due to delays, so they will not refund the hotel room fees we missed.
I don't understand why a 90 minute ride to the airport instead of 30 minutes doesn't count as an additional expense, but so far that's the company's interpretation and there's not much we can do about it other than continue to pursue the company relentlessly.
I wish I had some good advice to give to people who find themselves in a similar situation to us, but honestly, I don't. We did everything right – booked with an airline credit card that had built-in coverage, had travel insurance, etc. – but we still lost a significant amount of money.
The only advice I can really give is to prepare for major delays the next time you fly, as they seem to be the norm these days. Make sure your plans are flexible enough to accommodate delays of 24 hours or more between departure and arrival, and make sure you read your travel insurance and credit card policies carefully to understand what coverage you are entitled to.
To be fair, my husband and I have done both, and we are still in the thick of the battle.
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