[dustballs1]

What a thoughtful response. It sounds like the International Red Cross has a planned response.

Now if only the National Red Cross organizations had such arrangements domestically. We obtain our tickets through a Red Cross designated travel agency, and the volunteers are informed that they are entitled to the same waivers as the military because we all respond under similar charter to domestic incidents. The volunteers come from cities all over the country, so it would have to be a nationwide policy of some kind.

However the reality is that the domestic airline check in employees have no knowledge or training, no matter what the volunteer has been told. So we mostly have to pay up or just not go. We do not deal with the back office. We just show up at the airport with Red Cross travel orders, Red Cross purchased tickets, Red Cross ID, Red Cross charge cards, etc.

My experience in six years in the U.S. : If the incident is big enough and the airline employee knows why you are going on travel, they waive the charge. Otherwise you pay. On the way home from the affected city, the airlines do not charge, because they know what you did for their city. (Or maybe its the look of absolute fatigue on our faces, LOL).