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]

Woohoo! I now have a grand total of 25 Tier Credits with AerClub (AerLingus). That's 25 more than the 0 I would have earned this year, last year, or next year

Dear Flashback,

We hope you and yours are keeping safe and well. Your continued loyalty and support is really appreciated as we navigate unprecedented challenges during this extraordinary time.

As a thank you from all of us, we'd like to give you 25 bonus Tier Credits.

We know that your opportunity to fly with us may be limited in the coming weeks, so these Tier Credits will help you progress to Silver this anniversary year. Your bonus Tier Credits will be automatically credited to your account shortly - we've got you covered.

If your tier status expired in March and these Tier Credits would have maintained your tier, we will review your account on this basis within the next few days.

 

[clifford]

Woohoo! I now have a grand total of 25 Tier Credits with AerClub (AerLingus). That's 25 more than the 0 I would have earned this year, last year, or next year

I just got one of these too, and like you, I don't see myself ever using it. But it's a nice gesture anyway.

I only have an Aer Club account to facilitate avios transfers from Iberia to BA.

 

[Flashback]

What would you do? Refund was requested 22/3 and still hasn't been paid back. This was booked as a flexible rate (so in my view, they shouldn't have even charged in the first place!) so we are 100% entitled to a refund here. My parents are of course happy to stay there, eventually, when they're able to make it back over. However, given they have other accommodation providers holding out on returning money to them, the question is she we really be providing a 1.5 year 0% loan to them? I think not.

As you can appreciate there are a whole host of people cancelling hotel bookings all at the same time. We know the importance of everyone’s individual deposits but we are sure you will understand that all these deposits combined at once, amount to very large sums of money which we simply do not have at this point. As a small and seasonal business we have very limited cash flow and because these pandemic developments have come at the end of a long winter when all seasonal businesses are always financially extremely extended anyway, these events, now closure and inability to trade, combined with mass refunds have pushed past the boundaries of staying afloat and solvent. We are seeking help from the bank and from the government, which is coming, but this will take a little time to filter through. We therefore are asking all our guests if they would be happy to defer their bookings to a later date, either this year or next, with the transfer of deposits to this later date. Please let us know some possible dates, probably in September/October or 2021. We do hope you can help us with this, as most of our guests (from all around the world) already have, and please know we are actively seeking advice and help so will update you as soon as we know more. With your help we will hopefully still be trading on the other side of these terrible times and will look forward to welcoming you back to the Longcross Hotel.
Thank you for your understanding and we wish you well in the weeks to come.

Not even signed by a named person, so a bit impersonal. Also, I had to chase to even get that message...... they weren't proactive about it at all. I don't want to seem to be mean, but I feel I should really be pushing for the money back here.

 

[Pushka]

What would you do? Refund was requested 22/3 and still hasn't been paid back. This was booked as a flexible rate (so in my view, they shouldn't have even charged in the first place!) so we are 100% entitled to a refund here. My parents are of course happy to stay there, eventually, when they're able to make it back over. However, given they have other accommodation providers holding out on returning money to them, the question is she we really be providing a 1.5 year 0% loan to them? I think not.

As you can appreciate there are a whole host of people cancelling hotel bookings all at the same time. We know the importance of everyone’s individual deposits but we are sure you will understand that all these deposits combined at once, amount to very large sums of money which we simply do not have at this point. As a small and seasonal business we have very limited cash flow and because these pandemic developments have come at the end of a long winter when all seasonal businesses are always financially extremely extended anyway, these events, now closure and inability to trade, combined with mass refunds have pushed past the boundaries of staying afloat and solvent. We are seeking help from the bank and from the government, which is coming, but this will take a little time to filter through. We therefore are asking all our guests if they would be happy to defer their bookings to a later date, either this year or next, with the transfer of deposits to this later date. Please let us know some possible dates, probably in September/October or 2021. We do hope you can help us with this, as most of our guests (from all around the world) already have, and please know we are actively seeking advice and help so will update you as soon as we know more. With your help we will hopefully still be trading on the other side of these terrible times and will look forward to welcoming you back to the Longcross Hotel.
Thank you for your understanding and we wish you well in the weeks to come.

Not even signed by a named person, so a bit impersonal. Also, I had to chase to even get that message...... they weren't proactive about it at all. I don't want to seem to be mean, but I feel I should really be pushing for the money back here.

I'm still waiting on a Qantas refund from 15th March on fully cancellable fare. Same with a Qatar one that is quite a few dollars more. Have already rung up once about the Qantas one.

 

[JohnM]

I'm still waiting on a Qantas refund from 15th March on fully cancellable fare. Same with a Qatar one that is quite a few dollars more. Have already rung up once about the Qantas one.

When I phoned last week to cancel an award booking, the agent said 2-4 weeks for the refund to be processed.

 

[serfty]

When I phoned last week to cancel an award booking, the agent said 2-4 weeks for the refund to be processed.

They generally state that - sometimes even six weeks.

Qantas' published standard is 14 days.

Cancelling or changing a Reward flight booking

If you cancel your booking taxes, fees and carrier charges will be refunded back to the credit card on which the taxes were originally paid. A Cancellation Refund Fee will apply. Refer to the Fees Schedule for a list of fees. Please allow up to 14 days for the points to appear on your activity statement.

 

[Flashback]

I'm still waiting on a Qantas refund from 15th March on fully cancellable fare. Same with a Qatar one that is quite a few dollars more. Have already rung up once about the Qantas one.

