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Travel plans, abandoned holidays and refund advice

cybershot said:
i phones vueling yesterday now we are in May. Surprised to get through at the 2nd attempt. Chap was helpful and professional and I’d received the email saying refund confirmed before he’d even told me he’d processed it. Was surprised how easy it was once I got through but I guess the call handlers know people have already jumped through hurdles to get this far.

now to see if/when it appears back on my card.
Click to expand...

What about your F1 stuff?
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
What about your F1 stuff?
Click to expand...


Europlayas won’t do anything until the FIA confirm the dates whatever the season will be saying they intend to honour the package.

reality is as the days go on the likelihood of a Spanish GP gets slimmer and even there is its most likely to be behind closed doors.

I suspect they will then want to offer me the chance to attend the 2021 race instead. Which is something we’ll consider. Will need to weighup the over a grand we could lose if they go bust between then and the new date. Especially as it was a groupon offer so I’m assuming there’s no ABTA protection included.

Would be questions I’ll have to ask at the time for me to even consider it.
 
As you bought the flights separately to the F1 stuff you won’t be covered by ATOL, so may well have to take an offer on 2021, which should held Europlaya stay in business and give you something to look forward to...
 
Partner's son is having similar problems with Le Mans (he goes every year). I think they're proving impossible to contact atm.
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
As you bought the flights separately to the F1 stuff you won’t be covered by ATOL, so may well have to take an offer on 2021, which should held Europlaya stay in business and give you something to look forward to...
Click to expand...

I think it's the option the OH wants to take if it becomes available. We did get a good deal so the prices for next year will probably be more expensive, but, it's still a huge amount of money to put at risk. Just because EuroPlayas have been around for 45 years doesn't make them invincible as we saw with Thomas Cook who surely would have been wiped out within a week of COVID-19 had they still been hanging on.

This may be contraversal but I have no interest or loyalty in keeping travel companies/airlines in business if I am honest. I know there's shit tons of jobs on the line, however airlines and travel companies have been holding customers to ransom for years, especially budget ones that monopolise a route or hotel/villa. They don't treat their staff well either.

In the aftermath I just hope it improves the industry and we get some reforms. Perhaps get some new faces, or company mergers. I don't mind paying more for good customer service, and things that should be included from the off, not as massive price penalties as you are held hostage at the gate or the hotel check in desk with no choice but to stump up.
 
cybershot said:
I think it's the option the OH wants to take if it becomes available. We did get a good deal so the prices for next year will probably be more expensive, but, it's still a huge amount of money to put at risk. Just because EuroPlayas have been around for 45 years doesn't make them invincible as we saw with Thomas Cook who surely would have been wiped out within a week of COVID-19 had they still been hanging on.

This may be contraversal but I have no interest or loyalty in keeping travel companies/airlines in business if I am honest. I know there's shit tons of jobs on the line, however airlines and travel companies have been holding customers to ransom for years, especially budget ones that monopolise a route or hotel/villa. They don't treat their staff well either.

In the aftermath I just hope it improves the industry and we get some reforms. Perhaps get some new faces, or company mergers. I don't mind paying more for good customer service, and things that should be included from the off, not as massive price penalties as you are held hostage at the gate or the hotel check in desk with no choice but to stump up.
Click to expand...

You are right that massive changes are needed. Not sure how any changes would prepare the travel industry for what may well be 12 months with no travel at all though.

One thing that has always struck me is the British holiday maker is proud at how little they have paid for their trip, the Germans and Scandinavians proud that they have paid top dollar (massive generalisation of course). Then the British moan like fuck that they get the shit rooms and so on. If people were prepared to pay a realistic amount for their important two weeks a year then margins wouldn’t be so ludicrously tight and many of the improvements that we’d like to see may be implemented. Or else the greedy holiday companies would just pocket the difference:hmm:
 
I flew London - Beijing mid March. Virgin to Hong Kong and then HK Airlines onward to Beijing, both tickets bought together from a travel agent. When I went to check-in for the HK-BJ leg, they couldn't check me in because Virgin hadn't closed their part of the ticket. They spent at least an hour trying to override it on the system, but in the end I had to buy a whole new set of tickets to BJ just to make the flight. I've contacted my travel agent, but they've not go back to me yet. There were other foreign people crying at the check-in for that flight, so I don't think I was the only person who was affected. What the fuck happened there? Bahnhof Strasse can you shed any light on this?
 
With Mrs Q being a teacher, we're always stuck with holidaying in the summer hols, we normally making a booking in Jan/Feb but this year Mrs Q said let's leave it and see what happens. With hindsight it would seem a wise move and we have basically abandoned the idea of going anywhere in 2020 no matter what happens.
The Spanish are insisting all visitors self-isolate for 2 weeks so who the hell is going to pay money to sit in a Spanish hotel for 2 weeks, fly home and stay at home for 2 weeks?
Might as well just do the 2nd part and save the cash.
 
