If you've lost out will it change your holiday booking habits?

[Makeitgoaway]

I have a very short, cheap UK break booked and fully expect to lose the money. I'd be less relaxed about it if it were the luxury cottage I booked for two weeks last summer.

What does all this mean for people's travel plans next summer? (please god this is over by then).

Will you be reluctant to book a foreign trip, meaning demand for UK breaks will be high?

Will you leave booking to the last minute?

Will you take note of the way companies are behaving now to create a blacklist or a preferred supplier list?+

Will avoid travel altogether or be even keener to get away?

Well I will never book with Virgin Australia again. Not refunded anyone just offered credit eveb though they cancelled the flights.

Singapore Airlines refunded within a day.

I have a few bookings lined up. One abroad and two in the U.K.

Just been saying on another thread I will be keeping my bookings, even if it means changing the dates. Being at home and all this worry is horrible. It will definitely do me and the families mental health good to have these holidays lined up to look forward to. It’s keeping me going through this tough patch planning life after this settles down.

My booking is with Secret Escapes. They are saying I can only rebook but as I'm restricted to school holidays and we don't yet know when travel will be OK again, that's not so easy.

I do sympathise with the industry but they seem to be being deliberately unhelpful.

Just lost £1000 with Tui, they said they would give me a refund but its has not appeared and I cannot contact them.

I will still book holidays abroad after all this, fingers crossed, but NOT with Tui.

I booked a holiday for the end of April to go to a friend's wedding.

We booked hotel and flights separate as we do frequently. Paid in full at time of booking.

Hotel we cancelled ourselves as we only lost £25 for all of us, we were happy to take the hit.

Ba emailed yesterday to say flights had been cancelled. We went to check and they are intending to give us a voucher instead of a refund. I am not happy, although of course, they are uncontactable! I will never be using BA again. The 30 odd other guests flying with tui and another airline have all been refunded in full.

They cancelled the flights, not us. I assumed this would mean a full refund.

James Villas were absolutely excellent and I received a full refund (car, villa, flights c£5k) for 7 people due to depart this Easter.
I’ve booked with them a few times and their customer service has always been great and they didn’t let me down this time.
Not sure about booking next year as I’m on unpaid leave and may well lose my job and DH’s business looks likely to fold. But if I am in a position to holiday again I would highly recommend them.

Meetmeinfantasyland if BA cancelled the flights you are entitled to a full refund on the card you paid with. This does not show in their website but I managed to get a full refund on my credit card within 3 working days by using this hack www.headforpoints.com/2020/03/19/how-to-trigger-an-online-avios-flight-refund-using-google-chrome/ . NB please follow the instructions carefully to avoid triggering the voucher- I did have a thread up about it but I took it down as it didn't work for everyone, but definitely worth a go.

We had booked Disney and got a refund no problem. It won't put me off in future. We always take out insurance and use a credit card.

I have got my honeymoon booked for end of June and it looks like we will only get a credit note for the flights and that has to be used within 10 months so we can't rebook the wedding for June next year if we want to use them for our honeymoon. It's bonkers!

Oh and to answer the OP.

Some friends and I were due to go on a ski weekend to France on 12th March. As it seemed highly likely that France would go into lockdown we decided not to go - the small company we were using said we wouldn't get a penny back. I contacted them once lockdown was imposed to see if they would change their stance - part of the cost was a ski lift pass which presumably was refundable due to lockdown- and they said they wouldn't as customers had enjoyed 2 days skiing. Very disappointing as even the offer of a small discount next year - we are repeat customers- would have made me a bit happier with the situation and more likely to book with them next year. I won't name them as they are a small company so I don't want to remove any custom other than our own.

But I will name outrageous Easyjet. When we decided not to go we went to cancel the flights so we could get the airport tax back. Only way to do that was by either phoning- impossible due to call volumes - or online customer service with impossibly long wait. So unscrupulous Easyjet got to pocket money not related to their costs. Oh and flights to Gatwick in June which are connecting flights - sure we can change them, but if new flight cheaper no money back, but if more expensive then way more to change than the normal fare.

We booked a weekend with Canopy and Stars this weekend and they have offered no refund or rebooking! Keep referring to those t and Cs as though I’ve cancelled and ask me to claim on travel insurance. They have so far ignored my requests to provide me with the paperwork to do so. Luckily I have a friend who writes for the travel section of a large newspaper so I think they might regret their decision.......

@rookiemere thank you so much for that, I will definitely give it a try!

Lost our flights to Australia for 5th April.
Singapore Airlines really good, offered full refund or credit which expires 31.3.21.

It will definitely make me think twice about using some of the companies who haven’t been accommodating. Even if they are cheaper.

The outstanding company for me has been Center Parcs. They have been brilliant in how they have dealt with the situation.

if BA cancelled the flights you are entitled to a full refund on the card you paid with. This does not show in their website but I managed to get a full refund on my credit card within 3 working days by using this hack

I used this hack the other day and worked a treat!

Unfortunately Easyjet are currently trying the same trick with cancelled flights but can't get any refund online only by ringing a call centre which cuts you off... lots of irate customers on twitter.

I've been generally quite lucky in that I've had all refunds or credit vouchers except the one Easyjet flight. I'll certainly be looking to book again with those who have been more accommodating and also looking out for those companies who have been awful (e.g. Virgin, Easyjet)

I live in China and has flights cancelled as far back as early feb as they were to and from China.
China southern- immediate refund
Lufthansa - refund, but slower
Finn air - still waiting after 7 weeks which pisses me off as when they cancelled the flight only China was affected.
It will take years to get over this with regard to international travel and flights will be very expensive imo.

It will be interesting to see how travel insurance companies continue ....

I will certainly be checking my travel insurance more carefully in the future.

I don’t mind losing money to the travel companies so much as they will all be struggling hugely at this time. But I’m pissed off about the “no loss caused by epidemic or pandemic” clause in our travel insurance which means we can claim zero from them. This kind of thing is what travel insurance is for ffs.

We’ve “lost” 3.7k on flights booked through Expedia. Flights now cancelled but have been given airline credit. Does anyone have any idea how to go about getting money instead?

I don’t want to moan as things could be so much worse for us, and I have started an insurance claim, but I’d reeeaaaalllllyyyy like that money back!

Thanks.

Centerparcs have been good. They cancelled our Easter break and have offered either a full refund or to rebook with £100 discount any time this year or next