Coronavirus Advice - London to Manila via Beijing with Air China

eshroom

MATTR5 wrote: »

And don't book hotels and flights separate with elements you cant cancel - this is whats ATOL for!! - Sorry but you can cost yourself money by trying to save too much

Nonsense. Just make sure you have good travel insurance and book whatever you want. Not only can you save a lot of money by not booking a package, you also open your travel and accommodation options up exponentially.

As for the op CA are not and will not rebook on any star alliance partners. If you don't want to travel, then cancel now and rebook on another airline before prices get more expensive.

You could risk waiting for the flight to maybe be cancelled and maybe get EU261 coverage, but given CA customer service record, I wouldnt really recommend it.

Push your agent to speak to a supervisor and ask them to waive fees given the circumstances.

joebob

we just had email Air Asia just cancelled our flight from hong kong to Bangkok giving us full refund. was due to fly in to hong kong from ho chi min, with vietnam airlines. we decided to scrap hong kong and go straight to bangkok from ho chi min flight only £50 each. Just waiting to see if we can get money back from hotel.
If foreign office advise against travelling to hong kong could you claim back on insurance or credit card?

mattyprice4004

You want to recover the vast majority of your capital, and you’ve been offered an 80% refund - to my thinking that’s the vast majority.

Unfortunately you used a shonky online travel agent who make their money on fees etc - you can’t really expect them to refund you in full for an issue that isn’t of their creation.

Take the refund

Westin

joebob wrote: »

we just had email Air Asia just cancelled our flight from hong kong to Bangkok giving us full refund. was due to fly in to hong kong from ho chi min, with vietnam airlines. we decided to scrap hong kong and go straight to bangkok from ho chi min flight only £50 each. Just waiting to see if we can get money back from hotel.
If foreign office advise against travelling to hong kong could you claim back on insurance or credit card?

It doesn’t

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/hong-kong

u06mse8

eshroom wrote: »

Nonsense. Just make sure you have good travel insurance and book whatever you want. Not only can you save a lot of money by not booking a package, you also open your travel and accommodation options up exponentially.

As for the op CA are not and will not rebook on any star alliance partners. If you don't want to travel, then cancel now and rebook on another airline before prices get more expensive.

You could risk waiting for the flight to maybe be cancelled and maybe get EU261 coverage, but given CA customer service record, I wouldnt really recommend it.

Push your agent to speak to a supervisor and ask them to waive fees given the circumstances.

+1 to this.

Air China have just canceled the Beijing to/from Manila route over the period of our travel, so I will be pursuing a full refund.

Unfortunately, I can't link as I'm too new, but it's on the Air China website "1. Route from Mainland China to the Philippines: Beijing-Manila round-trip flights from February 6 to March 28, 2020 are canceled."

mattyprice4004 wrote: »

You want to recover the vast majority of your capital, and you’ve been offered an 80% refund - to my thinking that’s the vast majority.

Unfortunately you used a shonky online travel agent who make their money on fees etc - you can’t really expect them to refund you in full for an issue that isn’t of their creation.

Take the refund

I don't see why not.

Their business is to provide a product/service and they haven't provided it.

If you engaged into a contract with business, the "Wild Unicorn Company Ltd.", to provide you with a wild unicorn, and it didn't arrive in the post and WUC Ltd. blamed it on another company, I'm sure you'd be pursuing a full refund with WUC Ltd. for goods/services not received. ...or should you only expect 80% back?

Mikef

I booked to travel to cambodia via beijing with air china through trip.com who have confirmed they will refund the full amount so I guess it depends on the agent.

I did state that due to the advice of the FCO and my travel insurance being void if I travel I have no other option but to cancel, air china have themselves said that you shouldnt be charged

Here is what Air China have said re flights beginning 999 or CA

1. The tickets are valid for one year from the date of issuance. Any applicable tickets as defined above can be refunded free of charge within the validity period of one year as long as the refund is requested before the departure of the flight. We kindly ask the passengers to apply for refunds outside of peak periods.
2. Passengers can apply for refunds through the original channels where they purchased the tickets. Tickets purchased through the Air China website, app or WeChat applet can be directly refunded in the original order.

Im also putting a claim in for the uplift in costs for rebooking via Dubai although Im not sure this will be covered - heres what my travel insurance says.

Important information

Pre Travel Advice

This Insurance does not cover travel within areas to which the Foreign & Commonwealth office advise against all but essential travel. We strongly advise you visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Travel advice website for up to date travel information on all areas and countries at https://www.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo

The FCO “Know Before You Go” campaign is fully endorsed and supported by us, Sutton Winson and our claims handling company Millstream Underwriting Limited.

