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.

 

[get me outta here]

I cancelled 3 reward PNRs on 18 March. Still no points, no acknowledgement and no $$ back. I'd like an acknowledgement of the cancellations at least.

 

[Pushka]

I cancelled 3 reward PNRs on 18 March. Still no points, no acknowledgement and no $$ back. I'd like an acknowledgement of the cancellations at least.

Can you still see the booking PNR's in your Bookings page but clicking takes you to a dead link? Or have they disappeared?

 

[Monya Meow Meow]

Can you still see the booking PNR's in your Bookings page but clicking takes you to a dead link? Or have they disappeared?

I can still see mine under my bookings but it takes me to a dead page when I click on it

 

[Pushka]

I can still see mine under my bookings but it takes me to a dead page when I click on it

Then it will be attended to and currently you cant even call and get it sorted until flight is within 48 hours.

 

[Monya Meow Meow]

Then it will be attended to and currently you cant even call and get it sorted until flight is within 48 hours.

Yep there is no chance of me getting through the hotline at the mo.
Will just have to wait it out and hope it comes sooner rather than later.

 

[get me outta here]

They have disappeared from MMB. ☹ /

Can you still see the booking PNR's in your Bookings page but clicking takes you to a dead link? Or have they disappeared?

 

[Pushka]

They have disappeared from MMB. ☹ /

Then likely its about to all be finalised. You still have the PNR's? Once the dates are within 48 hours, make yourself a large hot coffee, maybe a bottle of gin, have your phone all charged and call. They wont take calls for flights more than 48 hours away. I tried yesterday.

 

[get me outta here]

I will wait. I’ve been in training with QF who had me on hold for 3.5 hours and I got quite a shock when someone actually started talking to me.

Then likely its about to all be finalised. You still have the PNR's? Once the dates are within 48 hours, make yourself a large hot coffee, maybe a bottle of gin, have your phone all charged and call. They wont take calls for flights more than 48 hours away. I tried yesterday.

 

[serfty]

I cancelled 3 reward PNRs on 18 March. Still no points, no acknowledgement and no $$ back. I'd like an acknowledgement of the cancellations at least.

Their published standard is 14 days for the points to be refunded.

 

[JohnM]

Then it will be attended to and currently you cant even call and get it sorted until flight is within 48 hours.

Not my experience on a slightly different matter last night. See post #383: Qantas booking cancellation (under covid19)

 

[Pushka]

Not my experience on a slightly different matter last night. See post #383: Qantas booking cancellation (under covid19)

Well yes, but you were naughty. I played good girl and as the flights are next week I can wait.

 

[JohnM]

Well yes, but you were naughty. I played good girl and as the flights are next week I can wait.

I (reluctantly ) admit that I am not the Messiah, just a naughty boy, but I thought I'd try and only give it a maximum of five minutes on hold. Nearly fell off my chair when answered after three rings. And it's why I apologised.

 

[Flashback]

Well yes, but you were naughty. I played good girl and as the flights are next week I can wait.

The was I see it, the money is a sunk cost i.e. you were willing to spend it and had indeed done so already. That you may not get the benefit at the expected time is slightly less important, you should/will get it back eventually (if you decide the trip is a no goer) so stress less and wait till the times requested. That being said, given few flights are operating now I expect call times should start to reduce somewhat.

What I do recognise though is that some trips will have to be cancelled and not all money will be returned, but not much you can do about that and TI will sort it out, albeit at a small cost to you still.

 

[Flashback]

Qantas have adjusted their policy slightly.

Qantas flight credit extension

From today, anyone holding a Qantas ticket for travel before 31 July 2020 can get a flight credit and retain the full value of their booking. You need to do this by 30 April 2020. The flight credit is valid for booking and travel by 31 December 2021. This gives you more than 18 months to plan, rebook and travel.

If you already have a Qantas flight credit issued on or after 31 January 2020, this will also be automatically extended but may take a few weeks to update in our system.

