Reconsider non-essential overseas travel - waiver of QF change fees?

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turtlemichael said:
We are booked prior to 31 March to NZ on a business saver fare. We are not going to travel. The current terms of cancellation allow a credit without penalty, but apparently no refund.
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I'd hold out. Would expect most TransTasman, indeed many inbound flights to Aus to be cancelled within the week, so would think the policy will change
 
Got sms from Qantas..cancellation fee waived for all bookings to NZ before 31Mar20..What happens to other bookings?
 
Looks like Qantas will do this piece by piece. But the bottom line is that their crews will all be subject to the same quarantine restrictions as the rest of us, so they won't operate any international flights from midnight onwards. They will have to cancel flights and refund us in full without fees - unless they try the Australian Consumer Law thing about unavoidable costs already incurred. And that would lose them so much goodwill...
 
This might give me a lot of blow back but would like to voice my opinion anyway.
I have a trip planned to the US for mid May and at this stage on the wait and see approach.
As long as the US or Australia is not put on the do not travel list i still plan to go.
My reason for this is all about probability of getting the Corona Virus and falling severely ill of it that requires medical care
I will be looking at the states i travel to and the number of cases. As long they are reasonable as it is as of today i would still choose to leave.
One of the states on my trip is Utah, Wyoming, Montana which has as of today six cases or less
There is a 1% chance to fall ill of the virus and of that another 10% chance to fall severely ill. This is almost like a lottery win and i never win
I have no travel insurance that would cover any of the Corona virus related claims.
My biggest fear is to buy into the panic of social media and mainstream media and ruin a perfectly great holiday.
keeping in mind that cancelling the trip what be a huge financial hit.
However if the US would look like Italy i most likely change my mind.
i guess the big question here is to buy into the panic or be reasonable of the statistics.
The million dollar questions.
 
dacom said:
I have a trip planned to the US... As long as the US or Australia is not put on the do not travel list i still plan to go.
I have no travel insurance that would cover any of the Corona virus related claims.
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If you plan to travel to the US without insurance that would cover medical costs then you are either very brave or very rich.

The risks you may face are being forced to quarantine either on arrival or on return, and being forced to avail of healthcare.

Plus, as the virus spreads, more and more people will be infected which will make the likelihood of yourself being infected that much greater.

Not everyone who has died or experienced severe symptoms has been old or infirm. It is a lottery and some people's numbers come up.

Also, FWIW, on Thursday this week I was convinced I would be travelling to Borneo in April. It started to look shaky on Friday and blew apart yesterday. Things change very quickly.
 
Booked EK flights via QF to EU for April (Easter). I am guessing that I have to wait for QF to offer a fee waive unless EK cancel the flights altogether? If EK were offering free cancel for example would this carry over to my QF booking?
 
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jbman said:
Booked EK flights via QF to EU for April (Easter). I am guessing that I have to wait for QF to offer a fee waive unless EK cancel the flights altogether? If EK were offering free cancel for example would this carry over to my QF booking?
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If it's a paid ticket through Qantas your contract is with Qantas using their terms and conditions. But if EK cancel the flights and QF can't entice you with alternative flights then you would probably get a refund without a cancellation fee.
 
Consider your cancellation charges a silver lining as the money will not be used to pay Alan’s $2.1 million salary he has foregone to 30 June and think of all the staff who might appreciate your fees will pay their wages for another couple of days.....
 
I cancelled my DFW flight last week. It left Sydney today and it's the best decision I ever made, especially after seeing the chaos at DFW today. I have insurance for the virus but since I will receive refunds from all my US bookings I will wear the cancel fees and be happy to get the balance as a refund.
 
justinbrett said:
Qantas won’t be operating empty flights. I wouldn’t be paying to cancel anything just yet - wait for them to do it.
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This is my theory too, why cop a change fee and a 3 hour plus wait on the phone when the airlines will probably cancel themselves.
 
CaptJCool said:
Consider your cancellation charges a silver lining as the money will not be used to pay Alan’s $2.1 million salary he has foregone to 30 June and think of all the staff who might appreciate your fees will pay their wages for another couple of days.....
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Well yes but on the other hand in our less public small business we have lost our interstate work so......
 
Pushka said:
At last some fairness to all travellers.
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Agreed. Qantas have caused their customers, and therefore their staff, unnecessary stress by not implementing this policy from the start. I appreciate that the situation is evolving, but I suspect 95% of calls are people ringing to ask if they can have a waiver! I am WP and the way QF has handled the flexibility issue has been subpar. On the one hand, on Tuesday they announced that they would change a whole raft of flights to suit their business and we just have to like it or lump it, but it took another 5 days for them to offer that same flexibility to their customers.
 
dacom said:
This might give me a lot of blow back but would like to voice my opinion anyway.
I have a trip planned to the US for mid May and at this stage on the wait and see approach.
As long as the US or Australia is not put on the do not travel list i still plan to go.
My reason for this is all about probability of getting the Corona Virus and falling severely ill of it that requires medical care
I will be looking at the states i travel to and the number of cases. As long they are reasonable as it is as of today i would still choose to leave.
One of the states on my trip is Utah, Wyoming, Montana which has as of today six cases or less
There is a 1% chance to fall ill of the virus and of that another 10% chance to fall severely ill. This is almost like a lottery win and i never win
I have no travel insurance that would cover any of the Corona virus related claims.
My biggest fear is to buy into the panic of social media and mainstream media and ruin a perfectly great holiday.
keeping in mind that cancelling the trip what be a huge financial hit.
However if the US would look like Italy i most likely change my mind.
i guess the big question here is to buy into the panic or be reasonable of the statistics.
The million dollar questions.
Click to expand...
The problem with using those statistics to determine your risk is that the USA has done minimal testing so you have no real idea how many cases there actually are where you are planning to travel. Now that they have bitten the bullet and plan to ramp up the tests I would expect cases to go up hugely, but they might still be underestimating given their current inability to test competently.

the other thing to bring into your calculations is your age and if you can afford the gigantic fees if you do happen to get ill and need good care, or even whether you can get treatment if their health system buckles. If you are in your 30s or 40s with no underlying risk maybe the gamble is worth it. Older with problems you would have to be crazy.
 
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