When my husband and I planned a last-minute trip to Europe this summer, I was both excited and nervous. After all, it meant leaving our kids and dogs in other people’s care and driving very far away. But we had saved money for a kid-free trip and decided to go for it.
On the day of our trip, we were just about to take our luggage downstairs to meet our Lyft driver when my husband decided to check the status of our flight. When we saw the word “canceled” on his phone screen, we were shocked. Not only was our flight cancelled as a “mechanical issue” with no further information, but we were not given any immediate information on how to rebook.
We didn’t even receive a text message from the airline saying, “Unfortunately, your flight is not available.” If we hadn’t checked the flight status, we would have driven to the airport unnecessarily.
Long story short, after a lot of hassle, we flew to Europe a day later. But there’s more to the story than that happy ending. You should know that even now, more than a month later, we’re still fighting for refunds with our credit card company and travel insurance providers.
When plans go wrong
When we learned our flight was canceled, we immediately called the airline to see when we could be rebooked. After waiting on hold for over an hour, the airline representative initially told us that the earliest flight they could book us would depart 48 hours later. They then agreed to rebook us on a partner airline for the next day, but it was still a good 24 hours after our scheduled departure.
Oh, but here’s the catch. We live in New Jersey and were supposed to fly out of there, but were rebooked on a flight from New York, so we had additional expenses to get to an airport that was significantly farther away. Additionally, due to the delay in our trip and the fact that our flight was canceled at the last minute, we lost a night at a prepaid hotel.
Our credit card and travel insurance did not help us
Although it was annoying to have our flight cancelled at the last minute, we were initially reassured by the fact that we had travel insurance. And since we had booked our flights using an airline credit card, we assumed the issuer would sort things out – especially since our credit card agreement stated that we were covered for costs incurred due to a delayed trip.
Well, we have filed claims with both parties, and so far our claim has been denied. Our travel insurance claims that a mechanical problem with an airplane is not covered. And the credit card company claims that it only reimburses reasonable expenses incurred due to travel delays. It does not reimburse money lost due to delays, which means we cannot get our money back for the missed hotel night.
How a trip to an airport 90 minutes away instead of 30 is not considered an additional expense is beyond me. But that is the company’s interpretation so far and there is not much we can do other than continue to pester the company.
I wish I had some good advice for people who find themselves in a similar situation to ours, but honestly, I don’t. We did everything right by booking with an airline credit card with built-in protection and purchasing travel insurance, but we still missed out on a lot of money.
The only real advice I can give you is to expect significant delays on your next flight, as that seems to be the norm these days. Make sure your plans are flexible enough to accommodate a delay of 24 hours or more. And read your travel insurance and credit card agreement carefully so you know what coverage you can expect.
Honestly, my husband and I have done both. And yet, we are still in the middle of a struggle.
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