Cancelled/postponed trips due to COVID - please share your outcomes

[jjmochi]

Here’s my story. I was supposed to go on a 10 day trip to the Galapagos with the Galapagos Master on May 18th. The Ecuadorian government decided to close the borders until April 5th, but the Galapagos Master decided to cancel all of their trips until July and offer no refund to anyone. They have a handful of 10 day trips per year, meaning that I will now have to wait for years before I can rebook to use the “credit.” I made all of my payments in good faith and the company is now keeping the money that was supposed to cover the boat, gas, food, staff, not to mention their profit. In addition, the price of the trip increases annually, so in order to rebook a few years from now, I will most likely have to pay even more. It is ridiculous for them to hold $8000 of my money for years!!!!

I am booked on their April 1-11 2021 sailing, think there's still space on that 10 night trip. The jump in price from 2020 to 2021 is not as drastic as 2021 to 2022 (almost $1000). Maybe you can try that one.

I'm running into similar issues with my Raja Ampat liveaboard, they're full on most of my desired dates this and next year, so I'm likely rescheduling to 2022. Have not nailed down the dates yet but I wouldn't mind paying the price adjustment, as it's not like they're full on every trip this/next year, just on my preferred dates

 

[Blackcrusader]

My trip was scheduled to start this Friday March 27 - April 10. My wife and I were going to fly EVA Air from Chicago to Taipei to Jakarta and then Garuda from Jakarta to Sorong. We had a 10 night stay booked at Sorido Bay Resort on Kri Island. The resort is owned by Papua Diving, who also own Kri Eco Resort. We had a night planned at Swiss-Belhotel in Sorong on the way out and had a full day planned in Taipei for our 23hr layover. We had booked a tour of Taipei through Viator.

EVA Air had originally been difficult since they were keeping their flights pretty much everywhere and still charging people cancellation fees. This finally changed when Taiwan itself put in restrictions, and I just read today they are cancelling flights. I submitted a refund request on March 18th and I expect it to go through without issue. :

I had a trip to Bali planned. Once Indonesia itself was on no visa on arrival and was moved to a Level 3 country EVA AIR on their website updated their site to show all the countries that were listed and refunds of flights would be refunded.

I booked with EVA AIR direct online and they emailed me to say a refund would be processed to my Taiwan credit card in 7 working days. So yes once countries were self closing or added by Taiwan government to virus do not travel then the airline refunds. I do not know if there is a cancellation fee it does sometimes depend on the ticket you bought and I had prepaid the cheapest economy seat.

Also Taiwan government just banned all transit flights so you would now not be able to fly to Taipei. All foreign tourists were banned entry to Taiwan from 18 March.

 

[Blueringocto_73]

The ITN/ASAP provision was honored today. I can travel to Manila whenever President Duterte lifts the travel ban for foreign nationals.

 

[Centrals]

The ITN/ASAP provision was honored today. I can travel to Manila whenever President Duterte lifts the travel ban for foreign nationals.

The problem with this guy is that he might close the country without any warning whenever he feels like it.

Good luck.

 

[Paulina Malina]

Is this a 100% credit? Can you e-mail them and instead of asking for a credit with a specific value on it, to give you voucher that allows you to take that exact trip on that exact boat in the exact cabin level given the limited 10 day sailings and vacancy they have each year? (This is what Aggressor did, though, there is a 1 year limit...Who knows what will happen in a year but I guess we get there when we get there.) I received my sailing on a Dive The World discount. They didn't apply the actual value (discounted), but are offering a voucher for the exact sailing/boat/cabin/itinerary so I don't have to pay more to catch it on a Dive The World, if it happens to not coincide with that boat/sailing/itinerary.

It sucks but if it's between them not being able to honor it at all or not honoring it all because they don't want to...This is the lesser of 2 evils. In an ideal situation, a partial refund and a payment plan for you until your new scheduled date would be fair but given this unique situation, unique things have to happen and we all have to give a little. They are willing to reschedule and/or give you a credit..it's something. I am sorry this is happening..it is super frustrating.

It’s impossible for me to know what will be in two or three years, and I find it very unfair that although I paid for everything in good faith, they are literally holding my money hostage. This would not happen anywhere else. Every business is suffering right now, but no one is behaving in the way these dive companies are.

 

[Paulina Malina]

Is this a 100% credit? Can you e-mail them and instead of asking for a credit with a specific value on it, to give you voucher that allows you to take that exact trip on that exact boat in the exact cabin level given the limited 10 day sailings and vacancy they have each year? (This is what Aggressor did, though, there is a 1 year limit...Who knows what will happen in a year but I guess we get there when we get there.) I received my sailing on a Dive The World discount. They didn't apply the actual value (discounted), but are offering a voucher for the exact sailing/boat/cabin/itinerary so I don't have to pay more to catch it on a Dive The World, if it happens to not coincide with that boat/sailing/itinerary.

It sucks but if it's between them not being able to honor it at all or not honoring it all because they don't want to...This is the lesser of 2 evils. In an ideal situation, a partial refund and a payment plan for you until your new scheduled date would be fair but given this unique situation, unique things have to happen and we all have to give a little. They are willing to reschedule and/or give you a credit..it's something. I am sorry this is happening..it is super frustrating.

Additionally, who is to say they will be in business under the same name in two years? Is it really that unreasonable to expect them to go belly up and keep all these deposits, and then opening under a different name? They’re located in Thailand, so what can you do? Go to small claims in Thailand? Seeing how they are treating their customers (no sympathy or understanding whatsoever), I don’t feel inclined to be understanding or giving anything.

 

[outofofficebrb]

The ITN/ASAP provision was honored today. I can travel to Manila whenever President Duterte lifts the travel ban for foreign nationals.

There’s still a global travel warning to not travel and I wonder if there will be any flights in or out for you to come home. Whether or not traveling internationally at all, especially for non essential or non life/death reasons is a good idea is another question...

 

[jjmochi]

Has anyone successfully contacted Garuda to change their flight and at what number? I keep getting disconnected when I am number 1 or 2 in the queue after waiting for 20+ minutes. I am trying their Aus number 1300 365 330

 

[outofofficebrb]

Has anyone successfully contacted Garuda to change their flight and at what number? I keep getting disconnected when I am number 1 or 2 in the queue after waiting for 20+ minutes. I am trying their Aus number 1300 365 330

try calling their Singapore number. Avoid their regular Indo number. It disconnects you every 2 minutes lol. You can also try emailing e-booking@garuda-indonesia.com

 

[Blueringocto_73]

Depending on what happens with the virus I would like to be back there. President Duterte has strengthened his political power with current events. And he already had considerable influence.

The problem with this guy is that he might close the country without any warning whenever he feels like it.

Good luck.