Yu_Gi_Oh, Was it one ticket all the way through with both carriers on it, or two tickets but in the same booking (PNR)? If it was one ticket all the way through Virgin would (should) have given you boarding passes for both flights at Heathrow; I assume that it was one ticket all the way through as VS and HX have through fares that are cheap.

If two tickets you may have had to get the HKG-PEK boarding pass from HX, either online or at HKG (transfer desk). However if when you you tried to get the boarding pass for the HX flight the Virgin ticket LHR-HKG was still showing as OPEN rather than CKIN or USED then HX may have had trouble issuing the boarding pass. The online system could fail, but the transfer desk should have no trouble doing that at all.

If others were crying that sounds like it was HX screwing up somewhere, regardless of it being one ticket or two.

However your agent should be taking this up for you with HX. Are they a physical agency or an online one? The problem that they will have, aside from the Corona-clusterfuck, is that the new tickets you bought have now been used. Airlines have big problems refunding tickets that have been used, so at best they will try to offer a refund on the unused original ticket, which I assume was bought in advance at a cheaper rate than what you had to pay on the day..?
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Yu_Gi_Oh, Was it one ticket all the way through with both carriers on it, or two tickets but in the same booking (PNR)? If it was one ticket all the way through Virgin would (should) have given you boarding passes for both flights at Heathrow; I assume that it was one ticket all the way through as VS and HX have through fares that are cheap.

If two tickets you may have had to get the HKG-PEK boarding pass from HX, either online or at HKG (transfer desk). However if when you you tried to get the boarding pass for the HX flight the Virgin ticket LHR-HKG was still showing as OPEN rather than CKIN or USED then HX may have had trouble issuing the boarding pass. The online system could fail, but the transfer desk should have no trouble doing that at all.

If others were crying that sounds like it was HX screwing up somewhere, regardless of it being one ticket or two.

However your agent should be taking this up for you with HX. Are they a physical agency or an online one? The problem that they will have, aside from the Corona-clusterfuck, is that the new tickets you bought have now been used. Airlines have big problems refunding tickets that have been used, so at best they will try to offer a refund on the unused original ticket, which I assume was bought in advance at a cheaper rate that what you had to pay on the day..?
Click to expand...

It was one ticket all the way through, but we only got given a boarding pass to HK by Virgin at Heathrow. The flight to Beijing kept getting pushed back by a day at a time and I think even after we got to HK there was another delay. We had to wait in HK nearly three days to get the connecting flight.

We bought the tickets from trip.com, and I have a lot of sympathy with how much they'll be dealing with right now, so I am still feeling fairly relaxed about it. I was more interested in how it could have gone so wrong. I was crying and thinking, oh fuck, we're not going to make it home, and then I looked around, and other people were crying too. :confused:
 
Three days at Hong Kong :eek:

That’s probably where the problem is then, something catastrophically wrong with HX.

Did they put you up in a hotel or did you have to pay for that too?
 
Some friends of mine rang and asked if they could come over and see me first week August. They text today with photos of the flight tickets. Lot of time between today and August so just wait and see what happens. Never asked them about the rumours of having to go into lockdown when they return to England
 
Finally got refund from Istanbul hotel for cancelled Easter trip.

Trouble is that from paying (September) to refund (May) the Turkish Lira has collapsed, so refund is 85% of what I paid.

I’m guessing that I don’t have much chance of making up the shortfall, but hotel invoice was quoted in Euros even though the credit card bill shows a conversion from Lira.
 
cybershot said:
I think it's the option the OH wants to take if it becomes available. We did get a good deal so the prices for next year will probably be more expensive, but, it's still a huge amount of money to put at risk. Just because EuroPlayas have been around for 45 years doesn't make them invincible as we saw with Thomas Cook who surely would have been wiped out within a week of COVID-19 had they still been hanging on.

This may be contraversal but I have no interest or loyalty in keeping travel companies/airlines in business if I am honest. I know there's shit tons of jobs on the line, however airlines and travel companies have been holding customers to ransom for years, especially budget ones that monopolise a route or hotel/villa. They don't treat their staff well either.

In the aftermath I just hope it improves the industry and we get some reforms. Perhaps get some new faces, or company mergers. I don't mind paying more for good customer service, and things that should be included from the off, not as massive price penalties as you are held hostage at the gate or the hotel check in desk with no choice but to stump up.
Click to expand...


EuroPlayas have now given us some options.

1) Carry over to next year. Need to let them know by June 30th.
2) Accept vouchers to redeem on either 2021 or 2022 race, which can be asked for upto December 2020.
3) Full refund minus a 10% ticketing fee. No deadline on the comms.

Since my initial post above the OH has actually changed her stance last week and suggested a refund. We'll discuss it later this evening, as I'm inclined to say accept to carry it over to next years dates as something to look forward to.

