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.

 

[Flashback]

Your booking has been cancelled and I have more to do.

I've got about 12 to sort out, putting it off for as long as I can, also partly due to waiting for some more flexibility on some cancellation policies for a few things too. Otherwise it's 12x TI policy excess, as they won't let me cancel in one fell swoop and pay the excess only once.

 

[Port Power]

How about Travel Insurance?

I took that out at the time of booking, so there is back up.

 

[PineappleSkip]

‘Vouchered’ all our QF bookings tonight, only one which appears stuck is a mixed e-deal- J award. Adding to the ‘status run that wasn’t’ collection.

Got out of Somaliland just in time, colleague booked on FZ/EK to the UK yesterday morning, but Somalia closed its airspace (?) including Somaliland. Thats the message I got, but I see there are still overflights. Flydubai turned around an hour out of HGA (see pic). ET also cancelled both flights.

Looks like he may be stuck there for an open ended period. Only options other than flying are overland through Ethiopia’s Ogaden to ADD, or via an African dog-track to DJI, each route with a few logistical challenges on the way. An African dog track is pretty crook!

Crazy days!

cheers skip

 

[Flashback]

Service updates | Qantas

The latest updates to Qantas network, inflight and airport services.

www.qantas.com

If you are travelling domestically, at least you can be a WP for a day

Domestic Qantas Club lounges in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Canberra will close, however all eligible customers^ will be welcome to use the Business Lounge instead.

 

[Scarlett]

Update: ULs "best they could do for us" (solely according to them of course - they wouldn't put us on another carrier) was a flight out of DXB back to Aus via CMB on 27 March! Reminder that this is for a flight we're supposed to be departing on, on 21 March.

So about 160K VFF points burnt later, my family and I are now booked on EY AUH-SYD on 20 March. We'll take the EY bus from Dubai to AUH before the flight.

Positives:
- We'll spend a few hours at the EY first lounge at AUH before the evening flight.
- I guess UL will have to refund us half the original airfare. Should be an interesting discussion once back in Aus during our isolation!
- We have a defined route home.
- Flight is still scheduled to be an A380 and loading looks pretty light, so even though we'll be in whY, will hopefully have a 'poor mans flat bed'.
- I've almost used up all my Velocity points, so if they go under, I won't be out too much.
- No issues with work is pretty important too!

Negatives:
- As the EY flight is scheduled into Aus after the blanket ban on all but Aus citizens and permanent residents, there's a risk EY might cancel some or all flights into Aus.
- Our UL J flights home have been replaced by whY seats.
- Our 19 hour transit in Colombo is gone and having missed out during our disrupted outbound journey, I'll again miss out on playing golf at Royal Colombo GC.
- Have to cut holiday short by a day and lose last nights hotel, but that's pretty minor in the scheme of things.

Fingers crossed next update is in about 22 hours when boarding is called and we're heading home.

 

[Flashback]

EY just sent me an e-mail about their policy and about how for any flights they're cancelling we have the joy of accepting a voucher to spend on future travel! How nice! No thanks, a full refund please.

 

[Pushka]

Good grief. Before it went to coughe I’d put in an upgrade request for flight in April. That flight was cancelled last week and it’s still in profile but you can’t access it so it’s in process. Yay. Today the text came announcing the upgrade request was approved. You gotta laugh!

 

[Flashback]

For those of you sitting on QR bookings (I'm sitting on a few right now, pondering what to do with them); the date has now been extended out to the end of September.

Dear Valued Beyond Business Member,

We understand the need for you to plan your upcoming trips.

Because we want to continue offering you, our valued partners, maximum flexibility and peace of mind, we have extended our “Travel with Confidence” policy to cover travel up to 30 September 2020 on Qatar Airways and its codeshare flights.

Whether you have an existing booking or are planning to book for travel up to 30 September, you can now plan your business trip with confidence thanks to our enhanced flexibility, which offers you the following options:
Change your travel date FREE OF CHARGE or EXCHANGE for future travel voucher

We would like to assure you that we continue to maintain the highest levels in safety, hygiene standards and procedures, as we respect your right to travel safely.

For more information, please visit our website, or reach out to your local Qatar Airways sales representative.

https://www.qatarairways.com/en-qa/travel-with-confidence.html

It still doesn't help with a refund, but better than nothing I guess!

 

[Flashback]

I'm still going to dig into both of my TI policies this weekend to work out which one is better to use (lower excess, etc.) but just received this from one of the companies which is good news.

As you have travel insurance through your FlexAccount or FlexPlus current account, we want you to be aware that for any new trips booked on or after 18th March 2020, you won’t be covered for events caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Insurance is there to help with unknown or unforeseeable events. As Coronavirus is now a known event, U K Insurance Limited, our insurance provider, has confirmed cover will not be available for this.

If you booked a trip before 18th March 2020, cover is available for claims relating to the Coronavirus pandemic.

I'm surprised it's allowed for trips booked up till the 18th, I would have gone maybe the 16th! Even so, a show of good faith. I'm doing all my analysis on the weekend as to what the open position is (from a cost perspective) on each trip that is now partially canned, fun weekend ahead

 

[Pushka]

All of us have had to cancel travel but I feel so sad for my niece and her family. Her Husband works in France in the submarine section, and she has stayed in Adelaide with their two young kids. They see each other maybe every 3-4 months with one of them flying in or out. He was here for Christmas and they were due to catch up again in Singapore in April. Try telling a 6 and 8 year old they won't be seeing their Dad. And likely that will be around 9 months between last seeing him and seeing him again.

 

[VPS]

For the last few years I've deliberately taken TI with no excess and it has paid for itself in spades - I have an annual policy and it's usually only about $70 extra to get no excess

 

[wendlle]

Does anyone know when we can or have to cancel / change Virgin Domestic bookings?
I have flights in May, not sure if I should just cancel now or wait a few weeks and see how it plays out?

Flights are May 2 and May 15
Just didn't know if there was a cut off date or if we can do this right up until the flights are scheduled.

 

[serfty]

Just didn't know if there was a cut off date or if we can do this right up until the flights are scheduled.

There's some information on VA's policies here:

COVID-19 information hub

travel.virginaustralia.com

 

[wendlle]

There's some information on VA's policies here:

COVID-19 information hub

travel.virginaustralia.com

awesome thanks, got most of my info there. except does anyone know with the travel credit. Do you have to use all the money at once? or can you use it as you see fit?

Also the flights I had booked were during DSC offer. If I book later with the credit during another offer perhaps, am I still eligible if I use a credit instead of "cash"?

 

[serfty]

If it's in the travel bank, it can generally be used as part or full payment on any other booking.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Indeed, treat it as like your own pre-paid VA-only credit card.

 

[Scarlett]

Ahhh, home.
My current travel obstacles come to an end and I'll be heading over to the isolationists thread.

Some brief thoughts:
- UL ground staff (as a whole) appear to be completely unempowered to make any decision or offer any form of assistance outside their one main task. Or they're mostly incompetent. More frustrating than dealing with TK.

- My family and I were the only guests in the EY first lounge at AUH for the three hours we were there. I found the experience underwhelming.

- EY still flew at least an A380 to SYD yesterday (as well as 2 x B789 to MEL and 1 x B789 to BNE). We were on the A380 and most whY pax had a row of seats to themselves. They must be scaling back in the very near future???

- Next planned travel is domestic to PER in the school holidays next month. The way government decisions are going, I'm apprehensive. After that is planned travel to Central America commencing late June. Still hopeful on that one.

 

[Flashback]

Looks like policies are starting to change..... Hotels.com for example.

For customers who booked a non-refundable rate prior to March 19, 2020 for stays between March 20, 2020, and April 30, 2020, we will email you in the coming days to ask if you wish to keep or cancel your existing booking. If you decide to cancel, you will be eligible for a full refund or, in some cases, a voucher allowing you to rebook the original property at later dates. There is no need to call us, however you must cancel your booking at least 24-hours before check-in in order to be eligible for this offer.

For customers who booked a non-refundable rate for stays after April 30, 2020, with the situation continuing to evolve, we will continue to work with travel partners as necessary to implement flexible policies.

https://uk.hotels.com/page/coronavirus-booking-information/

 

[Must...Fly!]

Massive cuts from EK - as expected. Only SYD and PER maintained for AU, no NZ flying at all.

Travel updates | Help | Emirates Australia

Find out about the latest travel updates and any flight changes or cancellations. We update this page regularly with the most recent travel updates.

www.emirates.com

Flights have been suspended to the following destinations (Updated 21 March at 18:00):

