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]

Good news. Wonder if it will come back for new variants or is it now ditched "permanently"

Hard to say, everything is led by "science"

 

[OATEK]

....

Now the next item on the agenda is to try and recover our cruise money. The Greek Govt changed the law to allow travel companies to hang on to funds from cancellations until 31/12/2021. Vouchers were issued for a $USD amount, in the hope travellers would rebook, on the proviso that if not rebooked by 31/12/2021 then the traveller would be entitled to a refund. Only a few weeks to go to test this!!

The cruise line has made noises about refunding our fares (US$4.2k). Will report back on success - perhaps they can sneak the refund inside two years from when the cruise was cancelled.

 

[OATEK]

The cruise line has made noises about refunding our fares (US$4.2k). Will report back on success - perhaps they can sneak the refund inside two years from when the cruise was cancelled.

I am very pleased to report that the refund for the cruise that was cancelled in March 2020 has finally hit the bank account. Just 4 weeks less than 2 years since it was cancelled!! We have have been very fortunate to have all airfares, the cruise and pre-paid accommodation refunded!

Edit: It is worth re-stating that the Greek government broke from the EU rules by allowing travel and tourism companies to keep pre-paid funds until 31/12/21. The cruise company offered a voucher for 110% of the retained funds, but anyone who did not use the voucher to book a new cruise by 31/12/21 was to be refunded.