flight cancellation rights

majormax

Hi everyone
I am hoping someone can help with advice. I booked a flight in January ...to travel in the summer to stay with family on holiday. I havn't taken insurance yet as I didn't want it to start right away. Unfortunately the military have amended the date my family are due to arrive in post (rhis is no fault of theurs but due to the request of the outgoing person to extend slightly due to education reasons). I find myself on a non changeable ticket and a month with nowhere to stay and no family there. Ideally I would want to amend my flight dates by about 3 weeks if possible but understand the airline policy won't permit this. (Was hoping for a little goodwill after years of travelling with them if at all possible). If I have to cancel and rebook I can't afford to lose the original payment. I paid by debit card . is there anyway around this that anyone knows of please? Thank you all so much in advance!! #inastateofpanic

agrinnall

Single trip travel insurance should always be taken out as soon as you've made any commitment to spending money - although the holiday dates won't be until later the cover for cancellation starts immediately. Having failed to do that you're now stumped. Unless you can try again for goodwill, or get the military to pay for it, your choices are either not to go or to pay again and accept the extra cost.

majormax

Oh dear. Thanks you so much for your reply and advice. A hard lesson learned �� I am so used to booking last minute that I take insurance then. Wasn't sure if I was covered for changed with my debit card

Voyager2002

Just for the record... I do not believe that any travel insurance policy would have covered this situation.

If the ticket was expensive, maybe you could start a new thread stating where it goes to and asking for ideas about cheap accommodation anywhere vaguely close to that airport. Otherwise you are looking at a total loss, unless the airline agrees to a date change on a 'goodwill' basis.

leylandsunaddict

I agree. It's purely down to goodwill if the airline will allow changes to a non changeable ticket (which are normally the cheapest fares) which they generally don't. They have thousands of people that fly regularly with them, and if they all thought they could change non changeable tickets because of it, no one would buy more expensive more flexible tickets. Even paying by credit card wouldn't have helped, let alone a debit card.

majormax

Yes I have checked re the credit card and u surname too and you are correct. Limited budget I'm afraid and I couldn't afford the more 3 pensive option ... not that I would call £800 cheap lol. Thanks for all your kind responses ��