I just wanted to give America Airlines a good plug in here.

For those that remember, we had a family vacation to Hawaii back in October. Family as in my parents, sister and her family, and our family, so four children and six adults. They all flew with United from Denver, while we used AA from Minnesota. The first day we awoke on Kauai we were informed of the death of my grandfather (mom's dad) back in Colorado. After working out details with the rest of the family back in the states, we all updated our tickets to fly back early to be with the family and attend/participate in the funeral (we flew back 12 hours to MN, then drove another 14 from MN to CO....uggggghhhh!).

The early return date change to each ticket carried a $100 per ticket change charge with both airlines. We all had to pay that fee. The difference was that AA refunded those charges to us in the end. We did have to write a letter to their returns department and include a copy of the death certificate. We sent the letter back in November and just learned that our Visa card was credited last month with a refund of the charges.

My parents and sisters family tried the same with UA and were shut out cold. The only thing that was offered was discount coupons ($50) on future flights. I believe that these were promptly disposed of.

We all recognize that neither airline owed us a penny. The $100 fee will be assessed to any and all ticket changes. We just really appreciate AA's understanding, assistance, and willingness to evaluate each case to decide if refunds are in order. Those types of decisions show that some companies still do "have a heart", and its not exclusively about the bottom line. Our hats off to AA for their compassion.

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--> Born in 1972 and unable to PM or post without an editorial review, ! <--


No moose hunting without a license ! Licensing fees available by request .
Why hunt moose anyway? We're just big, slow, dumb, and make for easy kills...oops.

WOW

Very nice to hear!

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I forget whether UA or AA screwed my family during the Christmas season. They cancelled our return flight home due to "maintenance repairs." When trying to rebook, the bookie said that there were no flights available till 6 AM, and that most seats were already taken. What crap. In the morning, a new bookie, who also hated her job, got us booked into new seats so we could sit together as a family. When we boarded, it was near deserted. The only thing that was nearly booked was the first class passengers. I think their "maintenance" was so that they can close a flight so they can earn some money out of it, despite any customer schedules or plans for the following day (the delay cost me work hours, and my parents badly needed sleep for the workday).

hrmmmm.... good an bad eh?

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Yeah. Not enough views in the P&S section either, so I bumped it over to the dawg house.

For Snipeye's case, its too bad that happens all too frequently in terms of weather and maintenance delays. In the end though, you want to fly on a plane that is deemed safe, in weather that can be negotiated, and by a flight crew that is rested and ready to fly. Also sad that some of the ticketing agents are not "on the ball" with the true status of the flights.

Our case was a change based on our own needs. It was not influenced by any airline delay or shedule change. They had every right to charge the $100 fee per ticket. We are just appreciative that a death in the family is still respected and honored by some individuals and companies. We were very surprised that AA would take this into consideration while UA would not....

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--> Born in 1972 and unable to PM or post without an editorial review, ! <--


No moose hunting without a license ! Licensing fees available by request .
Why hunt moose anyway? We're just big, slow, dumb, and make for easy kills...oops.

Good news for ya. I just remembered it. It's Delta Airlines. Boy was I wrong, but my hate towards airlines still remains.