Senators urge airlines to make flight credits valid indefinitely
CBSN
Washington — Democratic Senators Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal are pressuring airlines to make sure credits issued for flights canceled during the pandemic never expire, if they decline to offer full refunds.
The two lawmakers wrote to all major airlines on Monday, calling it "unconscionable" that airlines are often refusing to return passengers' money even as the industry sits on more than $10 billion in unused travel credits. Markey and Blumenthal, along with other Democratic senators including then-Senator Kamala Harris, previously asked airlines to issue refunds instead of credits for canceled flights. Markey and Blumenthal said airlines should follow through with non-expiring credits or refunds regardless of whether the airline or the customer canceled the trip.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.