Refunds for medical cancellation?

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freedc

Contributor
Messages
170
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21
Location
Washington, DC
# of dives
100 - 199
Hi friends,

Is there a typical way that dive resorts handle last minute cancellations due to justified medical reasons?

The day before my flight to the Philippines I had an upsetting visit with the doctor where they said I was not medically cleared to fly, so I had to cancel my flight. (I had an ear infection a couple weeks ago and I thought I was out of the woods, but they found hearing loss and wanted to treat it aggressively).

Next came the awful process of trying to deal with logistics of a last-minute cancellation. After much time on the phone and online, the airline granted a medical exception and is refunding me my airfare. My work-arranged ground transport is supposedly going to be credited back and my work-related hotel stay was cancelled without charges.

The dive resort, however, would not give a refund even with the doctor's letter and the fact that I canceled less than 24 hours after making the reservation. (I reserved two nights before I was to leave because it was low season and I didn't anticipate being grounded).

The best they offered was a credit good for up to a year and the right to transfer it to a friend or family member. I don't see any feasible way for me to get back to Philippines so I guess I have to find someone else to recover the ~$500.

Is this the norm, to not offer a refund in a justified medical situation? The package was clearly listed as nonrefundable, and I made and canceled the reservation very close to the check-in date (about 5 days), so they don't *have* to issue a refund. I sympathize with owners trying not to lose money, but this one room I reserved was off the market for less than a day and it was the low season with probably most rooms available, so I don't think they missed out on any bookings. I just came here to see if this is normal customer service.

Thanks
 
There is no standard. Every place is going to have their own rules. Some will follow them strictly, some may look at a situation and be more generous. The former may be missing a chance to make a potential guest happy and have good things written about them, or at least not bad things - and they'll cut off their own nose even if the timing was such that they're unlikely to have lost anything by being more flexible. That's just the way it is.

It's what trip insurance is for. Some people self-insure, some don't.
 
The package was clearly listed as nonrefundable, and I made and canceled the reservation very close to the check-in date (about 5 days), so they don't *have* to issue a refund.

In light of this comment I'm not sure why you're asking the question. I walked away from a $2500 deposit on a Solomon Island trip when my Father died. I didn't even ask for a refund because I knew the terms.
 
. . .
The dive resort, however, would not give a refund even with the doctor's letter and the fact that I canceled less than 24 hours after making the reservation. . . .

I just came here to see if this is normal customer service.

Exceptional customer service sometimes means a dive op will waive their own stated policy, but I would say that is exceptional--not to be expected. No, I would say the norm is for a dive op (or for that matter, a hotel, airline, etc.) to adhere to their stated policy.

I'm surprised the airline allowed you to cancel for a medical reason. Is that in their stated cancellation policy, or did the airline just exercise exceptional customer service?

I lost an approximately 750 USD deposit recently on a dive trip that my wife and I had to cancel due to her landing a new job. I don't believe many travel insurance policies even cover that kind of event. Loss of job, maybe, but new job?--I dunno. Life happens. I try to look at it as part of the cost of the hobby.
 
In light of this comment I'm not sure why you're asking the question. I walked away from a $2500 deposit on a Solomon Island trip when my Father died. I didn't even ask for a refund because I knew the terms.

Wow. I am so sorry. I can’t imagine how hard that was for you. Condolences.
 
I'm surprised the airline allowed you to cancel for a medical reason. Is that in their stated cancellation policy, or did the airline just exercise exceptional customer service?

My wife and I had to go through two different airlines because I got her ticket through a codeshare miles program. Both airlines had a standard process to follow and took care of us. They probably didn’t want a passenger blowing an eardrum on a 15 hour flight.
 
The above posts have a few examples of "self insuring" i.e. eat the cost. This is a valid approach to risk management depending upon your situation. Do what works best for you.

Insurance is not free. We used to insure each individual trip and discovered that at around 1.9 trips per year it was cheaper to purchase an annual policy.
 
Talking about SEA tourism there is nothing such as "norms".
Ten or more years ago you could just book your stay and dives in the PIs or Indo without paying any deposit and inform a week before that you couldn't come for good reasons... and that was ok, you were happy not to pay for not consuming, the operation owner was happy that he didn't add unpleasantness to your misfortune. That's how it went in SEA, happy customers made owners happy.

The problem like always is that many tourists then started to book multiple options and didn't come for any reason. Add on top of that gringo'ed run operations who thought it was a good thing (for them) to ensure that deposits are paid upfront, like home in the US or in France, without any consideration with local habits.

So some -and then most- of the dive centres started to ask deposits, write down horrendous cancellation policies and so on. But the truth is, most of them are trying to deter serial no-showers rather than taking cancelation fees. Most of the time if you explain to those operations, (specifically the locally run) that you would not come for a good reason you will find an arrangement, (on the contrary of travel agents for whom cancelation fees are gifts from heaven, that is one of the many reasons I am not very keen of using their services while traveling SEA).

Proof of what I write : look at the cancelation policy of these SEA resorts when you book through Booking.com, many won't charge anything a few days before arrival. Only the poshier gringo run ones, will.
Personally I prefer going where I am not asked for deposits or threatened by fees, not because I won't go but rather because I'm quite certain the operation likes to have the travelers happy.
 
My personal experience only.
I always try to avoid paying deposit in this part of the world. Competition is very fierce here so most of the time I have managed to get away with it.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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