Was the underlying fare fully flex though i.e. prior to the now much more flexible terms being offered

 

[Flashback]

Am I the only one who thinks TI providers are just copping out? Here's an example .... while their policy seems very generous, it's not.

https://trasteo.cdn.prismic.io/trasteo/c90828a5-cd19-4cd6-9520-397b0d7a6e7a_UK+CoronavVirus+FAQ%27s+200320+v2.pdf

For example, I have a non-refundable hotel and they have offered a voucher. Now, I have no intention of using that because the trip was for a friend's birthday and rescheduling to go over and use it is of no value to me. However, having been offered the chance to rebook on another date...... the TI provider considers that to be acceptable and therefore will deny the claim. Annoying, eh?

Apart from for medical reasons (which I've only used once), I sometimes really wonder what the point of TI is.......

 

[Pushka]

Was the underlying fare fully flex though i.e. prior to the now much more flexible terms being offered

Yep. The other was a reschedule flight so the cancellation fee wasn't charged. Both cancelled before it all went to pot.

 

[Flashback]

Very pleasantly surprised with Avios (avios.com). Cancelled a reward flight on 2/4, was told it'd be a week for the Avios and 4 weeks for the cash. However, both Avios and Cash were in my account that same day.

 

[knightfall88]

Hi, I have been out of touch for a while. I have oneworld classic reward booking on 7th May. Is the best way to cancel it, just to text qantas and ask for a refund of points ensuring they don't charge me a cancellation fee? Thanks

 

[Scr77]

Hi, I have been out of touch for a while. I have oneworld classic reward booking on 7th May. Is the best way to cancel it, just to text qantas and ask for a refund of points ensuring they don't charge me a cancellation fee? Thanks

Sms and webchat are offline. Cancel through Manage My Booking. It will tell You how many points and taxes will be refunded and confirm no cancellation fees. Take screenshots.

 

[Pushka]

Sms and webchat are offline. Cancel through Manage My Booking. It will tell You how many points and taxes will be refunded and confirm no cancellation fees. Take screenshots.

And expect to wait. Three weeks and counting for one of ours.

 

[knightfall88]

Sms and webchat are offline. Cancel through Manage My Booking. It will tell You how many points and taxes will be refunded and confirm no cancellation fees. Take screenshots.

Its greyed out for me. So calling is the only method then. Great.

 

[Flashback]

So that hotel I had in Oslo that wouldn't budge.... at a corporate level, they're happy to give refunds.

https://www.choicehotels.com/en-uk/support/travel-alerts

Obviously that says for those booked direct only, whereas mine was via Booking.com

Have e-mailed again asking them to reconsider, but expect a negative response again. Not worth claiming via Travel Insurance as after the excess I will only end up with £18. Doesn't seem like it's worth all the paperwork, time & effort etc. to only get £18 back so will just write it off I think. I have another set of accommodation on that trip but TI won't cover it, because they've offered a voucher/choice of rebooking; £140 for that one.

 

[Flashback]

Into my third week waiting for BA & Cruise refunds. They keep say they are coming, but ....

There is a company rep on FT (BA refund helper) now that you can reach out to and they'll look into your case, lots of reports of that being quite helpful so worth going down that route if you're still waiting. I mentioned I was still waiting and was going to wait another week or so before reaching out, but they proactively reached out to me so I've passed over my booking details.

Edit: 10 minutes after PM'ing I had a reply back; not bad.
Hello Flashback, the booking shows me that the ticket value was refunded on 4april so leave it a day or so and check your credit card? I have now refunded the xx_xx Avios.
Kind regards
BA refund helper

Quite interesting to note that when the refund was dealt with the Avios wasn't dealt with...... in my case it was a booking that I had done a part payment of Avios with.

 

[Flashback]

Well I've had good success with hotels.com, but not by dealing with them. I'm still waiting for a refund for them on a flex booking I cancelled 2.5 weeks ago; but online their message says up to 30 days. I find that odd as normally their auto refund process is really quick, but no big deal.

I had 2 non-refundable bookings, 1 where hotels.com proactively offered a voucher which as I mentioned earlier I wouldn't be able to use so that was no good. On that one, I e-mailed the property, who on their corporate site was offering refunds on all stays to June 30 regardless of booking type...... they initiated a cancellation their end for me so booking cancelled and full refund on its way. Hooray!

Another non-refundable booking I had, the property actually proactively reached out to me and asked if I would like it cancelled, said yes, so they cancelled their end. That one was booking with a hotels.com rewards night + cash top-up; the rewards night is already back in my account to use again and cash is on its way too, likely also another 30 days.

That has saved me a phone call I was going to make this week as the stays were next week, so that's great news.

For next week's trip there's just the 1 hotel that won't budge, so now I need to decide whether I go through the travel insurance hassle, to end up with £18 back (after paying the£ £50 excess) or whether I just write that off.

 

[Flashback]

Varying timelines for me with BA:
- Javascript workaround to cancel 23/3 for a cash reduced with Avios booking - Avios 6/4 (via BA Refund Helper's help on FT), Cash 8/4
- Phone 2/4 - Avios 2/4, Cash 8/4

Others still pending, but interesting seeing the different timelines. A few other 'simple' bookings requested 2/4 still pending, some of them put into the queue after the one that has already been refunded. No rhyme nor reason to things it seems!

I'm still waiting for refunds on hotels.com bookings that have been cancelled......... nearly 3 weeks now. Booking.com was great, where they handle the payment as that was back within 1-2 days each time. The one where they didn't handle the payment and let the property deal with it...... still fighting that one

Edit: spoke too soon, literally just had an e-mail from them 2 minutes after I posted this saying they have processed the refund! Brilliant.

 

[MELso]

Big thumbs up for Hilton! Have actually made money on two May stays at Hilton hotels in Tokyo and Nagoya that I booked last year after they came through with full refunds processed in under a week...

(Now to try and cancel the flight with the OTA, which I suspect will be like having teeth pulled...)

 

[blackcat20]

Our flight to HNL had been cancelled so I guess that's that. Flight home hasn't though