About 9 in 10 respondents to a recent survey say they should get their money back when a flight is canceled for any reason. More than 88 percent of the respondents to the multiple-choice poll also said airlines should enterprise rent a car discounts issue a refund with a death certificate, presumably to the next of kin.
Only one-third of the respondents said refunds should be given when a passenger can t make it to the airport for reasons beyond his or her control, and less than 5 percent said money should enterprise rent a car discounts never be returned on a nonrefundable ticket.
There can be a set of uniform rules for when refunds will always or never be made but there should also be leeway for specific cases where airline customer service supervisors have the authority to consider exceptional mitigating circumstances beyond the uniform rules that warrant either partial or full refunds or some other type of compensation.
It is saying to the buyer that we'll sell you this ticket on the basis that you will fill the seat in that specific airplane. When enough of those are sold, it ensures that the airplane will meet its operating costs on that particular segment.
I'll concede that airlines sometimes lose their perspective and use the tactic to move market-share; enterprise rent a car discounts but not as often as the consumer would imagine. It costs a chunk of money to simply fly an airplane enterprise rent a car discounts from Point A to Point B. Making sure you meet operating costs on each segment is critical to survival. Therefore, the only time an airline should refund a non-refundable ticket is when the flight is canceled.
And in my opinion, they should not only refund the ticket – they should provide some sort of reciprocal penalty for not having provided the flight enterprise rent a car discounts which the consumer was fully entitled to expect – with the exception of cancellations due to weather or some other act of God (in which case, the traveler should have the option enterprise rent a car discounts of moving to another flight or getting a refund).
Documented death is a bit of a quagmire. The dead person won't miss the enjoyment of the flight … and the paperwork involved in documenting enterprise rent a car discounts and refunding the money will be more costly than the value of the ticket. That's an everybody loses situation – both the airline and the dead person's estate enterprise rent a car discounts come out on the short end. But of course, logic rarely supersedes emotion in situations like that.
The problem with documented disease is that travelers will quickly devise ways to abuse the documentation enterprise rent a car discounts process … either enterprise rent a car discounts through false claims or through appeals to doctors. enterprise rent a car discounts And like death, the labor and work involved in doing the paperwork enterprise rent a car discounts will, in most case, cost more than the value of the flight to both the traveler and the airline.
Failure to make it to the airport, for whatever reason, is the passenger's problem. As with a contagious disease, "documenting" that the problem enterprise rent a car discounts was beyond the passenger's control will both be abused – and incur costs beyond the value of the flight.
For exampe, he makes the argument that for illness the labor and work involved in doing the paperwork will, in most case, cost more than the value of the flight to both the traveler and the airline. If its a money loser for the passenger, then why would a passenger spend the time and money to get a doctor s note that to obtain, costs more than the value of the flight . His position is logically flawed.
I was sick in Paris, I postponed my trip by a week, it took one 2 minute phone call as well as presenting the hospital letter to the ticket agent. It was not a major undertaking. Further, an easy compromise is possible. Simply give the passenger credit enterprise rent a car discounts with a reasonable change fee.
But his biggest flaw is reserved for death. This shows how, when someone is so steeped in a position that they lose their common sense. First, having just recently probated an estate, enterprise rent a car discounts obtaining a refund does not impose a cost on the estate. The attorney and adminstrator/executor receive compensation that is statutorily set in most states, so that s just a false statement.
Moreover, he neatly sidestep the issue of a death or grave illness in the family. Yes, there are some scammers, enterprise rent a car discounts but you don t need documentation is every case. Request it for repeat offenders or on high value tickets. Give the refund and gain some goodwill out of it.
What the industry expert enterprise rent a car discounts fails to understand is that its this short sighted, heartless attitude that makes people feel perfectly fine in taking advantage of airlines fat fingered fares and other errors.
I don t think airlines enterprise rent a car discounts should give refunds on non-refundable tickets for any reason. It is a gamble. Every passenger has the ability to choose a refundable ticket, but most choose non-refundable. I have had weather, deaths, etc make me lose money on my tickets, but I knew that was the risk I was taking enterprise rent a car discounts when I got the non-refundable tickets.
One is that there shouldn t even have to be a discussion regarding refunds for flights that were canceled. I don t care if the ticket enterprise rent a car discounts is nonrefundable or not; if the flight is canceled, you deserve a full refund. It s only common sense.
