cant fly due to operation, can I get a refund?

tjc28

Hi,
I was due to fly to Germany with Aer Lingus in March but I've been scheduled for an operation on the day of the flight. Now I've no travel insurance and I'm wondering would Aer Lingus accept a note from my doctor and refund the price of the ticket. And if not, what can I do with the flight?
Many thanks,

Iron Hide

Aer Lingus (and most if not all airlines) only refund/exchange tickets in the event of a problem on their end. I highly doubt you'll be refunded or have the tickets swapped with out a charge.

mikedragon32

Best you can do is get your taxes back, but they'll hit you with an admin charge which may well make it not worth your while.

tjc28

tjc28 wrote: »

Hi,
I was due to fly to Germany with Aer Lingus in March but I've been scheduled for an operation on the day of the flight. Now I've no travel insurance and I'm wondering would Aer Lingus accept a note from my doctor and refund the price of the ticket. And if not, what can I do with the flight?
Many thanks,

You can change the dates for 35 euro change fee each way

tjc28

Thanks folks,
looks like I'll just let a friend pay the 100euro change of name fee and I'll have to lose my own flight cost
mental note : renew my travel insurance in the future

Unshelved

If you booked your flight with a credit card then you might be able to get a refund through them.

tjc28

Really? I didn't know that. I'll suss that out this afternoon. Thanks.

BuffyBot

Unshelved wrote: »

If you booked your flight with a credit card then you might be able to get a refund through them.

Absolute nonsense. Credit card companies can only claim the money back in the cause of fraud, company going bust or faulty items etc.

Falling sick and being unable to fly does not come into this, and the bank (even if it did entertain trying to claim the money back) would lose the attempt to charge the amount back.

cruhoortwunk

BuffyBot wrote: »

Absolute nonsense. Credit card companies can only claim the money back in the cause of fraud, company going bust or faulty items etc.

Falling sick and being unable to fly does not come into this, and the bank (even if it did entertain trying to claim the money back) would lose the attempt to charge the amount back.

A lot of Credit cards have travel insurance included for flights purchased with that card though.
Definitley worth checking you cc terms booklet to check if your specific card includes it

BuffyBot

The travel insurance included on cards (which I think most of the banks have removed) is not "travel insurance" as we understand it as a stand alone product which covers stuff like this - it's a common misconception. This is due to the fact that it sounded good, but cost banks absolutely nothing because it was so ridiculously limited in scope that unless you died in a flaming fireball of an airline crash, you had little hope of getting anything as it literally covered your *travel* - as in from the point you stepped on the plane to the point you stepped off.

Unless you have the likes of an Amex card, which offers proper comprehensive travel insurance your SOL on this kind of event.