Coronavirus travel disruption - latest info and your rights

mar7t1n

Have "a holiday of a lifetime" booked for July to USA, paid deposit, balance due next week. Travel insurance terms mention "does not apply for pandemic", so think we're not covered for this. But travel company say ABTA will apply if you can't go, we'd cancel and refund/rebook. But am I best to let a £600 deposit go and be sure it's gone, or risk a lot of money on something which may try to push ahead when things haven't settled back to business as normal - e.g. what was all that fuss about! 

bradders1983

What has your travel insurance provider said?

ericthelobster

This is exactly the same position I'm in.  Have contacted my insurer but no reply.   I have heard of someone else with the same problem and they've apparently been told that all they can do is renew their policy in due course without corona virus cover; ie there is no way of claiming for the cancelled holiday. .
If so, this can't be right, surely?

malc_b said:

What is the legal position when you have annual insurance that was in place when the booking was made (not a package but separate hotel and flight), but that annual insurance ends before the holiday is due?

Caz3121

steveiles said:

has anybody had trouble contacting last minute.com or travelup- cant change hotel or flights as cant get hold of them?

all travel companies, airlines will be experiencing extremely high call volumes and long waits (nobody is set up to deal with this)
Lastminute says not to phone - "we kindly ask that you do not contact us by telephone."
"If you’d like to cancel or modify your booking, you can submit a cancellation request from your account area on our site or app. Our Customer Care Team will manage it as soon as possible, prioritising those with the most imminent departures."
https://www.lastminute.com/en/info/covid-19
Travelup appear to be still taking calls from those travelling in the next 2 weeks https://www.travelup.com/en-gb/blog/coronavirus-information
Patience will be key, thousands of people in the same position. Remember you are dealing with intermediaries, they will still need to deal with the airline/hotel and follow their rules They can only offer what the airline/hotel are offering so ensure you check what the options are.

Wadsted

My wife and I were due to depart on a 16 day trip to the deep south of the USA on 21 April and have been advised that the holiday is unlikely to take place. The tour operator is refusing to give us a refund saying we can only rebook, accept a credit note or make an insurance claim. This is surely wrong.

pinchmyself

We had a motorhome hire booked from the 30th March to 18th April to travel to France at a total cost of £1773. Within that cost was a £270 charge for European Travel Cover . We also had Eurotunnel booked and took out an Allianz single trip insurance policy. The motorhome hire people are telling us they will not refund on the hire charge unless they can rehire it before 30th April as well as they cannot refund the £270 for the European Travel cover as their insurance company are being difficult . Allianz say that Eurotunnel will allow us to change our date of travel but we are not insured on anything else as it is a pandemic....do I have any options here?

Jesslbr

silvercar said:

Jesslbr said:

I am in Thailand now and due to fly home with Emirates via dubai on 26th March, I cannot get through to Emirates or my insurance. Now that the FCO has advised against all but essential travel, from the UK, how does this impact me if I am already abroad? My flight doesn't look as though it has been cancelled yet to fly home on 26th? Do we need to looking for an earlier flight? Any advice would be appreciated 

FCO advice to not travel from the UK is a bit late for you. contact the airline to see if it hopes to operate your flight, so you can plan to go home earlier if necessary. Worth noting that an airlines duty of care (to look after you with accommodation) if the flight is delayed is a EU directive, so only applies to an EU airline and/or flying from an airport in the EU. So flying from Dubia with Emirates won't give you any rights to accommodation.

Thanks for the info. My flight is from Phuket to Manchester with a connection via dubai (1hr 15mins). The whole journey is with Emirates so would this not be covered by EU as my actual end destination is Manchester and I am only transitting through Dubai? Trying to get hold of Emirates but it is proving to be very difficult.. 

ossie48

steveiles said:

has anybody had trouble contacting last minute.com or travelup- cant change hotel or flights as cant get hold of them?

I've been trying to contact travelup for a week. Not even a reply to e mails.  They must all be inundated plus the added problem of stack sickness / isolation absence in the offices. I have a feeling many of these companies will go to the wall in the coming months.

Westin

Wadsted said:

My wife and I were due to depart on a 16 day trip to the deep south of the USA on 21 April and have been advised that the holiday is unlikely to take place. The tour operator is refusing to give us a refund saying we can only rebook, accept a credit note or make an insurance claim. This is surely wrong.

  No it isn’t.

The  FCO travel advisory is currently for 30 days and your holiday starts after this point.  As of now, today, they are right. Of course the travel advisories may be updated and changed and ultimately cover your date of departure.  

sysop-paul

I was due to fly to China this week, my flights were booked through an on-line travel agent. The flights were cancelled by the airline. Had I booked direct with the airline I would have received a full refund from the airline, the on-line travel agency are deducting a "ticketing fee" from the refund, approx £90 are they within their rights to do this? It was not covered by my insurance company who have kindly refunded 50% of the policy I paid them, I have also received a full refund from all other organisations, hotels, bus companies etc. I wrongly assumed I was safer booking through a travel agency.