As there's clearly people who know more about the travel industry here than me, what's your initial thoughts?

If we were to accept the carry over to next year and EuroPlayas go bust in the next 12 months can I still claim via a section 75 on my credit card?

In terms of the 10% ticketing fee for a full refund, can they do this? It's not like I put down a deposit and am aying monthly then accepting to lose my deposit, I paid the whole thing up front. Obviously £120 in the grand scheme of things is a small amount to lose compared to the whole amount, and I probably wouldn't be arsed to fight it, and the ethical/human side of me is happy for them to have it if helps keep them in business.

Also, I'm guessing option 3 is also similar to what airlines have been doing in terms of offering people to cancel before the actual flight got cancelled and is kind of a sneaky trap in order to delay the refund. They are saying it will take up to 3 months to process option 3.

If I were to chase a full refund, should I actually wait for the event to be fully 100% cancelled by the FIA/F1.
 
cybershot said:
EuroPlayas have now given us some options.

1) Carry over to next year. Need to let them know by June 30th.
2) Accept vouchers to redeem on either 2021 or 2022 race, which can be asked for upto December 2020.
3) Full refund minus a 10% ticketing fee. No deadline on the comms.

Since my initial post above the OH has actually changed her stance last week and suggested a refund. We'll discuss it later this evening, as I'm inclined to say accept to carry it over to next years dates as something to look forward to.

As there's clearly people who know more about the travel industry here than me, what's your initial thoughts?

If we were to accept the carry over to next year and EuroPlayas go bust in the next 12 months can I still claim via a section 75 on my credit card?

In terms of the 10% ticketing fee for a full refund, can they do this? It's not like I put down a deposit and am aying monthly then accepting to lose my deposit, I paid the whole thing up front. Obviously £120 in the grand scheme of things is a small amount to lose compared to the whole amount, and I probably wouldn't be arsed to fight it, and the ethical/human side of me is happy for them to have it if helps keep them in business.

Also, I'm guessing option 3 is also similar to what airlines have been doing in terms of offering people to cancel before the actual flight got cancelled and is kind of a sneaky trap in order to delay the refund. They are saying it will take up to 3 months to process option 3.

If I were to chase a full refund, should I actually wait for the event to be fully 100% cancelled by the FIA/F1.
Click to expand...


Options 1 & 2 will be no good if EuroPlayas goes bust between now and next year.

Option 3, if wholly cancelled they must refund you in full, however AFAIK the race hasn't been cancelled yet, so probably not obliged to repay it all right now. I think I would take option 3 and swallow the 10% loss.
 
Just this second had this emailed through from Ryanair:

aa.JPG


Took less than 30 seconds to process the refund. They are taking a long time to come through though, estimates of 3-4 months...
 
Bahnhof Strasse said:
Just this second had this emailed through from Ryanair


Took less than 30 seconds to process the refund. They are taking a long time to come through though, estimates of 3-4 months...
Click to expand...

That's interesting , for me anyway , i've an Easyjet flight to Munich in early July. It was supposed to be a walking holiday in Austria but that's not happening as you can imagine. I booked a hotel as I was arriving late.
Easyjet are saying this :
We are currently cancelling our flights on a seven-day rolling basis to manage the number of contacts going to our Customer Service Team. This ensures that we’re able to help and support our customers as best we can. As your flight hasn’t been cancelled yet, you can do the following:
Click to expand...

What does that mean ? it doesn't say what dates they're referring to? Will I hear at the end of June?
 
DJWrongspeed said:
That's interesting , for me anyway , i've an Easyjet flight to Munich in early July. It was supposed to be a walking holiday in Austria but that's not happening as you can imagine. I booked a hotel as I was arriving late.
Easyjet are saying this :


What does that mean ? it doesn't say what dates they're referring to? Will I hear at the end of June?
Click to expand...

Probably. I was surprised that Ryanair had cancelled that Copenhagen one so far in advance.
For your trip I would assume it won’t happen and cancel any accommodation now if you can. Should a miracle happen you can always rebook somewhere to stay. I am noticing that Easyjet are being very late to cancel, have a lot of bookings that maybe BA one way and Easy the other, BA cancelled and EasyJet not, but they will. I guess from their point of view and what you have posted, that seems like a good idea tbf.
 
cybershot said:
i phones vueling yesterday now we are in May. Surprised to get through at the 2nd attempt. Chap was helpful and professional and I’d received the email saying refund confirmed before he’d even told me he’d processed it. Was surprised how easy it was once I got through but I guess the call handlers know people have already jumped through hurdles to get this far.

now to see if/when it appears back on my card.
Click to expand...

So Vueling over a week ago refunded the outbound flight, but are yet to refund the inbound flight. Is this normal? I thought give it a week as maybe they are processing the refunds by date the flights were, even though both flights were under the same reference number.

If it's normal then I'll save the hassle of phoning again.
 
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