Please print this page and keep it for reference.
Proofread your tickets carefully as soon as you receive them
Verify the passenger’s name, “from” and “to” cities, airline, flight number, and date on each flight coupon. Flight times may change, but if anything else on the tickets differs from your itinerary or if tickets for any of your flights are missing please let us know immediately.
Please alert us of any discrepancies between ticket receipts and reservations immediately.
Information about Australia
If your trip includes a stop in Australia, you should have received confirmation of your completed ETA. Please check with your Personal Travel Consultant and make sure we have a copy of your passport if you have not yet received that message via email. It is your responsibility to obtain all other necessary visas and travel documents. Check directly with the consulates or embassies of the countries you plan to visit for their entry requirements.
Information about Argentina
If your trip includes a stop in Argentina, you may need to pay a “reciprocity” entry fee online in advance. Here is the link to do so: https://virtual.provinciapagos.com.ar/ArgentineTaxes/ This fee is a government fee and has nothing to do with the airlines or AirTreks. Passengers will need to check the above web site if they have any questions and/or need to request a refund. It is your responsibility to obtain all other necessary visas and travel documents. Check directly with the consulates or embassies of the countries you plan to visit for their entry requirements.
Make copies/Print Out E-Tickets
We recommend printing out your e-tickets and bringing them with you to the airport. That way, you have all of the necessary information literally in-hand should you encounter any problems. Make sure you have your PDF from AirTreks with your e-tickets handy in your email as well.
Reconfirmation of reservations and flights
We recommend reconfirming your flights AT LEAST 72 hours before departure. Please bear in mind that some of your reservations may be held by our vendors and we are not always notified of schedule changes/cancellations, so it is essential that you reconfirm your flights. Sometimes the airlines notify us of small changes, such as a time change of a few minutes. Sometimes they don’t notify us of major changes, such as a flight cancellation or a change of date. And we aren’t always able to notify you. We try to pass on the information we receive from the airlines, but please always (1) reconfirm your flights AT LEAST 72 hours before the scheduled departure time (preferably sooner), (2) verify the flight number, date, and time of each flight whenever you reconfirm (if you just ask, “Am I confirmed?”, you may not find out that the flight number is leaving at a different time than you expected), and (3) give the airline a local contact phone number (such as your hotel, hostel, or guest house) so they can try to notify you of any last-minute changes. Airlines are not liable for any problems if you fail to reconfirm. You can find most airlines toll-free numbers in the US and websites at: http://www.airlinetollfree.info/
While you are overseas, there are several ways of reconfirming your flights:
1. Asking the hotel/hostel concierge to call the airline on your behalf.
2. You can go into a local travel agency and have them contact he airline on your behalf(there should be someone there who will speak English).
3. Visit the airlines’ website and check the flight schedules/status there.
4. If you cannot locate the flights online, you can contact the airline directly by phoning them locally.
5. You can email us and we will reconfirm with the airline for you.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
Special service requests
If you have special service requests (special meals, pre-reserved seats, etc.), please verify them both on your itinerary and when you reconfirm each flight. Some airlines assign seats only at check-in on the day of the flight. Seat assignments and special meals are never guaranteed, even when specific meal types or seats have been reserved. Airlines can and do change the model or type of aircraft used on a flight, or the available special meals, and/or reassign seats, at any time and for any reason.
Frequent flyer programs
If you want to get credit for a flight in a frequent flyer program, advise the airline of your frequent flyer number, and the program in which you want credit, when you reconfirm your flight. Show your frequent flyer program membership card, exactly matching the name you gave us when you made your reservations, when you check in. Save your boarding pass and the “passenger receipt” coupon of your tickets until you see the mileage credited on your frequent flyer program statement. If you don’t receive credit, make a claim with the frequent flyer program.
Airlines can and do change frequent flyer mileage credit rules frequently, without notice to travel agents, even after tickets are issued. Your eligibility, or not, will depend on the rules in effect at the time of travel, which are impossible for AirTreks to foresee. We will tell you to the best of our knowledge whether tickets are eligible for frequent flyer mileage credit under the rules in effect at the time of sale, but that is only informational. If you have any doubt, or want to be sure, consult the frequent flyer program directly before you buy your tickets. AirTreks cannot and does not guarantee that travel on any particular tickets will earn credit in any particular frequent flyer program.
Flight cancellations
If a flight is canceled by the airline, ask the airline to rebook you or “accommodate” you on their next flight to the same destination on which space is available, or to “endorse” your ticket to another airline. The airline is required to accommodate you, endorse your ticket, or refund the price of that portion of your tickets. Arrangements for alternate transportation on your original tickets can only be made by the airline on which you are ticketed, not by AirTreks or another airline.
If you have to wait overnight or longer for an available flight, ask the airline to provide accommodations, food, phone calls to make alternate arrangements, and any other incidental expenses necessitated by the delay. Depending on local rules and the reasons for the flight cancellation, the airline may be required to provide for you until they can arrange alternate transportation for you to your ticketed destination. Try to get services or vouchers, not a promise of reimbursement; don’t count on getting reimbursed for your out-of-pocket expenses without a written promise on airline letterhead, with a legible signature. This is one of the reasons to have Travel Insurance in case the unexpected happens.
