I have been putting off on writing this for a few days due to the fact that all things COVID-19 (Coronavirus) are changing so rapidly! With that said, here is the latest information I have gathered about cancellations and / or changes to any airline travel you may have booked.
Most, if not all airlines are doing something to help customers out, but unfortunately, some are doing less than others. Delta seems to be the most generous with the policies, in which I am not surprised!
Keep in mind, airlines are doing a lot to keep us safe! Contrary to public myth, airlines do have FABULOUS air filtration systems that rival those of hospitals, etc. Airlines are also doing so much as far as cleaning goes, so flying is safer than you think!
I will talk about the 7 main US based airlines, and link to their respective pages on the virus.
American Airlines
American seems to be a little on the stingy side about changes. Flights have to be booked by a certain date, etc , etc.
Delta Airlines
Delta seems to be the most generous with their policies. This is par for the course for Delta! Seems like they have a pretty much open ended change / cancellation policy! Way to go Delta!
United Airlines
United is sort of copying American (AA), not surprised at this at all. Seem to have many rules and convoluted policies, making it difficult to understand. I have also been hearing chatter online that united keeps changing the policy for the worse without notice!
Southwest Airlines
As many of you already know, southwest is always very generous and free for many changes and cancellations. So nothing really changes for them!
JetBlue
JetBlue seems to be a little more generous than some of the others! I have never flown them but they seem to always rate up towards the top as far as customer satisfaction and ratings go!
Alaska Airlines
Alaska Airlines seem to be a little less flexible with many rules etc. I am surprised at this, as they usually are pretty generous!
Wrap-Up
Moral to this post is that most airlines have some type of policy or another in response to the current situation! I am assuming, even with the more convoluted or less generous ones, if you were to push, you’d probably get it waived!
Use good judgment when deciding to travel or not. I have a trip planned for May, to Dubai, and Abu Dhabi for my birthday, but have put off at least 2 trips before that.
I hope airlines decide to put on hold elite qualification requirements, or just go ahead and extend everyone for another year. I doubt that will happen, but who knows! One of the bloggers I follow and respect so much, Rene, wrote about it here!
If you have any questions, please respond below!
Thanks for reading, and PLEASE TRAVEL MORE! (responsibly)
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