U.S. airlines waiving change fees for Italy travel for travel in March & April due to coronavirus spread

Delta and United announced today that they will waive charge fees for Italy travel scheduled in the next 1-2 months due to the coronavirus spread impacting northern Italy. Delta is offering customers with flights booked on or before February 26 to or from Italy between now and March 15, 2020 the ability to make a one-time change without any penalties; however, the trip must be rescheduled no later than April 3rd. United only is covering flights to northern Italy, including Bologna, (BLQ), Genoa (GOA), Milan (BGY, LIN and MXP), Trieste (TRS), Turin (TRN), Venice (VCE) and Verona (VRN). United’s dates are more lenient though, allowing changes on trips booked through April 30th. More information is available on each airline’s website.

Neither airline has gone as far as JetBlue yet to consider waivers for domestic travel; however, there are options to maximize your travel flexibility in the US. The easiest is to book with Southwest which never has change fees, allowing you to apply a ticket’s value to a different flight within one year if you choose to cancel your plans due to coronavirus. JetBlue has temporarily suspended change and cancel fees for all new flight bookings made between February 27, 2020 and March 11, 2020 for travel through June 1, 2020. ULCC carrier Frontier also has no change fees if you modify a trip 60+ days before departure, or you can get a refund up through the day of departure if you upgrade to The Works on Frontier which includes free bags and seat assignments. Given the uncertainty around the coronavirus situation, it has become more important to consider each airline’s change policies given that travel insurance generally doesn’t cover this type of event.

Submitted February 27, 2020 at 07:17PM by sanfrantokyotron https://ift.tt/3a5Plw6