Are people not learning any lessons re travel bookings?

MoJoeGo

Shaking my head a bit right now. It seems like every day we are getting posts from people asking for help with refunds when the travel rules change (as they do every 5 minutes it seems). However this is despite them having done one or more of:

1) Made their original booking during the pandemic
2) Booked with a travel agent that has a poor reputation
3) Not got any/adequate travel insurance
4) Not checked the cancellation terms before booking

I've not tacked this post onto one of these threads as I'd rather not be rubbing salt into any specific posters wound... but are people really not learning even the basics of making sure they have some risk mitigation, after more than a year of global disruption?

Westin

It seems not and I fear some have not learnt and are back to shopping for ‘cheap’ and not researching in advance who they give their money to.  

Ganga

MoJoeGo said:

Shaking my head a bit right now. It seems like every day we are getting posts from people asking for help with refunds when the travel rules change (as they do every 5 minutes it seems). However this is despite them having done one or more of:

1) Made their original booking during the pandemic
2) Booked with a travel agent that has a poor reputation
3) Not got any/adequate travel insurance
4) Not checked the cancellation terms before booking

I've not tacked this post onto one of these threads as I'd rather not be rubbing salt into any specific posters wound... but are people really not learning even the basics of making sure they have some risk mitigation, after more than a year of global disruption?

Whilst i agree with some of your comments the likes of TUI are not a travel agent with a poor track record but some people are still waiting for their money back.
The biggest problem would be that this world wide pandemic which has been raging for almost a year and a half ,is something that the travel industry has never had to face before and has had to adjust on a daily basis.
The other problem was some people expected a refund almost instantly ,if all the travel industry had been made to pay back say with in 2 weeks most would have gone under and that would have left many facing hardship .
I am not defending them all nor do i work for any off them ,i am an engineer who has been retired for over 5 years and have had holidays cancelled like most but have carried on and still look forward to the day when all is well again.

Thrugelmir

Ganga said:

MoJoeGo said:

Shaking my head a bit right now. It seems like every day we are getting posts from people asking for help with refunds when the travel rules change (as they do every 5 minutes it seems). However this is despite them having done one or more of:

1) Made their original booking during the pandemic
2) Booked with a travel agent that has a poor reputation
3) Not got any/adequate travel insurance
4) Not checked the cancellation terms before booking

I've not tacked this post onto one of these threads as I'd rather not be rubbing salt into any specific posters wound... but are people really not learning even the basics of making sure they have some risk mitigation, after more than a year of global disruption?

The other problem was some people expected a refund almost instantly ,if all the travel industry had been made to pay back say with in 2 weeks most would have gone under and that would have left many facing hardship .

As if working from home was simply a case of giving everyone a PC/Laptop and asking them to log in. Unless you've been involved in a major disruption in the workplace. There's no comprehension as the amount of time it takes to claw back lost productivity. That's without sickness, child minding issues etc. Added to which is the deluge and often multi sourced generated communications from customers. Which simply takes available staff away from more productive activities.  Recruitment and training also being a major challenge. While some employees jump ship as well. 

Webxite

I keep telling myself not to book anything until it's all over, and then optimism takes over and I believe the government (the things they say that seem to say travel is on). I book cancellable/reschedulable things, or cheap flights I can lose. So far it has mostly not paid off, but we did manage to get away to Greece last summer which was great. We probably won't try again to get abroad this year after two cancellations close to the wire which were very disappointing, but then again optimism might take over. 

All that to say, humans are daft, travel is great, but optimists lose out right now.

MoJoeGo

Ganga said:

MoJoeGo said:

Shaking my head a bit right now. It seems like every day we are getting posts from people asking for help with refunds when the travel rules change (as they do every 5 minutes it seems). However this is despite them having done one or more of:

1) Made their original booking during the pandemic
2) Booked with a travel agent that has a poor reputation
3) Not got any/adequate travel insurance
4) Not checked the cancellation terms before booking

I've not tacked this post onto one of these threads as I'd rather not be rubbing salt into any specific posters wound... but are people really not learning even the basics of making sure they have some risk mitigation, after more than a year of global disruption?

Whilst i agree with some of your comments the likes of TUI are not a travel agent with a poor track record but some people are still waiting for their money back.
The biggest problem would be that this world wide pandemic which has been raging for almost a year and a half ,is something that the travel industry has never had to face before and has had to adjust on a daily basis.
The other problem was some people expected a refund almost instantly ,if all the travel industry had been made to pay back say with in 2 weeks most would have gone under and that would have left many facing hardship .
I am not defending them all nor do i work for any off them ,i am an engineer who has been retired for over 5 years and have had holidays cancelled like most but have carried on and still look forward to the day when all is well again.

I'm not saying that everyone posting for help here has been irresponsible in their actions (although some would argue that anyone booking anything during a pandemic is irresponsible by definition - not my view however).

For example, I was also waiting a while for TUI to refund me for a holiday last year, but I cut them some slack for exactly the reasons you mentioned. After all, I wasn't going anywhere else in a hurry so not like I desperately needed the money back.

The posts I'm referencing, and I'm not going to point at specifics (I'm sure you can spot them!) are the ones where no personal responsibility has been exercised and now it's last chance saloon time to try and find someone else to blame/pick up the tab. The starting position generally seems to be "waah, I'm a poor little consumer, surely one of these big bad companies (airline/TA/credit card/hotel) should be more responsible than me".

Ironically, that attitude is exactly what I'm used to dealing with in my day job, financial services being as heavily regulated as they are. Doesn't work so well here though, as people are now finding out. But not, apparently, learning the lessons in the process...

