Amex travel credit & travel insurance

[Nee24]

Hi guys
Hopefully this question has a quick answer. I couldn't find anything else about it.

I booked a hotel using my $400 Amex travel credit for this weekend in Melbourne (I'm in Sydney). The event I was attending has been postponed to an unknown date over the weekend due to the ban on 500+ people.

So 2 questions I'm hoping someone will know the answer to (which the amex live chat was not able to answer for me on the weekend):
- Will they refund my travel credit since I now need to cancel that booking? (The T&Cs of the travel credit say if the booking is cancelled they will not refund the travel credit)
- Is the travel credit covered by the Amex travel insurance on the card? (It's an explorer card - I can't find any mention in the T&Cs regarding this)
- If neither of the above, do you think it's worth contacting the hotel directly and asking them for a future stay credit? The event is postponed so once I know the new dates I will still be attending.

I've been on hold with Amex travel for over an hour trying to get this sorted and have a feeling I will be waiting here much longer. The terms of my booking say that if I cancel after 19th I will be charged over $200 which is more than a night's price accom. According to live chat, they only happen to be open between 9am-6pm which is while I'm at work. So sitting on hold at work waiting for this is really inconvenient.

Thanks for your help!

 

[gvix]

While all bookings are different, I was in a similar situation. Here is my experience:

* I was able to talk to someone in live chat within minutes for multiple queries. Do not go to main AMEX chat, go to the travel section chat where actual folks from AMEX travel are available.

* Have all your booking nos, documentation etc ready before you go. It will help you and the agent. Have links to hotel and flight cancellation policies available.

* Travel credits were refunded to me (I had multiple), or at least promised to be within my account within 6-8 weeks. Hotel and flight bookings for domestic travel. In some cases, a credit hold was given. I have AMEX Plat charge card, not sure if that was a factor.

* If your card automatically gives your insurance, you *should* be covered by Chubb in case you don't get travel credits or refunds.

* Be flexible. Most importantly, be courteous. The agents are under a lot of stress.

 

[Nee24]

While all bookings are different, I was in a similar situation. Here is my experience:

* I was able to talk to someone in live chat within minutes for multiple queries. Do not go to main AMEX chat, go to the travel section chat where actual folks from AMEX travel are available.

* Have all your booking nos, documentation etc ready before you go. It will help you and the agent. Have links to hotel and flight cancellation policies available.

* Travel credits were refunded to me (I had multiple), or at least promised to be within my account within 6-8 weeks. Hotel and flight bookings for domestic travel. In some cases, a credit hold was given. I have AMEX Plat charge card, not sure if that was a factor.

* If your card automatically gives your insurance, you *should* be covered by Chubb in case you don't get travel credits or refunds.

* Be flexible. Most importantly, be courteous. The agents are under a lot of stress.

Thank you!

After 2 hours on hold I was just now able to speak with someone who cancelled and said my travel credit would be refunded within 6-8 weeks.

Hopefully this thread helps others in the same situation.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Bell21]

Thanks for posting and following through - could be quite helpful to a number of us

 

[MollyJones]

Thankyou SO much for posting this.
I been on hold with AMEX for what feels like all day, being reasssured that my call will be “answered by the first available executive”. The music (if one can call it that) will haunt me in my dreams tonight, but at least now I know i should hang on a bit longer.

 

[kpro]

Were all your travel credits from 2020? I used my 2019 travel credit for travel this year, and typically 'The Travel Credit cannot be carried forward to any subsequent year. '

So would it credit back and immediately expire?

 

[Nee24]

Were all your travel credits from 2020? I used my 2019 travel credit for travel this year, and typically 'The Travel Credit cannot be carried forward to any subsequent year. '

So would it credit back and immediately expire?

My renewal date is November so the travel credit will expire then I would expect.

Amex can probably answer that question for you though. I will say that if they did not refund the travel credit, I would have cancelled my card and gone elsewhere because that's the only reason I still have the card. Why would anyone pay $400 a year only to throw that money down the drain. Doesn't make sense.

 

[gvix]

Were all your travel credits from 2020? I used my 2019 travel credit for travel this year, and typically 'The Travel Credit cannot be carried forward to any subsequent year. '

So would it credit back and immediately expire?

