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.

 

[Pushka]

Spoke to Qatar also, all correspondence with them I said refund, refund, refund but voucher issued. So had to call through, got through to the UK call centre after only 10 minutes on hold; that's better than a non COVID-19 day!

Refund request sent off and 28 working days to process, so that'll come in late May.

I'm well over 28 days for my Qatar refund to process.

 

[Flashback]

I'm well over 28 days for my Qatar refund to process.

Calendar or working? I was quoted working, which is closer to 6 weeks. I have a reminder set to chase up if not received by 27/5.

 

[JohnM]

This, extracted from a recent communication from our well-known TA who handled my now-cancelled DONE4 ticketed on JL stock may be informative:

Numerous airlines have disabled the ability for agents to self process refunds in-house, due to numerous agents processing refunds incorrectly. Some airlines don't allow agents to self process involuntary refunds for similar reasons. This means that with quite a lot of airlines, a manual refund is the only way to do a refund at the moment. Some airlines have over 100000 refunds to process so I'm sure you can imagine what's involved and how long this may take.

Your refund is likely to take 2-3 months to process. Please note that requesting a follow up on your refund will not speed up the process.

 

[Pushka]

Calendar or working? I was quoted working, which is closer to 6 weeks. I have a reminder set to chase up if not received by 27/5.

25 working days then. We cancelled just before it all went to cactus.

 

[Flashback]

25 working days then. We cancelled just before it all went to cactus.

Looks like a few days to go then! Hopefully will be sorted by Wednesday COB, if not then it looks like another call in.

 

[p--and--t]

I was waiting for 5 refunds for three tours and flights. Flights (EK) were estimated at 8 weeks and tours were estimated at 14days.

Flight (EK) refunds minus $250pp came thru in 14 days.

Tour refunds in full took 28 days.

Flights (AT) Refunds minus €150pp came thru in 14 days - nearly 50% of fare!!

Got the Hilton hotel in Egypt back in 48hrs in full from hotels.com (after pressing hard against their no refund policy)

 

[p--and--t]

Interesting just received a proactive email from JQ about a flight I had booked months ago for mid June 2020.

Dear p--and--t

We understand that your travel plans may have been impacted by the spread of COVID-19 and recent government travel restrictions and want to provide flexibility wherever we can. You can cancel your flights now if you already know that you don't want to travel, you don't need to wait. For customers travelling up until 31 July 2020 we're offering the option to cancel your flights and receive a Jetstar credit voucher. Follow these steps to request your voucher. We'll email the voucher to you within 14 days

Please note that you need to make your request by 30 April. These credit vouchers will be valid for 12 months from issue, to book any available flight. Our flights are generally made available around 12 months in advance, so you'll have about 2 years to travel.

 

[Flashback]

Folks just received an e-mail from JQ saying refund now 'processed' and will take 5 business days to reach the card; so slowly but surely being done. They've quoted the full amount of the booking in the e-mail sent, so that's good at least.

 

[Pushka]

I received a payment today from Insureandgo for cancellation fees charged by Qantas for March Bali trip. The next one will be for July.

 

[Flashback]

I received a payment today from Insureandgo for cancellation fees charged by Qantas for March Bali trip. The next one will be for July.

Was an excess taken out though? i.e. still a bit of a loss on your side of things?

 

[Pushka]

Was an excess taken out though? i.e. still a bit of a loss on your side of things?

Oh yes. $200 AUD. Plus there was a credit card charge that was not refunded either by Qantas but I didn't realise that wasn't being refunded until after I'd put in the claim. I did mention that to the Insurance company but they didn't play ball.

 

[Flashback]

Oh yes. $200 AUD. Plus there was a credit card charge that was not refunded either by Qantas but I didn't realise that wasn't being refunded until after I'd put in the claim. I did mention that to the Insurance company but they didn't play ball.

Still, better to get something rather than nothing I guess! I've been lucky in the end, by taking some unconventional routes that may exposure right now is very low as I've been able to get a refund for pretty much everything now. Just 1 accommodation to go, but they say they're closed till May 31 (our stay was mid May) so that one should hopefully be easy enough to sort out. If things extend into June (very likely), then I have more to deal with but don't want to think about that just yet!

