We had a fantabulous almost-4 week trip planned to Spain & France for May-June, 2 years in the planning. Among the disappointments and angsts was the almost-$4000 spent on multi-city airline tickets for 3.
On April 6 I received an email from AA stating the flights were cancelled and they couldn't rebook. However, when I went into my AA acct it showed not cancelled, but changed to an itinerary which was impossible because one flight arrived after its connecting flight was supposed to depart - this was our trip back home. Flights to our ultimate destination in Spain were intact.
I called that night to discuss, fortunately got through within 5 minutes, and the rep said she would take care of requesting a refund. I've been a bit dubious, checking back online to see the refund requests were "pending review" - wondering whether all flights would be refunded, some or none, since there hadn't been a technical cancellation on their end - not to mention the finances of the airline. Glad to say it took under 2 weeks for the entire amount to be credited back to my card - whew!
I'm still waiting on a couple of refunds which may or may not ever come: travel insurance booked at time of flights, RCI trade power protection policy, and local flights which only offer a rebook which I doubt we can take advantage of within the time allottment, so not too bad.
This trip was one of the mega-trips-of-a-lifetime I've planned, one among over 50 since we started timesharing over 20 years ago -- for which I count myself among the luckiest people in the universe. This itinerary started in Menorca, over to mainland, a night at Montserrat monastery, up the Costa Brava, then along western French Mediterranean, into interior French Cathar country, down through the Pyrenees (prehistoric cave art etc), back to Barcelona for some days, and then home. Two hard-to-get and harder-to-piggyback timeshare weeks, 5 private accommodation rentals, 2 rental cars, 1 travel wifi, 2 pet sitters; each cancellation broke my heart a little ... but each with the thought we are lucky to still have our health - and that hopefully we can recreate an approximation of this trip, and more in the future, before we age out entirely.
On April 6 I received an email from AA stating the flights were cancelled and they couldn't rebook. However, when I went into my AA acct it showed not cancelled, but changed to an itinerary which was impossible because one flight arrived after its connecting flight was supposed to depart - this was our trip back home. Flights to our ultimate destination in Spain were intact.
I called that night to discuss, fortunately got through within 5 minutes, and the rep said she would take care of requesting a refund. I've been a bit dubious, checking back online to see the refund requests were "pending review" - wondering whether all flights would be refunded, some or none, since there hadn't been a technical cancellation on their end - not to mention the finances of the airline. Glad to say it took under 2 weeks for the entire amount to be credited back to my card - whew!
I'm still waiting on a couple of refunds which may or may not ever come: travel insurance booked at time of flights, RCI trade power protection policy, and local flights which only offer a rebook which I doubt we can take advantage of within the time allottment, so not too bad.
This trip was one of the mega-trips-of-a-lifetime I've planned, one among over 50 since we started timesharing over 20 years ago -- for which I count myself among the luckiest people in the universe. This itinerary started in Menorca, over to mainland, a night at Montserrat monastery, up the Costa Brava, then along western French Mediterranean, into interior French Cathar country, down through the Pyrenees (prehistoric cave art etc), back to Barcelona for some days, and then home. Two hard-to-get and harder-to-piggyback timeshare weeks, 5 private accommodation rentals, 2 rental cars, 1 travel wifi, 2 pet sitters; each cancellation broke my heart a little ... but each with the thought we are lucky to still have our health - and that hopefully we can recreate an approximation of this trip, and more in the future, before we age out entirely.
