Airlines still offering waivers for travel to Brussels

Rhode Island marketing official resigns over Iceland video

Travelers who booked trips through Brussels have options while the airport in the Belgian capital remains closed after last month’s bombings.

Passengers whose flights on US airlines are canceled can get a full refund. The airlines are also allowing passengers to rebook without paying the usual ticket-change fee, but the terms differ by carrier.

Customers who want to rebook or request a refund should call the airline rather than do it themselves online in order to avoid surprise charges or fare changes.

Once the airport reopens, it will take time for flights to build back up. British Airways says it won’t fly to Brussels until Tuesday at the soonest.

The good news is that April is a slower travel time than the peak summer months, and there are seats available to many other European destinations.

Here are the latest Brussels policies for several major airlines:

n Delta suggests that customers reroute to or through Paris, Amsterdam, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg. Passengers with Brussels tickets through April 18 can rebook with no penalty — although the fare could be higher — if they begin their rescheduled travel by April 30. Or they can cancel their reservation and apply the ticket’s value toward a new ticket for one year, according to Delta’s website, although they could incur change fees and higher fares.

United says it will waive change fees and any difference in fare for passengers who reschedule a Brussels flight through April 30 if the new trip follows the same route or goes to or from London, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf or Luxembourg. For trips after April 30 and within a year of the ticket’s purchase, United says it will waive change fees but the fare could increase.

American has canceled its Brussels flights through April 15. It is waiving change fees for Brussels trips that were bought before March 29 and scheduled to fly through April 22 on American, British Airways or Iberia. Passengers can rebook to or through several other European cities — London’s two main airports, Paris’ two main airports, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, and Liege Bierset, Belgium — with no change fee. In some cases, American says it will waive any change in fare as long as the passenger flies in the same class of seat covered by the original ticket.

Air France says that passengers who bought tickets to Brussels before March 23 for travel through April 18 can get a refund or rebook their trip through April 18. Rebooked travel must be completed no later than April 30.

British Airways passengers booked for Brussels flights through April 9 can claim a refund, rebook a later date at no extra charge, or pick another destination.

The airline says it will operate flights to and from Liege, Belgium, through Monday.

Lufthansa has canceled flights to and from Brussels until at least Wednesday and is offering passengers flights from Munich and Frankfurt to Liege instead. It has a shuttle service between Frankfurt and Brussels. Passengers whose Brussels flights on Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Germanwings or Eurowings have not been canceled can rebook in the same class for travel before Oct 31.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I.: The state’s top marketing official, who oversaw the disastrous rollout of a tourism campaign that included a video mistakenly featuring a scene from Iceland, resigned on Friday.

Gov Gina Raimondo said she accepted Betsy Wall’s resignation and added that the state would drop part of a new logo, the tagline “Cooler & Warmer”. The tagline was designed by Milton Glaser, creator of the iconic “I Love NY” logo, but it left many people scratching their heads.

Raimondo, a Democrat, said it was unacceptable how many mistakes were made in the tourism campaign rollout and people need to be held accountable.

“As I dug into it a little bit and realized just how poor of a job was done, I got pretty mad myself”, she said. “These were sloppy, just unacceptable mistakes”.

The video was part of a $5 million integrated campaign to attract tourism and business.

The video, which briefly showed a skateboarder in front of the Harpa concert hall in Iceland’s capital, Rey-

kjavik, was mocked on social media and made international news. Embarrassed state tourism officials quickly yanked it off YouTube on Tuesday.

The Iceland mistake was one of several controversies that dominated discussion in Rhode Island since the tourism campaign rolled out Monday. The scrutiny of the video led to the discovery of numerous errors and outdated material on a newly redesigned tourism website that said Rhode Island is home to 20 percent of the country’s historic landmarks — instead of less than 2 percent.

Raimondo said the state was getting back $120,000 spent on the campaign: $100,000 for work by a marketing firm that has coordinated the effort and $20,000 for the cost of the video by a subcontractor.

Many residents also were unhappy about the new state logo and the “Cooler & Warmer” motto. Raimondo said the motto would be dropped because it “seems to not ring true for the people of Rhode Island”.

But she defended Glaser’s visual design and praised how Rhode Island residents have been adapting the sail-shaped logo with their own interpretations, many poking fun at the campaign or making earnest nods to favorite local places or products.

Raimondo had picked Wall just over three months ago to lead the campaign.

Wall lives in Massachusetts and led its tourism bureau until last year. She made an embarrassing admission during an interview with WPRO-AM during the week when she acknowledged she was unfamiliar with Gaspee Days, a popular local festival.

Wall earlier this week said she took primary responsibility for the rollout mistakes. “These are small elements of a large marketing program”, she said. “I know it’s creating a lot of laughs and emotion, but this is a 2-second error. This was not an attempt to deceive people or embellish. This was a mistake”,

The video editing company took responsibility for the Iceland mix-up. The state’s economic development agency, the Rhode Island Commerce Corp, said it shared the blame since it hired the vendor.

Two of Raimondo’s communications officials said they noticed an unfamiliar scene in the video before the rollout but were assured all scenes were filmed in Rhode Island.