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.

 

[VPS]

We had booked 6 nights in the Cotswolds with holidaycottages dot co dot uk when we cancelled Europe and our cruise. Our stay was due to commence yesterday. I began sending them emails about 10days ago, but never received a direct reply. Received various emails of a general nature about how clean the cottage would be, until the UK Government dropped the axe and told everyone to stay in the primary residence. The cottage people then re-stated the T&Cs, that there would be no refunds, and we should all pick a new date.

I tried to engage with them by email, but they refuse to participate in a conversation. So I have applied to push the booking out to the same time next year, All a bit silly really, and very unlikely I will even be in the same hemisphere around then.

Are you getting the emails from holiday cottages or the owner? I know they are probably doing it tough too but burying your head in the sand isn't going to make you want to stay there next time

 

[blackcat20]

Manged to get booking.com reservation cancelled for free and flight credit for our NZ visitor to work.

 

[wrldtrvllr]

How are partially used tickets treated? I'm presuming a deconstruction on the same basis of fare construction of 2 half-trips to form a roundtrip - is that truly the case? I suspect airlines will try the one-way fare basis of the used segments/legs to then deduct from amount paid to arrive at your refund/credit voucher. Totally unfair in my opinion.

Can anyone confirm this? Is it different depending on point of sale/departure?

I have 3 such instances:
QR PAR-DOH-SYD (used) // SIN-DOH-OSL (unused)
IB marketed (but OW codeshares) JFK-LHR (used) // CPH-LHR-JFK-ORD (unused)
VA SYD-LAX-MSP-SLC-SEA (used) // SEA-JFK-MSP-LAX-SYD (unused)

Appreciate any advice.

 

[OATEK]

Are you getting the emails from holiday cottages or the owner? I know they are probably doing it tough too but burying your head in the sand isn't going to make you want to stay there next time

Have no access to the owner, apart perhaps from snail mail. The cottage broker wont answer directly anything I say, so having already written the rent off in my mind I will forget about it for now.

 

[vetrade]

Luxury Escapes. Trying to con a little.

I'd contacted the hotel directly as the dates offered by LE were useless. May? Anyways the hotel was very accommodating and gave me a date in December that wasn't available on the LE lists. LE contacted me today, a bit miffed I'd gone direct but who cares. Then said I'd have to pay an extra $140 for that week. I replied that the resort did not mention any surcharge and that there were no surcharges on their site for the dates that LE had offered. Oh Mrs X, you must have been dealing with a clerk at the hotel who had no idea of the contractual requirements.

I logged into LE and could see that suddently there were all these extra surcharges for every week that were just not there last week. Then I remembered -

Ho Ho Ho Mr LE, here are the screenshots I took last week showing no surcharges to rebook.

I love my iPad.

We had a LE booking for the Sheraton Mirage on the Gold Coast for the start of May. I emailed their support with specific questions but only got a standardised reply (which addressed none of my specific questions) about logging into our booking and changing the dates or deferring to choose the dates later for some time up to 30 June 2021.

I found that when you defer they issue a new booking number and a statement showing your previous booking as cancelled and refunded and a new charge for the same amount as the original. The confirmation email includes this:

Cancellation Policy

7-Day Change of Mind ‘No Questions Asked’ Refund Guarantee - Things don’t always work out. Our 7-day Change of Mind Guarantee is there to help. Bookings (except for Tour bookings and flights) may be cancelled with a full refund provided that cancellation occurs strictly within 7 days from the date of purchase and provided that the cancellation is made no less than 21 days prior to the check-in date.

I haven't tried it, but from the reading of that I don't see any reason why the new booking couldn't be cancelled within the 7 days for a full refund if people preferred that to selecting new dates.

 

[Flashback]

Have no access to the owner, apart perhaps from snail mail. The cottage broker wont answer directly anything I say, so having already written the rent off in my mind I will forget about it for now.

I'd be happy to give them a call, PM me.

 

[Flashback]

From the QR rep on FT:
Qatar Airways has amended its ‘Travel with Confidence’ and flight disruption policies to give customers even more flexibility. Customers who choose to receive a travel voucher for future use will receive the full unutilized value of their ticket plus an additional 10% of the fare cost as an added value offer. Customers also have the option for a refund back to the form of payment they used when purchasing their tickets - the administration of this refund will take up to 30 days to process. Vouchers for future travel continue to be the most expedient way of helping customers while we manage the backlog.

We hugely appreciate the understanding and patience of our customers during a time of unprecedented call volumes and call centre closures due to government restrictions around the world

Ref: FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Qatar: no full refund when flight is cancelled?

 

[Flashback]

So as per Hotels.com advisory on https://uk.hotels.com/page/coronavirus-booking-information/ I've just received an e-mail from them for the only non-refundable booking I have. Unfortunately it's not offering a refund, it's offering a voucher and you have to use it within 12 months, but the real kicker is it needs to be used at the same property so it's very limiting. Looks like this will be one for Travel Insurance for me!

I might try calling them, as they do say either/or.

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.