Two were expiring this year and one from last year. Since I am yet to get it back (6-8 weeks) I don't know how it will pan out, and it is an interesting question. I doubt that they will go through all this trouble and then just take it back.

 

[daft009]

Someone on whirlpool had his credit extended for a year i read

 

[coriander]

Someone on whirlpool had his credit extended for a year i read

Interesting... this implies that there will be an $800-900 travel credit available next year then. Hmmmm.

We booked a DSC and accommodation for a long weekend in Fiji: $450 off airfares using Mrs C's AMEX QFu and $400 off accommodation using my AMEX Explorer. I've been waiting for any clarification from AMEX but they've not made any official statement yet.

 

[Nee24]

Hmm yeah I didn't even think about having it extended beyond the expiration date. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I'd like to *hope* everything will be back to normal by November.

 

[MollyJones]

I finally got through today and they told me 8-10 weeks for processing and then the credit will last 12 months from that date.
Fingers crossed.

 

[awkwardpaws]

Someone on whirlpool had his credit extended for a year i read

for those with un-used amex travel credits, anyone heard anything about that being extended?

 

[Spongbob]

Use the travel credit to book a local hotel: they might be cheap and you can self quarantine .

 

[kpro]

I got through to Amex today and they were quite hesitant at giving a refund, even though I pointed them at Qantas' terms of carriage/policy. I have a cancelled flight. They said they'd get back to me tomorrow.

 

[Mark3000]

Super helpful response from Amex Platinum Travel today. Definitely do the chat, it connected really quickly and then she called me. She said if I had called, the phone wait time is 2.5 hours (Saturday morning 9am)
She put all 3 bookings back into credit. These were Qantas flights and she said Qantas has now extended expiry of these to Dec 2021
When we are ready to rebook we need to call Amex travel back.
Even though one of them was from our amex explorer which we have since closed, the booking will be put on hold as a credit
Definitely have all your booking numbers ready when you call and put those in the chat

 

[coriander]

Mrs C had booked Fiji flights through Amex (QF Ultimate card) Travel for this weekend. Amex Travel cancelled flights, said refund would take 6-8 weeks to appear in the account and the Travel Credit would be restored for 12 months from the date of refund (approximately 1 June).

Meanwhile I cancelled Fiji accommodation for this weekend paid on my AMEX Explorer card and was given the identical information. When I asked if the travel credit would stack with the next year's travel credit, the customer service representative didn't know.

 

[robbo135]

I have a $400 travel credit expiring in June 2020, do you think Amex will be extending the validity of these travel credits given we are none the wiser about the outlook for travel will be in the immediate future?

 

[MicoPico]

Super helpful response from Amex Platinum Travel today. Definitely do the chat, it connected really quickly and then she called me. She said if I had called, the phone wait time is 2.5 hours (Saturday morning 9am)
She put all 3 bookings back into credit. These were Qantas flights and she said Qantas has now extended expiry of these to Dec 2021
When we are ready to rebook we need to call Amex travel back.
Even though one of them was from our amex explorer which we have since closed, the booking will be put on hold as a credit
Definitely have all your booking numbers ready when you call and put those in the chat

Good that you have had success!

I have tried to find the "chat" function on amex travel. I can only see "chat" in the normal amex site. Any assistance would be appreciated.

 

[Bell21]

Mrs C had booked Fiji flights through Amex (QF Ultimate card) Travel for this weekend. Amex Travel cancelled flights, said refund would take 6-8 weeks to appear in the account and the Travel Credit would be restored for 12 months from the date of refund (approximately 1 June).

Meanwhile I cancelled Fiji accommodation for this weekend paid on my AMEX Explorer card and was given the identical information. When I asked if the travel credit would stack with the next year's travel credit, the customer service representative didn't know.

I had a similar chat with AMEX travel today and the advice I got was that if my travel credit got restored, it would stack on top of next year's travel credit. I was amazed when I got through in 5 minutes and then even more amazed when I spoke to a few different AMEX areas plus CHubb re various complexities, and each time there was no more than a 5 minute wait time (mid-afternoon) - I get the feeling maybe the call centre chaos is settling slightly