If your cancellation can’t be processed online, be aware that the phone lines are extremely busy. So once your dates qualify for the waiver, don’t wait until the last moment to cancel.
Here are two examples
BASIC ECONOMY FARE
Basic economy fare was never supposed to be available for
cancellations or refunds. As a result, online reservation systems may not allow you to cancel your flight online. My sister-in-law wasn’t able to request a cancellation of her Delta basic economy fare online even though April travel dates were waived and she couldn’t get through on the phone line last night. I’m assuming all folks who booked basic economy fares (at least on Delta) will have to call in to process their waiver.
CANCELLATIONS that must be processed via Chase Ultimate Rewards
I booked my April flight on United. United Airlines is not allowing online changes for folks who booked their flight through Chase Ultimate Reward which uses Expedia (
link). The Chase portal currently requires customers to call to process their cancellation. We decided to cancel our April trip this week so I haven’t tried calling yet. However I received the following email from Chase last night
We know many of you are facing long wait times when trying to contact us about adjusting your travel plans because of COVID-19. We apologize.
As always, we follow the policies of our partners, which means a credit, refund or change is at the discretion of the airline, hotel, cruise line or other travel provider.....
We understand your feeling of urgency, but we can serve you better when you wait to call us if:
• You are not starting your trip within three days
• You trip isn’t covered by a specific flexible change policy offered through the partner
We are also working with our travel partner Expedia to launch other self-service cancellation options soon. We are addressing individual cases and will work with customers who can’t reach us right now.