Will American Airlines lend a hand to Boy Scouts?
QA: I’m sorry about your canceled Boy Scout event in New Mexico.
The tickets your travel agent booked for you were highly restricted, and American Airlines was absolutely within its rights to charge you a change fee and then expire your tickets a year from the initial date of your booking. That’s how it works for everyone else with these tickets. To protect you from schedule changes, your travel agent could have recommended travel insurance or a more expensive but less restricted ticket.
Here’s what you have going in your favor: You have a group reservation, and airlines often will bend rules for a group, particularly a group with a charitable purpose. The economic
I’m writing on behalf of Boy Scout Troop 130 in Morehead City, N.C.
We postponed a trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch for 13 Boy Scouts and six adults because of wildfires in New Mexico. I have an executive order issued by the state of New Mexico declaring an official state of emergency due to the Ute Park fires. As it turns out, Philmont actually canceled all expeditions for the summer of 2018.
Our travel agent has made attempts to negotiate with American Airlines, and the airline is willing to waive only the cost of the change fee ($200 per person). We are very appreciative of this, but this will not help our situation, as the tickets must be used within one year from the date of issue (May 29).
The Philmont Scout Ranch does not open until June, and our newly assigned camp expedition for 2019 has been rescheduled for June 26. All the funds for this trip were raised by Boy Scout fundraising. Each of these Scouts “earned his way” dollar by dollar, and it took over two years for them to accomplish their goal.
We are devastated at the possibility of having to cancel the trip due to not being able to afford a return trip. We have single parents on limited incomes, and this was a trip of a lifetime for all travelers. We would be very appreciative for any help you can provide to us. circumstances of the Scouts and their parents is probably a less-compelling argument, at least from American’s perspective. As both a former Boy Scout and a single parent, I’m sympathetic to your case. But as I said at the beginning, American’s rules are clear. You can ask for an exception, but you should not expect anything.
To make your best argument, hone your message and make it brief and unemotional. You’re doing this for a good cause, and a natural disaster prevented you from reaching your destination. Your tickets will have zero value if you wait for the Philmont Scout Ranch to reopen. Plus, you’re traveling as a group. You can send a brief, polite email to one of the American Airlines executive contacts. I list their contact information on my consumer-advocacy site: www.elliott.org/company -contacts/american -airlines/.
It turns out that another parent had already tried to contact American twice to see if you could get those vouchers extended, so I agreed to give it a try. American agreed to reissue 19 vouchers, valid for a year from the date of issue. Have fun in New Mexico.
Best known for her work on “Mythbusters,” “Positive Energy” and “White Rabbit Project,” Kari Byron is also the author of “Crash Test Girl: An Unlikely Experiment in Using the Scientific Method to Answer Life’s Toughest Questions” (HarperCollins). After moving to San Francisco for college, she never left. “My San Francisco love affair has lasted for more than two decades,” says Byron, 43. “(I have) traveled the world, but I still can’t see myself calling anywhere else home.”
An edited version of our conversation follows.
— Kristen Richardson, Morehead City, N.C.
“With the travel culture of the internet, I am not sure anywhere is truly untapped, but Turkey is an incredibly diverse country that I think doesn’t always get its due.”
Q: What is your favorite vacation destination?
A: Somewhere I have never been. I am an adventurer at heart. I rarely go to the same place twice. That being said, I spent a couple weeks in Egypt sailing down the Nile in a felucca and couldn’t help going back for more. The travel was definitely challenging, but seeing the Valley of the Kings with my own eyes was worth it.
Q: To someone who was going there for the first time, what would you recommend that they do during their visit?
A: If you can handle it, go to the more popular sights during peak heat. There are far fewer tourists. Not sure if I should recommend this but a cheeky bribe to the right security guard can get you to places you aren’t allowed to see. Also, every felucca captain is named “Captain Bob Marley,” so make sure you have the right one. Finally, don’t fall for the ever-popular line, “You dropped something,” unless you are ready for a lengthy conversation or a flirty pickup line.
Q: What untapped destination should people know about?
A: With the travel culture of the internet, I am not sure anywhere is truly untapped, but Turkey is an incredibly diverse country that I think doesn’t always get its due. You can hike ruins and caves in Goreme, find natural eternal flames burning from the rocks in Olympos, lounge on a beach or bathe in a waterfall in Butterfly Valley Fethiye and explore the famous Turkish Baths in Istanbul. While I was traveling there, I slept in treehouses, cave rooms and grand hotels.
Q: What was the first trip you took as a child?
A: My first trip was to Disneyland. My parents loved local adventures and since I grew up in California that meant camping in the redwoods and playing at beaches.
Q: What memories stand out from your work travels?
A: I did a series for Nat Geo last year called “Positive Energy.” We did episodes all over the world exploring how different countries utilize alternative energy. From tidal turbines in China, windmills in Scotland, to solar power in Brazil, I felt so lucky to get to learn about the world from people trying to make it better. I met this one samba band in the favelas of Brazil that is changing its community by making bio-digesters. Using discarded barrels and other junk they find, they build bio-digesters that ferment food scraps into both methane gas to cook and fertilizer to grow food. I watched as an old woman cried knowing she could have a gas burner instead of gathering wood.