Questions and Answers

With the government passing legislation to give $’s to Americans in need, why are the airlines being allowed to keep all the money out there that was spent on flights that now need to be canceled? Instead of refunding badly needed money, the airlines are allowed to get away with issuing “e-credits.” Why is that?

[QUOTE=”Knute, post: 69024, member: 6466″]With the government passing legislation to give $’s to Americans in need, why are the airlines being allowed to keep all the money out there that was spent on flights that now need to be canceled? Instead of refunding badly needed money, the airlines are allowed to get away with issuing “e-credits.” Why is that?[/QUOTE]

The short answer – because people didn’t buy refundable tickets. I’m not saying I agree with the airlines! But that is a choice we as consumers make – cheaper, non-refundable tickets.

And the airlines are refunding some $. I had to cancel 3 domestic roundtrips, all on non-refundable tickets, and AA issued the full amount to me as credits. I didn’t even ask for the $ back. As of now (well, one flight was yesterday), the flights were still operating. On the other hand, an international flight I had booked has been cancelled, and no new schedule loaded. I called, and the $ was refunded to my credit card the same day.

[QUOTE=”Knute, post: 69024, member: 6466″]With the government passing legislation to give $’s to Americans in need, why are the airlines being allowed to keep all the money out there that was spent on flights that now need to be canceled? Instead of refunding badly needed money, the airlines are allowed to get away with issuing “e-credits.” Why is that?[/QUOTE]

Check out: [URL]https://viewfromthewing.com/as-airlines-seek-bailouts-their-trade-group-seeks-ability-to-deny-refunds/[/URL]

I was debating Gary via Twitter on whether stock buy-backs should be banned as a term of any bailout. I do think that the DOT (and whatever regulator the EU has) should demand more customer friendly policies.