Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[FIYes]

Beaumeister, I also had a flight scheduled with Lufthansa and they have been unwilling to refund. I do have a voucher with them now. On the other hand American Airline was very easy to work with and quickly refunded my money. I’m glad that 2019 was a big travel year for us (although not as big as yours) since we are not going anywhere now.

 

[tmm99]

For those of you accepting a voucher rather than cash--aren't you afraid the business issuing the voucher will go bankrupt?

Yes, I am. I should be happy that it's only $1,500...? It's with Air Canada, and they evidently could go bankrupt if they had to give full refunds to everyone. They may still go bankrupt. The credits are only good for 2 years. I am not even sure if I will be in a mood to go anywhere on a plane in that time period...

 

[braumeister]

Interesting tidbit from a NYT article today:

Some airlines, notably Delta and Southwest, are intentionally keeping their planes partly empty. Others, like United and American, have returned to filling every seat they can. On one recent American flight, passengers were even prohibited from moving into empty exit rows because they had not paid extra for them.

It’s safe to say that flying on a U.S. airline these days is just as fraught and confusing as every other activity that was commonplace before the coronavirus pandemic.

Sure glad my car is comfortable in case I need to travel.

 

[tulak]

And if I need to fly, I know which airlines will get my money.

 

[JoeWras]

Booked an overseas tour with an operator with an impeccable 75 year history. Prepayment in full was required by Feb 15.

Well, they pulled out the fine print and docked us nearly 25%. Or we could let it ride as a credit. Heck no! It was touch-and-go to get the refund because people were raising hell and lawyering up (although I think they have no recourse). We finally got the partial refund this week.

We're going to call it "even" since the stimulus payment covers our loss.

This operator now has dropped to a "B" rating on BBB with an average customer review of 1-star. Tripadvisor comments are full of anger. I wonder how this will go for them?

There's the letter of the law and fine print, and then there is customer satisfaction. Compare and contrast to Rick Steves Tours who gave 100% refunds.

I'm not sure we'll ever sign up with a tour again, unless we can do it as a snap decision last minute. I feel badly burned.

Oh, and the insurance was useless too.

 

[harllee]

Joe could you tell us name of tour company who docked you 25% for cancelling so all of us can avoid that company in the future?

 

[JoeWras]

Joe could you tell us name of tour company who docked you 25% for cancelling so all of us can avoid that company in the future?

I'll PM you. I'm still uncomfortable about it seeing all the lawyer talk on forums about these folks.

 

[Nemo2]

I'm not sure we'll ever sign up with a tour again, unless we can do it as a snap decision last minute.

We don't do tours, but have reconciled with the fact that this'll likely be our basic principle from now on....it'll be like the old Ikea ad.."Start the car!"

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I'll PM you. I'm still uncomfortable about it seeing all the lawyer talk on forums about these folks.

Please PM me, too. We plan on traveling a lot once it's safe, and I'd like to know who to avoid. I thought it might be OAT, but they've only been around for 72 years.

 

[gattara]

I'll PM you. I'm still uncomfortable about it seeing all the lawyer talk on forums about these folks.

Please PM me as well. Our Rick Steves trip was canceled in April and they sent us an email and called to say they were giving us full refunds. They did so immediately, so I can recommend them for fair treatment.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Please PM me as well. Our Rick Steves trip was canceled in April and they sent us an email and called to say they were giving us full refunds. They did so immediately, so I can recommend them for fair treatment.

Ha! I replied to JoeWras in a PM that Rick Steves seems to be the only agency that was keeping everyone happy despite the cancellations, and although we tend to do our own planning and booking, they're probably the first one we'd consider if we found the need. (My MIL and FIL used OAT a lot, and they had always been good, but there were a lot of reports of them trying to retroactively change their refund policy, and that is not OK.)

 

[harllee]

I'll PM you. I'm still uncomfortable about it seeing all the lawyer talk on forums about these folks.

Joe, I got it thanks very much.

 

[harllee]

I have posted this before but it was way back so I will post again--AirBnb was good to work with when I had to cancel a few reservations. I got my refund immediately, no problems.

