American extends coronavirus fee waiver as global cases rise

American Airlines has extended change fee waivers to March 31 in a bid to convince customers to keep flying during the coronavirus epidemic. The airline said it wanted to give customers additional flexibility in light of the concerns about COVID-19. “Customers will have even more flexibility since any ticket purchased by March 31 will not incur change fees prior to travel,’’ it said “The offer is available for any of American’s published non-refundable fares.” READ: Forecast COVID-19 airline impact soars as high as $US113 billion. American is one of a number of airlines to offer fee waivers in the current crisis to encourage nervous travelers to buy tickets as carriers confront “no shows” of up to 50 percent and softening forward bookings. Air New Zealand on Thursday became the latest to join the trend with a fee waiver for all new international bookings ticketed from March 5 to March 31. The Kiwi airline is waiving fees and penalties but says any applicable service fee and fare difference will apply if the same booking class is not available at the time of rebooking. Non-refundable fares also remain so. Others to introduce the waivers include British Airways, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines. The rules differ slightly between airlines but in BA’s case, it gives travelers to flexibility to delay travel booked by March 16. JetBlue started the trend on February 27 when it offered to suspend change and cancellation fees for all new flight bookings made from that date to March 11 covering travel up to June 1. The change applies to all fares, including Blue Basic, which generally doesn’t allow changes. Alaska Airlines followed with a “peace of mind waiver”. “Don’t worry about booking your ticket,’’ it said. “A waiver is currently in place for new tickets booked February 27-March 12, for travel through June 1, 2020.” The number of coronavirus cases globally is approaching 100,000 but more than half have now recovered. There have been about at least 3,347 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's global tally, with the number of cases in China far and above those in any other country, followed by South Korea. The number of cases in Italy has now overtaken those in Iran and the European country now has the second-highest number of fatalities after China. Airlines have flagged revenues losses of up to $US113 billion as the US Congress has approved $US8.3 billion to fight the epidemic. The outbreak also claimed its first airline victim with British regional carrier Flybe forced into administration and its flights canceled.