Booking a flight with confidence?

[Rembrandt]

Hi,

So, I had to cancel a trip to Europe for September back in April. I booked a trip to the top end NT for mid September a bit over a month ago, as I thought the situation was improving in Australia. However, as I'm from Victoria it appears that I most likely at this stage wont be allowed into the NT until at least October. I can cancel the NT trip without financial or points penalty.

My point and question here is how is the public meant to book flights and accommodation with confidence if the Covid-19 situation in Australia is still very fluid and changes from week to week? Qantas from example is allowing people to cancel flights until October 31 without penalty, but after that you will be penalized for cancelling a flight. Does anybody think airlines should extend or be lenient in regards to penalizing people for cancelling flights, at least from the domestic side of things? The lack of confidence will hurt the local tourism industry.

Don't get me wrong, my whinging about the current situation regarding travel and tourism is nothing compared to what others are going through. I would just like others opinions on the matter.

 

[Anna]

I am just not booking anything. The situation is too unsettled for my liking. Even domestically I don't like the risk that I might unknowingly come into contact with someone with the virus and then a weekend mini break could turn into 2 weeks isolation.

 

[Jmrocky]

Likewise, personally I am only taking trips within my state (QLD) and mainly road trips. I have a rough trip OS pencilled in for August 21 but will not be booking anything until the new year.

If I was booking flights I would not be booking too far in advance, the situation can change rapidly.

 

[Rembrandt]

Likewise, personally I am only taking trips within my state (QLD) and mainly road trips. I have a rough trip OS pencilled in for August 21 but will not be booking anything until the new year.

If I was booking flights I would not be booking too far in advance, the situation can change rapidly.

I agree, considering what has occurred in Vic. I booked my NT trip when Victoria had 0 cases a month ago.
I will wait maybe until late this year or early next to re-book my NT trip. However, I'm just concerned about reward availability for multiple people if I leave it too late.

However, who knows maybe Qantas and VA may extend the peirod of no penalty until the next year to drive confidence. I hope so.

 

[Hvr]

Another issue is that even if you get a booking for an overseas trip and it's allowed to go ahead, can you get travel insurance?

I would not travel overseas at any time without travel insurance.

 

[sinophile888]

We have recently rebooked a cruise which was scheduled to leave Melbourne in December, 2020. We have rescheduled to January, 2022. An almost identical cruise and the low deposit was transferable. If the worst happens, we won't lose very much money. Much happier to have breathing room and to see how cruises go in 2021.
The flights for the December, 2020 cruise were booked with all points. My understanding is that the flights can be cancelled with only a small points penalty.

 

[AIRwin]

The flights for the December, 2020 cruise were booked with all points. My understanding is that the flights can be cancelled with only a small points penalty.

Or wait until the flight is cancelled by the airline?

 

[ajd]

I'm hoping to book a week away, somewhere domestic, ideally before the end of the year, failing that Q1 2021.

Right now, the 2 domestic destinations I want to go to most are still closed off, as of today, to ACT residents, and they're both reasonably expensive, which normally means I'd be prepaying for flights and accommodation with the most restrictive refund rules and max out on various commission rebates I can get through my work perks program, as I normally am fine to take the risk on domestic trip cancellations...

And I just don't want to be worrying every time there's an uptick in cases whether it'll impact my trip. If I can pay a fixed sum to insure away the risk of cancellation costs, that would ease my mind a lot, but there's a reason insurers aren't selling that product.

A short while ago, a bit over a week before my flight on QF747, I had exposure to a family member on the tail end of a cold - COVID test negative, thankfully - and it stressed me out hugely. Negative COVID test, so I wasn't worried about that, but I was very, *very* worried about catching a cold and having to go and get tested just to prove you don't have it, self isolate for a day, cancel absolutely everything for at least a solid week until you don't even have a hint of cold symptoms left lest you scare anyone else. I can see that kind of pre-trip stress happening again and counteracting the whole point of going on holiday.

Also I've got a VA travel credit I have to spend, and it's still not clear what shape the airline is going to be in by the time I go on this hypothetical trip. Sigh.

 

[Rembrandt]

I don't think we in Victoria will be allowed to QLD, SA, NT, WA and Tas for the rest of the year. Unless we pay for quarantine at our own expense.

We could have a split country Where Vic and NSW have a suppression strategy whilst the rest continue on with elimination. The upside is Vic and NSW can have travel bubbles with other parts of the world in similar suppression situations like Japan and South Korea. The others parts of Australia can go with a less lucrative international travel bubbles being NZ and Taiwan.

 

[mrsterryn]

Not sure about next year. We usually book our end of year flights with the Jan sales both flights and hotels.
Would have had a couple of USA in however USA is sadly way down the list for a while I do believe. At least , today , in London we don't need to quarantine over there.
Think if we book it will be via points if available I think

 

[dajop]

If booking speculatively, this is where points come in handy, irrespective of whether airlines are refunding or waiving change fees, points usually come with relatively minor change or cancel/redeposit points penalties.

When Gladys announced that people who had tickets booked before midnight that evening, wouldn't need to pay for quarantine we speculatively booked our Christmas flights (ie. early December) from SIN-SYD, even though we want to end up in MEL. But who knows a) if we will still be living in Singapore by then (4 weeks in hotels, everytime we want to visit our mothers, will certainly make living overseas unsustainable), b), what MEL quarantine procedures will be and c) whether we can even celebrate christmas with families. So all speculative really.