Have you had to change/cancel travel due to COVID-19 (involuntarily or voluntarily)?

[robtemt]

I thought I would start a thread as a resource for AFFers who have changed or cancelled travel plans directly or indirectly due to 2019 n-CoV.

• Did the airline/cruise company cancelling or change your flight/cruise? Or, did you proactively or reactively cancel or change it on your own (and why?).
• Did they notify you directly, or did you discover it on your own?
• What was your original plan, and what was the revised plan?
• What was your experience like?
• Did you go through any travel insurance claim process, and how was that part of it?

For the record, part of my role at work is to monitor medical related issues, filter out mis/disinformation, and brief other staff using only verified facts from trusted sources, so I am not one to buy into sensationalism or hysteria. BUT, I am also an advocate of forward planning and monitoring situations that could affect travel plans.

Post automatically merged: Feb 10, 2020

To start it off…. We have begun voluntarily changing (or making back up plans for) our upcoming holiday SYD-(+/- SIN)-LAX-SJO-LAX-HNL-LNY-HNL-SYD

We are booked to the USA via SIN on SQ in a few weeks (F Saver Reward Booking). A few things caused us to start making contingency plans on getting to the USA including:

• Reading posts from Buttermilk Chicken regarding her RTW flight being disrupted between HKK and CEB
• Member Pushka raising a good point if Singapore will be next.
• Monitoring the World Health Organisations surveillance on n-CoV (as part of my responsibilities at work). Singapore confirmed infections were 28 on 5 Feb, 40 on 8 Feb, and 43 on 9 Feb. Several of these cases were human-to-human contact, with no recent travel to China.
• Bloomberg’s article this morning HERE, which discussed the spread of the virus from a conference attendee in Singapore, via a resort in France, to people in France, Spain, and the UK.

We contacted SQ, to discuss the options of alternative carriers, to which there were no available flights. The agent was very friendly, and said she understood the desire to rebook and avoid an Asia transit, but she said until official bans are in place, there were no options, but “we will offer options if Singapore becomes affected by travel bans”.

We began searching other options. We contacted VFF, who found one seat on DL SYD-LAX in W, and one seat on VA in J SYD-BNE-LAX. No other business or premium reward seats (except any seat) were available +/- 1 day of our desired travel (with pre-booked hotels, cars, and other flights to South America, and Hawaii). We will keep looking for another J seat on same day, and hopefully two on the same flight to free up closer to the date.

We have left our SQ bookings as is for now, and will cancel either that booking of the DL/VA booking closer to the date as thing develop.

Overall Experience:

• Wait times on the phone are obviously a bit longer, but I’ve not been on hold longer than 15 minutes with either VA or SQ.
• Staff at both SQ and VA call centres have been friendly, empathetic, and helpful in searching, but have no/limited availability and flexibility in voluntary changes so far.

 

[Mark1966]

Off to LHR on QF1 via SIN on 23rd for meetings and a conference in the UK and Europe. Not expecting any changes and don't have a backup plan.

Will keep an eye on things though I suspect the lounge in SIN should be reasonably safe ...

 

[trentusjuventus]

Family members were due to fly MEL-HKG-TPE on CX this week. Late last week CX started offering refund without penalty due to Taiwan enforcing restrictions on foreigners arriving in Taiwan who had transited through HKG. They took the refund and rebooked on a direct flight MEL-TPE with CI which was more expensive but they preferred to still travel on the planned dates rather than try to reschedule. There are currently no restrictions on arrivals to Taiwan from Australia.
Hotel in Taipei was cancellable - cancelled late last week with no penalty and then booked the same hotel again a few days later for around 20% less than the cost of the original booking which was a small bonus.

 

[MathNerd]

Flying SQ in R [VA MEL-SYD]-SIN-(FRA)-JFK at the end of June this year. Fingers crossed that SIN doesn't have a transit restriction, either while going or coming back (LAX-SIN-[QF SYD-MEL] in July). Given the alleged Suites availability tightening, it'd be hard to impossible to secure Suites to JFK any other time.

 

[Azure]

Actually booked MEL-HKT RT around end of Feb. I asked JQ, they just refunded me full airfare. Friends of mine got SYD-SIN-HKT on Scoot and HKT-KUL-AVV(Melbourne Avalon) on AirAsia with nothing refund back yet.

