Travel Bits: March 2020

These are uncertain times... to travel .......

The recent worldwide pandemic as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in uncountable number of trip cancellations due to travel disruptions imposed by many national authorities in a bid to control and stem its spread.

For travelers mid-way through their trips in a distant and foreign land, this could not have come at a worse time. Due to sudden flight cancellations, what could have been a straight forward flight itinerary had quickly unravelled into a nightmare battle to get home quick before further lockdowns result in even more difficulties to return to their home country and city. From the many accounts of travellers stuck overseas and trying desperately to find a way home, what was once a simple flight from one destination to another had now became a not-so-simple odyssey involving multiple transits via numerous carriers, not forgetting the relatively large amount of additional costs involved.

Airlines worldwide are battling the disruptions to their usual flight schedules. Apart from having to manage their flights operations to cope with the very fluid and fast changing dynamics of travel curbs, they have had to field an extraordinary amount of requests from travellers to get home. This has resulted in overworked airline staff as well as upset customers. 

I considered myself fortunate in that I have not started my trip before the travel curbs started. But even so, I had not escaped unscathed. I have had to cancel impending flights resulting in cancellation penalties. Current airline websites are not setup to deal with such an unforeseen situation and thus could not handle the revised policies for cancellations or booking changes. This is despite official policies from the airlines stating that waivers will be provided for cancellations or booking changes due to COVID-19. I had to bite the bullet and cancelled my air tickets online because my flight dates were fast approaching and there will be a no-show penalty which will result in a forfeiture amount greater than my online cancellation fees. I had not opted to call the airline offices, preferring to let them deal with calls from more urgent cases such as travellers stuck overseas and needing immediate repatriation. Although I was not happy to suffer a penalty for my flight cancellations, I was prepared to accept paying that small fee in order to allow the airline to deal with more pressing needs from other travellers.

For another upcoming trip, another airline I was booked to travel with, cancelled the flights in advance. I now await them to issue my refund via travel vouchers for my future bookings. Although I would have preferred to receive my refund in cash, I reckoned that most airlines are already dealing with huge financial impacts because of the flight disruptions. Agreeing to receive my refund in travel voucher is my own small way of supporting the airlines that I normally fly with and who had over the years provided me with extremely good customer services.

Edited screenshot of flight cancellation notification for one of my flights from an airline (2020)

I have had better luck with the hotel at my destination. Through several email correspondences, the property kindly agreed to allow me to change the dates of my reservation to next year even though my reservation was booked at rates that did no allow changes or cancellations. 

Until the situation caused by the pandemic stabilises, there is unlikely to be no travels for many of us. Lets' all hope that the situation blow over quickly so that life can return to normal.

To all of us; stay safe, stay healthy and stay united to defeat COVID-19.