Second, while I don t necessarily think a refund is warranted in some of the other cases (missed flight due to traffic, illness, etc), I do think that the airlines should be somewhat flexible and willing to exchange the ticket for a different flight (with any difference in fares and a change fee).
Third, the argument that highly inflexible, use-them-or-lose-them nonrefundable tickets are the only thing keeping airfares down doesn t make sense to me. Southwest s nonrefundable tickets are the most flexible enterprise rent a car discounts in the industry; you can t get a refund, but you *can* apply the full amount of the fare toward another ticket purchase to travel within a year of the original purchase, with zero change fees. Yet their fares are not demonstrably higher.
Fourth, and I feel most strongly about this one: I think passengers enterprise rent a car discounts should be due a full refund even on a non-refundable ticket if the airline later resells the seat. Selling a seat with a non-refundable enterprise rent a car discounts ticket, then reselling it if the first passenger cancels strikes me as highly deceptive and unethical. If cancelling that non-refundable ticket means that the airplane takes off with an empty seat, I agree that the customer is the one who should eat the cost. If, however, cancelling that ticket means that the airline sells it to a different passenger, why should the first customer be penalized? There s no loss to the airline in this scenario (and in fact, if the seat is resold at a higher fare, the airline could actually benefit).
I don t understand enterprise rent a car discounts why the airlines insist on making things as difficult as they do. I understand the concept behind a non-refundable ticket and that the airline enterprise rent a car discounts needs a certain number of dollars to move the plane from place A to place B. the flaw in that logic is that if I cancel or change my ticket (with the required $150 change fee) there is a very good chance the airline is going to be able to resell that seat to someone else, probably for more money. So now the airline has taken my money for a seat, a change enterprise rent a car discounts fee, and someone else s money for the seat. Granted my money has transferred to a different flight/seat, but the reality is that no money way lost and extra money was made with the change fee. Should the airline not be able to resell my seat then they may have lost money since the seat went unused. However, based on the number of flights that are oversold, canceled, or delayed, it seems likely that the reality is that very few seats would actually end up being unused in this situation.
Personally I think airlines should start using a tiered refund/change system involving enterprise rent a car discounts how far in advance the change enterprise rent a car discounts is requested and if the seat resells, etc. If I purchase my tickets 180 days in advance and need to make a change 120 days before my flight that is plenty of time to resell the seat. On the other hand if it is only 24 hours before my flight, while possible to resell the seat, it is much less likely. Why not have a low (or no) fee for changes made well in advance and a higher fee as you get closer to the flight date(s).
Your logic is equally as flawed. When a passenger buys a non-refundable ticket, the name says it all. It is NON-REFUNDABLE. Whether you get sick or have a family member who passes enterprise rent a car discounts away, the airline has done nothing to impede you from using that ticket. While such occurrences are unfortunate, maybe even wrong, enterprise rent a car discounts you bought a non-refundable ticket knowing that any number of things can happen that prevent you from using it.
You re effectively buying a service, not a tangible product. While there might be some decisions made based on whether enterprise rent a car discounts the plane has IFE, the level of service, etc., in effect you are paying for the plane to get you from Point A to Point B. You re not paying for hardware, which is something that can be exchanged, repaired, enterprise rent a car discounts fixed by tech support. You re paying for services, and, if you choose to be bound by those nonrefundable rules, it s your job to make sure that you can make the flight.
We went to Ireland many years back in 1999. My husband went to the hospital and we had to cancel the trip. But we didn t actually cancel, we just postponed it, took the trip a month or so later. We had to pay something because enterprise rent a car discounts the flight was a little more expensive, and maybe a change fee of $35 per person or something (this included hotels and airfare). Quite reasonable. I don t understand enterprise rent a car discounts all these change fees, it s crazy.
Yes, if the passenger dies -they should get a refund. And for most of those situations the passenger should get a refund. if the airline CANCELS a flight not only should one get a 100% refund, each passenger should get an amount equal to the change fee ($150 on most carriers, right?) AND a credit equal to their cost of the flight. why are they canceling a flight anyway enterprise rent a car discounts (unless for something like weather, I suppose).
In any event when all of you are whining about how much it would cost the airline you are WRONG. The reason the airlines overbook in the first place is because enterprise rent a car discounts they know that on every flight
No comments:
Post a Comment