Another instance of "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."
it seems I say that a lot about the airlines.

Travel insurance and charge back are the two words you need.

How is the airline at fault for her inability to fly? Someone is obviously going to lose money because she couldn't fly and I see no reason why it should be the airline and not her.

Travel insurance, about 50 bucks for a $1000.00 ticket.This is simply malfeasance on the part of the ticket buyer. Why does crap like this make the Web. No one was screwed, snookered or tricked. The terms of purchase are quite clear. She could have bought a refundable ticket or travel insurance. This was her choice.

Travel insurance is what she needed. Unless her tickets came with the ability to switch them out a charge back should not be used and hell the chances of the credit card compnay siding with you if you bought some non-refundable tickets are low.

I can't really fault the airline here. She couldn't make it to the flight. Would you think different if she slept in and missed it?

You can certainly talk about the terms of the ticketing, and how it's not the airlines' fault, but in this case I think a show of human decency and compassion would go a long way towards not only retaining her as a customer, but gaining a few new customers as well. If this had been filed under "Above and Beyond" instead of "Complaints", it would have been a nice feather in AA's cap.

I fly AA quite a bit. I always get the cheapest tickets with the most restrictions. Why does she need a refund? For $75 (sometimes $100), she can use the same ticket for the same flight on a different day.

The airline is not at fault here. Its not there problem and certainly it is bad business to basically allow for a refund for any reason. Seriously where do you draw the line?

@calvinneal:

I'm not sure how much you fly, but if you fly on any kind of regular basis $50 on a $1000 ticket is a ripoff. You would simply never use the insurance enough to justify paying that much. Even if it was $25 you would be pushing it.

@taney71: For some reason, I think it will be a bit difficult to get that kind of deal for a flight from London to Portland.

I'm starting to feel sorry for anyone that associates with half of the commenters on this site. It seems if this woman were their friend, they'd just tell her, "Oh, you have appendicitis? Well screw you!"

@balthisar: In TFA, they said AA would not re-book.

That being said, this is why travel insurance exists. She should check with the credit card issuer she bought the tickets with. Some offer travel insurance just by your purchasing the tickets with their card.

Don't the airlines make an exception for medical emergencies/issues? Isn't it on the air contract?

Make an exception for this and you have to make exceptions for everything, including death ;)

Seriously though, HomerJay is right--just because you can doesn't mean you should. Bottom line is that they can and technically, appendicitis (or any other reason) is not the airline's problem. The airlines need every dime they can get and have no motivation to give leniency to anyone.

Not taking sides, but I'd like to interject something. If this person doesn't fly, there is an unexpectedly empty seat. If the airline refunds that ticket, they lose the money for that empty seat. Except... airlines overbook their flights because they know some people will cancel. So it seems the airline has three options. Refund the ticket, attempt to book someone last minute, potentially lose money. Refuse to refund the ticket, and pocket the money. Or, continue to overbook flights. It seems there isn't an ideal solution here. The Consumerist has covered the problems with overbooking in past posts...

She could have gotten on the plane and then had an attack once in the air. American would have been forced to land in London, costing them who knows how much money, as well as delaying a whole lot of passengers.
And she would have been within her rights.

Or she could do the right thing and miseed the flight to deal with her condition.

You choose to gamble by not getting travel insurance, you pay the price. I rent apartments in Paris when I go there. If I don't show, I lose my deposit. Just because the airline's bigger, why should they (and, ultimately, other consumers) eat the price of your problems?

I get a little tired of people here who want to toss corporate e-mail bombs for stuff like this.

First of all, they should call the credit card that the ticket was purchased with and ask if she has any coverage, second call AA again. If someone you know has status with AA have them call the Gold or Platinum desk on her behalf. If you get a shitty answer from someone over the phone, say thank you and call back in a few hours after you've calmed down. I've done this many times. Just say - Oh I called before about XYZ and didn't quite understand the answer. I just want to make sure I didn't get bad information. Then explain your problem again.

@jwissick: On what grounds would she be able to do a chargeback? None.

I don't think a refund is in order here. It makes sense (and it doesn't hurt) to take every route available to ask for one, but if they say no, that's to be expected. It would be nice if they let her rebook without a change fee, though.

@calvinneal: Why does crap like this make the Web.(?)
"The Web", as a whole, doesn't really have editorial standards. My comments on this site make it on the web, and they're absolute crap!

