surfmom -- thanks for the update and info. I was wondering about the credit card. I booked a flight in August for May departure. I have yet to receive my refund. La Compagnie, the airline has said they will refund my $ but it will take a few weeks. It's going on a month since they canceled the flight & I requested a refund. As I understand I have 60 days from the departure day to dispute it with our credit card.

yestravel I got in the habit of calling at least once/week and writing down the dates and times I called. Yesterday, I finally found a Finnair rep who called the refund department for me (no one else would or could do that). I got my refund today. It became a full-time job!

Yes, you have 60 days from date of departure. good luck

Thanks! Congrats on getting a regund. Indeed it sounds like a full time job. I will get back to the airline next week and see if i can get a status.

My aunt and I had a trip planned to England. A couple of things we had pre-booked canceled and offered refunds or re-booking even before we contacted them. So far the accommodations (a combination of B&B, hotel, and self-catering) have all agreed to refund the fees we paid. They aren't even open right now although they are hoping to be able to open next month when we would have been traveling. I just got an email from Delta two days ago saying my flight was canceled and I would be getting a credit. Nothing has been processed yet, but I'm expecting it to take a little time. It was a generic email so I need to follow up on that to make sure I get everything back (I used a combination of money and miles for the ticket). All in all I feel very lucky that places have been so reasonable.

surfmom.....Thanks so much for sharing such helpful information.
Our cruise has been cancelled and that's not an issue but we are waiting to see what happens with our flights which are not until July 4.

Related: our neighbour's young bartender tenant finally got home yesterday. He'd been on holiday, stuck down in Pto. Vallarta for the entire 2 month lockdown. Somehow, flight after flight was unavailable to get him home. He's just done a 2 week quarantine here in T.O. *The irony: he tends bar at the very downtown tavern where my school buddies have been holding seasonal get-together 'BOYZ nights out' for years now. My pals are currently pissed at me coz I've been refusing to attend due to my hearing problems---only so many times that my ears could withstand 'Smoke on the Water' at volume 11. Note to pals: look in the mirror boyz, we're no longer 21 yrs old anymore, gramps.

I am done. The deaf.

Update on attempts to cancel S Africa flights with Kulula

I made yet another attempt to have Kulula give me an extension for 2 years on the reservation. No dice - they insist on giving just one year. HOWEVER, about 10 days ago, ComAir - the parent of Kulula went into "business rescue" which I presume is analogous to bankruptcy protection or something like that. I think I can bid farewell to $550 with Kulula.

Still no response/update from Cheapoair on my 4 tickets reserved to travel JFK-Johannesburg on 6/9. That's over $6.5k!!!

Seems others have had better luck.

Highclere Castle (home of Downton Abbey) is ignoring all emails asking for a refund. This has been going on for two months now. Their tripadvisor site is collecting new bad reviews by the day.

The refund for five nights in a non-refundable hotel in Lisbon hit my account a few days ago.

Still waiting for United to refund airfare (booked through Expedia) and for Lufthansa to refund paid seats for flights they cancelled in March and May. All disputed with my credit card, but not yet resolved.

When the credit card when did you charge the tickets in relation to the departure date? Thanks

yestravel - the flights were booked in February for an April 30 departure date. United has offered a voucher, but I'd like a full refund and have applied for one twice on their website with no response to date. In the interim, I disputed the charge with my credit card company, who issued a temporary credit. I'm just waiting for the credit to become permanent.

I opted to pursue the issue directly with Expedia, United and the Lisbon hotel, as well as through my credit card company, hoping to better my chances at a resolution.

The flights and hotel were bundled in one charge. I've been trying to inform my credit card company that a portion has been refunded (the hotel), but their site was down over the weekend. I'll give them a call today.

Good luck! Thanks for the explanation.

Expedia won't budge as the one refund which listed as dollar amount for my first room is now a credit. I contacted the hotel who said sorry contact Expedia. It can only be used at the same hotel in 12 months from when given not for the dates I had which is next week. The email came a few days ago. I have trip insurance on this room so submitted a claim. The credit would not work for her and why I had the travel insurance.they did not offer refundable rooms.

Below is the lengthy email that we just received regarding our Italian rail tickets, and the 3 options that one can now choose from in the next 2 weeks. Gotta say that we are a bit perplexed. About a month ago, i received an email from CEO Tom Fuller addressed to someone named 'Rebecca'. It was obviously sent to me by mistake (his explanation later the next day was convoluted and pointed to a tech error). He had promised this Rebecca a full refund and implied that it wouldn't take long. Naturally, we are wondering why Fuller is not offering everyone a full refund as well. I am done. The end.We hope this email finds you and your family safe and healthy.


__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding while we have been working with Trenitalia to secure the best options we can for your changing travel plans.

We apologize that it has taken as long as it has to get back to you on this, unfortunately due to the unprecedented nature of the situation and with Italy being hit first and very hard, it has taken longer than hoped to get the various options resolved.

We understand how difficult it is now for everyone everywhere; just a few weeks ago we were all hoping that the situation would be contained to Italy and overcome quickly. Unfortunately that is not what has happened.

We really appreciate beyond words the overwhelming positive feedback and support we have received from our customers and hope that you all will be in a position to travel again sooner rather than later and that Italy will stay at the top of your destination list; to that end, accepting all or part of your order in the form of a credit through ItaliaRail.com would help us tremendously and send a wonderful message of support to the Italian tourism industry.

