Florida in October?

[Benny739]

We have a holiday booked to Florida for October (we were due to go at Easter but naively moved it to October thinking this would be over by then!). Our options are:

-wait for Virgin to cancel the flights and get a refund
-wait for Virgin to cancel the flights but if they don’t we can move them forward as far as March for £600
-move the flights now for free as far forward as June 2021.

It’s a family holiday to Universal/Disney. I want a refund and to rebook when it’s all completely over. What are the chances of Virgin cancelling the flights and does anyone know when they’re likely to do it?

We were in a similar position but for August. Our flights were cancelled I’d be a bit nervous they’ll be running in October - I’d move to next year.

We’re due to go to the USA in October but I’m not expecting to go as ESTA scheme suspended and Trump has a million more pressing things to do than reinstate that. We can refund/rearrange up to 24 hrs before but if I had a flight I couldn’t do that for I’d be very anxious and would probably rearrange rather than run the risk of it taking off as scheduled but without me being able to get on it and being left with no recourse.

If you can travel in October would you want to go?

If you’re going to Disney have you got reservations to actually be able to get into the park?

Personally I think I’d move it to next year if that’s an option. It’s a big holiday and would be too precious to me to risk it being overshadowed by corona (or the presidential elections which come up in November. It’s not like the general mood is particularly merry over there right now).

Virgin have announced they are expecting to resume flights on 6th October (pending CDC approval ) , so if you are going after that, Trump has lifted travel ban and FCO have cleared USA for travel then you could be going.

So if waiting for a refund from Virgin, potentially you could be going and disinclination to travel isn’t a reason to cancel.

So I guess, you have to ask yourself, if you COULD go, would you want to? If not, then I’d try and change if you can

I'd move the flights now for free. No way is it going to be safe to go to the USA in October. Have you seen what's happening in FL at the moment? Would you be prepared to travel under those circumstances? Nothing much is going to change until the USA gets a new government (fingers crossed for November ...)

I 100% don’t want to go in October. I don’t even want to go next year. My concern is that if the flights are on in October and we haven’t moved them we’d lose our money. Feels like a big gamble and I don’t know what to do. Virgin should be making it easier for people! I want to go in 2022.

Thing is OP, what you want (full refund) isn't an option unless you can hold out until Oct and then get lucky with them cancelling the flight. We were due to go to Israel at Easter and ended up having to get vouchers for future travel. We wanted a refund too, but it wasn't offered, because despite Israel's 14-day quarantine upon arrival, our flight left as scheduled. It sucks, but from the airline's perspective, they want to hold onto your money, because it will hopefully allow them to ride out this current storm and still be there for you to travel later on.

Flights with Virgin are currently cancelled up until 6th October, we fly on the 11th so I’m hoping we won’t have to wait until October to find out if they’re flying or not.

In that case, wait and hopefully you'll get lucky!

I’m pretty sure they’ll cancel as the USA cases are increasing significantly by the day, and I don’t think trump will lift the esta ban or quarantine for months.
Also, are you aware that you also have to pre-book your Disney parks, even if you have tickets? They are letting a much reduced amount of people in per day, so even if you stay in a Disney hotel you are not guaranteed admission. I heard this is happening until next summer, but you might want to double check the date.

Have you spoken to Virgin on chat? We had to cancel a trip for different reasons, although certainly something on our end rather than theirs. They allowed me to cancel but they kept the deposit available for 6 months so I could book when the dates I wanted became available. Unfortunately the dates became available in April this year and I definitely didn’t want to book anything then. But, they were very good and willing to be flexible, even though they really didn’t have to be. Give it a try. Good luck.