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If airlines want to keep their customers, maybe they should make more “one-time” exceptions

December 10, 2008

Connie Fournier finally has her Northwest Airlines frequent flier miles and a partial refund this morning. In order to get them, she had to fight the airline for more than a month, appeal her case to a supervisor, and enlist my help.

That shouldn’t have been necessary. Not at a time like this.

We’re about to have a year of naycations, and that can’t be good for the airline industry. Shouldn’t Northwest (soon to be Delta) and the other major airlines be doing everything they can to keep the customers they have?

Consider Fournier’s story. She bought a ticket for her sister’s 50th birthday using a combination of miles and money. She says no one told her the miles were nonrefundable (although she could have found out by asking or consulting Northwest’s site). Then tragedy struck.

My-85-year old father fell and broke his hip causing a long hospital stay, rehab and moving to a care facility. As his primary POA, my sister being secondary, we have been handling his care and affairs, which are ongoing.

My sister’s daughter had emergency surgery at the same time to remove a tumor from her intestines. My sister is now caring for her three grandchildren while her daughter recovers.

When I called to seek a refund I was told they could do nothing for me, not even a reuse of the tickets in the future or the use of my miles. Nothing! I paid over $1,600 and received nothing in return for an emergency completely out of my control.

Northwest turned her down in writing, too.

We regret you were unable to travel as planned. We offer a variety of fares in all markets to meet the varied needs of our customers. Many of our fares contain restrictions such as nonrefundable with a 100% cancellation penalty, even when an unforeseeable situation prevents the ticket from being used as planned. Since the airfare purchased has these restrictions we are unable to offer a refund. We regret our answer could not be more favorable.

That’s a boilerplate answer if I’ve ever seen one. When Fournier contacted me, I suggested she appeal this to someone higher up at Northwest. I gave her a few names.

It worked. A brief, polite appeal to the airline yielded a more favorable response.

I am very sorry to learn of your father’s fall and your niece’s emergency surgery. I can only imagine how stressful these events must have been. I hope both your niece and your father are well on their way to a full recovery.

Please know I regret you were unable to use your nonrefundable tickets to Italy as planned and appreciate the opportunity to review this matter for you. As you have been advised, the terms and conditions of our PerkChoice promotion are very restrictive. While the mileage portion of the tickets can be redeposited for a $50.00 administrative fee, the monetary portion of these tickets is nonrefundable. This holds true even if your travel plans changed due to unforeseen circumstances including illness or circumstances that were unknown at the time of purchase and were beyond your control.

However, we do realize there can be extenuating circumstances, such as yours, which can prevent our passengers from utilizing their tickets as planned. Due to your special circumstances, as a one-time exception I will authorize a full refund along with the redeposit of your miles less a $150 administrative fee. I will send this authorization to our Refunds department who will contact you under separate cover.

Now that’s better.

But here’s my question: At a time like this, with the economy in the tank, shouldn’t airline be authorizing their agents to do everything in their power to keep customers happy?

The misguided airline apologists who read my blog would probably say: no. Rules are rules. Fournier should have bought a full-fare, unrestricted ticket.

The rest of us know the correct answer, of course. This is no time to be sending form letter denials, and effectively showing customers the door.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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16 comments

  • http://www.scrapbookupdate.com Nancy Nally

    How much would it have cost her to purchase travel insurance on those tickets when she bought them? I know that, for instance, AirTran offers this option right in its reservation system for all of its tickets. And it would have probably been cheaper than the $150 she is paying as an administrative fee. When you are buying a $1600 non-refundable ticket, a few extra dollars for peace of mind in case some emergency comes up seems reasonable!

  • http://www.bonjourparis.com Karen Fawcett

    Rules are rules but there are times they are made to be broken. Isn’t there anything called compassion? Especially when it doesn’t cost the airline and would engender good will and loyalty.

  • John

    I would advise people to buy travel insurance anytime they purchase anything non-refundable. You are making a choice by knowingly purchasing something where you can’t get your money back if plans change (and in most cases getting a better rate). Take out travel inusrance (3rd party if needed) that covers illness etc. especially when plans are in the distant future.

  • Suzanne

    I would definitely second buying travel insurance. You really need to think about how many people try to abuse the “compassion” route. As a hotel reservations manager, I can tell you that 90% of people who cancel have a tragic story, the problem is we would all go out of business if we just went along with each one based on compassion alone.

  • Steve

    Can those who suggested buying travel insurance shed some light on whether Ms. Fournier’s situation would be a covered event under the policy?

  • Lynn

    To all the people recommending travel insurance… have you ever had to actually use it? My husband and I regularly purchased it for flights (though a reputable vendor) – then last year he was found to have a tumor in his throat and had to cancel a flight to have emergency surgery.

    Did they pay? No – they did not (even after we escalated all the way to the VP!). So we lost not only the money for the tickets but the money for the insurance was a complete waste. The BBB agreed that we met all of the terms and filed properly but the company (which is still in business) didn’t care and told the BBB to go to he**.

    So… never again.

  • Carrie Charney

    I would love to hear more details about Lynn’s insurance denial. What was the offending company? What were their reasons for denial? Could a small claims court action work, etc. Sometimes there is a valid denial when a pre-existing condition waiver is not bought….And sometimes the denial is invalid.

