Cancelling, changing, and what a delayed flight changes

The short version

1. 1. Cancel 24 hours or more before the drop off hour and there is nothing to pay.
2. 2. In a peak week that window is 48 hours, and the quote says when a week counts as peak.
3. 3. Inside the window the operator may charge one day at the reserved rate.
4. 4. If you never turn up and never call, one day is charged as a no show.
5. 5. If your outbound flight is cancelled, none of the above applies. See below.

Changing rather than cancelling

A change costs less trouble and usually less money than a cancellation. Another hour, another day, a longer stay, a different bay: the earlier it reaches us, the more likely the same operator simply carries the amended booking without anybody paying for it.

A change that needs a different bay type is treated as a new quote, because the rate moves with the type. We will say so rather than rebilling afterwards.

To change anything, call +1 (415) 906-2431 during desk hours. On the day itself, the operator's number on your confirmation is faster.

Cancelling

Those are the operators' windows, not an invention of this desk. A bay held overnight for somebody who never came is a bay that could not be sold.

When the flight is the reason

An outbound flight that is cancelled, diverted or delayed past the point of the trip is not a cancellation anybody charges you for. Just say what happened.

• Outbound cancelled. The reservation is cancelled at no charge.
• Outbound delayed by hours. We move the drop off hour. Nothing to pay.
• Return delayed, so you land a day late. Tell us before the reserved pick up day if you can and we extend the reservation at the daily rate. Tell us afterwards and the operator charges the extra day at the gate, which is the same money in a worse mood.
• Return diverted to another airport. Call us. The car is still in the lot and the reservation still runs; what we can do is extend it and tell the operator to expect you late.

No shows

A no show is a reservation where nobody arrives and nobody calls. One day is charged, because the bay was held.

A single call converts a no show into a change: free outside the window, one day inside it. There has never been a case where making that call was the wrong move.

If the operator cancels

Rare, and it happens for two reasons: the lot floods, or the lot is oversold by an error at their end.

Either way the call comes as soon as we know, which is not at the barrier arm. The first thing we do is try another operator along the corridor, and a reservation nobody could fill costs nothing.

A bad telephone call at nine at night is worth ten reassuring ones, because at nine at night the news can still be acted on. At five in the morning with a boarding pass in hand it cannot.

Refunds

Whatever was paid to an operator comes back from that operator, usually onto the same card, usually inside a week or two. The pace is set by their bank and not by anything at this end.

This website never took the money, so there is nothing here to send back. When a refund drags, +1 (415) 906-2431 is worth calling: pressing an operator is a conversation we can have with more weight behind it than a customer can.

Getting hold of us

Inside hours the number is +1 (415) 906-2431. Requests are worked Monday to Thursday from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm and Friday from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm, Pacific Time. The desk is closed at weekends, and a request that lands then is answered first thing on Monday. After that it records a message, and anything due to happen within a few hours belongs on the operator's number instead, which is printed on the confirmation.