Read the fine print before cancelling your flight due to H1N1

Bringing a jug of hand sanitizer with you when flying is one way to hopefully avoid getting the H1N1 virus, but what to do if you get the swine flu before boarding your flight?

The Centers for Disease Control recommends changing your flight plans and staying home, along with other travel ideas during flu season.

But expensive change fees that most airlines charge discourage travelers from changing their flights. In an ideal world, every airline would waive cancellation and change fees for ill passengers, but we all know that flying can be anything but ideal.

Trying to read through all of the fine print on your airline tickets for cancellation policies can be like trying to read a legal document, which in a sense it is.

Consumer Traveler recently ran a story about how it contacted airlines for their change fee policies regarding swine flu, and only United Airlines responded with a written policy. MSNBC also looked into such policies, and here's a rundown of what both sites reported: