What Are My Options?

Diver2

Dear All

I was wondering if I could ask for any help/opinions on some travel issues?

About two weeks ago, with international travel looking quite clear and the Red list having been gone for some months, my wife and booked return tickets to Mauritius through Trip.com (based out of Singapore and part of the Skyscanner group).

The tickets are going out with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul a week before Xmas and returning with Saudia via Jeddah about a week into the New Year. We planned it to be a quite an extended trip for various personal reason.

We were planning to book our own trips and accommodation but have been a bit slow in that and so not much is arranged yet.

Yesterday, I learned that Saudi have banned people from Mauritius entering or transiting through their country due to Omicron. 

I contacted Trip.com, who have informed and advised me of several things:

1)      It’s likely that the Saudia flights will be cancelled, but we’ll have to wait and see if that happens.

2)      The outbound and inbound flights do not under their booking rules comprise a “return” ticket, but are singles, so the cancellation of the inbound flights has no impact on the outbound flights and we could not ask for a return of funds for both if the Saudia flights are cancelled.

3)      They recommended that I think about removing the reservations and making the bookings “open tickets”.

4)      They also said that if I wanted to cancel the Turkish Airlines tickets, I could so this up to two days before we are due to fly.

So my questions are:

1)      Does anyone understand exactly what an “open ticket” is? Is it better just to cancel and take a part refund?

2)      Are they right in saying that that cancellation of the inbound does not affect the outbound? I paid by credit card as a single transaction. Is it worth having a conversation with them?

3)      Would it sensible to contact Saudia for a conversation about what is likely to happen with their inbound leg? Obviously, if they are going to cancel I would rather they did it now and I can decide upon plans.

Just trying to understand my options here, any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

 

D2

Sandtree

1) An open ticket was a return ticket without a fixed return date so you got the price benefits of a return but without committing to a date. In this circumstances where you dont have a return ticket they perhaps mean fully flexible

2) Yes, a return ticket is booked on one ticket. You've booked separate tickets. Credit card makes no difference

3) Saudi call centre wont be able to tell you anything, almost certainly the ban is on foreign nationals not their own nationals and so its likely a highly reduced set of flights will run. Its worth checking if the ban applies to those transiting, and indeed if you can do true international transits in Saudi Arabia or if like the US you have to clear immigration - the FCO suggests at the moment Mauritius isnt on a banned list but that transits arent possible so you must immigrate and then leave again meaning complying with entry requirements etc such as visas

Diver2

Thanks for the feedback Sandtree. I am due to receive some information from Trip.com on exactly what they mean by an open ticket, so will wait and see exactly what they mean and then take it from there with that one.

Thanks also for the feedback in relation to the Turkish airlines ticket. I'll factor that in. 

From what I can read, I don't see that I need a Saudi transit visa, since we would be there for less than 12 hours and wouldn't leave the airport. I've travelled extensively, although not the US and never really come across things such as transit visas before. 

Yes - the FCDO doesn't currently list Mauritius as on a Saudi banned list, but I think they are slightly behind the curve (see: english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/11/28/Saudi-Arabia-suspends-flights-to-several-countries-due-to-COVID-19-variant) please insert the https:/ at the front)). This is also reflect on the webpages of Saudia.  

So it all feels really unclear at the moment. 

Thanks for the help and advice, it is appreciated.

D2

Sandtree

Diver2 said:

From what I can read, I don't see that I need a Saudi transit visa, since we would be there for less than 12 hours and wouldn't leave the airport. I've travelled extensively, although not the US and never really come across things such as transit visas before. 

Yes - the FCDO doesn't currently list Mauritius as on a Saudi banned list, but I think they are slightly behind the curve (see: english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/11/28/Saudi-Arabia-suspends-flights-to-several-countries-due-to-COVID-19-variant) please insert the https:/ at the front)). This is also reflect on the webpages of Saudia.  

So it all feels really unclear at the moment. 

Most countries allow international transits so you never legally enter the country and so visas are not required. A minority of countries dont allow this and so you must legally enter the country and then leave it again and this is where transit visas come in. As a UK passport holder in the US you just use the ESTA these days but if you have convictions or hold a different passport you may need such a visa

Things being unclear is the norm for the last 2 years, even our own government websites were flipflopping between "within 2 days" and "within 48 hours" when you had to a test before returning. You need to be very careful on selecting your source of information and ideally its an official governmental one - can be difficult depending on language skills and even then as Boris' team proved its not always right.

Plus what the rules are today doesnt give much indication of what the rules in January are going to be. Before we travelled our destination was on the red list, it then came off the red list and the PCR requirement went down to anti-gen but now we are back up to PCR and self isolation... who knows where it will be when we return early Jan too.

Diver2

Thanks - perhaps I will pay a visit to the Saudi embassy in London to see what I can understand about their transit requirements. Fortunately, work takes me around there sometimes. 

I appreciate what you say about information sources, but this is direct from the Saudia website (updated yesterday):

"Travel Suspension Procedures:

• Temporarily suspending entry into the Kingdom for all guests coming or passed from (Turkey, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, South Africa,  Namibia, Botswana,  Zimbabwe,  Mozambique, Lesotho , Eswatini , Malawi, Zambia, Madagascar, Angola, Seychelles, Mauritius and Union of Comoros ) and same applies to those who are coming from other countries if they have passed through any of the aforementioned countries during (14) days preceding their entry to the Kingdom.

you are right about the how the situation might change in January, if we decide to proceed with our holiday I guess we'll have to take our chances, or we have to take the hit of changing our minds and cancelling the flights.

D2

sheramber

According to https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/11/28/Saudi-Arabia-suspends-flights-to-several-countries-due-to-COVID-19-variant  flights from Mauritius are suspended.

Diver2

sheramber said:

According to https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/11/28/Saudi-Arabia-suspends-flights-to-several-countries-due-to-COVID-19-variant  flights from Mauritius are suspended.

Thanks - yes that was the article that prompted my questions and research. to be honest the cancellation of the flight would be the clearest thing for me right now. I coud then get refunded for that leg and make a decision on what to do about the outbound leg.

Caz3121

At this point I would dig out your travel insurance documents and have a good read, thinking about the 'what if's'
It is also worth looking at the airline fare rules and waivers they may have in place together with trip.com's terms and conditions and keep an eye on each countries rules which can change rapidly
If either of the airline's cancel their flights you should be able to get a refund for that leg minus trip.com's fees. 

Diver2

Thanks Caz3121 - that's what I am doing, trying to understand what my options are with the flights and also trying to understand my overall options.

Trip.com's term and conditions are not encouraging, but I chose to book with them and I will see what happens in time. Right now I just want to make sure I understand all the possible permutations of the situation.

My travel insurance comes with my Nationwide Flexaccount Plus. It seem as comprehensive as any other when it comes dealing with situational changes due to Coronavirus, but it still requires me to try and get money/vouchers etc., before making a claim and so I need to understand my situation first. I will be calling them to talk it through as well. 

Thanks

D2

Diver2

Feedback on "open ticket" recieved from Trip.com:

"Sorry, your round-trip ticket cannot be reserved for future use. If you need to apply for changes, please apply for changes before the flight departs. No processing has been done on your ticket at present, please know, thank you for your support and understanding!"

Sandtree

Diver2 said:

My travel insurance comes with my Nationwide Flexaccount Plus. It seem as comprehensive as any other when it comes dealing with situational changes due to Coronavirus, but it still requires me to try and get money/vouchers etc., before making a claim and so I need to understand my situation first. I will be calling them to talk it through as well. 

All insurance is intended to be "last resort", namely because they cannot step into your shoes to then claim back the money from the airline etc.

Think your plans are to go for 20 something days? The one thing to be potentially cautious of depending on your "plan B"s is that most annual policies like this have a 31 day limit. So our plan B if where we are goes back on a red list or the UK is in lockdown is to wait it out here, our flights are fully flexible as booked with airmiles, but you could become unstuck if your plan is similar and you go outside your cover limit.