 

[Port Power]

I wonder how this will affect our future booking patterns. Will we all now book hotels with the ability to cancel option? Perhaps not book flights so far in advance? It has been a game deciding on early perhaps lower prices over potential special offers that might come up. I’ve never cancelled a trip before by choice, which is sort of how the current situation is. Not sure how I will change. Maybe just packaged tours and let them refund me and deal with any cancellations!

 

[Flashback]

I wonder how this will affect our future booking patterns. Will we all now book hotels with the ability to cancel option? Perhaps not book flights so far in advance? It has been a game deciding on early perhaps lower prices over potential special offers that might come up. I’ve never cancelled a trip before by choice, which is sort of how the current situation is. Not sure how I will change. Maybe just packaged tours and let them refund me and deal with any cancellations!

Some hotel chains aren't even offering non-refundable rates right now, so I wonder if others will follow suit. Whether those rates match the previously non-refundable ones, match the original flexible ones or somewhere in between is a mystery though.

 

[drron]

It won't change the way I book hotels which is usually well out from the travel.i book a refundable rate I am happy with and in the month before review weekly and switch to non refundable if it is cheaper.

But it will change who I book with.Luxury Escapes are out.Independent hotels in the UK probably won't be used as yet to get a refund from the 3 booked..Hand Picked hotels actually refunded our non refundable bookings before we even asked so they will be used.

We had unrefundable booking with Accor and Marriott.No problems and refunds quick.Rydges did refund but took a bit of to and fro and a wait.

 

[OATEK]

It won't change the way I book hotels which is usually well out from the travel.i book a refundable rate I am happy with and in the month before review weekly and switch to non refundable if it is cheaper.

But it will change who I book with.Luxury Escapes are out.Independent hotels in the UK probably won't be used as yet to get a refund from the 3 booked..Hand Picked hotels actually refunded our non refundable bookings before we even asked so they will be used.

We had unrefundable booking with Accor and Marriott.No problems and refunds quick.Rydges did refund but took a bit of to and fro and a wait.

We tend to book refundable hotels already, and from our cancelled 03/20 trip had a 50% strike for refunds from the two non-refundable bookings. As far as airfares go, we are still waiting to see a refund from BA for over $8k, which were fully refundable less $250 each.

I could have saved a lot of pain and cash by holding off the final cruise payment until the last minute, and would have saved a far amount. Paid December for April cruise, which did not have to be paid until Feb 20 when Covide 19 was known. Still waiting for a refund there as well which we have been promised, although may never see.

 

[Toula92122]

I have 5 points redemption bookings in July which I have been holding off cancelling waiting for airlines to cancel rather than having to pay redeposit fees. It seems as if in the past week July flights have become cancellable at no cost. I managed to cancel a United redemption on Eva at no cost and fees to come back in 14 days ($5.60) and Alaska were happy to cancel my Fiji Airways flight at no coast and said I will get a refund within 10 days.

With regards to hotels, I always book cancellable rates. No prepaid for me after getting burnt on that on prior occasions. I usually only book at the portal of the hotel chain or direct with the hotel as i find that always makes it easier to deal with when things go wrong. I'm also usually a last minute booker unless I am involved in a trip with others. I often do not book hotels until the day before I depart for a trip and I have been known to do flight redemptions on the day of departure. Saves cancellation fees.

 

[p--and--t]

Have flights booked in July via Aunt Betty (originally for a conference) MEL-KUL-HKT-KUL-MEL in July.

Malaysian have come back with major changes by days for each of the sectors of the original schedule for which the airline would give 100% refund. BUT Aunt Betty wants $250 per head to cancel the free cancellation from Malaysian (MH).

Now faced with lose 70% of fares to cancel or take the risk of rescheduling the flights for July next year when the conference has been rescheduled and pay Aunt Betty $55 per person for the altering the PNR which I could do myself through MH.

Who knows if the borders will be open both ends of each sector, the state of outbreaks in three different countries, what will MH additionally charge to move the flights and what will the fares be like . If I can't travel next year might end up paying once for an alteration now then twice for the eventual cancellation next year.

 

[Toula92122]

Probably a dumb question, but who is Aunt Betty?

 

[p--and--t]

Probably a dumb question, but who is Aunt Betty?

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