@AT203: I've never come close to understanding the strategy of airline overbooking [selling seats that aren't available because, well, they've already been sold], but shouldn't that mean they can just put a standby on the plane and not make any difference? Everybody, including the passenger who rather inconveniently scheduled her appendicitis for the day of the flight, is eventually gonna fly with the airline on the same route the same number of times, so shouldn't it all balance out? She's still gotta get across the Atlantic and, IMHO, shouldn't have to pay twice to fly once.

To all of those claiming the company should have "compassion" or "have a heart":
Your arguments would be moot if it weren't for all of the over-entitled jerks out there who think that if they screw up (directly/indirectly, voluntarily or not) that they should be made whole again at the expense of the big bad corporation. The sense of entitlement amongst the commenters here, and really society as a whole, is ridiculous. People take the risks of buying non-refundable tickets without considering the risks, then when it comes back and bites them in the a$$ they scream, cry, and complain about how they are getting screwed. Of course, when they booked the ticket and picked the cheapest option, bypassing those that said "no restrictions", etc. they were delighted that the company was offering such low fares. I'm not sure why the Consumerist keeps picking up these damn stories, is the flow of legitimate issues slow?

hmmm well it does certainly suck for them, but the airline did all they could. they had the plane gassed up with a pilot onboard waiting for her. This is why emergency medical treatment sucks.

If they had say... tickets to a concert, youd never ask for a refund right?

Do all these commentators work for American Airlines or something? How unreasonable is it for a person who can't make the flight due to severe illness - and whose friend/sister/whoever called beforehand to tell the airline as much - to be able to reschedule a flight? What if the person had just called that day and wanted to stay longer? They likely could've rescheduled for whatever the charge for that is. $100, $200? American Airlines is being completely unreasonable. Just offer the woman to reschedule the flight for whatever it costs to do that. Maybe her health insurance would even cover it. End of story. No need for an executive e-mail bomb, and no problem for the sick girl.

by the way ... I don't think this girl is asking for a refund. A refund won't get her back stateside. She just needs to reschedule. Why they can't do that for the standard rescheduling fee is beyond me. Especially since they called beforehand.

I've flown AA a lot. In my experience ill passengers (especially hospitalization) are allowed to change their reservations without fee. Check your fare rules. They will probably say something like "TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE. WAIVED FOR SCHEDULE CHANGE/ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER."

Now we are only left with a dispute over whether you informed AA before the flight or not. They say that it never went into their system. Try to stay on this point, not whether they will allow a refund in general--they will.

Here's the question I have.

Since the person was a no-show, did someone fly in her seat? I.E. The airline industry has such a record for overbooking flights, or the possibility that someone was on standby that her seat could have been taken by someone else. Typically in cases if someone else flies in your seat (I.e. if they call for volunteers to take a later flight), the person is compensated.

If this woman's seat remained empty, then yes, she'd be SOL. However, if her seat was used by a passenger, then it should be counted as the airline selling her seat for her, since she had every right to that seat. The airline should compensate her whatever was paid for her seat-- which ironically, if it was a last minute standby, would likely mean that they sold her seat to someone else for more than she paid for her seat originally.

And ironically, my grandmother ended up in the hospital the morning she was supposed to fly. She was asked by the hospital staff if they'd like anything written up to send to the airline...

@grouse: Hey, that was a really informative comment. If it's true that AA offers a refund exception for illness-related schedule changes, then that throws everybody else's comments out the window. We'd have to see the actual fare rules for this particular ticket to be sure.

I wonder if the airline might have deliberately "lost" the record of this man's call about his sister, or whether it was a random mistake. (This assumes he's not lying, but for the moment I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.)

I love thinking about how its not AA's fault as i fly on their crappy, 35 year old plus MD-80's between Washington and Dallas. The airline with the oldest fleet in the business. They suck. If my company did not require me to fly on their crap planes, I would not. As long as they keep doing things to drive customers away, perhaps this will help lead them to the well deserved extinction.

You should always be allowed a refund if you have a good reason for missing an event, be it a plane trip, a concert, or even a freaking subway ride.

I don't want to hear about the "opportunity cost" involved, or the risk people take when they do business with big corporations who would like nothing better than to screw over the average consumer for more profit. Why? Because it's totally irrelevant.

