booked a flight, but unable to travel due to US ban on UK travellers

lady1964

Different airline but similar circumstances, pre-pandemic, we’d booked internal flights within Australia on Virgin Australia. Obviously everything was cancelled but VA refused a refund because the flight we were booked on still flew. We did a chargeback, got our money back, then they took it back again. Our credit card company said there wasn’t anything else they could do so we claimed on our travel insurance and got most of our money back.

We didn’t request a refund because we didn’t know when we’d be able to go to Australia (hopefully next year) so we didn’t want to risk losing the whole lot rather than just some of it.

onashoestring

salimnina said:

quoia said:

I think there may just be one thing that needs clarifying first .....

.... WHEN did you book the flights ?

October 2019  or before when Covid19 didn't exist

OR

spring / summer of 2021 when what happened was always very likely to ? 

Dec 2020 booked, to fly Oct 2021

USA travel ban on tourists from U.K. came into effect on 16th March 2020 and this wasn’t lifted until 7 Nov 2021 so when you booked  non- refundable flights in Dec 2020 you knew the risk you were taking . 

MATTR5

Oh and I checked - you can sell the vouchers (ie you can use them to book for someone else)

You can even make a booking for someone else using your Travel Voucher. If the new ticket price is greater than the voucher value, you just need to pay the difference in fare. If rebooking or rerouting is not suitable for you, our team can also discuss other options with you.

Flexible no change fees policy | Virgin Atlantic

k3lvc

MATTR5 said:

Oh and I checked - you can sell the vouchers (ie you can use them to book for someone else)

You can even make a booking for someone else using your Travel Voucher. If the new ticket price is greater than the voucher value, you just need to pay the difference in fare. If rebooking or rerouting is not suitable for you, our team can also discuss other options with you.

Flexible no change fees policy | Virgin Atlantic

I'll start the bidding at £1

phatbear

You also probably paid a lot less for your flight because of the pandemic therefore, as others have said, you took a punt on the world having returned to normal, which it didnt/hasnt.

you should have also checked, pre booking, that your insurance covered you for this situ prior to booking, which in this case it didnt, again highlighting you taking all the risk.

It is frustrating over this period ive missed out on hkg, japan, new york and paris but i mitigated all of the risk, bar paris, buy utilising my airmiles, so im barely down on my bookings