US Air refuses refund to woman with terminal cancer

[rdking647]

yes she bought refundable tickets.
Yes US Air is within their right and theres nothing legally she can do to get a refund.
But Legal /= moral

http://radio.foxnews.com//toddstarnes/top-stories/u-s-airways-refuses-to-give-terminal-cancer-patient-refund.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. this is a mighty cold exchange:

Landau said the airline agreed to waive change fees as well as offer the family vouchers for future flights.

“We’re trying to be flexible and offer her and her family some accommodations,” Landau told Fox.

“Big deal – I may not be alive,” McKain told WUSA. “What good is a voucher gonna do me?”

Landau explained that the vouchers “can be used by anyone in her family.” :wtf:

[tblue]

2. Heartless.

Shame on them! Airlines are mean.

[HereSince1628]

3. If they let one person do this, it'll create an avalanche

:sarcasm:

every dying person in the nation will want to book with the airline and then ask for a refund!

There are so many of the dying that are flying that this is simply an impossible situation for the carrier. :puke:

[jberryhill]

5. It's common enough that they sell trip insurance for under 5% of the ticket price

[tblue]

16. I know, right?

We can't have a buncha half-dead losers trying to cash in.

How do these people sleep at night?

If I was a supervisor there, I'm sure I would override the charge and tell my manager I just couldn't bear not to.

[jberryhill]

6. “Big deal – I may not be alive,” McKain told WUSA. “What good is a voucher gonna do me?”

What good is the $1500 gonna do her?

[NutmegYankee]

7. Medical Bills, Hospice bills...

[jberryhill]

9. She had medical bills before she bought the ticket

How did she manage then?

I've had things happen when I had a non-refundable ticket, and it is a real pain when that sort of thing happens. That's WHY USAirways, a discount airline, REQUIRES you to click 'no' on trip insurance when you buy a non-refundable ticket - to make absolutely sure you understand that you are going to be out of luck if you can't make the trip for whatever reason. And there are a lot of sympathetic reasons.

But they can't sell tickets at that price if they are going to have to include trip insurance in their ticket prices.

Getting them to waive a change fee and provide transferable vouchers is pretty amazing, and as a PHL hub hostage of USAirways, maybe I'm used to the way they roll, but getting that much of a concession is impressive.

But it is also why they are so cheap.

[NutmegYankee]

14. She also believed she was cured.

Now she faces a painful death and more expenses.

[jberryhill]

18. Most people do

Maybe you are planning on dying cheaply.

But this woman has been at least spared the agony of a flight on USAirways.

[NutmegYankee]

21. All the more reason to need that $1500.

[jberryhill]

4. Because they separately price out trip insurance

If you buy a ticket on USAirways, the checkout screen requires you to decline or accept trip insurance (i.e. insurance against the loss of the ticket value), even on non-refundable tickets.

The fact that they sell non-refundable tickets, refundable tickets, and trip insurance all as separate products suggests that one is free to take the risk that things will change from the time a non-refundable ticket is purchased.

That's what makes them cheap.

They could build the price of trip insurance into the price of tickets and not sell non-refundable ones.

But having waived change fees and provided vouchers, was the rest of the family also planning on canceling their trip, or is there nobody else in the family who can go?

Quite frankly, if I were facing death in the near term, getting a refund on a $1500 non-refundable ticket wouldn't be my biggest concern.

Are they also supposed to refund the purchase price to everyone else who bought trip insurance, which is priced out separately for exactly this type of situation?

[octothorpe]

8. I wonder who at US Air can ultimately make a decision based on their own morals (or whatever)

vs whatever the company policies state. I mean, certainly there are individuals at US Air who probably feel like shit because of this, but don't have the power to do anything about it. So who is the actual asshole we could point our finger at and ask him/her to justify the decision? Or is that the problem, there is no one to singly go to make a decision?

[jberryhill]

10. Doug Parker

Good luck with that.

He spends his free time peeing in the drinks of the top tier frequent flyers.

[octothorpe]

11. Strange urine fetishes.

[jberryhill]

13. The man is a consummate sadist

It's a requirement to be CEO of USAirways.

