Flights to the UK October or December 2020

[VBLIVER]

Hello 

Has anybody booked to go to the UK in the October school holidays or Christmas?

If booked for October, are you going? Do you need an exemption letter?

If not are you getting a refund from your airline? 

How did you do this? Insurance or other route?

Myself and another family are booked on the same flights and would prefer a refund. We don't want to travel and can not afford to isolate in the UK or upon returning to Australia. Not to mention the risk of not being able to get back into the country and the risk of loosing our jobs due to being stranded.

Can't seem to connect the dots to see where we turn for a refund if the airline is still operating.

We have heard that the airlines are bumping/cancelling seats not the actual plane journey. Has anybody heard this? When do they do this? At the airport when you arrive?

Thanks in advance for any help. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nemesis]

2 hours ago, VBLIVER said:

Hello 

Has anybody booked to go to the UK in the October school holidays or Christmas?

If booked for October, are you going? Do you need an exemption letter?

If not are you getting a refund from your airline? 

How did you do this? Insurance or other route?

Myself and another family are booked on the same flights and would prefer a refund. We don't want to travel and can not afford to isolate in the UK or upon returning to Australia. Not to mention the risk of not being able to get back into the country and the risk of loosing our jobs due to being stranded.

Can't seem to connect the dots to see where we turn for a refund if the airline is still operating.

We have heard that the airlines are bumping/cancelling seats not the actual plane journey. Has anybody heard this? When do they do this? At the airport when you arrive?

Thanks in advance for any help. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unless you are granted an exemption to enable you to leave the country you wont be going anywhere. And they can take months to come through.

As for airlines cancelling their flights - you need to check with whoever you booked with. i would imagine most are dealing with October cancellations now, if not December.

[Marisawright]

9 hours ago, VBLIVER said:

Has anybody booked to go to the UK in the October school holidays or Christmas?

If booked for October, are you going?....If not are you getting a refund from your airline? 

How did you do this? Insurance or other route?.....

Can't seem to connect the dots to see where we turn for a refund if the airline is still operating.

We have heard that the airlines are bumping/cancelling seats not the actual plane journey. Has anybody heard this? When do they do this? At the airport when you arrive?

You are right, the airlines are cancelling seats - the plane is flying, just with a restricted number of passengers.  It's not economic for the airline to fly a half-empty plane at economy fares - so if business and first class passengers come along, they'll dump economy class passengers. 

If you get bumped, you can get a refund, though it may take some time to come through.  The bad news (for you at least) is that the government is increasing the number of passengers allowed, so you're less likely to get bumped now. 

You can't claim anything on your travel insurance if you cancel the flights yourself.   You could try applying for an exemption - it will be refused as it's just a holiday trip - then see if the insurance will pay on the grounds that you can't get an exemption, therefore it's not your fault you can't go.  However I think it's unlikely, as you're supposed to wait until you have the exemption before you book the flight. 

I think your only hope is to wait and hope you get bumped.  Or enquire whether you can change the dates on the flights for some time next year, and pray restrictions have eased by then.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Marisawright

[Susan from Moneycorp]

Hi VBLiver ~

What an awful predicament ~ I'm sorry you're having to go thru all this.

I had 6 long-haul round-trips booked between Feb & Dec that had to be cancelled.
Four were with Etihad (& subsidiaries/codeshare partners of), Two with SIngapore Airlines and their CS Partners.

Both companies offered me refunds in full. OR:
If I chose to leave my money with them as a credit they offered me bonus $$ to do so.  They set their passengers up with travel-credit banks which you can use for any future bookings.
They also offered me bonus airmiles.
Etihad offered me both money and airmiles to leave the cost of my ticket with them.
You have two years to use your credit with them.

From what I can gather speaking with various friends around the world, the UK airlines are behaving the worst in terms of trying to either cancel and/or get your money back.
Middle Eastern, Asian and American carriers are going above/beyond to help the customer.

Call your airline direct, let them know why it's not possible for you to leave Australia and ask what they will do for you - especially as you plan to fly with them in the future. 

 

 

 

 

[FirstWorldProblems]

2 hours ago, Susan from Moneycorp said:

From what I can gather speaking with various friends around the world, the UK airlines are behaving the worst in terms of trying to either cancel and/or get your money back.
Middle Eastern, Asian and American carriers are going above/beyond to help the customer.

 

 

 

That has somewhat been my experience too.  I had two flights booked on two carriers in the run up to the initial lock down as I sought to hedge my bets.  Air China were fantastic at processing the refund - responsive, courteous, helpful and the money was returned quickly.  Emirates were awful.  Really hard to get hold of anyone, no replies to emails etc.  Refused a refund and pushing a voucher.   In the end, after weeks of trying I cited Regulation EC No 261/2004 of the European Parliament (which obliges the airline to refund the full price of the ticket within 7 days in case of a cancelled flight if that flight starts or ends in the EU) and insisted on a refund.  Took a while but it came through.

[Marisawright]

5 minutes ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

That has somewhat been my experience too.  I had two flights booked on two carriers in the run up to the initial lock down as I sought to hedge my bets.  Air China were fantastic at processing the refund - responsive, courteous, helpful and the money was returned quickly.  Emirates were awful.  Really hard to get hold of anyone, no replies to emails etc.  Refused a refund and pushing a voucher.   In the end, after weeks of trying I cited Regulation EC No 261/2004 of the European Parliament (which obliges the airline to refund the full price of the ticket within 7 days in case of a cancelled flight if that flight starts or ends in the EU) and insisted on a refund.  Took a while but it came through.

What reason did you give for cancelling your flight?

I understand the airline must offer a refund if the flight is cancelled:  however there is no suggestion that the OP's flight is cancelled.  They no longer wish to travel, so they are going to cancel their ticket.  In that case, I didn't think they'd be able to get their money back.

[FirstWorldProblems]

13 minutes ago, Marisawright said:

What reason did you give for cancelling your flight?

I understand the airline must offer a refund if the flight is cancelled:  however there is no suggestion that the OP's flight is cancelled.  They no longer wish to travel, so they are going to cancel their ticket.  In that case, I didn't think they'd be able to get their money back.

For the Air China flight I cited the closing of the borders (or it may have been the UK government advice not to travel - sorry, I forget exactly, but definitely the flights hadn't been cancelled, though I noticed they later were).  This was early into the pandemic so I don't think Airlines had solidified their positions to the degree they now have.  I have wondered if they'd have been quite so helpful if I was holding an economy ticket - I'll never know.

The Emirates flight I was in economy.  They flat out refused to do anything, but then 7 days before the 1 April departure they cancelled all fights for two weeks, so that enabled me to take a stand.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by FirstWorldProblems

[rtritudr]

6 hours ago, FirstWorldProblems said:

For the Air China flight I cited the closing of the borders (or it may have been the UK government advice not to travel - sorry, I forget exactly, but definitely the flights hadn't been cancelled, though I noticed they later were).  This was early into the pandemic so I don't think Airlines had solidified their positions to the degree they now have.  I have wondered if they'd have been quite so helpful if I was holding an economy ticket - I'll never know.

Very early on (Jan/Feb) China's aviation regulator issued an edict forcing all Chinese airlines to offer full refunds for all booked air travel.  So you'd likely have been covered under that policy.