DELTONA, Fla. — A Deltona woman called Action 9 after she felt burned by the toughest airline refund policy in the country.
Six weeks before an Allegiant Air flight, Dorothy Grenier found out her husband had Stage 3 cancer and faced immediate and extensive surgery, but there was no way to escape for their annual flight to a Maine vacation.
Grenier called Allegiant, the major carrier at Orlando-Sanford Airport, to cancel.
"Being a month-and-a-half in advance of our flights, I thought they would be willing to work with us," she said.
Instead, Allegiant said it had a no refund policy. Grenier could not even pay a fee to use the tickets later, which is the case on almost every other airline.
Allegiant said it could send her a voucher for the prepaid baggage and seat assignment fees she already paid. However, the tickets were a total loss of nearly $300.
The airlines no re-booking policy started in late 2014 and has left many customers thinking those cheap tickets really cost them.
A year ago, a woman in Orange County and a DeLand man contacted Action 9 after each had a sudden illness in their families. Both cancellations cost the customers $300.
George Hobica, from Airfarewatchdog.com, calls it a rare policy in the industry.
Action 9's Todd Ulrich took Grenier's case to Allegiant, and the airline said cancelations drive up its discount fares. They said the no refund policy is disclosed on tickets.
Grenier claims she didn’t know anything about the policy until it was too late.
"I was dumbfounded that they could treat someone like that," she said.
Allegiant sells travel protection so a customer could re-book for a $75 fee.
Action 9 also advised Grenier to dispute the charge with her credit card company, which could take up the issue with the airline.
Allegiant Air's response:
To keep our airfares low for all and because we do not overbook our flights, all Allegiant tickets are non-refundable.
We do understand the unexpected can occur, which is why all passengers are offered the option to purchase Tripflex travel protection when booking their flight, allowing passengers to make a change or cancelation to their itinerary at no fee.
Our records indicate that the Greniers opted not to purchase Tripflex, in which case, any changes or cancelations will incur a $75 per passenger per segment fee.
WFTV
