June 1, 2020
Due to travel restrictions, plans are only available with travel dates on or after
Due to travel restrictions, plans are only available with effective start dates on or after
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Ukraine; Belarus; Moldova; North Korea; Russia; Israel
Jamaica
Jamaica;
I love airline vouchers. Sure, the price for obtaining them is usually several aggravating hours in the airport, or a canceled flight — but then, you have an unexpected free (or discounted) flight in your hand. To me, a flight voucher feels like a permission slip to travel wherever you want.
Of course, the only thing better than a voucher is cold, hard cash. That’s why I buy travel insurance with trip cancellation benefits and travel delay coverage. Trip cancellation can reimburse all your nonrefundable, prepaid trip costs if you have to cancel the trip for a covered reason — and reimbursement beats a voucher, hands down.
Even better: When you have the OneTrip Premier plan, travel delay benefits will give you an inconvenience payment of $100 per day for a covered travel delay. That’s right — you get money just for waiting in the airport, with no receipts required (just proof of delay). Find travel insurance for your next flight.
Already got your airline voucher in hand? We’ll share a few tips for getting the most value from your vouchers.
There’s an art to getting the biggest flight voucher you can. Some frequent travelers advise volunteering to get bumped before the gate agent even asks, so you can be first on the list. Others say you should wait, because airlines sometimes increase the amount they’re offering if they can’t get enough volunteers. Whatever your circumstances, make sure you ask questions before you accept an airline voucher: When does the voucher expire? Are there blackout dates or other restrictions? Here are a few more tips for what to do when you get bumped.
Now you’ve got an airline voucher in hand. Victory! Before you start planning your trip to Paris, take a close look at the voucher and the airline’s restrictions. Here are a few airlines’ voucher policies (double-check them before you fly, as these policies may change):
If you forget to use your travel vouchers and discover they’ve expired, you’re probably out of luck. Most airlines say, in no uncertain terms, that vouchers have no value after the expiration date. However, there may be a way around this.
“Let’s say you have a voucher expiring today. What you can do is book a FULLY refundable ticket with the voucher say 10 months from now. Then, when you find something you want to spend those funds on, call and say you want to cancel that refundable ticket and use the credits for this new ticket,” suggests travel blog Rene’s Points.i Will this always work? It’s not guaranteed. But if you ask nicely, airline reps may work with you. For instance, they may let you use a voucher to pay for more than one traveler on the same reservation.
The gate agent told one traveler that her Spirit Airlines vouchers could be used to fly anytime, anywhere, as long as she booked travel within 60 days. But when she tried to use her vouchers for three possible destinations, she was told there were no seats available for any weekend in the next five months.ii If this happens to you, advises Travel Troubleshooter Christopher Elliott, send a “brief, polite email to one of Spirit’s executive contacts,” explaining what happened. When Elliott did this on the traveler’s behalf, Spirit gave her new round-trip vouchers with fewer restrictions.
People often forget to do this, but it’s so important! If you’re using vouchers from a previously canceled flight, then you should include the cash value of those vouchers in the total trip cost when you’re buying insurance. That way, if you have to cancel the trip for a covered reason, your trip cancellation benefits can reimburse you for all your unused, nonrefundable, prepaid trip costs, including those valuable vouchers. When filing a claim, make sure you can provide proof of payment for the original trip.
Now, if your voucher is for an inconvenience — because you were bumped off a flight or received sub-par customer service, for instance — then the trip cancellation benefit would not be able to cover your voucher. That’s because you never paid out of pocket for the voucher in the first place.
No matter how you’re paying for your trip, it’s always smart to buy travel insurance to protect yourself from common travel mishaps. Get a quote for your next adventure!
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