E-gipped Travel

Seven On Your Side
NEW YORK, N.Y. It's tough for Julie Marder to watch the news. 3 weeks from today she and her husband are booked to fly to Cairo for a 14 day trip of a lifetime. "There was the Nile tour, the cruise, the pyramids and of course the valley of the kings pretty much anything you wanted to see," says Delta passenger, Julie Marder.

But what she's seeing now are protests that turned violent. Regretfully she canceled. Her tour company Tauck Tours refunded the land and cruise portion in full.

"The problem was with Delta and the air fare."

Last week, when she called the airline, Julie says, she was told no refunds and $250 each to change the tickets.

I kept calling they kept insisting there's nothing wrong, they're still flying. And if you wanted to change you still have to pay this penalty which I thought was ridiculous.

"If you're calling your airline, your travel agent, your cruise broker and you're not happy with the answers you're getting, call back in a couple of days, advises travel expert Pauline Frommer. "Policies are changing on a daily basis."

Pauline Frommer's advice pays off, Julie didn't give up. She kept calling. And today, Delta's policy changed. The airline isn't flying to Egypt until the end of March, allowing passengers who had travel booked in the interim to get a full refund.

"If you're going before the end of March you probably can get a full refund. The truth is all the travel providers are in chaos," says the travel expert.

Many people think that because the U.S. State Department issues a travel warning, the airlines drop refund or fee rules. That's not the case and each has it's own regulations regarding , war, civil unrest or acts of terrorism. It's up to each passenger to check with your carrier to find out their own policy.

And if you thought travel insurance might foot the bill. Think again. Most policies don't cover civil unrest.

Story by: Nina Pineda


Produced by: Steve Livingstone CONNECT WITH NINA PINEDA AND 7 ON YOUR SIDE

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