Before the DoT reaffirmed that airlines must offer refunds on cancelled flights, airlines like JetBlue and United pushed things to the limits in refusing refunds.
JetBlue went so far as requiring changes to be greater than 24 hours in order to get a refund. It was sad to see a once customer-centric airline like JetBlue fall so far, but that’s been happening for years there as they pivoted from a strategy of delighting customers to delighting Wall Street.
The DoT reminded the airlines that what they were doing was illegal and that they would be hit with heavy fines unless they rapidly changed course.
DoT complaints against airlines have helped me many times over the years.
They didn’t let me down this time either, as JetBlue emailed me regarding my dispute that I opened against them, that their new policy was to offer refunds for changes that are 2 hours or more and that I now qualified for a refund.
This policy has been updated on their site as well.
Thanks to the DoT for keeping the airlines honest!
You can file a complaint with the US DoT here.
Have you been successful with your DoT complaints?
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20 Comments On "Under DoT Pressure, JetBlue Revises Cancellation Policy From 24 Hours To 2 Hours"
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Too bad the DOT can’t do something for us
ELAL!!????
Have they responded to your DoT complaint?
I complained about my elal ticket to the DOT. still no response
Complained about what?
Southwest cancelled my flight for next week, called up and got a full refund! No travel credit! Thanks again Dan for your ‘wait’ advice!
Great!
JetBlue cancelled my flight for end of May. In their email, they didn’t exactly say a refund would be granted. Called but system.ssid not to call if flight isn’t in upcoming 7 days. Will my credit card automatically be credited? Thanks!
Try messaging them in the JetBlue app.
Such a shame that what was once the most customer-friendly airline is now at the bottom of the barrel with Spirit.
So true.
My relatives flew TLV-JFK for Pesach on Aeroflot. Their return tickets were cancelled by the airline. Either Orbitz or Aeroflot is supposed to be giving them a refund for the cancelled portion. The airline is not giving an option to rebook for a later date. What this means is that they would end up having to buy a one-way ticket which would likely end up costing much more than the refund.
Is there any way to force the airline to rebook instead of refunding?
Complaint to the DoT
Hi All,
On a somewhat different note, my family is supposed to be flying to Israel in late July if HaShem helps us all get through this enormous pandemic challenge by then. I’m wondering if anyone has any ideas if the 6 month passport rule will be relaxed. Our passports expire 4-5 months after departure to Israel. I heard it is really difficult to renew passports now plus we don’t want to renew our passports on the possibility that the tickets will be canceled. Any thoughts or predictions?
I had a family wedding in NY a month ago and bought 4 tickets flying JetBlue. Couple days before the flight I’ve decided to cancel the trip altogether because of Covid and was refunded as a “Travel Bank”. Any chances to convert it to an actual refund?
You as the consumer cancelled the tickets= no cash refund. You’ll have that travel bank funds as you mentioned.
i just cancelled my flights with JetBlue in May.
They offered me 20% bonus of Travel Bank Credit if I choose the refund to Travel Bank instead of a regular refund back to my credit card.
Sharing FWIW
Interesting, what did you choose?
Well, I already have over $350 in travel bank credits that will expire 03/21 (that wasn’t extended for 2 years). That’s from another booking (as a mosiac, I’ll book a flight and rebook later when flights go down in price). Because the original form of payment was a travel bank, thats where they put it back (without 20% bonus).
Even though I was tempted by the bonus for this booking, I didn’t want to be stuck with that much credit and chose regular refund.
My Southwest flight LGA-DEN was cancelled and I got a notification that I was rebooked on LGA-MDW-DEN. Waited to call to see if this one would be canceled too, and forgot to call. I called 2 hours after the flight departed, told her my flight was canceled and I didn’t want to be rebooked. She said no problem and refunded the full fare to original payment method.