Oct 27, 2009 4:22 pm US/Pacific
Passenger Sick With H1N1 Forced to Pay Change Fee
(CBS 5)
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Passengers wear protective masks during a flight from Guatemala to Mexico on April 28, 2009.
Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images
It's a no-brainer for doctors: if you have the flu, don't get on an airplane. But Maya-Louisa Galvan was about to take the trip of a lifetime when she fell ill. A doctor confirmed, in writing, she had swine flu. She did the right thing, but it cost her a bundle.
Galvan had been planning her dream trip to New Zealand for months. But just days before her flight, she spiked a 102 degree fever.
"Felt really weak," Galvan remembered. "Couldn't really eat anything."
Lab tests confirmed swine flu. Her doctor warned her that she was highly contagious and needed to stay in her house. He gave her a note to help her change her travel plans, but that wasn't good enough for the airlines.
"Qantas pretty much told me, swine flu wasn't a severe enough sickness," Galvan said.
Galvan was shocked when Qantas and two other airlines, Air New Zealand
and Jetstar, said they would charge an extra $350 in penalty fees if she tied to change her flight plans.
"I said, 'Pretty much you're telling me you'd rather me gotten on the plane and gotten everybody that flew with me that day sick.'" Galvan explained. "And they said, 'No, that's not what we're saying.' And I'm like, 'Well, that's pretty much what you're encouraging me to do, because you're penalizing me monetarily.'"
Travel writer Chris Elliot added, "It's very irresponsible for the airlines to be doing this."
Elliot said airlines make billions of dollars penalizing customers for changing flights, and it's perfectly legal to charge people who are sick.
"They're putting profits ahead of people," he said. "They're just caring about their revenue, and not caring about their passengers."
Elliot said a recent travel poll showed more than half of passengers said they would still get on a plane even if they had the flu, if it meant avoiding penalties.
The Centers for Disease Control confirmed again today: swine flu is highly contagious, and especially dangerous for pregnant women, children, and people with asthma, just the kind of people you might find on an airplane.
After CBS 5 got involved, Jetstar agreed to refund the fee charged to Galvan upon receipt of her doctor's note.
Qantas was looking to the matter at the time of this airing, but Air New Zealand stood by their change fee.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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