Everyone who flies the not-so-friendly skies knows that airlines have become increasingly inflexible and unfairly expensive about everything, from checking bags to consuming beverages.
But this is a case in which typical greed crosses over to outrageous heartlessness.
Jahmila Kelly, 32, booked a vacation from her home in frigid London to the beaches of balmy St. Lucia on March 17. Life was good.
Then she received the kind of devastating news that throws a wrench in even the most unmissable getaway. Doctors diagnosed Kelly with a brain tumor.
Of course, she was told that she can’t fly. On top of that, her operation is scheduled for March 4, just 13 days before the Englishwoman’s much anticipated holiday in the sun.
Though the tumor is benign, the mother of one will lose sight in her right eye. Kelly is in a terrible spot and clearly needs to reschedule.
You’d figure that British Airways, along with her travel agent Netflights, would make that as easy as possible. Heck, maybe they’d even throw in an upgrade!
Um, no.
As Kelly explains to the Daily Mail, “As soon as I was diagnosed in January, I rang Netflights and they told me that it was up to [British Airways] to issue a refund. I contacted BA, but they sent me back to Netflights. It’s been a wild-goose chase.”
The round-trip ticket, valued at $1,114, was issued under the condition that it is nonrefundable. Apparently, exceptions are beyond rare. “Unfortunately,” reads an e-mail from Netflights, obtained by the Daily Mail, “the airline’s rules state that all we can give is a partial tax refund. This is only to be waivered for death of a passenger.”
Leave it to an airline to provide customers with the most tinny of silver linings — in fact, one that you must be deceased to appreciate. Very much alive, Kelly is outraged.
“I am disgusted,” she tells MailOnline. “I feel the travel industry should be aimed at delivering and helping the customers, and I don’t think I am getting that experience. I have nerve seizures, headaches, eye pain and nausea. I can’t believe you literally have to be dead for them to even consider a refund.”
British Airways claims to be “investigating this case” but corporate wordplay does nothing for the distraught Kelly. Natalie Hughes, a close friend, tells MailOnline, “Dragging out this process just causes further stress and worry, which is detrimental to her health.”