[Michael Ainsley]

Buyer Beware when flying with US Air.

This is a heads up to all of you who are thinking of flying with US Air. Last March, we made reservations to fly our family of four on holiday to Spain the end of August. Our son had to back out of the trip. When we cancelled with US Air, we were told that we couldn’t get a refund but the ticket amount was good (for our son only) within the next year. Nothing sent to us – no written confirmation of any type. Well, we are now finding out what knuckleheads we are as we didn’t ask what constitutes a year. We assumed from date of flight. When we called a few days ago to book, we were told no – it’s from date of booking and we are out of luck. And said with just that amount of snarkiness.

Now, we take responsibility for not confirming timing but – we cancelled a ticket/seat that US Air resold as it was a full flight. So US Air has been paid twice for that same seat. And we’ve been told “too bad, not our problem”. Seems like a real racket.

[Matt_FLL]

Michael,
I have a headache just from reading. Obviously you would have never let this happen if you knew the “year rule”. I’m so sorry to hear about what happened.

The “year rule” is an industry standard across all airlines. It’s also written on their website, fare rules, and of course, the Contract of Carriage—the agreement that you “signed” when booking the tickets. I never thought it was fair until I read a book on airline revenue management to understand the economics of this battered industry that hardly makes any money. You purchased a non-refundable ticket. There are revenue and accounting implications which result in the “year rule”. Ultimately, this (and other) restrictions are the reason why your ticket was so much cheaper than a refundable ticket with no restrictions.

For certain, I can guarantee that their computer system would not allow an agent to reuse that ticket; it has expired. I’m sure it’s difficult, but try not to be mad at the agent answering the phone. Someone in the Customer Relations department would need to create and write-off a voucher for you. It may be worth a try to send a letter and ask. But honestly, I’m sure they need to draw the line at some point, and since the policy was written, they may be unlikely to grant one. I wish I had a better answer! Please keep the forum updated with what happens. I do hope you and your family enjoyed your trip to Spain and that your future travels are safe.

Matt

[Michael Ainsley]

It was not a question of the airlines having to have a cut off date; it is a matter of the original tickets being issued three month before the trip. US Airline requires you to have travelled and not just ticketed before the one year date of issuance. That what was not explained. We tried to ticket before the one year limit and travel before the year anniversary of the oringinal travel date. We should have read the fine print!!

[stonecold_1981]

I think you are missing the point, Matt is alluding to. The "fly within 1-year from the date of booking" rule has been in place for ages and is an industry standard. You might think that how does a few hundred/ or thousand dollars affect an airline but there are hard economics that force to airline to institute such rules.
I think there are tons of rules and practices the airlines have that are unfair, but this isn't one of them.