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.

 

[JohnM]

So, assuming there will be a vaccine, we have rebooked the same cruise for next year. Of course the deal is off if there is no vaccine but we don't have to make any decisions now until May next year.

Realistically, let's just cut to the chase: the deal is off...

 

[Pushka]

Realistically, let's just cut to the chase: the deal is off...

yeah I know. But having cancelled so much stuff and dealing with that, dealing with all the business stuff, I just wanted to put the final decision off for a while and regain some strength for another battle on another day.

 

[Katie]

Qantas has cancelled one of our SYD-HKG or HKG-BNE flights in July, so we can finally cancel our Finnair tickets to Europe for the Tour de France and our 20th wedding anniversary without penalty. Well, there is a cancellation charge of sorts by the travel agent, which after her kindly worded email we've agreed to be charged $300pp (on $6k pp tickets). Given all the work she's done, and her income will be reduced by the cancellation (i.e. paying back/not receiving her commission to the airline), we don't begrudge the fee.

 

[Pushka]

Qantas has cancelled one of our SYD-HKG or HKG-BNE flights in July, so we can finally cancel our Finnair tickets to Europe for the Tour de France and our 20th wedding anniversary without penalty. Well, there is a cancellation charge of sorts by the travel agent, which after her kindly worded email we've agreed to be charged $300pp (on $6k pp tickets). Given all the work she's done, and her income will be reduced by the cancellation (i.e. paying back/not receiving her commission to the airline), we don't begrudge the fee.

The issues with some TAs, especially for cruises, is that the cruiseline still paid them their commission if the cruise had been cancelled by the cruiseline. Then those TAs still charged passengers the cancellation penalty as well. Some TAs are unscrupulous.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I have a Classic Reward booked through QF for flights in early August, but flying on CX and EK metal. Now it seems if you have a QF booking before 30th Sept you can get full credit and waiver of cancellation/change fees. However this does not apply to classic reward tickets where the cancellation fees will still be charged. I'm not sure what will happen if CX decide to still run the flight, especially if the no HKG transit rules are in place.

 

[ramamba]

I have a Classic Reward booked through QF for flights in early August, but flying on CX and EK metal. Now it seems if you have a QF booking before 30th Sept you can get full credit and waiver of cancellation/change fees. However this does not apply to classic reward tickets where the cancellation fees will still be charged. I'm not sure what will happen if CX decide to still run the flight, especially if the no HKG transit rules are in place.

i'm in the same boat with 3 different QF awards on QF, EK and AY metal. Hoping either domestic or HKG legs get canned.

 

[SeatBackForward]

i'm in the same boat with 3 different QF awards on QF, EK and AY metal. Hoping either domestic or HKG legs get canned.

I'm not sure why Classic Rewards before 30-Sep are treated differently to paid fares before 30-Sep in regards to the cancellation fees. I don't want to ring the Premium call number with this questions at the moment eitherr - as its probably not that important in the scheme of things

 

[Flashback]

Another booking.com success, the hotel originally rejected the request...... but the CMA in the UK (similar to ACCC in Australia) has stated that if you cannot use a booking due to government mandated lockdown then a refund should be provided. Given the announcement on Sunday left the lockdown in place, I contacted booking.com direct who agreed and initiated the refund, without me even having to put forward an argument. Great result and I must say booking.com has been exemplary with my dealings with them over COVID-19.

 

[Pushka]

Another booking.com success, the hotel originally rejected the request...... but the CMA in the UK (similar to ACCC in Australia) has stated that if you cannot use a booking due to government mandated lockdown then a refund should be provided. Given the announcement on Sunday left the lockdown in place, I contacted booking.com direct who agreed and initiated the refund, without me even having to put forward an argument. Great result and I must say booking.com has been exemplary with my dealings with them over COVID-19.

I'm having the runaround with a Greek small cruise who, despite cancelling well before Covid really hit, and before their T&Cs for cancellation penalties, and well before the European Voucher law was passed, won't issue a refund. They were all set to pay but didn't so I left it for three weeks and by then the law was through I'm thinking I'll claim on Travel Insurance as a voucher for use by June 2021 isn't going to work.

 

[Flashback]

I'm having the runaround with a Greek small cruise who, despite cancelling well before Covid really hit, and before their T&Cs for cancellation penalties, and well before the European Voucher law was passed, won't issue a refund. They were all set to pay but didn't so I left it for three weeks and by then the law was through I'm thinking I'll claim on Travel Insurance as a voucher for use by June 2021 isn't going to work.

