I'm back with more questions trying to nail down all the details....way ahead of time! My surgery is in June, but my mom, sister, and I are trying to get our flights booked early to get good rates (most important for my sister who's paying her own airfare because she's coming for moral support versus my mom who will be my "official caregiver"). We're traveling from Dallas to Baltimore and Hopkins has said they will write the airline a letter if for some reason our travel dates change (surgery date changes, me not recovering like we thought I would, etc).
I tried American first because we can fly direct and they said they will not waive the change fees for any reason short of a death in the family. Even at that, it sounds like you have to pay the difference in the new fare and the fare you originally paid for.....this sounds completely absurd to me but I spoke to a supervisor who reinforced their policies. So, the change fee is $150 plus you pay the difference in the flights (new versus original). We can purchase the "your choice" fare but that is double the cost and only gets us a $75 change fee.
Southwest was my next choice and they seem more willing to work with us (plus Hopkins said they work with Southwest more often). Southwest said it just depends on who you talk to that particular day but they never charge an actual change fee (only the difference in the new flight versus original flight). On the downside, we can't get direct and it will add at least an hour to our travel each way plus a greater possibility of delays and layovers.
Am I approaching this the wrong way (short of having surgery locally which I don't want to do because I really like the surgeon at Hopkins and have confidence in him)? Have any of you experienced this and what did you do? Just pray the dates stayed? Suck up the fees if they occur? Seems like they'd have a compassion policy or something for instances like this; I don't like pulling strings and rarely even try to, but in this instance I'd like to be able to. Please give any advice you have.
Thanks,
Jocelyn
Topic: Travel Changes (Read 5391 times)