Airline experiences?

[ginabeewell]

My husband and I are both Executive Platinum travelers on American Airlines, and we regularly fly AA from Chicago to New York for treatment.

We have been shocked at how great AA has been when we needed to cancel or rebook flights. MSK just writes a letter that says due to treatment we needed to come later / stay longer or whatever, and AA credits the ticket (or part of the ticket) that is impacted.

But now we are trying to make some plans for an end of year “mileage run” to make sure my husband requalifies. Here’s the catch: I don’t know when I will resume chemo, so there is a 50/50 chance if we book something, we would need to cancel it due to chemo.

I’m just wondering if the airline will be similarly flexible if we are talking about leisure travel being impacted by treatment vs treatment travel being impacted? Does anyone have any experience?

The tickets are reasonably priced for the number of qualifying miles we would get (about 15k) - $2k for round trip to Istanbul, in premium economy, and we have systemwide upgrades that would probably get us biz class seats for at least the Chicago to London leg. I really want to do it!!

[KimT]

I lived in Thailand for several years. My experience with international flights in general is there is a lot less flexibility. There are limited flights to start with. Some of these long flights might be offered only once per day. Chicago to New York is a short flight with dozens of flights offered daily. There is a lot more flexibility when flights are offered many times daily.

I would expect any airline to be much less flexible with international flights due to limited flights offered. I once had to spend the night in Detroit when I missed the only flight to Narita offered that day by delta due to a delay in Dayton, Ohio. I would suggest calling the airline to get a feel for now they would handle a need to change an international flight.

[ginabeewell]

Good point about the difference between international and domestic. There are several daily ORD-LHR flights but fewer LHR-IST - and those are operated by British Air which might be less flexible.

I will give a call. Maybe also check out travel insurance.

[AlexandraZ]

I don't know anything about that, but a trip to Istanbul sounds great!!! I hope you work it out.

[Siti]

I think the best way is to book a flexible ticket. That way you can change the flight with a small fee — but of course you’ll have to pay the full fare and not promo ticket. Alternatively I think most platinum credit cards have insurance in case of medical emergencies — perhaps buying with that credit card could work?

And yes you should go!!

[Rock_Robster]

I agree with others’ comments that international usually has less flexibility than domestic. I’ve found little flexibility in the past with operators like Cathay and Malaysia. It’s also good to confirm who is actually the flight operator, as often airline partners’ flexibility on codeshare flights is even more limited.

As Siti suggests my solution has been to buy semi-flexible fares; as long as it’s an airline you fly with regularly then they don’t have to be fully cancellable (this is usually very expensive), but if they are flexible for date and route changes then this can be enough to be sure you don’t lose your money. As an example, Emirates are really good with this - their flexible fares basically become like travel credit if you need to make changes.

Enjoy the trip!
Rob

[horizon]

I don't know about the International part but Southwest is incredibly flexible. They don't care if you cancel up to ten minutes before the flight. You could use them for the Chicago to New York part.

I love flying with points but this always is in the back of my head. I don't know what happens if you get sick and can't make the flight.

[ginabeewell]

I don't know about the International part but Southwest is incredibly flexible. They don't care if you cancel up to ten minutes before the flight. You could use them for the Chicago to New York part.

I love flying with points but this always is in the back of my head. I don't know what happens if you get sick and can't make the flight.

Flying with points is far and away the most flexible option. If you have top tier status you can cancel minutes before the flight and get all your mileage back!

Unfortunately for a mileage run, you need to pay for an actual ticket to get qualifying miles. And of course it needs to be on your selected airline, which dramatically reduces the number of appealing destinations on good fares!!

I did a little research today; worst case if we had to cancel we would each pay a $500 change fee. In other words, of the $4k ticket price, we might be on the hook for 25% of that.

The language in the refund section of AA is exactly the same for domestic and international; and there is no distinguishing between travel for treatment / travel interrupted by treatment. The language itself unfortunately is quite vague, so I think there is a 50/50 chance they would refund the whole ticket based on what they’ve done in the past.

Net, we might risk it. Honestly at this point bigger risk in my mind is getting all excited about the trip and then chemo timing falling just in time to ruin it!

I can’t stop singing They Might Be Giants: Istanbul not Constantinople...

[horizon]

Flying with points is far and away the most flexible option. If you have top tier status you can cancel minutes before the flight and get all your mileage back!

That's good to know! I don't have status with any airlines. I just earn Chase UR points through my organic spend and transfer them to whatever airline works best for me for the trip.

[claudine]

A little while back I looked into cancellation insurances; there are some that will allow for any pre-existing condition (they're more expensive, of course). But not all pre-existing medical condition exclusion waivers cover cancer so one needs to do their homework carefully! We ended up not buying tickets - international, for France, which were super cheap at the time, but I think insurance is a % of the ticket cost, so the more expensive the ticket, the more expensive the insurance (which makes sense).

[hawkowl]

Delta has always treated me very well.