 

[Pushka]

So as per Hotels.com advisory on https://uk.hotels.com/page/coronavirus-booking-information/ I've just received an e-mail from them for the only non-refundable booking I have. Unfortunately it's not offering a refund, it's offering a voucher and you have to use it within 12 months, but the real kicker is it needs to be used at the same property so it's very limiting. Looks like this will be one for Travel Insurance for me!

I might try calling them, as they do say either/or.

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 some places that would work. I'm not planning on a Rome trip for quite some - years!

 

[Flashback]

For some places that would work. I'm not planning on a Rome trip for quite some - years!

Yeah, mine was for a place in Thailand I had no desire to go to, but my mate was having his birthday bash there and hence the booking. Given that's now cancelled, no need to visit that god awful place (Pattaya)

 

[ozimax]

I have'nt read every page in this thread, so I'm not sure if this has been covered but under the Qantas conditions for re-booking a fare with a credit voucher was this:

• Vouchers can only be used towards a fare of equal or higher value than the original fare you purchased.

My voucher is for $650 so I won't be able to use it for most domestic fares. Might be better to wait for a refund to my credit card instead of a voucher.

 

[Port Power]

Yeah, mine was for a place in Thailand I had no desire to go to, but my mate was having his birthday bash there and hence the booking. Given that's now cancelled, no need to visit that god awful place (Pattaya)

Ouch! 🏖

 

[drron]

Well Virtuoso bookings that are non cancellable can be with a full refund.
But Luxury Escapes.Getting the run around.Did the call back option as a booking in 10 days time.Rang back whilst on another call so the proceedure starts again.They rang back.i could hear the agent perfectly saying is anyone there?
So waiting for call back number 3.So luxury Escapes have done themselves out of an ongoing customer.

 

[Pushka]

Well Virtuoso bookings that are non cancellable can be with a full refund.
But Luxury Escapes.Getting the run around.Did the call back option as a booking in 10 days time.Rang back whilst on another call so the proceedure starts again.They rang back.i could hear the agent perfectly saying is anyone there?
So waiting for call back number 3.So luxury Escapes have done themselves out of an ongoing customer.

We received a voucher for new booking to first December just today. We were due to leave this Friday. We used this email:
[email protected] but I wonder if it can be used for any booking? Plus we posted a question on this website

Luxury Escapes reviews

Luxury Escapes (Booking Service): 4.5 out of 5 stars from 7,157 genuine reviews on Australia's largest opinion site ProductReview.com.au.

www.productreview.com.au

.

And they also assisted. Eventually they agreed with the price I should pay with no surcharge. Also, contact the property directly and wedge them. Our property in Bali was fabulous to work with.

 

[vetrade]

Well Virtuoso bookings that are non cancellable can be with a full refund.
But Luxury Escapes.Getting the run around.Did the call back option as a booking in 10 days time.Rang back whilst on another call so the proceedure starts again.They rang back.i could hear the agent perfectly saying is anyone there?
So waiting for call back number 3.So luxury Escapes have done themselves out of an ongoing customer.

Yep, LE have done their dash with us too. They seem to be obfuscating so they can hang onto people's money rather than refund. Can't even change the booking to another venue. Some of these TA business aren't going to survive this coronapox shutdown and I don't want to be hanging on to worthless vouchers when they hit the wall but I can foresee it happening.

 

[Pushka]

Yep, LE have done their dash with us too. They seem to be obfuscating so they can hang onto people's money rather than refund. Can't even change the booking to another venue. Some of these TA business aren't going to survive this coronapox shutdown and I don't want to be hanging on to worthless vouchers when they hit the wall but I can foresee it happening.

Can you claim on TI if it's covered if they go bust?

 

[Flashback]

We received a voucher for new booking to first December just today. We were due to leave this Friday. We used this email:
[email protected] but I wonder if it can be used for any booking? Plus we posted a question on this website

Luxury Escapes reviews

Luxury Escapes (Booking Service): 4.5 out of 5 stars from 7,157 genuine reviews on Australia's largest opinion site ProductReview.com.au.

www.productreview.com.au

.

And they also assisted. Eventually they agreed with the price I should pay with no surcharge. Also, contact the property directly and wedge them. Our property in Bali was fabulous to work with.

Interested to know which property it is, my folks have a trip in Bali where they're about to have the same conversation.... I'm hoping it's the same one and I can use your strategy without too much hassle

 

[Pushka]

Interested to know which property it is, my folks have a trip in Bali where they're about to have the same conversation.... I'm hoping it's the same one and I can use your strategy without too much hassle

I don't think it will matter. They will want the business. Ours was Grand Mirage Resort & Thalasso Bali

 

[Flashback]

I don't think it will matter. They will want the business. Ours was Grand Mirage Resort & Thalasso Bali

One of the Melia properties in Seminyak for them, have a while to deal with it so will sort out closer to the time.

 

[Pushka]

One of the Melia properties in Seminyak for them, have a while to deal with it so will sort out closer to the time.

We were supposed to be flying out this Friday.