COVID-19 Air Travel Updates- What if your booked flight is not operating ?

Many airlines are giving waiver of cancellation charges for flights booked that could not operate or are cancelled till further dates due to COVID-19 situation. Certain airlines are flexible in extending the waiver of cancellation or modification charges till a future date even if they may be operating with an understanding that some passengers would deliberately like to delay their travel. 

Even though airlines are trying to restrict refunds, offering the same in certain situations only but they are more flexible in offering credit of same value of the ticket booked that can be utilised to re-book till a certain date without incurring any change, cancellation or rebooking charges and even allowing alteration of the destination subject to some restrictions.

 These changes can be done for the same passengers booked originally and in some cases fare difference if applicable still needs to be paid. Each airline has set of different policies for doing so and even same airline has different ways of offering these re-booking flexibilities depending upon the original PNRs booking and travel date. 

One needs to be careful in checking the time limit by when they need to re-book such tickets to utilize their credit amount and time period by when they need to travel to avail these benefits offered besides other things like if they can re-route or if they need to pay additional fare difference, etc. 

In India as of now airlines are offering similar flexibilities of re-booking with originally booked amount without incurring cancellation or change penalty for the flights that could not operate or are not operating till a particular time period because of COVID-19 but they have still not specifically mentioned about such flexibilities being extended for deliberate cancellation or re-scheduling of bookings done till some future date even if airlines start operating. 

Air India recently mentioned about extending this kind of re-booking flexibility for flights booked till 15th June 2020 while most other airlines are offering the same till 31st May 20. Airlines in India are also offering refunds in certain cases as per specific dates of booking and travel, details should be checked on respective airlines website. One must retain the original PNR and follow the procedures laid down by the respective airline to avail the same.  It is advisable to thoroughly go through the respective airline’s website for updated information or get in touch with them to understand further and also visit our website Unusual Escape for more.