cheska15

Some good news today. Auto Europe has given us a refund on what remained of our car hire. We signed a contract for 4 months two days before lockdown, and only ended up having the car for 12 days. We sent an email on Monday and received the news today. Now if only Qantas who agreed at the time they cancelled the flight to refund the $7000 come to the party soon.

With all other refunds due looks like we will be $7000 out of pocket. We will try our insurance for this as it was the BA flight and even though it is highly unlikely, they advised to put in a claim anyway. Still a lot to lose but we were thinking it would be much worse.

rhon

That is good news. We actually got a lot more back on our car lease than we expected and also on our accommodation as well. Still no news on flights for us. We are philosophical . It cannot be helped. We were supposed to fly out yesterday so felt a bit flat.
Glad to hear you are well. We are keeping a low profile here in Toowoomba. Two of the three Qld deaths have been here and were both off cruise ships. I was never interested in a cruise, but definitely not now.

gooster

@cheska -- glad to hear you got good news. I don't think it was mentioned before, but there is a new "ordonnance" in France as of 25 March that gives some mechanism for refunds or future travel credit. The prior link includes the text and here is site with an interpretation (which I don't know if it's all true, but you can Google others). It covers hotels and car rentals, but not flights. Flights may be covered under EU law, even for non EU carriers (it would not surprise that they would claim, however, you don't meet the conditions or these were exceptional circumstances).

millie2112

I am really sorry that your trip was cut short.
You can always do it another time.. I think rather than be 'sad' about returning to Australia, you should be very very happy.
this is the best place to be at the moment. We are very lucky to be Australian's right now.
also, you are lucky you missed having to self isolate in a hotel as were others that arrived a few days later into the country.

cheska15

gooster thank you for that information. I will research that a bit more.
millie I think it was a perfectly normal reaction to the end of our holiday. We are glad to be back in Aus, and yes we can go another time. Who knows what the future holds.

It is impossible for us not to think of all of those who have been affected by this awful virus.I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

schnauzer

I can’t remember whether qantas cancelled your flight or not. They cancelled mine .. due to fly out of Aus 5th May .. they offered a credit voucher which I didn’t want but I scrolled right the way down to the end of the voucher and there was a small refund button. I clicked that expecting to pay my $500 cancellation fee instead I got a message saying they would refund the full amount. I’m still awaiting the refund which I think could take 4-6 weeks . I hope that is right.. I’ve received nothing from them in an email so I copied and pasted onto word the message that came up when I clicked...

don’t know if this helps at all.

I think you certainly made the right choice to come back, as difficult and sad as it was.

KayF

I expect Qantas's cancellation and refund systems are barely coping but I wanted to say my Mum had to cancel Qantas flights and also received nothing at all in confirmation. Consequently she wasn't sure it actually had been cancelled but about a week later she received an email from Qantas confirming cancellation with details of the refund. You can understand the delay in these difficult times but that doesn't really help travellers who are left in the dark. Hope your refund comes through soon.

cheska15

All airlines must be more than swamped at the moment. Not a job I would like to do at the moment.

We have secured a house sit and move to our new accommodation on Friday. We are not sure how long this will be available for. The tenants in our house will stay until the end of the lease in August as they are entitled to do. It is understandable that they do not want to negotiate an early exit

I shall end off this thread now, and once again thank you all for the support and encouragement. We have had an amazing journey over the last six months, and added to that was that so many of you were along for the ride. It has been a lot of fun. Stay safe and healthy, and wishing that you and your families get through this terrible time in the best way you can.

Regards
Cheska.

Lois2

I read thru all of this and am amazed that you stayed as long as you did...even here in US things were shutting down mid March and France started much earlier with the high rate of Covid cases. I think you are both very lucky to not have contracted the virus.