 

[gattara]

Ha! I replied to JoeWras in a PM that Rick Steves seems to be the only agency that was keeping everyone happy despite the cancellations, and although we tend to do our own planning and booking, they're probably the first one we'd consider if we found the need. (My MIL and FIL used OAT a lot, and they had always been good, but there were a lot of reports of them trying to retroactively change their refund policy, and that is not OK.)

I've traveled with Road Scholar twice; I haven't heard anything good or bad about their return policy during this mess. If anyone has had experience with that, I'd love to hear about it.

 

[athena53]

Still fighting with Marriott/Orbitz.

Booked the Marriott Quito Airport for the night before my flight home when my South America trip was cut short in mid-March. The hotel cancelled the next day. (Just as well- Ecuador had closed its borders so I could no longer get there from Bolivia, anyway.) Called Marriott about a refund when I got home. They said 6-8 weeks. I was patient and waited. Called them again and they said Orbitz had never paid THEM so I contacted Orbits and filed a claim. Orbitz said it would take X weeks (beyond the 90 days you have to file a chargeback) so I filed a chargeback with Visa.

Visa just said Orbitz denied the refund because it has no record of my cancelling the reservation. (The drop-down boxes in the chargeback form were not specific enough and there were no text boxes I could use to explain.)

I've got all the records- just need to print them out, compose a letter and mail it. There's $275 involved so it's worth my time.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I'm in a weird situation with a nonrefundable hotel room in London. My flight was cancelled, and there's still a travel advisory, but the hotel is still open and travel is not technically banned, so they're going to keep my money and I can go suck rocks. I may try a chargeback because the UK is requiring everyone who travels to the UK to quarantine in one place for 14 days before traveling anywhere else, so I couldn't actually stay at that hotel for one night (it was supposed to be the last night of our trip anyway, a hotel airport for an early flight the next day).

Well, they didn't charge me yet, and Booking.com shows it as "Cancelled", so we may have escaped completely undamaged. However, I won't be using Booking.com again to book anything, only to search for accommodations, and then I'll go book on the hotel website. They were a huge pain to deal with, and the hotel wouldn't deal with me because I used a third party agent.

It was only about $85 USD, but you don't FIRE by wasting money!

 

[ShadowBloom]

I am booked on a tour that's supposed to take place in October (booked this last year). Final payment date originally was August 1; the company emailed that they've pushed that date back to Aug 26 while they work to determine which trips they can operate. I won't be traveling even if the tour runs. My guess is they delayed the final payment date so they can avoid cancelling the tour and triggering refunds.

 

[tulak]

I have posted this before but it was way back so I will post again--AirBnb was good to work with when I had to cancel a few reservations. I got my refund immediately, no problems.

+1 with Airbnb. I had good luck with them prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, they were also great. I’ll definitely continue to use them, probably exclusively at this point.

 

[Nemo2]

+1 with Airbnb. I had good luck with them prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, they were also great. I’ll definitely continue to use them, probably exclusively at this point.

We've used Airbnb numerous times in a variety of countries.....very satisfied with them.

 

[swakyaby]

I'll PM you. I'm still uncomfortable about it seeing all the lawyer talk on forums about these folks.

Can you also PM me about the tour company? I had my first small group travel experience last summer, and while very expensive, was enjoyable enough to look forward to another.

 

[jollystomper]

Booked an overseas tour with an operator with an impeccable 75 year history. Prepayment in full was required by Feb 15.

Well, they pulled out the fine print and docked us nearly 25%. Or we could let it ride as a credit. Heck no! It was touch-and-go to get the refund because people were raising hell and lawyering up (although I think they have no recourse). We finally got the partial refund this week.

We're going to call it "even" since the stimulus payment covers our loss.

This operator now has dropped to a "B" rating on BBB with an average customer review of 1-star. Tripadvisor comments are full of anger. I wonder how this will go for them?

There's the letter of the law and fine print, and then there is customer satisfaction. Compare and contrast to Rick Steves Tours who gave 100% refunds.

I'm not sure we'll ever sign up with a tour again, unless we can do it as a snap decision last minute. I feel badly burned.

Oh, and the insurance was useless too.