No change fees apply when rebooking but please note that the flight credit can only be used towards a fare of equal or higher value than the original fare you purchased.

Find out more about flight credits and your options here.

Our call centres are under significant pressure responding to the rapidly evolving travel situation. We thank you for your patience, and ask that you avoid calling unless you're due to travel in the next 48 hours.

Alternatively, you can wait until we make the changes. If your flight is affected, we will contact you as soon as possible with your options.

Booked through a travel agent?

If your flight was booked through a travel agency or third-party website, please contact these companies directly to make changes to your booking.

Lounge closures and membership extension

As a result of new government restrictions announced this week, all Qantas domestic and international lounges are closed until further notice. Our team will be contacting all paid Qantas Club members next week with information about extensions of these memberships. Stay up to date here.

This is in addition to our recently announced automatic 12-month tier status extension for Qantas Frequent Flyers. Visit qantas.com/statusextension for more information.

 

[Pushka]

To think it was less than 6 weeks ago I was preparing to fly to Bali today.

 

[vetrade]

From today, anyone holding a Qantas ticket for travel before 31 July 2020 can get a flight credit and retain the full value of their booking. You need to do this by 30 April 2020. The flight credit is valid for booking and travel by 31 December 2021. This gives you more than 18 months to plan, rebook and travel"

So, now the question is "If your QF fights were booked through AMEX Travel will they do likewise and extend a full credit to 31 Dec, 2021, if the booking was part paid using a $450 card renewal credit?" Time will tell, I guess.

 

[Pushka]

From today, anyone holding a Qantas ticket for travel before 31 July 2020 can get a flight credit and retain the full value of their booking. You need to do this by 30 April 2020. The flight credit is valid for booking and travel by 31 December 2021. This gives you more than 18 months to plan, rebook and travel"

So, now the question is "If your QF fights were booked through AMEX Travel will they do likewise and extend a full credit to 31 Dec, 2021, if the booking was part paid using a $450 card renewal credit?" Time will tell, I guess.

I've cancelled an Amex booking through Covid and I was offered terms similar to Qantas. I won't lose the $450 credit, the booking must be with Qantas and an equal or great fare. Must be used by Feb 24 2021 (which is when I cancelled - 12 months expiry) . I did it all through the chat function in late Feb before it all hit the fan.

 

[VPS]

I wonder if Amex will allow an extension of the $450 credit I have because I'm certainly not going to be booking a flight or a hotel any time soon

 

[Pushka]

Not my experience on a slightly different matter last night. See post #383: Qantas booking cancellation (under covid19)

Well yes, but you were naughty. I played good girl and as the flights are next week I can wait.

So I joined the bad girl group and rang up again. Three issues. One, they'd deducted 8500 points for a requested upgrade for a flight that had been cancelled but not processed. Could let that play out. However this morning we received an email for return flight saying that Qantas had cancelled the flight but don't worry, we are sorting it out for you. Third, we had cancelled another flight 3 weeks ago for refund and had not received any advice and it disappeared from MMB ages ago

On premium line got through after the messages almost straight away. Got a fantastic operator from Tasmania who could see the carnage and sorted it out on the spot. And because Qantas had this morning cancelled one of the flights then there were no penalty fees for refund. Points restored.

 

[JohnM]

So I joined the bad girl group and rang up again. Three issues. One, they'd deducted 8500 points for a requested upgrade for a flight that had been cancelled but not processed. Could let that play out. However this morning we received an email for return flight saying that Qantas had cancelled the flight but don't worry, we are sorting it out for you. Third, we had cancelled another flight 3 weeks ago for refund and had not received any advice and it disappeared from MMB ages ago

On premium line got through after the messages almost straight away. Got a fantastic operator from Tasmania who could see the carnage and sorted it out on the spot. And because Qantas had this morning cancelled one of the flights then there were no penalty fees for refund. Points restored.

You're not the Messiah either - just a naughty girl.