    I insure my foreign trips, especially when joining a group tour. I sometimes skip on cheap foreign jaunts when I’m on my own, more out of absent-mindedness than wanting to save a few bucks.

  • Bob

    Lynn-

    The BBB has no power to get you your money back. All they do is attempt to mediate the dispute, and if a mutually-acceptable solution is not reached, they can make that fact publicly-available for anyone who asks. That is all the BBB is empowered to do.

    Tell me, Lynn, did you check your insurer’s BBB rating before you purchased insurance? Don’t worry–neither does anybody else, so your whole episode with the BBB was a waste of your time.

    If you truly feel that your insurance carrier owes you under the terms of your contract, your only option is to sue them. The BBB can’t force any company to act.

  • Ira Rosen

    I’ve had a good experience with travel insurance, so I’d use it whenever the need arose.

    Regarding fare rules – Elliott’s comment:

    “This is no time to be sending form letter denials, and effectively showing customers the door.”

    Sorry – that’s not necessarily the correct answer.

    When is that time? How can an airline price things differentially to encourage either no changes (in exchange for a lower price) or more profit (in exchange for change allowances) if the expectation is that rules are irrelevant?

    I agree with compassion, and have received it in a big way from a carrier on one occasion, but I also feel that personal responsibility is more important than a sense of entitlement. I am as much a “misguided airline apologist” as Elliott is a “misguided proponent of irresponsibility.” Ask for the rules to be bent or broken (and, be persistent if you feel it appropriate), but don’t expect them to be, and don’t get angry when they’re not.

  • Carver Farrow

    I’m usually the very pro-business advocate, but I also believe in compassion and fair play. However, in the case of airlines, the normal rules do not apply.

    Most US business operate under a certain economic framework. One of these maxims is “the law abhors a forfeiture”. Another is that charges should be closely linked to the cost of providing a service.

    Airines violate both principles with wanton abandon. I can think of no other industry that regularly makes it goods and services non-transferable. There is no economic justification for such action and in most circumstances such a provision would be unenforceable. Yet airlines make this money grab by preventing me from even giving away a ticket that I can’t use.

    SImilarly, things such as $150 change fees would be considered unconscionable in other business particularly since many changes can be made online with little if any additional cost to the airline.

    Which other industry can impose an arbitrary rule that requires you to use its product in a certain way or you owe us more money. Prohibitions on back to back ticketing and hidden city ticketing comes to mind and are ridiculous.

    And which other industry can say, disobedience is punishable under federal law.

    Consequently, airlines are allowed to operate under a very special and unusual set of laws and economic principles which means, IMHO, that airlines should be very accomodating to our unforeseen circumstances.

    I have no problem with non-refundable fares. However, I believe that nearly all fares (excluding Priceline and consolidators) should be useable towards future travel, space permitting, minus a reasonable change fee.

  • http://www.ffocus.org MrBadExample

    See folks RULES are indeed RULES and if you don’t take the time to know exactly what you purchased then don’t act surprised when things don’t go the way you want should something go wrong.

    This is where educating yourself is very helpful. Download the Contract of Carriage(CoC) and read the damn thing and take it with you in your bag.

    Don’t be afraid to bring it out and read the portion that pertains to your particular issue. Polite is paramount in these things. But if you’re clever enough you can often get the airline to bend on the spot.

    I’ve NEVER met a rule I couldn’t bend, work around or make work in my favor. Be polite but stand your ground.

  • Henry Mensch

    the trend for business has been *away* from these one-offs (these cost them even more money that they’re loath to spend). it’s very easy to forget that the entity on the other end of the line is a person (indeed, northwest forgot this once with their own people when they suggested that their laid-off employees dumpster-dive to meet basic needs).

    i’ve been successful in getting rules bent when necessary …but i never expect it.

  • Don

    I have purchased travel insurance twice through the airlines and have been denied claims both times for clearly covered events – a black and white issue – insurance companies do not make money by paying claims, they make money by charging premiums and denying claims. The airlines both said it was out of their hands.

    Do any of you professional travel agents know of reputable insurance carriers you can recommend? I’m getting ready to book Dubai and Vienna trips and for March and April and would prefer to have real travel insurance.

  • Alan Gore

    Now that the airlines, by accepting the government’s bailout money, have been effectively nationalized, shouldn’t that mean that we-the-people have some say in their internal policies? Remember that “passenger bill of rights” legislation that got buried this summer? Now that a new administration has been elected, it needs to come roaring back, with real teeth. Let there be a massive crackdown on those silly rules that get encased as “company policy.”.

    Those nonrefundable tickets are a case in point. I can understand that they save costs, but let’s force them to be transferable. For the airline all sales would still be still final, but if your plans change, you would have to right to resell your ticket to someone else. The airline would lose nothing, and the passenger would gain the right to a certain flexibility.

  • Wrona

    I use a site called InsureMyTrip.com to price out and compare various travel insurance policies. There is no one size fits all answer to the travel insurance question – it depends on your particular situation and risk level.

    I buy travel insurance for most expensive vacations, like cruises or my Maui trip earlier this year. I have made several claims for various reasons against different policies and never had the claims denied.

  • Carver Farrow

    @ MrBadexample

    Don’t you find it a bit disingenious to, on one hand state RULES ARE RULES, but on the other that you’ve never found one that you couldn’t break.

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