Effective January 1, 2009, United, American, and most major airlines have started strictly enforcing a little-known policy that applies to non-refundable airline tickets. They now require travelers to CANCEL a ticket before the flight date and time if they are not going to make the flight.
Locum tenens travelers—when you know you are going to miss a flight due to weather, traffic, work delays, please call the airline directly to cancel the flight. Attempting to contact VISTA or our after-hours travel service could result in delays. Tickets not canceled before the date and time of departure lose all value. We can’t even rebook you with change fees.
We’ll remind you of the policy on the itineraries you receive for travel to each locum tenens assignment. And as always, we are just a phone call away to help you rebook and get to your locums assignment. We just ask that you please make sure to call the airline first to avoid losing the value of the ticket.
In making this announcement the airlines emphasized that it is not a new policy, just strict enforcement of an existing policy. The same policy applies to international tickets, unless they are handled locally, then current policies will continue.