Air France - non refund of flight cancellation

[mcvey123]

Hi all, please help.

 

My hubby and I booked a holiday with disneyland paris for the first week of July and booked flights to charles de gaule with air France separately, costing 647.00 (205 of which are airport taxes)

 

Then I find out that I am pregnant and at the time of travel, I will be 28 / 29 weeks pregnant. I still intend to go.

 

Then i go for my 12 week scan today and find out that I am carrying twins, and am advised that later in the pregnancy, it would be unwise to travel too far incase of premature labour etc and complications.

 

So we have decided not to travel.

 

I rang Air France and explained the circumstances but they are only able to refund the airport taxes, leaving them with a massive profit of £400+

 

They also say it is safe to fly until the ninth month of pregnancy. (I didn't know that telephone operators were so well medically trained)

 

At the time of booking I unaware that the tickets were non-refundable.

 

I have chosen to do nothing until I get advice. Air France say to claim on travel insurance, what a joke, we all know that travel insurance doesn't cover pregnancy.

 

What should I do?

[StudentInDebt]

How did you book the flights?

[mcvey123]

I booked them online. There was nothing on the site to say that they would be non-refundable. In fact, it says that if the ticket is issued by Air France, and begins with a code 057, it is non refundable. Which you cannot find out until they arrive in the post!

[StudentInDebt]

Not that it changes your problem but the Air France website does clearly tell you that the flights you have booked are non-refundable, following selecting your flights a summary page is displayed and next to the price is a link to click titled pricing conditions. If you click on it you it explains that the fares are either changable or non-changable or refundable or non-refundable.

 

There have been similar instances to yours on these forums, from memory I don't think anyone has received a full refund for a cancelled fare, as I understand it your problem is prooving that they have resold your seat thus mitigating their losses.

[Bookworm]

They also say it is safe to fly until the ninth month of pregnancy.

For info, nothing to do with "safe to fly", all to do with airlines regulations, which are set in stone. And 9th month is stretching it, airlines reg state 36 weeks, although some airlines will have an earlier cut-off period.

 

we all know that travel insurance doesn't cover pregnancy.

 

You are mistaken. Travel insurance will cover you in the case of cancellation related to pregnancy if you didn't know you were pregnant at the time of booking, and your GP advises it would be unwise to travel due to possible future complications. So get confirmation from your GP in writing that he has advised you not to travel because of the above, and claim on your insurance.

[mcvey123]

Well, the thing is that it says that some economy flights are non refundable, surely with 4 months notice and ample opportunity to resell the tickets, a bit of lee-way might have been possible..

 

As for travel insurance, the post office is the only one to cover that particular period, most others do not cover from 28 wks onwards, the post office cover up to 32 weeks. Of course, you would have to know this and expect to have complications to keep this in mind.

[Bookworm]

But you are not claiming for assistance whilst pregnant, you are cancelling on medical advice due to possible complications during pregnancy. You are not 28 weeks pregnant now!

 

How many weeks you'll be pregnant by the time you are due to travel is irrelevant at this point. After all, complications could happen at any time, and if your GP is ready to confirm that he doesn't want you to fly during pregnancy, that's it. As long as you didn't know you were pregnant when you booked, and were not aware of any possible complications when you took insurance (which you wouldn't, if you didn't know you were pregnant!), then there is no reason why the insurance shouldn't cover.

[mcvey123]

Aw well, I will get the taxes back ok anyway and claim the rest on the insurance - it is not worth stressing about, that is what travel insurance is for!

 

Thanks anyway.