Cancelling Flight - No Refund..????

Locknut

Back in January my wife and I booked flights to New York in the sales. We are due to fly out on Nov 30th this year. However since then we've discovered my wife is pregnant and due about a week before we're supposed to be flying, so obviously we cannot go.

We rang the airline who said that they only refund the taxes, not the air fare. We paid £710 and we would only be refunded £250. We also hadn't taken out travel insurance as we thought it was too early and we would have taken it out nearer the time of the holiday. THe only option they gave us was to change the booking and pay £90 admin plus the cost of the difference.... and we only have until January 17th 2011 to actually use the tickets.... which means instead of a 1 week old we'd be taking a 2 month old... not ideal as you can imagine...!

We paid for these flights on our credit card.....are we able to obtain a refund through the credit card company? Please can someone explain a way out ?????? :embarasse

withabix

You probably won't like this answer, but...

You took several risks (both in buying your ticket and.... ) as follows:

You bought a cheap, non-flexible ticket and decided not to buy insurance at the time.

If you had bought a flexible ticket, you could have cancelled it and got a full refund.

You won't be able to claim from your credit card company, as the problem is wholly of your making.

The airline offered you a fair alternative, which was probably over and above the restrictions on your tickets.

Nothing can be done here, sorry. Neither the credit card company nor the airline made your wife pregnant.

stephb34

Why did you think it was too early to purchase insurance, its never too early, insurance should be bought when the holiday is purchased as like you've found out you never know what might happen. I dont suppose on these tickets you can do a name change so i think you'll have to think yourself lucky you can get as much as £250 back, sorry its not the answer you wanted.

Locknut

Ok thanks for your replys, I was just making sure what they were saying was correct I guess its the price you pay for thinking it will be ok. booking forign holidays aint my forte.
No steph they wont do a name change I had a mate who wanted the tickets too.

Alt

Any chance you can go to NY earlier this year? It might cost more but think of it as a last holiday before a child changes your whole life priorities (assuming it is your first child )

nikki33

I doubt that travel insurance would have paid out anyway just because your wife found out she was pregnant. From their point of view, it is something that is avoidable unlike if you were suddenly taken ill or had an accident making you unable to go.

paulofessex

Alt wrote: »

Any chance you can go to NY earlier this year? It might cost more but think of it as a last holiday before a child changes your whole life priorities (assuming it is your first child )

Thats a good idea.

cranezoe

I'd move the dates forward and go before the cut off point for flying in pregnancy

diable

cranezoe wrote: »

I'd move the dates forward and go before the cut off point for flying in pregnancy

I'd buy medical insurance just in case baby decides to turn up in NY ;p

stoneman

I would like to thank everyone for being so kind to the OP. Too often on here they would have received continuous snide remarks about aspects of the situation. Instead it seems you have come up with good ideas and left it at that. Well done:T:T

conradmum

nikki33 wrote: »

I doubt that travel insurance would have paid out anyway just because your wife found out she was pregnant. From their point of view, it is something that is avoidable unlike if you were suddenly taken ill or had an accident making you unable to go.

I agree. I don't think you can insure yourself against pregnancy. However, OP, I hope you have now taken out insurance anyway against the many other things between now and when you do hopefully, finally, take your holiday.

When travelling with babies, generally the younger they are the easier it is. You might find you can still have a pretty good holiday with a two month old (and it may be the last one you have for a while. )

Congratulations, by the way!