JetBlue previously announced that paid and award tickets purchased between 2/27-3/11 would be refundable for future travel without penalty. If you do make a change, the change fee will be waived, but the difference in fare will still apply.
I said then that it was a novel way to ease people’s fears about booking travel during a time of uncertainty and I think we’ll see some airlines copy it.
And sure enough, Alaska has matched that policy. Paid and award tickets purchased between 2/27-3/12 for travel by 6/1 will be refundable for future travel through 12/31 without penalty. This also applies to award tickets booked on other airlines. If you do make a change, the change fee will be waived, but the difference in fare will still apply.
If you purchase a mileage ticket you can get back a refund of miles and taxes paid.
While other airlines don’t yet have such generous published policies, I’ve heard from many readers who have gotten free changes and cancellations from other airlines by just calling them and expressing that they are uncomfortable traveling now, so that’s certainly worth a try.
Do you think more airlines will match the systemwide free cancellation policy?
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9 Comments On "Alaska Air Matches JetBlue Refund Waiver On Paid And Award Bookings"
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I don’t understand the logic behind this? Now nobody would purchase because nobody wants to travel and take a risk with everything going down, but what are the people who purchased prior to today’s date do, forced to travel?
It’s to drive bookings now. They already have past revenue locked in.
That being said, if you call about a past booking there’s a good chance they’ll waive fees.
Thanks Dan. Would appreciate readers sharing data points about past bookings.
Data point one: tried to cancel a couple of tickets within the window, but booked before today, for a partner that actually does have the flu, and was shot down immediately. The friendly CSR was briefed on this waiver, and wasn’t interested in discussing any exceptions.
Ask for a manager?
And say what? 🙂
I’m hoping that as they get pushback for distinguishing between early and later bookers, maybe they’ll quietly tweak the policy in the next few days.
But I’ll of course be monitoring other data points in the interim….
Does this waiver apply to tickets booked anywhere on AS? or only on AS.com?
Where do you see that it includes award tickets?
I asked.