Discontinued service
If the airline discontinues service on a route, ask the airline to “endorse” your ticket to another airline that serves your destination. They are required either to “endorse” your ticket to another airline willing to transport you, or to refund the price of that portion of your ticket. Since a refund of the price of a discounted ticket is rarely sufficient to cover the cost of a new ticket on another airline, it is almost always better to get the airline to arrange alternate transportation — even on a less convenient route — than to get a refund.
Changing flight dates and times
If you want to make changes to dates or times of flights, you can generally do so directly with the airline on which you are scheduled to fly, by phone or in person. Some dates and flights cannot be changed, can be changed only for a fee, or can be changed only through AirTreks.com, not through the airline. Check with us before trying to make changes if you have any questions about the rules for changing specific flights.
Making contact
If the airline has no local office where you are, or you have difficulty making changes or dealing with the airline, contact us directly for assistance. Never rely on what one airline says about changes, refunds, penalties, etc. for tickets on another airline, or on what one travel agency says about tickets issued by us or any other travel agency.
Changing destinations, airlines, or routing
If you want to change your destinations, route, or airlines, contact us for advice and assistance BEFORE buying any new tickets or paying for changes. Most changes of destinations, routes, or airlines will involve having tickets reissued and/or buying additional tickets.
Missing Flights
All flights have to be used in the order they were issued. Flights cannot be skipped, missed or canceled 99% of the time. In rare cases when they can be skipped, tickets will have to be reissued or refunded.
Airlines are quite strict about passengers using their ticketed flights in order they were issued in order to protect their pricing structure. If a flight is missed or canceled in a series of ticketed flights, the remainder of the flights in that sequence will also get canceled.
If you intend to miss or cancel a particular flight, please email us at customercare@airtreks.com before doing so and we will advise you on whether or not such action will affect the remainder of your itinerary and whether or not flights will have to be reissued or refunded.
Assistance outside of AirTreks business hours
Your best and fastest source for immediate customer service assistance outside of AirTreks customer service hours is to contact the airline directly. If needed, you can also contact AirTreks Customer Service to leave an afterhours voicemail message. Please note that we will return your call during our regular business hours.
You can find a comprehensive list of international and domestic airline phone numbers and by going to the following site: http://www.airlinetollfree.info
If you are scheduled to depart within 72 hours and your flight has been canceled by the airline, please follow the detailed instructions below.
- In the event of a flight cancellation, if you are unable to reach the airline by phone, and even if the airline says NOT to come to the airport, we strongly advise you to head immediately for the airport to work directly with the airline to get your flight rebooked. Because the airline cancelled your flight, the airline is now solely in control of your reservation and only the airport airline ground-staff have the information of when the next flight will depart. Therefore, only the airport airline ground staff can rebook your flights even if the airlines website or staff states otherwise.
- When flights get canceled, airlines often recommend that travelers call the airline call center for rebooking or customer assistance. In our experience, reaching an airline representative by phone during weather related or large scale flight cancellations is often impossible. Not only are thousands of travelers trying to call the airline at the same time, the call center staff are not as up to date on current flight conditions, and therefore they are not as informed or as able as airline ground staff to handle these requests.
- Once you are at the airport, please go to the airline’s ticket counter and do not leave the counter until you have a confirmed seat on the next available flight to your final destination. The airline may tell you that they cannot rebook you for a variety of reasons, but in most all cases, they are able to rebook you on another flight.
- If the airline states that their flights are overbooked, or they do not know when their next flight will depart, request the airline rebook you on another airline. Airlines do have the ability to do this, and we have seen many cases where our passengers are rebooked on other carriers to get to their final destination.
Lastly, please note that airlines take over all flight reservations 24-48 hours (depending on the airline) prior to departure and because of this, AirTreks is unable to make modifications to itineraries during this time period and once you begin traveling. Working with airline ground staff, by phone or at the airport, is often the best and fastest way to rebook flights and avoid long delays due to airline, weather or other service disruptions.
If you have purchased travel insurance, review your policy. You may have coverage for Trip Interruption and/or Trip Delay.
Airline refunds
If you are promised a refund, get it in writing on airline letterhead, with a legible signature of an airline “station manager”. Airline staff members often are unfamiliar with the rules of discounted tickets, and often mistakenly advise travelers that tickets will be refundable, when they are not. Never assume that tickets are refundable. Most tickets we sell are NOT refundable. If your tickets are refundable, you must cancel your reservations before your scheduled flight to qualify for any refund. If you fail to cancel your reservations and “no-show” for a flight, you usually forfeit any possibility of even a partial refund. AirTreks will refund to you any amount we receive back from the airlines or our suppliers, less our refund processing fee of 30% of the amount received or US$50 per ticket, whichever is greater.
Unused tickets
If you won’t be able to use some of your tickets, contact us for information on whether they might qualify for a refund, and procedures for submitting unused tickets for refund.
Don’t worry!
We provide this information so you will know, “What do I do if…”. Most travelers never have to worry about these issues. Have fun and have a wonderful trip!
