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]

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.

If you PM BA Refund Helper on FT, they'll get the refund sorted for you pretty quick.

For the cruise, is CC charge back an option?

 

[OZDUCK]

I cancelled a hotel booking in Finland on 1 April. It was a 'Free Cancellation' booking but we had paid a $220 deposit. I held off checking my 28 Degrees (Latitude) CC, only used for overseas expenses, until today to allow plenty of time for the property to process the refund. I was sure that there would be problems but the deposit had been returned to me within 1 day of the cancellation!

 

[OATEK]

If you PM BA Refund Helper on FT, they'll get the refund sorted for you pretty quick.

For the cruise, is CC charge back an option?

Thanks for the tip about the BA Refund Helper - I reached out and was advised that the refund was being processed in Sydney, and should be with me soon.

 

[Flashback]

My folks received their JQ refund two days ago, so slowly but surely made its way there. Any luck with QF @Pushka?

 

[Pushka]

My folks received their JQ refund two days ago, so slowly but surely made its way there. Any luck with QF @Pushka?

It's QR as Qantas was last month cancellation and is sorted. QR refund seems to have disappeared into the abyss of refunds and banks. I've lodged a complaint with both Amex and Qatar. Qatar says it was refunded on 12 April and Amex can't see it. Sigh.

 

[Flashback]

It's QR as Qantas was last month cancellation and is sorted. QR refund seems to have disappeared into the abyss of refunds and banks. I've lodged a complaint with both Amex and Qatar. Qatar says it was refunded on 12 April and Amex can't see it. Sigh.

Ah! Hopefully I won't have the same issue, although the card balance is already paid so any refund coming back is just a bonus anyway. I think I'll end up losing some money on it, as while the GBP £ has dropped against everything it seems to have appreciated 8% against the NOK!

 

[OATEK]

Thanks for the tip about the BA Refund Helper - I reached out and was advised that the refund was being processed in Sydney, and should be with me soon.

Refund from BA ($10k) finally arrived overnight. Thanks again to @Flashback for the link to BA Refund Helper to enable me to push this along. We cancelled on 16/3, 72 hours before intended departure, and received our refund on 23/4, the morning we were due to arrive back in SYD.

 

[Oubline]

This morning I noticed that my 280k Business Oneworld Classic Award for August had disappeared from the Qantas app. Turns out Qantas had cancelled the whole itinerary and changed it to a voucher (which doesn't make sense for an award booking).

The consultant couldn't work out why the booking had been cancelled, but I suppose I was expecting that this would eventually happen anyway. Now processing a refund.

 

[Pushka]

This morning I noticed that my 280k Business Oneworld Classic Award for August had disappeared from the Qantas app. Turns out Qantas had cancelled the whole itinerary and changed it to a voucher (which doesn't make sense for an award booking).

The consultant couldn't work out why the booking had been cancelled, but I suppose I was expecting that this would eventually happen anyway. Now processing a refund.

And how on earth can you convert a voucher to an award flight? Did it have a point value on the voucher or a $ amount?

 

[Oubline]

And how on earth can you convert a voucher to an award flight? Did it have a point value on the voucher or a $ amount?

No dollar amount or any information at all actually!

When I accessed the booking through the Royal Jordanian website to try and see more detail, it just had a flight on a 747 from the fictional QZW-QZY airports, which I think is just a placeholder that Qantas must put in the booking reference to keep it alive. All fairly strange.

 

[jukebox333]

Bouquets to TID; I took out a travel insurance policy 15 hrs (!) before Covid was declared a non-coverable event, and after a reasonable delay due to volumes, have paid out my claim for accommodation in Tokyo, Osaka, and Hong Kong. Highly recommended for your next trip.

Brickbats to Cathay Pacific, whose website claimed I would be automatically refunded the full value of my flight if I cancelled, but subsequently told me I would not be eligible for a refund when I did, and six weeks on are just bouncing me around with emails full of motherhood statements and no details of what is really happening.

 

[k_sheep]

Bouquets to Turkish; flights were cancelled. Phones were answered immediately with excellent English the couple times I needed to call. Offered full refund, or the ability to hold the booking for ANY date in the future (including Xmas, NYE etc), as long as dates were advised by February 2021.

Initially opted for the former, but after a few days and logic setting in (just can't make it work in 2021 with what I've already got planned) so phoned back for refund. On my card within a week. Made $8 in currency conversion profit

 

[VPS]

Has anyone had an dealings with Trip a deal in these times. Friends dealing with them and they are not very travel savvy and they think they have lost their money. Supposed to be going to Japan in May.

 

[Flashback]

Has anyone had an dealings with Trip a deal in these times. Friends dealing with them and they are not very travel savvy and they think they have lost their money. Supposed to be going to Japan in May.

No experience with them so can't help on that front but do they have any travel insurance and if so, when did they take out the policy? Assuming it was booked as a package, has any component of the trip hotel/accommodation/tour been cancelled?

 

[VPS]

No experience with them so can't help on that front but do they have any travel insurance and if so, when did they take out the policy? Assuming it was booked as a package, has any component of the trip hotel/accommodation/tour been cancelled?

They've checked with the TI and they don't pay out on pandemics. They really aren't that savvy (although both intelligent people) They have no idea how they paid for it so I've told them to check if they paid on CC and do a charge back. I suspect I'll be going over there and holding their hand.

 

[Flashback]

They've checked with the TI and they don't pay out on pandemics. They really aren't that savvy (although both intelligent people) They have no idea how they paid for it so I've told them to check if they paid on CC and do a charge back. I suspect I'll be going over there and holding their hand.

Of course charge back will only be available to them if the service isn't being provided. If it's just change of mind / don't want to go now / can't enter due to travel restrictions then that's a no go for them. I suspect you will be, too!

 

[VPS]

It's definitely a no go - they've got vouchers from Qantas but Trip a deal has said they paid the Japanese and they can't get their money back

 

[Flashback]

It's definitely a no go - they've got vouchers from Qantas but Trip a deal has said they paid the Japanese and they can't get their money back

Was it purchased all as one package though?

 

[VPS]

Was it purchased all as one package though?

apparently - they are very vague about things and not the sort of people that actually afford to lose a few grand

 

[Flashback]

apparently - they are very vague about things and not the sort of people that actually afford to lose a few grand

Bit odd then, if some of the trip has been 'cancelled' (which is suggested by the QF vouchers) then seems they should be entitled to a full refund on 'the package'. I suspect the devil is in the detail here......