In a fair and civilized society, unforeseen medical issues should be a reasonable release from contract when the party did not receive any good or service due to said issue. A refund is only fair.

@CumaeanSibyl: I doubt it. It's one of the only reasons to buy traveler's insurance - the other being if the flight is cancelled. Otherwise, if illness was grounds for a refund, a lot of people would be faking it, as it's a pretty easy thing to do.

@Scuba Steve: No you shouldn't. You buy a ticket - you've fulfilled your end of the contract. They fulfill their end of the contract by offering the service. You don't show up, not their problem.

@saltmine: Last time I checked they were selling flights, not tickets. And requiring a doctor's notice and ER bill/report should be proof enough for anyone.

Didn't we just have a post like this? - the one where the guy drove to his destination and expected to fly back.

I'd rather have the rules be clear and simple than CSRs making decisions about who gets refunds based on the severity of what.

If my house burns down or I'm late because I'm feeding ducks at the park - I don't care that the airline doesn't care.

It's not being apologetic to the airlines, it's just knowing the restrictions and workarounds (trip insurance or cc chargeback)

I just DID have big overseas trip planned with two family members. We canceled due to some medical issues with one, and we DID buy trip insurance. Easy refund. Of course I wouldn't buy it with a $200 ticket - but that's the way it it.

Again - to me a simple black and white policy is better than waivers based on personal decisions, which is unfair to many others.

james [www.futuregringo.com]

I had a similar situation in which I could not fly as scheduled due to a medical emergency. AA was of absolutely no help. I was just asking to be rebooked at a later time. They wouldn't budge. I tried going to the airport and talking to a manager there in the hopes that he'd allow me to rebook. He wouldn't do it.

Finally I pulled my secret weapon. I called a friend of mine who worked for AA at the time. He pulled some strings and got a special note added to my reservation requesting they issue me a voucher equal to the price that I had paid for my flight. I was just asked to go to the airport and request it. I had the pleasure of dealing with the same manager who in a very bad mood issued me a voucher per the instructions in my reservation. He asked me how I had accomplished that, I just smiled and said "I finally talked to someone who was willing to do the right thing."

I used my voucher and I haven't bothered with AA ever since.

@Maverickewu: Of course we'll never know if the seat was filled last-minute or not. Even if it were, the airline couldn't be bothered to send this woman a refund or even a travel voucher. I sincerely hope the airline apologists on here are some day in a situation where they need the compassion of their fellow man and it is heartlessly refused because "They are just following the rules" and "It isn't their fault anyway."

@Scuba Steve:
Your assertion is ridiculous. You're asking a corporation to make case-by-case decisions on refunds, which imposes far to great of a burden upon them. If you buy a concert ticket, and miss the concert for a "good reason", why should you be entitled to a refund? The venue makes certain decisions based on how many tickets are sold, and if after the event they have 20% of the total tickets sold demanding refunds, they could (and most certainly would) end up royally screwed. Further, what constitutes a "good reason" to you may not constitute one to me, or anyone else for that matter. Black and White rules that everyone is made aware of (at least constructively) are the only way to fairly operate ticket-based systems.

@Scuba Steve:

You know what, the airlines do. The thing this they also offer tickets at a discounted price that are more restrictive. Most people take the cheaper tickets because most of the time you don't need a refund. If you want to be safe, don't buy non-refundable tickets. If you do buy them, then you're explicitly waiving the privilege of a refund.

Only Fly Southwest. They don;t go to where you want to go. then DON't

Scuba Steve better said than me. I don't want CSRs and supervisors deciding refunds on a case by case basis. It's unfair.

@eelmonger: I believe refunds should be more than a privilege, personally.

@homerjay:
@Buckler:

We can't complain when a company follows the rules agreed upon when the ticket was purchased. You can't criticize someone for NOT going above and beyond.

@AT203: Good point.

@Scuba Steve: You're kidding, right? What do you do for a living? Would you be OK with not getting paid because your boss had the flu?

@Scuba Steve: Gah. Really, you want to get in to technicalities? Yes. They're selling flights, not tickets. But the way you purchase entry into that flight is by BUYING a TICKET. It states clearly in the rules...non refundable. That's why you buy insurance. You don't like the rules, don't buy the ticket.