New dates, a dropped leg, a cancelled reservation: what each costs and who decides

1. Before any written confirmation arrives

Until the car company sends its written confirmation, nothing is held in anyone's name. A request is a free quote with no obligation, so dropping it or changing it costs nothing at this stage. Write to ridesheet@awakenedtravelcompany.com or call +1 (402) 345-9461 during phone hours, say whose request it is, and say what should change. The office passes the new details on, and the car company prices them again in writing.

If a written price has reached you and you have not answered yes, no ride exists yet. A short note telling the office you will not go ahead is welcome, but nothing is owed either way.

2. Terms that apply once a ride is reserved

After your yes, the car company sends a written confirmation naming the pickup time and the meeting point. From then on the ride is a reservation with that car company, and its own terms for changes and cancellations, printed in the confirmation, are the ones that apply. Read them when the confirmation lands in your inbox.

The car company collects the payment for each ride, so any money returned after a cancellation comes back from the car company under those terms. The office takes no card details and no payment of any kind from riders, which leaves it nothing to refund.

3. Dropping one ride or a whole pattern

A request with several rides is priced ride by ride, and the car company confirms each one separately, so each ride can be dropped on its own. Cancelling the ride home of an Out and back request leaves the ride out in place unless you say otherwise. Give the date of the ride you are dropping so the right one goes.

A weekly routine under Same weekdays every week can be stopped at any time by writing to the office; say which week it should stop from. For a rider away for months, the office asks the car company to confirm the later ride again seven days before it and passes that note on. If plans have shifted by then, reply to it with the change.

4. A flight moved to another day or hour

If a flight is moved before the ride date, send the new date and flight time to the office as a change, like any other. The car company answers the change in writing, under the terms of its confirmation.

If a flight home runs late on the ride date itself, call the car company number printed on its confirmation. That number reaches the people handling the car, while the office phone keeps its own hours and may be closed by the time the delay is known.

5. When no car can be found for a ride

Any ride the car company cannot take is named in the same written reply that prices the others. That ride was never held, so there is nothing to cancel and nothing to pay for it. You can say yes to the rides it accepted and leave the named one out, or decline the whole reply. With a weekly routine, the car company confirms in writing only the weeks it accepts, and any week left off that list was never reserved.

6. Where changes and cancellations go

Write to ridesheet@awakenedtravelcompany.com, or call +1 (402) 345-9461 while it is answered: Monday, Wednesday and Friday 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday 1 p.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturday 8 a.m. to noon. On Sunday the phone is closed. A message in writing leaves a record for both you and the car company, so it is the better choice for anything more than a small fix.

• Who made the request, plus the phone or email it used
• The date of each ride you want to change or drop
• What changes: date, flight time, address, number of riders or child seats
• For a cancellation, whether it covers one ride or the whole request