• Abidjan (via Accra): From 21 March – 20 May
• Abuja: From 23 March – until further notice
• Accra: From 21 March – 20 May
• Adelaide: From 23 March – 20 May
• Ahmedabad: From 23 March – 28 March
• Algiers: From 18 March – 20 May
• Amman: From 17 March – 30 April
• Athens: From 23 March- 30 June
• Auckland (via Bali): From 29 March – 30 June
• Auckland: From 29 March – 30 June
• Baghdad: From 17 March – 30 April
• Bali: From 29 March – 30 June
• Bangkok–Hong Kong: From 9 March – 20 May
• Barcelona: From 20 March - 20 May
• Basra: From 17 March – 30 April
• Beirut: From 17 March – 30 April
• Bengaluru: From 23 March – 28 March
• Bologna: From 13 March – 20 May
• Brisbane: From 29 March – 30 June
• Brussels: From 26 March – 30 June
• Budapest: From 13 March – 20 May
• Buenos Aires (via Rio de Janeiro): From 25 March – 20 May
• Cairo: From 19 March – 30 June
• Casablanca: From 16 March – 30 June
• Cebu/Clark: From 29 March- 30 June
• Chennai: From 22 March – 28 March
• Chicago: From 27 March – 30 June
• Christchurch (via Sydney): From 29 March – 30 June
• Cochin: From 23 March – 28 March
• Colombo (via Male): From 23 March – 30 June
• Conakry: From 22 March – 19 May
• Dakar (via Conakry): From 22 March – 19 May
• Dammam: From 09 March – 30 April
• Delhi: From 22 March – 28 March
• Dhaka: From 22 March – 31 March
• Dubai–Colombo: From 19 March – 25 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Colombo to Dubai as directed by Sri Lankan authorities.
• Dubai–Hanoi: From 18 March – 22 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Hanoi to Dubai as directed by Vietnamese authorities.
• Dubai–Ho Chi Minh: From 18 March – 24 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Ho Chi Minh to Dubai as directed by Vietnamese authorities.
• Dubai–Mauritius: From 20 March – 2 April. During this time, passengers can only travel from Mauritius to Dubai as directed by Mauritian authorities.
• Durban: From 24 March – 20 May
• Dusseldorf: From 23 March – until further notice
• Edinburgh: From 25 March – 30 June
• Fort Lauderdale: From 13 March – 30 June
• Frankfurt: From 23 March – until further notice
• Geneva: From 23 March – 30 June
• Guangzhou: From 05 February – 30 April
• Hamburg: From 23 March – until further notice
• Hanoi: From 23 March – 30 June
• Harare (via Lusaka): From 20 March – 20 May
• Ho Chi Minh: From 25 March – 30 June
• Houston: From 27 March – 30 June
• Hyderabad: From 22 March – 28 March
• Islamabad: From 22 March – until further notice
• Istanbul (IST): From 17 March – 20 May
• Istanbul (SAW): From 17 March – 20 May
• Jeddah: From 16 March – 30 April
• Kabul: From 26 March – 30 June
• Karachi: From 22 March – until further notice
• Khartoum: From 18 March – 20 May
• Kolkata: From 23 March – 28 March
• Kuwait City: From 14 March – 30 April
• Lagos: From 23 March – until further notice
• Larnaca: From 17 March – 20 May
• Lahore: From 22 March – until further notice
• Lisbon: From 19 March – 30 April
• London Stansted: From 25 March – 30 June
• Luanda: From 22 March – 20 May
• Lusaka: From 20 March – 20 May
• Lyon: From 23 March – until further notice
• Madrid: From 18 March – 20 May
• Malta (via Larnaca): From 17 March – 20 May
• Medina: From 05 March – 30 April
• Melbourne (via Singapore): From 23 March – 20 May
• Melbourne: From 29 March – 30 June
• Mexico City (via Barcelona): From 20 March – 20 May
• Milan: From 15 March – 20 May
• Moscow: From 30 March – 30 June
• Mumbai: From 22 March – 28 March
• Munich: From 23 March – until further notice
• Muscat: From 22 March – 05 April
• New York EWR (via Athens): From 13 March – 20 May
• New York EWR: From 24 March – until further notice
• New York JFK (via Milan): From 11 March – 20 May
• New York JFK: From 24 March – until further notice
• Newcastle: From 25 March – 30 June
• Nice: From 23 March – until further notice
• Orlando: From 24 March – 30 June
• Osaka: From 26 March – 30 June
• Oslo: From 28 March – 30 June
• Paris: From 23 March – until further notice
• Peshawar: From 22 March – until further notice
• Phnom Penh (via Bangkok): From 29 March – 30 June
• coughet: From 29 March – 30 June
• Porto: From 17 March – 20 May
• Prague: From 25 March – 30 June
• Rio de Janeiro: From 25 March – 20 May
• Riyadh: From 16 March – 30 April
• Rome: From 15 March – 20 May
• Saint Petersburg: From 30 March – 30 June
• San Francisco: From 29 March – 30 June
• Santiago (via Rio de Janeiro): From 25 March – 20 May
• Shanghai: From 05 February – 30 April
• Sialkot: From 22 March – until further notice
• Stockholm: From 26 March – 30 June
• Taipei: From 16 March – 20 May
• Tehran: From 26 February – 30 April
• Trivandrum: From 22 March – 28 March
• Tunis: From 18 March – 20 May
• Venice: From 12 March – 20 May
• Vienna: From 23 March – 30 June
• Warsaw: From 15 March – 20 May

 

[Flashback]

I'm just waiting for booking.com to hopefully follow suit as all other OTA's have done....... otherwise I'm looking at a large number of TI excess fees, fingers crossed it changes in the next week or two.