[a la izquierda]

12. A similar situation happened to my mom's partner.

They had a trip planned to visit me right after I moved to a new state, and then they would travel to Disney World with my nephew. Literally a week before the scheduled trip, my mom's partner was diagnosed with cancer and had to have emergency surgery to remove the tumor. SHe felt okay to travel, but sitting in the car for 12 hours was awkward and uncomfortable. They had booked the hotel near me on Hotwire, or some such site, which was non-refundable. They did not have trip insurance on the Disney trip.
My mom called the hotel here, and explained the situation. They were excellent and refunded the entire hotel fare. Disney was equally wonderful, and my mom, her partner, and my nephew just returned from their rescheduled trip.

My mother wrote two very nice letters thanking them for stellar customer service.

[tblue]

17. See? It can happen.

Where there's a will there's a way.

[michreject]

15. A good compromise would be

Refund the cost of her ticket and vouchers for the rest.

[WillowTree]

19. Actually, she bought NON-refundable tickets.

Not that they couldn't make an exception and all, but she did, in fact, purchase NON-refundable tickets.

Just sayin'.

[GP6971]

20. Did I Miss

something here? OP states the tickets were refundable, but don't see that anywhere in the link.

When I was in that exact same situation 6 years ago, Northwest Airlines was absolutely great...no questions asked other than to supply supporting documentation. Once I supplied it, I recived a full refund. Great airline.....too bad they're not around anymore.

[tammywammy]

The OP is wrong, they were non-refundable. n/t

[tammywammy]

22. The OP is wrong, they were non-refundable. n/t

[tammywammy]

23. Update - They refunded the tickets.

UPDATE: The day after our story aired, we have confirmed that U.S. Airways changed its decision and will grant Lynn McKain and her family a full refund for her tickets totaling $4,200 dollars.

Her story has received national attention, and sparked debate over airline policy and consumer responsibility.

McKain called 9News to inform of the update and said she is very thankful that the company will grant the refund.

She said, "It feels like a lot of stress has been taken of my shoulders."

http://wusa9.com/news/article/177138/77/Only-On-9-Woman-With-Terminal-Cancer-Cant-Get-Airline-Ticket-Refund

[Turn CO Blue]

24. Listen, I worked for an airline for over 12 years,

in customer relations no less - and all anyone ever had to do for a refund for non-refundable tickets in a "medical emergency" or situation was get a letter on a doctor's letterhead (had to be real letterhead and not on a scrip pad) signed by the office OR a letter faxed to us directly from the medical office - stating that the patient had some situation that would not allow for travel in the next 12 months. (Death in the family situation merely required other documention)

Yes, the "documentation requirement" was a bit of a hoop for them to jump through, but it kept the fakers at bay and the people in the real emergencies had no trouble getting their doctor to help them - in fact most of the medical office managers were used to doing those kinds of letters on behalf of their patients. We NEVER denied anyone in a medical situation when the doctor produced the letter saying travel was impossible or ill advised and we did NOT take the processing fee either.

Jeepers. Our refund and customer relations department OFTEN worked with other airlines when half the travel trip was on another carrier to assist in communications (we had inside lines to each other's departments). Most airlines (except for a few) do it this way. The airlines deserve a lot of flak for plenty of bad policy, but in this situation MOST of the time, it goes smoothly for those customers with these types of problems. IN fact, the people drawn to a career in customer relations (not the floor of the reservations line but in actual customer relations) were some of the most compassionate people I ever met - some would have been well-suited to social work or health careers.

Yes, I worked for one of the "good ones" but they're not all wholly bad. Jeepers!

/rant

[marlakay]

25. I had to get emergency back operation

back ten years ago and they reimbursed me but times are harder now.

[eilen]

26. All the more reason for the airlines to refund her

I have to tell you, I will avoid that carrier d/t this story. They went out of their way to be assholes and now that their shitty CS is public, pedaled back. I don't trust them to have their passenger's well being a priority flying thousands of feet in the air. These airlines got quite a bailout after 9/11 and do what? Constantly demean their customers.

[Dorian Gray]

27. After

this was publicized, US Air changed their minds.