 

[banana boy]

yep, lots of very nervous people at the moment in Singapore but also a lot of over reaction from the general community. Lots of people wearing masks and doctors clinics are standing room only.

Queuing to buy masks at Mustafa...

 

[Pushka]

Simgapore must surely be next. Celebrity cruiseline thinks so - it just scrubbed Singapore as an embarkation port for next Saturday making people fly at last minute to Dubai to board!

 

[AirZizos]

Meant to be flying to HKG next Thursday. Cathay have a waiver out for changing dates prior to June 30th - but not without additional cost. Fare difference isn't covered. Pretty frustrating as they aren't waiving cancellation fees for flights to Hong Kong either. Everything we were going for is shut down.. Disneyland, Macau etc.
Doubt it is safe to travel there currently either, who knows what might change.
Money down the gurgler!!!

 

[ceetee]

I had a trip to Europe on Thai Airways scheduled for this week BNE-BKK-OSL return, but cancelled the trip as a cautionary measure due to the COVID-19 issue. The trip was not mandatory and something I can re-schedule, but my family and I were concerned since I needed to layover in BKK, meaning a taxi to hotel and interactions with many people. I believe this virus will be similar to the flu in that we will always have it out there, but I hope that the mortality issue does not get worse. That said, the current flu virus has killed more people this year than COVID-19, just to put it in perspective.
As for issues around my cancellations, none of the players offered any waivers for cancellation fees, so there were flight fee and travel insurance fees. Fortunately, I booked hotels with free cancellation policies.
Need to travel to NZ in March but not concerned about that trip. May also need to go to Japan but through Singapore. Will need to monitor the situation closer to the travel dates before deciding.
And lastly, my humble travel advice is to keep as healthy as you can, take extra vitamin C.

 

[Bindibuys]

Got back yesterday from 9 nights SIN. 5 night cruise - KUL/coughet, then 3 nights Macau - transiting thru HKIA.

Had no problems getting thru anywhere, BUT as we spent so much time in SIN, based in Chinatown 24 Feb - 2 Mar, I have put myself in home quarantine, ONLY because the people I work with have young children, and I would hate to have something happen to them because I went to work.
Working from home, so all good. Parcel of work documents to be dropped off at my gate this afternoon.

At no time did we consider changing any of our plans/flights. Would only have changed if Smartraveller changed status to Do Not Travel.

Macau was REALLY interesting, totally empty streets, all casinos closed, some major hotels closed.

Grand Hyatt has 719 rooms, 15 people in house during our stay.

 

[Jaraboski]

Mrs J and I were booked BNE-SYD-HKG with QF to spend 7 days in Macau for my birthday in March....when the ferry from HKIA to Macau was cancelled we cancelled with QF and received a full value refund voucher. The Macau hotel (Sofitel) is a different story....we're negotiating with them....watch this space....

 

[lovetravellingoz]

And lastly, my humble travel advice is to keep as healthy as you can, take extra vitamin C.

IMO if you have a flu, cold etc then of the publicly available vitamins that (Chellate) Zinc tablets the only ones that make any difference. ie Symptons are milder and quicker recovery. Skip the cold and flu versions as they are just overpriced.

I have however found that taking extra vitamin C is of benefit with hay fever and that it greatly lessons the symptons, and indeed since I started doing this many years ago I rarely now need to take an antihistamine.

 

[drron]

Transitting through SIN twice in May and staying 5 nights in June.Would really muck up our travel as F awards on SQ SIN-LHR-SIN.

More worried by our visit to Bangkok in May as their Health minister shoots from the hip and doesn't appear to like Europeans.

 

[Pcoder]

I'm travelling to HKG for a short time at the end of February, with a short trip to TPE. Since taiwan introduced restricted on Friday, that has really put a spanner in the works.

Since this issue with Taiwan has just happened, I'm not rushing out and Cancelling yet as these could easily be amended soon as well. Plus with all the people being displaced this week, needing to cancel or rebook, I can wait it out a little.

 

[stoney]

I thought a thread already EXISTED.