Your attention is drawn to Exclusion 13 (War and Terrorism) of the Exclusions Applicable to All Sections as this specifically refers to the advice given by the F


Section 9: Travel delay, abandonment and missed departure

2. up to the amount stated in the Table of Benefits for additional travel and accommodation expenses necessary to reach Your booked holiday destination or to return to Your home should You arrive at Your international departure point or a point of connection, too late to commence or continue Your trip or to complete Your final return leg as a result of:

i) the failure of public transport services due to mechanical breakdown strike, riot, civil commotion, industrial action, adverse weather conditions or traffic flow congestion;

ii) the mechanical breakdown of the vehicle in which You are travelling;



iii) traffic flow congestion affecting the vehicle in which You are travelling.



iv) We will only pay compensation under one of 9 1(a) or 9.1(b) or 9.2.



You are not covered for



1. the first amount as shown in the Table of Benefits of each and every claim (the excess) made by You under Sections 9.1(b) or 9.2;



2. any losses which are the result of Your failure to check in at the airport, port or railway station in accordance with the travel itinerary supplied to You;

3. any losses if You fail to obtain written confirmation from the airline, coach, railway operator or shipping company or their agents showing the period of and reasons for the delay;

4. any losses arising from strike or industrial action which commenced or was announced before the date of booking Your trip or purchasing insurance whichever is the later

Mikef

I guess its a case of wait and see - I travel on Tuesday and although I've cancelled my heathrow beijing flight I have noticed that if you check heathrow arrivals and departures a number of these flights are being cancelled a week or two in advance (without any news on the air china site)

Caz3121

OP
point them to section 17 of the terms and conditions
“Flight Only” Should your flight be cancelled your rights and remedies will be governed by the airline's conditions of carriage. As a result, you may be entitled to: (a) Carriage on another flight with the same airline without additional costs; (b) Re-routing to your destination with another carrier with or without additional costs; (c) Receiving a full refund which we receive back form supplier/airline; or (d) Some other right or remedy.

It is often the case that you pay for the service of having a third party doing the flight booking on your behalf...how much did you pay over and above the cost of the flight for their service?

1977Chad

I was due to fly from London to Japan via Beijing with Air China. I made the booking with Opodo. Both Opodo and Air China informed me via email that my flights had been changed. I phoned Air China directly who told me the changes will result in very long transit times in Beijing, over 17 hours. The original transit times were less than 3 hours. I then phoned Opodo who offered a full refund but informed me it can take up to 90 days, which I am fine with.

Update: Opodo refunded full amount 2 days later which is good.

joannamurdoch

Hi, 
I can endlessly sympathise.  Exactly this has just happened to us although unfortunately we didn't get this sorted before we departed.  We departed 6th Feb London - Hong Kong - Philippines.  The news of the Philippines broke on the 2nd Feb and I phoned our airline (BA) who we booked with direct to gain safety from the 3rd party problems you suffer.  I phoned and asked their advise and was advised that because we wern't entering HK, only transferring through it that we would be fine, the flight would operate as normal and to go on our trip.  Only when we arrived in HK and got rejected from our connecting flight did we discover BA were wrong and misinformed us.  After a LOT of hassle we got turned around and sent home.  Solid 48 hours travelling and ended back where we started.  

The BA woman on the phone profusely apologised and confirmed that we should never have been allowed to board the flight.  I was delighted that we booked direct with BA assuming that one quick email explaining the hell we'd gone through and it would be sorted.  Boy was I wrong.  Anyone on here advising you that through the airline is safe is as sadly misguided as I was.  BA have denied all responsibility, do not care at all that they told us to go on our flight regardless of the news and are saying its my fault for not having a Filipino passport or for not going out and disproving their advice to still travel (like that's my job). 

There is NO WAY that the Philippines ban on travel will be lifted by the 28th and I am facing similar problems with my insurance and BA have referred me to the airline ombudsmen as they will no longer correspond with me about it.  It SUCKS and is beyond unfair and against the whole point in going with reputable people or having decent insurance but I can only recommend that you grab the 80% refund and run.  I understand its a huge amount but after hitting a hundred brick walls with people who I assumed whole-heartedly would be happy to help rectify their mistakes, I have now no faith in any of them and have learned the painful lesson that they became multi million pound companies from trampling on those they can.

We have re-booked going via Singapore (and not with BA) at our own cost and are still in fear of flight problems.  Whilst Philippines has not blocked any flights from Singapore, Singapore itself is cancelling a huge amount of their flights due to virus spreading fears so we are just fingers crossed for our second attempt.  FYI Tiwan Philippines ban has been lifted (14th) but may also be risky as it has been banned till then.

My credit card company were only too happy to help (though had no actual advice) but are putting a request to BA on our behalf too on grounds of services not supplied but yet to see whether that will bare any fruit, I am fairly doubtful.

Good Luck!!