[saundraenglish]

On May 22, 2012 I purchased three tickets from Philadelphia to Frankfurt, Germany to celebrate the holidays. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law had a stroke, heart attack and was diagnosed with lung, brain and adrenal cancer and was forced to move in with us in November. We were obviously unable to leave him alone and subsequently had to postpone our trip.

Thinking I had a full year from the original issue date of the tickets to reschedule our trip, I contacted US Airways on May 6, 2013 to reschedule the exact trip, once again planning to travel over the holidays. I was told that we were unable to use the remaining value of our tickets unless we could travel by May 22, our original ticket issue date.

I am not requesting a refund of my tickets. In fact, I am more than willing to pay the change fee of $250 per ticket and for the additional fare for the flights. So in essence, US Airways would gain an additional $810 for the same tickets after all is said and done.

I contacted Customer Service and was emailed by Ms. Kathi Gee, Representative, Customer Relations,with the following message. I’m sorry that you were unable to travel with us as originally planned. As you may know, non-refundable tickets are generally the most economical but are also the most restrictive. The Terms and Conditions assigned to the non-refundable tickets state they cannot be extended. I sincerely regret the personal circumstances preventing you from using the ticket within the one-year time frame. Unfortunately, we will not be able to honor your request for an extension.

So, US Airways has my $3,510 and they probably sold my seats any way last December, too. What other industry can do this? Isn't this against the law to steal from consumers?