QUESTION: Hello Roberto. I bought a ticket through an agent for the flight from Kansas city through Atlanta to Argentina which was prepared for my south America study abroad trip. It is a nonrefundable ticket. But one of the countries, Paraguay, has no diplomatic relationship with P.R.China and couldn’t give me the visa. The main time was to stay in Paraguay so if it fails,I had to cancel all my plans. I canceled the whole round trip flight worth 1400,they charge me for 250 fee and give the rest to me as a voucher which can be used in one year.
All the above information is pretty normal. The problem is I am going back to China in the later August and will not come back in this one year before June 4, 2009(the expiration date). I talked to the customer service before, if I wanna use the voucher in China, I can use that in China southern airline,their partner in China, only in “Coach share”. It means I can barely use that voucher in China domestic flights, which means the voucher is worthless to me.
My question is if there is any chance that Delta will give me refund like giving some of the money back? Otherwise if there is any chance that I can use that in China?(coach share flights don’t work at all) Is there any possibility that if I buy a ticket from another airline(whatever) and I tell Delta, then let them to buy it for me using the voucher? I really hope I can get the 1400 dollars back in any way. Thanks so much for helping and hope to hear from you soon.
ANSWER: Dear Yinbing,
Regarding any ticket purchase, travellers/agents were supposed to be familiar with the fare restrictions associated with it in case of cancelation before conclude any transaction. This include documentation for the whole itinerary. Your travel agent was supposed to check it before confirm your ticket.
Vouchers issued by airlines are non transferable and can not be used on other airlines.
But you can go back to Delta and try to buy a seat on codeshare flights marketed by Delta but operated by Delta’s partner airlines.
If you need any additional information please let me know.
Best Regards,
R. Gomes
———- FOLLOW-UP ———-
QUESTION: The problem is that those flights from Delta’s partner in China is not as regular as other domestic airlines, most of them are just like from Beijing to Shanghai which I don’t need at least in one year. For example, if I need to go traveling in China, I would like to go from Shanghai to Haikou which is a very common flight in domestic China airlines but I cannot find that coachshare in Delta. This is the main type of my traveling so it means I can barely use that coupon in one year, resulting the total loss of 1000 dollars. How can I deal with that problem? I actually have already talked to customer service in Delta, they told me they didn’t have that type of flight as freely as other chinese domestic airlines. I am so worried about that. Do you think there is any chance I can ask them to give me refund instead of this complicated voucher? Or if I buy a ticket from any other company, I can tell them and let Delta to pay that for me. Is that possible?
Thanks very much.
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