I started a thread 28th Jan. Stopover in China. I posted that I have successfully changed flight from China to go via KL and Doha in business award seating for my wife and myself. A good outcome after waiting for 2hrs and 30 mins on qantas call centre. A nice South African chap, Alistair did the changes in record time without a tantrum. not often found a good operator. My trip is in July, I was thinking about it for a while and then it just became too risky not just the transmission of the virus but the possibility of being stranded was becoming a reality.

 

[Pushka]

Got back yesterday from 9 nights SIN. 5 night cruise - KUL/coughet, then 3 nights Macau - transiting thru HKIA.

Had no problems getting thru anywhere, BUT as we spent so much time in SIN, based in Chinatown 24 Feb - 2 Mar, I have put myself in home quarantine, ONLY because the people I work with have young children, and I would hate to have something happen to them because I went to work.
Working from home, so all good. Parcel of work documents to be dropped off at my gate this afternoon.

At no time did we consider changing any of our plans/flights. Would only have changed if Smartraveller changed status to Do Not Travel.

Macau was REALLY interesting, totally empty streets, all casinos closed, some major hotels closed.

Grand Hyatt has 719 rooms, 15 people in house during our stay.

If you’d been going on an RCL, Celebrity or Asmara cruise now you would not be allowed to board as of a week ago. .Things are changing very quickly, and for some, even while they are flying to a destination that was safe when they left.

 

[Bindibuys]

If you’d been going on an RCL, Celebrity or Asmara cruise now you would not be allowed to board as of a week ago.

It was RCL, ship holds 4.500 pax only 3,100 on board, as all Chinese were not allowed. This notification came out 3 days before we boarded.
We had only been in SIN prior, so no problem with us 6 boarding.

 

[Pushka]

It was RCL, ship holds 4.500 pax only 3,100 on board, as all Chinese were not allowed. This notification came out 3 days before we boarded.
We had only been in SIN prior, so no problem with us 6 boarding.

No, you were fine but lucky the Macau visit wasn’t first up. Celebrity is now canning Singapore too it seems. We are off to Bali (presumably) in late March and will isolate although Indo has no cases yet, as if!

 

[yoyo]

I have an award ticket to New York booked for April with SG. I booked it as MEL-SIN-PEK-EWR as that was all I could get in J at the time. I tried to call them and their recorded message said to send an email. I haven't heard back and its been more than the 5 days they said to get back to me. I was hoping they would put me on the direct SIN-EWR flight with Singapore Airlines as I am currently booked on CA819 and who knows if that will even be flying? Meanwhile I will be looking for other award options such as United or Air Canada flights but no luck so far.

 

[sudoer]

Since this issue with Taiwan has just happened, I'm not rushing out and Cancelling yet as these could easily be amended soon as well. Plus with all the people being displaced this week, needing to cancel or rebook, I can wait it out a little.

It seems highly unlikely Taiwan will change stance on those who've entered HKG prior to your departure, particularly how long symptoms can take to show, and their current hardline stance on HKG visits and transits. The restriction on HKG visitors has been in place for 6 days, and HKG transits for 5 days by the way.. which is longer than most other countries have had non-PRC restrictions in place.

Can you swap your destinations around so you go to TPE first then HKG? (if you feel comfortable going to HKG of course)

The Macau hotel (Sofitel) is a different story....we're negotiating with them....watch this space....

Similar issue here with Marriott in early March. Patiently waiting for their travel waiver to be extended past 29 Feb. Has Sofitel/Accor released a waiver for Feb?

 

[Pcoder]

It seems highly unlikely Taiwan will change stance on those who've entered HKG prior to your departure, particularly how long symptoms can take to show, and their current hardline stance on HKG visits and transits. The restriction on HKG visitors has been in place for 6 days, and HKG transits for 5 days by the way.. which is longer than most other countries have had non-PRC restrictions in place.

Can you swap your destinations around so you go to TPE first then HKG? (if you feel comfortable going to HKG of course)

No I can't change as I'm flying Cathay, so will be transiting (which is also excluded). I'm just holding off for a little time until I will need to make the change (2 separate airfares).

The main issue with this outbreak is the mainland, so i'd imagine there will be lobbying by the carriers to at least reopen the HKG > TPE route as it is the worlds busiest and both territories are closed to the mainland (except for eligible quarantine pax), there will be less risk of the virus effecting their territories.