Post Covid No Refund Blues and Future Travel

I would definitely file a dispute with your credit card company if I were in your shoes. You cancelled because they were not acting in your best interest. It's worth a shot. And I'd fight them if they tried to deny the dispute.


Any issues they may have with their vendors isn't your concern. You need to feed your family and put clothes on your back, so you need to preserve and protect your capital.

I think realistically if the vendors have a reasonable expectation that this company will book with them again they will refund their money. Especially if it's a big US company.

I believe many frequent travelers, myself included, are taking note of how companies are treating their customers during these unprecedented times. The companies that act as "heroes" I won't hesitate to use again (Hilton, Chase travel portal, Air Canada, Tours by Locals) and those acting like "zeroes" (looking at you WestJet, Scott Dunn, Quark) will never see my business again. On the fence about British Airways since they took over 2 months to refund me $864.00, but since I have over 350,000 Avios with them I'll definitely use them again.

I think I am not ready to burn my bridges with this travel company. They didn't completely stiff me -- I think contractually they could have. They are trying to work with me, and I have not been the easiest client to deal with over this. I believe the partial credit may have been a compromise between the money managers and the agents with whom I worked directly and had a working relationship -- a compromise between financial viability and losing repeat business.
 
I would definitely file a dispute with your credit card company if I were in your shoes. You cancelled because they were not acting in your best interest. It's worth a shot. And I'd fight them if they tried to deny the dispute.


Any issues they may have with their vendors isn't your concern. You need to feed your family and put clothes on your back, so you need to preserve and protect your capital.

I think realistically if the vendors have a reasonable expectation that this company will book with them again they will refund their money. Especially if it's a big US company.

I believe many frequent travelers, myself included, are taking note of how companies are treating their customers during these unprecedented times. The companies that act as "heroes" I won't hesitate to use again (Hilton, Chase travel portal, Air Canada, Tours by Locals) and those acting like "zeroes" (looking at you WestJet, Scott Dunn, Quark) will never see my business again. On the fence about British Airways since they took over 2 months to refund me $864.00, but since I have over 350,000 Avios with them I'll definitely use them again.

This exactly. I've been pleased with JetBlue and Delta. I'm "ok" with ABD even though it looks like their pattern is now push the PIF to 90 days to make it look like we are helping guests and then cancel at 60 days (which really is no different than just keeping the PIF at 120). At least I have a lot of time to re-book with them. Celebrity will give me 100% credit for my deposit (it was non-refundable with a penalty), so that was a bit generous as they didn't have to do that (though I don't want to cruise anytime soon!). Rosewood on the other hand . . . giving me a credit for a resort that isn't even open? I have a reminder on my calendar to file an insurance claim on that one if they are still closed when the credit expires.
 
I've learned a lot from this experience. I would definitely play the chicken game if it came up. Better yet, for now I will avoid all travel until a vaccine has been developed and tested to be a success. That seems to be 18-24 months into the future, so not until the Spring of 2022. Until then, my $$$ stays in the bank (or gets used to boost my local economy).

If anyone has had a better experience, please let me know who the other "heroes" are. I'll make it a point to work with them in the future.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful responses. Be well!

I'm happy with the way Nat Geo handled our trip. They cancelled on Monday, which was 7+ weeks before our departure. Had I not moved from an early June trip to the July trip, I would have gotten my money back much sooner, but I was holding out hope we could travel in July.

I'm actually watching various vendors in Alaska open back up (I follow some on Instagram), which makes me sad because I don't expect there will be very many tourists there at all this season. The Alaska Railroad is supposed to be open, the hotels where we were supposed to stay are saying they will be open, the kayaking and glacier experiences I was looking to book during our pre-days are open. The issue is with the national parks (and one of the hotels we were supposed to stay at is in Denali) and the travel restrictions and 14-day quarantine that was extended into June. Doesn't matter if the hotel is open if you can't enter the park to get there.

Nat Geo said they won't risk a trip where they can't provide the services and experiences that were promised. And at this point, there just isn't enough coordination among the different entities for them to feel confident they can provide the trip we paid for. Considering it was so expensive, I appreciate that (as opposed to piecemealing something together at the last minute).

If this was a trip I'd booked OMO, I'd probably just wait it out until a week or two before to cancel.
 
I could have gotten every single penny back with Tauck, though to get me to leave my money there, they offered an incentive of $500 per person. I accepted because it was made in good faith, and I can still get my money back later if I change my mind. Tauck cancelled early, and very early on made PIF 30 days out and even once paid in full, you could cancel and get a full credit for future travel.

I at least give Air France credit for cancelling my flight 8 weeks out, though they forced me to take a "refundable" voucher. United gave 2 years to use the credit from a flight I cancelled for Mother's Day weekend, that I am pretty sure would not have been refunded anyway (flights between Houston and Chicago, two United hubs... I could easily have been rescheduled on one of the other dozen direct flights each day).
 



GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top