Long haul - options when unable to fly due to illness

TrixA

We were due to fly to NZ for Christmas, flying LHR-SIN-AKL on Singapore airlines. The trip was a huge deal for us as our entire extended family live in NZ and we haven't seen them since before Covid hit. We bought the tickets in the summer and they were already at the limit of what our budget would allow (Dec-Jan being peak summer holiday season in NZ).

Unfortunately my son came down with chicken pox the morning we were due to fly. He was diagnosed by a GP who said he should not fly for 7 days due to the potential risk to vulnerable passengers. We immediately called the airline's customer services (about 10 hrs before scheduled departure) and explained the situation. They were reassuring and said that as the inability to fly was due to health we would not be charged fees to change the flights. We were provisionally offered a rebooked departure for a week later, which we were told to confirm when we had a doctor's certificate saying my son was no longer infectious. The customer services agent vaguely alluded to us needing to pay for a difference in fare associated with the change of flights but would not tell us how much it was until we were in a position to confirm we would be flying. There was no mention of us needing to do anything else. Despite this, we had a call from the airline 45 mins before the plane was due to depart asking where we were - I think this was from someone on the ground at LHR. We again explained the situation and were asked to fill in a form that we needed to do before the flight departed or we would be treated as "no shows". We quickly completed and submitted the form as requested and received an automated message informing us that someone would get back in touch with us regarding a rebooking.

The next day we received an odd text message saying that our original flight had been delayed and was now departing today at 5:30pm. All flight details suggest that the flight departed as normal, without us on it. We called the airline again to ask for clarification and they were unable to explain the text message but told us that we did not show up for the flight yesterday so our entire booking has been cancelled and we had been charged a cancellation fee. The flight booking that had been made for 27 Dec was also cancelled and those seats are now unavailable, - in fact there are now no seats available on any flight in Economy class until later in January. Despite us explaining that we had in fact informed them of our inability to fly, they are taking a "computer says no" approach and saying we will need to make a completely new booking at today's fares. They admit that the first person we spoke to didn't follow the appropriate course of action and after some negotiation agreed to refund the cancellation fee. However, if we want to book for alternative dates in Jan-Feb we are looking at paying about £4000 more than we originally paid for the flights, which is unaffordable for us.

We do have travel insurance and from reading the policy we are clearly covered for cancellation but I am unclear if we should expect to be covered for any fare difference arising from rebooking our travel on alternative dates. We do not want to cancel, we want to see our family who we miss enormously.

Would appreciate any advice on what our options are and what to expect in this situation. I feel like the airline have really let us down.

eskbanker

TrixA said:

We do have travel insurance and from reading the policy we are clearly covered for cancellation but I am unclear if we should expect to be covered for any fare difference arising from rebooking our travel on alternative dates.

You'd need to check the terms of your policy to see if there's anything covering replacement of flights with more expensive ones at a later date, but I suspect there won't be and that their provision will simply be to reimburse the costs you'd already incurred up to that point.

TrixA said:

Would appreciate any advice on what our options are and what to expect in this situation. I feel like the airline have really let us down.

The airline don't seem to have covered themselves in glory with their messaging here, but it's unclear if the provisional 27 December rebooking would have been at an affordable price before it was erroneously cancelled?

However, the bottom line is that I can't see any obligation on either party to get you there at no extra cost....

comeandgo

When you buy tickets with SA you are offered different prices for the same flight, when you cancel, the cheapest price just allows a transfer of the money you paid to a different flight, you have to pay any difference.  Would you be able to transfer the flights to a cheaper time, use the summer holidays here?

TrixA

comeandgo said:

When you buy tickets with SA you are offered different prices for the same flight, when you cancel, the cheapest price just allows a transfer of the money you paid to a different flight, you have to pay any difference.  Would you be able to transfer the flights to a cheaper time, use the summer holidays here?

Yes, but we don’t want to travel to NZ in their winter, plus that is the best part of another year without seeing family. 

TrixA

What really rankles is that my son is fine, other than a few spots. Family members were advising us to get on the plane and hope no one noticed. But we were trying to do the right thing and protect other passengers. And now it feels like we’re being punished. I get that I’m this is the way airlines work but it doesn’t seem right to treat us the same as someone making a last minute booking, when we booked our trip back in the summer. The flights now are around £10000 for a family of 3, back in the summer similar flights were £4500, so it’s not a small difference…

onashoestring

The price of the tickets will be based on demand ( how many are available for sale ) . 

Travel insurance policies will cover losses incurred but not the cost of replacement tickets to go on the trip at a later date.

fifeken

TrixA said:

comeandgo said:

When you buy tickets with SA you are offered different prices for the same flight, when you cancel, the cheapest price just allows a transfer of the money you paid to a different flight, you have to pay any difference.  Would you be able to transfer the flights to a cheaper time, use the summer holidays here?

Yes, but we don’t want to travel to NZ in their winter, plus that is the best part of another year without seeing family. 

I think you have to decide one way or another.  Spending the extra or changing your plans to a less preferable option.

TrixA

I just wanted to update this in case anyone else is ever in a similar position in future. In the end we managed to convince the airline to rebook us for only a moderate fare difference, and our travel insurance will cover the difference. The key thing that allowed us to get a positive resolution was submitting a complaint through Singapore Airlines online feedback facility. This was routed to the airline's UK & Ireland customer services department who were excellent and sorted everything out straight away. Before that we were dealing with the outsourced customer services provider in the Philippines, who were completely unhelpful and wanted to cancel our ticket and charge us a no show fee. If they had done this we wouldn't have been able to claim the difference on insurance as it would have been a new booking.

onashoestring

Have your insurance company confirmed that they will pay the difference?