davidshen
New
We were looking forward to diving with Avillion at Layang Layang at the beginning of March, 2015, to see what diving off an atoll in the South China Sea was like. Just two days before we were to arrive at the atoll, however, Avillion notified us through our travel agent that the trip was canceled because their runway couldnt be certified. Did they not know this earlier, at least to give us some warning? Especially since the runway has been an ongoing problem, causing other cancellations (see review by FamilyJensen, Tripadvisor, September 12, 2014)?
Such a cancellation might not be quite as devastating to someone who lives in the southeast Asia area with shorter and cheaper flights, but we live in the United States and were already in Singapore at the time with non-changeable, nonrefundable tickets. Thus we chose to follow our air itinerary and continue on to Kota Kinabalu where we spent an enjoyable week, all planned on the spot. Forget the diving there, however, even with a national marine park. There was as little fish life there as there was visibility (15-20 feet), although there are some times of the year when the visibility is much better.
Avillion gave us 3 options with the cancellation: 1. Switch to Sipadan Mabul Resort. Sipadan Mabul would have been fine except for a few things. First, diving off Sipidan Island itself is limited. Second, we werent sure that Avillion could match up the flight times to Sipidan with the flights we already had in and out of Kota Kinabalu, not after they canceled so close to our arrival date. And third, unbeknownst to Avillion, we had already canceled our plans for Sipidan due to US State Departments warnings about attacks and kidnappings at the Sipidan area resorts (2014). Avillions Layang Layang was our backup plan.
Avillions second option: Change our booking dates to later in 2015 or 2016. After the way we were canceled and that we would have to pay for flights again, this was a non-option.
Option 3: Full refund on your current booking. We chose this option, but unfortunately their definition of full was not the same as ours. A bit over a month later we did receive a refund minus some fees. Our travel agent spent a lot of time with them just to get that, and then spent more time to try to get the refund to be full. As of this writing (June 24, 2015), we probably finally do have a full refund, or pretty close to it. Our travel agent will be applying it to future trips.
If you are planning a trip to Layang Layang, be advised that the runway problem may pop up at any time. And then the refunds may not be clean and easy. We have to wonder: since we were the first customers opening the season on March 1, 2015, were there too few customers coming in so that it was more economical to cancel the flight and hope to rebook them for later? Lawrence L, Manager at Avillion Layang Layang, in replying to a Tripadvisor review on September 17, 2014, stated that issues arising from the runway, of which (sic) also resulted in an early closure for us last season. The repair work by the authorities has just commenced and it will definitely be ready when we reopen. Unfortunately, half a year apparently wasnt enough time.
Such a cancellation might not be quite as devastating to someone who lives in the southeast Asia area with shorter and cheaper flights, but we live in the United States and were already in Singapore at the time with non-changeable, nonrefundable tickets. Thus we chose to follow our air itinerary and continue on to Kota Kinabalu where we spent an enjoyable week, all planned on the spot. Forget the diving there, however, even with a national marine park. There was as little fish life there as there was visibility (15-20 feet), although there are some times of the year when the visibility is much better.
Avillion gave us 3 options with the cancellation: 1. Switch to Sipadan Mabul Resort. Sipadan Mabul would have been fine except for a few things. First, diving off Sipidan Island itself is limited. Second, we werent sure that Avillion could match up the flight times to Sipidan with the flights we already had in and out of Kota Kinabalu, not after they canceled so close to our arrival date. And third, unbeknownst to Avillion, we had already canceled our plans for Sipidan due to US State Departments warnings about attacks and kidnappings at the Sipidan area resorts (2014). Avillions Layang Layang was our backup plan.
Avillions second option: Change our booking dates to later in 2015 or 2016. After the way we were canceled and that we would have to pay for flights again, this was a non-option.
Option 3: Full refund on your current booking. We chose this option, but unfortunately their definition of full was not the same as ours. A bit over a month later we did receive a refund minus some fees. Our travel agent spent a lot of time with them just to get that, and then spent more time to try to get the refund to be full. As of this writing (June 24, 2015), we probably finally do have a full refund, or pretty close to it. Our travel agent will be applying it to future trips.
If you are planning a trip to Layang Layang, be advised that the runway problem may pop up at any time. And then the refunds may not be clean and easy. We have to wonder: since we were the first customers opening the season on March 1, 2015, were there too few customers coming in so that it was more economical to cancel the flight and hope to rebook them for later? Lawrence L, Manager at Avillion Layang Layang, in replying to a Tripadvisor review on September 17, 2014, stated that issues arising from the runway, of which (sic) also resulted in an early closure for us last season. The repair work by the authorities has just commenced and it will definitely be ready when we reopen. Unfortunately, half a year apparently wasnt enough time.