How about charge back? Or was it not paid on card?

 

[Pushka]

How about charge back? Or was it not paid on card?

There's the thing. When I paid it many months ago, I did a direct debit. I never do direct debit. And I did hesitate. I would needed to have sent my cc details in an email. So, I checked. Their refund terms were fine, their company well known. It's their Greek office that is causing me the pain.

 

[OATEK]

There's the thing. When I paid it many months ago, I did a direct debit. I never do direct debit. And I did hesitate. I would needed to have sent my cc details in an email. So, I checked. Their refund terms were fine, their company well known. It's their Greek office that is causing me the pain.

I am still waiting on my Greek Cruise refund (Celestyal). I contacted them (again) 10 days ago, and they said they were intending to refund, but could not say when

 

[Pushka]

I am still waiting on my Greek Cruise refund (Celestyal). I contacted them (again) 10 days ago, and they said they were intending to refund, but could not say when

I'm guessing they won't refund but will send a voucher.

 

[OATEK]

I'm guessing they won't refund but will send a voucher.

They have already sent the voucher, after agreeing the refund. But I went back to them stating they originally agreed a refund, as per their published response to CV-19, and they have "promised" a refund will come....

 

[blackcat20]

Our JQ refund for Hawaii has come through without any issues.

 

[drron]

Relais et Chateau is going on our no further bookings list and another chargeback to be arranged.

 

[lahlee]

I'm happy to report I got a full refund (~$389) from Webjet for a non-refundable hotel stay in Baltimore that I booked late last year. After reading the AFF forums, and other people's experiences with trying to cancel, I contacted the hotel directly. I noticed their booking calendar was greyed out for the next few months, and when I inquired as to whether I could actually transfer my booking to friends in the USA that could take advantage of the booking (presuming local lock-downs were finished by July) they told me they were offering refunds.

I then used Webjet's online chat to start the conversation about the refund, and all went really well. They said they don't usually offer refunds on non-refundable bookings, but since the hotel had confirmed that are offering cancellations that they would cancel the booking and refund the payment in full. I just had to send a screenshot of the email from the hotel, and specify the full name and title of the person I was in contact with. About a week later I got an email saying "Please be advised we have processed a refund today in the amount of $389.86 to the original form of payment on this booking. Please allow up to 3 business days for the refund to appear in your account." Sure enough, the refund appeared back into my Amex within the 3 days.

Thumbs up to Webjet - I will definitely use them again after this positive experience. I really was not too hopeful about getting this refunded, but it shows that sometimes you just have to ask (nicely) ☺

At the moment I'm actually ahead as Amex had given me a 10% credit statement for the booking, but I'm thinking they will see the refund and take back the $39 credit. Of course I'm happy either way.

 

[SeatBackForward]

i'm in the same boat with 3 different QF awards on QF, EK and AY metal. Hoping either domestic or HKG legs get canned.

I don't want to call QF yet, but I will use their online feedback form to query this:

"Regarding my Qantas Classic Rewards booking for 5-August 2020 - according to the terms of the COVID-19 booking changes, I will be penalised 6,000points for canceling these flights, whereas if I had paid with cash, I would retain the full value as flight credit.

Why is there a discrepancy in the methods? If I receive a full refund of Qantas points, it is effectively the same as a flight credit, as the points can only be claimed back via Qantas anyhow."

 

[I love to travel]

You have to pay the change fee now so most will be worst off.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Qantas has cancelled one of our SYD-HKG or HKG-BNE flights in July, so we can finally cancel our Finnair tickets to Europe for the Tour de France and our 20th wedding anniversary without penalty. Well, there is a cancellation charge of sorts by the travel agent, which after her kindly worded email we've agreed to be charged $300pp (on $6k pp tickets). Given all the work she's done, and her income will be reduced by the cancellation (i.e. paying back/not receiving her commission to the airline), we don't begrudge the fee.

$600 - did she do more than 12 hour's work? That seems like a lot of work to organise a couple of flights. Or were there other aspects to the booking such as hotels etc.

Thumbs up to Webjet - I will definitely use them again after this positive experience. I really was not too hopeful about getting this refunded, but it shows that sometimes you just have to ask (nicely) ☺

Good outcome! And maybe webjet is good for hotels. But with airfares they charge a compulsory $50 'fare lock guarantee' which allegedly protects you against the airfare increasing in the one minute between you pressing 'pay' and when they receive your money. IMO this is an unduly unfair. No other agency charges this compulsory fee.