Are people not learning any lessons re travel bookings?
MoJoeGo
Forumite 175 Posts
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?
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?
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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.
All that to say, humans are daft, travel is great, but optimists lose out right now.
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...
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!
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 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...
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.
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.