MoJoeGo

Webxite said:

I keep telling myself not to book anything until it's all over, and then optimism takes over and I believe the government (the things they say that seem to say travel is on). I book cancellable/reschedulable things, or cheap flights I can lose. So far it has mostly not paid off, but we did manage to get away to Greece last summer which was great. We probably won't try again to get abroad this year after two cancellations close to the wire which were very disappointing, but then again optimism might take over. 

All that to say, humans are daft, travel is great, but optimists lose out right now.

A person after my own heart. Book things that are flexible, ideally with small deposits and with large companies you'd travel with again. Leverage ATOL the Package Travel Regs, and companies own policies (have become a real fan of BA...), get insurance, and eventually something will come out ok.

In our case, it was Santorini that came good for us last year, and it was fabulous (and very very cheap!). This year is still up in the air but we will get something - it's a challenge I relish!

Butts

MoJoeGo said:

Webxite said:

I keep telling myself not to book anything until it's all over, and then optimism takes over and I believe the government (the things they say that seem to say travel is on). I book cancellable/reschedulable things, or cheap flights I can lose. So far it has mostly not paid off, but we did manage to get away to Greece last summer which was great. We probably won't try again to get abroad this year after two cancellations close to the wire which were very disappointing, but then again optimism might take over. 

All that to say, humans are daft, travel is great, but optimists lose out right now.

A person after my own heart. Book things that are flexible, ideally with small deposits and with large companies you'd travel with again. Leverage ATOL the Package Travel Regs, and companies own policies (have become a real fan of BA...), get insurance, and eventually something will come out ok.

In our case, it was Santorini that came good for us last year, and it was fabulous (and very very cheap!). This year is still up in the air but we will get something - it's a challenge I relish!

Welcome to the club !!!

I am currently on a quest for BA Gold and should hit Silver next week from a standing start in May.

Book with BA and it's win win, small deposit and balance payable three weeks before departure. Up to that point you can cancel and get your deposit back in the form of a voucher. If anything goes red you can cancel free of penalty if BA don't do it for you.

Refunds take days and changes are processed quickly.

Anyone who has booked with LM.com, Love Holidays, On the Beach et al during the pandemic want's their head examined.

MoJoeGo

Butts said:

MoJoeGo said:

Webxite said:

I keep telling myself not to book anything until it's all over, and then optimism takes over and I believe the government (the things they say that seem to say travel is on). I book cancellable/reschedulable things, or cheap flights I can lose. So far it has mostly not paid off, but we did manage to get away to Greece last summer which was great. We probably won't try again to get abroad this year after two cancellations close to the wire which were very disappointing, but then again optimism might take over. 

All that to say, humans are daft, travel is great, but optimists lose out right now.

A person after my own heart. Book things that are flexible, ideally with small deposits and with large companies you'd travel with again. Leverage ATOL the Package Travel Regs, and companies own policies (have become a real fan of BA...), get insurance, and eventually something will come out ok.

In our case, it was Santorini that came good for us last year, and it was fabulous (and very very cheap!). This year is still up in the air but we will get something - it's a challenge I relish!

Welcome to the club !!!

I am currently on a quest for BA Gold and should hit Silver next week from a standing start in May.

Book with BA and it's win win, small deposit and balance payable three weeks before departure. Up to that point you can cancel and get your deposit back in the form of a voucher. If anything goes red you can cancel free of penalty if BA don't do it for you.

Refunds take days and changes are processed quickly.

Anyone who has booked with LM.com, Love Holidays, On the Beach et al during the pandemic want's their head examined.

I should perhaps qualify that statement of mine...  

I have been silver with BA for an inordinate and often undeserved length of time (I did fly a lot with them pre 2015 but I was also Gold then). My wife and daughters are all bronze or silver too. So I'm no stranger at all to BA - it's just that the last year has made me appreciate them a lot more because of the flexibility and stability they offer relative to other operators. Which made a refreshing change after the relentless cost cutting from the Cruz era. "Buy On Board" my backside...

Now that said... for proper holiday bookings. EasyJet actually offer slightly more flexibility within the last 3 week period for countries that remain Amber - which is an important consideration when traveling with older children. But overall BA has done a lot to retain my long term business. The half million Avios I have in the bank play a part as well 

Still won't be allowed to do TP runs to get back to gold though. Mrs MJG thinks I'm mad as it is. Pity as I did like the full English buffet in the 1st class lounge...

gettingtheresometime

Whilst I'd agree with you about OTB, Teletext etc, BA aren't immune to getting things wrong as well.

We booked flights to LA last year and bumped them to this year but the flight got cancelled so theoretically it was a simple job of refunding the avios points as well as taxes & car hire (that had been booked with the flight).

Whilst the taxes element got refunded promptly, it took them 3 months and two phone calls to refund the points. We then realised that we hadn't had the refund for the car hire.  When we phoned up we were told there was a probability that we wouldn't get a refund as we had been classed as a 'no show'. After, very politely, making my views on that very clear, the refund was processed.

MattMattMattUK

MoJoeGo said:

Shaking my head a bit right now. It seems like every day we are getting posts from people asking for help with refunds when the travel rules change (as they do every 5 minutes it seems). However this is despite them having done one or more of:

1) Made their original booking during the pandemic
2) Booked with a travel agent that has a poor reputation
3) Not got any/adequate travel insurance
4) Not checked the cancellation terms before booking

I've not tacked this post onto one of these threads as I'd rather not be rubbing salt into any specific posters wound... but are people really not learning even the basics of making sure they have some risk mitigation, after more than a year of global disruption?

Many people are seemingly incapable of learning, many people are selfish, stupid etc. and that has only been amplified by the pandemic

International holidays this year are on a scale from daft to utterly stupid depending on the location, next year will probably only be slightly better, but many people will still claim that they "need" a holiday and then claim that it is not their fault when it goes wrong, despite knowing the risks and failing to take account of or mitigate them.