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Friday, October 10, 2014
News Alert
Events We're Watching

Japan – Typhoon Vongfang

Typhoon Vongfong may be slowly weakening, but it will not weaken enough in the hours before delivering a strong hit to Japan’s Ryuku Islands, including Okinawa. Maximum sustained winds have tailed off to 140 mph, but are still solidly the equivalent of a category 4 hurricane, according to the U.S. military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center. Current forecasts have Vongfang traveling up the length of Japan beginning Saturday afternoon for Okinawa as a category 4 hurricane and reaching Tokyo late Monday as a tropical storm with gusts over 50 mph.

Q and A

I’ve heard that the airlines are required by law to guarantee a fare for 24 hours. Is that true and is there any “fine print” to that?

Yes, it’s true, and yes, there are indeed limitations and conditions. Basically this law says that travelers must be allowed to hold a reservation and fare without payment for up to 24 hours before purchasing the ticket, and any ticket, even a non-refundable ticket, must be refunded in full if requested within 24 hours of when the reservation was made. Among the limitations are:

  • Fare rules that applied at time of reservation must still apply at time of ticketing
  • There can be no changes to the reservation
  • The request for the guaranteed fare or refund must come within a strict 24 hours of the time the reservation was made
  • Reservations made less than 7 days before departure are exempt
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