Be thankful. We have several friends who signed up for an overseas tour that was scheduled for March. It was cancelled, but so far the last we heard from our friends (we do not ask as they get very angry and talk about heading to the shooting range to take out their frustrations) they have not gotten anything back. The folks in the U.S. operating the tour said the "fine print" they were just contracting to the actual tour operator, which is an overseas company. The overseas company is only offering a 75-80% credit towards a future tour, claiming they cannot give 100% credit, and are stalling on refunds due to "non-refundable fees" that are not really spelled out but "are being worked on". Since they are not a U.S. company, one would have to "lawyer up" with lawyers from that country. The law system in that country is nothing like the U.S. law system, with language translation issues thrown in as well.

 

[JoeWras]

Be thankful. We have several friends who signed up for an overseas tour that was scheduled for March. It was cancelled, but so far the last we heard from our friends (we do not ask as they get very angry and talk about heading to the shooting range to take out their frustrations) they have not gotten anything back. The folks in the U.S. operating the tour said the "fine print" they were just contracting to the actual tour operator, which is an overseas company. The overseas company is only offering a 75-80% credit towards a future tour, claiming they cannot give 100% credit, and are stalling on refunds due to "non-refundable fees" that are not really spelled out but "are being worked on". Since they are not a U.S. company, one would have to "lawyer up" with lawyers from that country. The law system in that country is nothing like the U.S. law system, with language translation issues thrown in as well.

Yes, we are thankful! I fully expected to lose it all. And like I said, our dual stimulus checks make us even. At least that's the way I'm justifying it in my mind.

You make a very good point about overseas contractors. I suspect this operator was doing something similar and waiting on their overseas subcontractors. Well, I don't suspect, they basically said so. But their communications were confusing and obfuscated. Actually, they never communicated with us directly, only through the group leader. The group leaders were put in a bad spot. There's no transparency in their accounting so we don't know how much they had to eat too. However, being a small company, they should have signed up for PPP giving them some government relief.

A few details: this was a semi-religious tour. Almost everyone comes to it by way of a church or someone they know at church. So, most group leaders were priests or pastors. Using them as a conduit of communication was kind of insane. The company had our mails and emails, they could have contacted us directly. Nope. Go through the leader. And the leader had a hard time getting through to them. Any direct communications were just dumped. Hence why some frustrated folks had lawyers contact them. That usually gets attention. There have been some news articles out there on this situation and the company has communicated back partially through lawyers too. What a mess.

So if you are thinking of a trip through your church, check BBB. If your operator is rated below A and has a customer review rating of 1 star out of 5, you might want to reconsider.

 

[JoeWras]

By the way, I wanted to outline one good experience with fine print.

9 years ago we signed up for a trip with REI. It was to the Sierra Nevada mountains, camping and hiking. Anyway, there was fine print which I read as being pretty drastic should the trip have to be cancelled.

Guess what, the trip was cancelled. A few feet of snow fell multiple times the week before the trip (mid-late June!). It was their first cancellation of this trip ever. I expected the worst. Nope, they promptly refunded 100% and even gave us a "We're sorry" gift of luggage tags. They threw out the fine print.

 

[braumeister]

I had a similar experience once with an REI hiking trip. They are a class act.

 

[Sunset]

Well my refund from Princess took a bizarre turn.

I was trying to get a refund of approx $5K.
Since Costco had told me 110 days ago, it would take 3-10 biz days for the refund, after about a month I disputed the last payment with my CC. To at least ensure I got about $4.6K back.

I have been waiting but nothing.

Yesterday I phone Costco, after 1.5 hours on the phone with the TA, who then phones Princess, the Costco agent tells me she is ending her shift and will go home. She assures me someone else from Costco will phone me to follow up.

A few hours later, the phone rings and it is Costco. New TA tells me when I disputed the charge, Princess got their booking screwed up, and thought I owed them $300

Supposedly Princess accounting will wipe the $300 false charge, and then they can work on refunding me.

I'm supposed to get another phone call from Costco on Friday

Costco never phoned me back.
This Friday will make 2 weeks from when they were supposed to phone me.
I'll have to give them another call.

This entire arrangement with Travel Agencies/Agents who are happy to take the $$, but suddenly are out of touch when it comes to refunds is annoying.