Cancellations and refunds with humanitarian flights
Many people ask me all the time how the cancellation and refund process works with humanitarian flights. I’ve dedicated this to all my adoptive families and others who have questions about humanitarian flight cancellations and refunds, so I hope I can help answer them here. Some benefits of using humanitarian airfares include the fact that these flights are refundable, minus airline fines and fees, if you have to cancel your flight before your departure date. Most internet flights are non-refundable, but humanitarian flights are not in this category.
Mission and humanitarian flights, unlike most flights, are refundable, minus penalties and airline fees if you need to cancel and request a refund. These are not a total refund of 100% of the cost of your flight, but they help immensely as most other flights are non-refundable. There are many other benefits of using humanitarian airfares. Humanitarian flights can be changed and usually the first change after take off has no penalty from the airline, so change fees are much lower than changing a regular flight you will find. Also, since humanitarian flights can only be accessed by a missionary agent and an adoption travel agent, you can also expect much better service than using an online travel system to purchase your flights.
The cancellation process for humanitarian and mission flights can take up to six weeks before you see the refund back to your credit card. However, many people notice that their refunds appear closer to two or three weeks after the cancellation has been processed by the airline. There will always be multiple charges and credits with any refund of this nature, and many times you will need to add up the charges and credits that should equal the amount shown to you for your refund.
Sometimes the adoptive family will need to cancel only the return leg of their flight for various reasons and rebook with another airline later. This is a case where the family would be very grateful to have humanitarian flights versus published flights. Humanitarian flights are refundable, even for the return leg only. This is always only a partial refund, less fines and airline fees, but still helps tremendously to save some of the losses that would otherwise have been incurred.
Generally, families who use humanitarian flights, especially for adoption travel, are very happy with them if they need to make changes to their return date. Sometimes there are unforeseen circumstances that cause families to be forced to cancel their adoption travel flights, and when these things happen, they are always very thankful that they used humanitarian flights and not something they could have booked themselves.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions!
Safe travels!
Tabitha Lovell, International Travel Manager
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