Many travelers whose vacations have been canceled due to the COVID pandemic have had to understand their airlines’ policies and ensure they can receive a refund or at the very least a credit for future travel.
The loans that most airlines gave had hard deadlines, saying that you had to travel by a certain date in the future or you would lose the loan.
But sometimes life gets in the way, leaving travelers with little choice but to lose hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in credits for flights that, for many reasons, didn’t work out with their plans.
That’s what happens to Jim and Roseanne Holt.
“We had a trip planned to Punta Cana on April 7, 2021 for our 25th wedding anniversary on American Airlines,” said Jim Holt. “We canceled because at the time there was a lot of COVID down there.”
And at that time, American gave the couple a $715.70 flight credit. The Cape May County couple would have until March 31, 2022, to travel, the airline said.
The American later extended the loan. The Holts had until Sept. 30 to book the trip, which had to be completed by Dec. 31, 2022. The loan did not allow them to book flights further into the future, the documents show.
But last fall, Roseanne Holt, who has multiple sclerosis, had inflammation. It started with daily stiffness in the legs and progressed to weakness behind the knees and in the hip joints, her husband said.
“The pain and weakness prevent her from sitting, standing or walking for long periods of time,” said Jim Holt, noting that she sometimes has to rely on a walker.
“Her doctor has tried a number of drugs that haven’t reached their potential yet,” he said, noting that one drug she started in January 2022 took six months to two years to fully take effect.
Because of her symptoms, her doctor does not want her to travel for at least the next six months, according to the doctor’s letter.
Realizing that this would affect their ability to book tickets and travel for the rest of the year, the Holts contacted Travelocity, the service they used to book the original tickets, on July 18.
“I was told there was nothing they could do,” Jim Holt said, adding that he was told to contact American Airlines directly.
Holt said he contacted the airline.
“They didn’t address the issue, but they gave us 5,000 free miles,” he said.
On September 9, a representative told him to contact the company through its online refund portal.
“We explained the situation and provided the necessary documentation,” including a letter from his wife’s neurologist, Holt said.
The reply from America arrived on September 26, a few days before the trip was to be booked.
“After reviewing the submitted documentation, it was determined that the request does not meet our exemption requirements,” he said, noting that the credit will still be subject to current booking and travel deadlines.
Unsure what to do next, the Holts asked Bamboozled for help.
We asked American and Travelocity to consider the request, and a short time later, Jim Holt received a call from American. Shortly thereafter, they each received an email confirming that an exception had been made and that they would receive a one-year credit extension.
“It was as if no one listened to her plight. Basically, they kept smoking her, telling her she was sorry,” Jim Holt said. “After you got involved, America Airlines finally did the right thing.”
We asked the American about his decision.
“We are delighted to be able to offer the Holt family a one-time exception to our travel credit extension policies so they can take a much-anticipated trip to celebrate more than 25 years of marriage,” a spokeswoman said.
If you have travel credits that you haven’t used yet, be sure to pay attention to the expiration dates and hopefully you will be able to use them in time. We assume that once the calendar year is over, there may be many others in the same position, and “one-off” exceptions may be hard to come by.
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Karin Price Mueller can be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KPMueller.
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