If you are able to accept all or partial travel credit the ItaliaRail team will make sure that you, your friends and family will have the best trip(s) ever - you and your family and friends will be treated like our family!

Please select one of the three options below after carefully considering which option will best suit your needs; the corresponding link will:

a) Authorize ItaliaRail to collect your refund from Trenitalia and apply it toward our enhanced credit & refund terms - due by May 31, 2020;

OR

b) Provide instructions on how to request a refund directly from Trenitalia and a link to their refund forms - due by June 30, 2020

Option 1:

ItaliaRail Credit + 5 years of "Friends & Family" Pricing

ItaliaRail would like to offer you a fully transferable ItaliaRail.com credit for the full value of your original purchase.

This amounts to EUR 89.71.

Your ItaliaRail credit will be valid until December 31, 2022 and is fully transferable to another traveler if you are unable to use it.

In addition to your ItaliaRail credit, we will provide you fully transferable/shareable “Friends & Family” Pricing (5%-25% off) up to a $1,000 USD value. This can be applied through our Custom Vacations Desk (ItaliaVacations) where you will receive insider pricing for savings on hotels, tours and activities, car rentals, restaurants, airport transfers and more. PLUS we will extend you our “Friends & Family” rates until December 31, 2025.

Deadline May 31, 2020
Processed in 2-4 weeks


Click here for Credit Click here for Credit

Option 2:

ItaliaRail Refund & Credit + 3 years of "Friends & Family" Pricing

If you have non-refundable tickets, ItaliaRail will refund 50% of the full value of your original purchase back to your credit card, the remaining 50% will be issued as an ItaliaRail.com Credit. Your ItaliaRail credit will be valid until December 31, 2022 and is fully transferable to another traveler if you are unable to use it.

If you have refundable tickets, ItaliaRail will refund 80% of your purchase back to your credit card, the remaining 20% will be issued as an ItaliaRail.com Credit. Your ItaliaRail credit will be valid until December 31, 2022 and is fully transferable to another traveler if you are unable to use it.

In addition to your ItaliaRail credit, we will provide you fully transferable/shareable “Friends & Family” Pricing (5%-25% off) up to a $500 USD value. This can be applied through our Custom Vacations Desk (ItaliaVacations) where you will receive insider pricing for savings on hotels, tours and activities, car rentals, restaurants, airport transfers and more. PLUS we will extend you our “Friends & Family” rates until December 31, 2023.

Deadline May 31, 2020
Processed in approx. 4-8 weeks

Click here for Refund & Credit Click here for Refund & Credit

Option 3:

Trenitalia Bank Transfer + "Friends & Family" Pricing

Our supplier, Trenitalia, will refund 100% of the rail portion of your tickets via bank transfer when you fill out their Online refund form(s) and provide them your bank’s international wire instructions.

This amounts to EUR 79.60.

Please contact your bank and have your international wiring information handy for filling out their form(s).

There are separate forms required for each hi-speed train and/or for each regional train ticket that you have.

Your refund(s) will be for the ticket price in Euros, the actual amount in your local currency will depend on your bank’s prevailing exchange rate.

In addition, we will provide you fully transferable/shareable “Friends & Family” Pricing (5%-25% off) up to a $250 USD value. This can be applied through our Custom Vacations Desk (ItaliaVacations) where you will receive insider pricing for savings on hotels, tours and activities, car rentals, restaurants, airport transfers and more. PLUS we will extend you our “Friends & Family” rates until December 31, 2022.

We have provided a page on our website to help you understand how to fill in the Trenitalia forms correctly to hopefully save you time and aggravation:

Deadline June 30, 2020
Processed in approx. 8-16 weeks

Click here for Details Click here for DetailsThank you for continued understanding, we hope to have you travelling with us again soon.

Sincerely,
ItaliaRail Team

Update Re: Air reservations made with Cheapoair for JFK-Johannesburg for this June

Happy to announce that I have a sort-of pleasing resolution with Cheapoair. After months of intransigence, I received an email on Wed. inviting me to call or re-request online. I called and was offered credit for the almost $6.5k minus their original transaction fee and minus $35/ticket for processing this change with Jet Blue. Was originally told that the credit was for exactly the same persons in the reservations for the EXACT route for travel that had to be completed by Nov. 2021 - 2 years from when I purchased the tickets. I protested as to (1) why couldn't I get a credit through June 2022 which is the earliest I can envision going for the safari, and (2) why i couldn't get the credit free and clear - so I could use it for going anywhere with anyone. The kind customer-service soul from India advised that I should take that up directly with Jet Blue because they are indeed allowing people to use the credit as they wish with the time limitation.

I agreed and waited for the email. Lo & Behold: either due to a typo/error/finger-fumble, it said I had to complete travel by Nov. 2022. So, not bad. Of course, the Kulula issue is dead in the water as its parent stumbles through bankruptcy proceedings waiting for an angel with $.

Received an email from United yesterday, in response to my two refund requests from about eight weeks ago.

They've agreed to refund the cost of our flights to Portugal, but have returned the money to Expedia and supposedly Expedia will refund to us. It'll be interesting to see how long that process takes.

Meanwhile, three of six seat assignment charges with Lufthansa have been resolved in my favor via my credit card dispute.

Today i contacted Chase credit card about our refund from LaCompagine flight they cancelled. Departure was May 11 and it was charged last summer.
i have waited 6 weeks since they cancelled my flight back in April. I contacted them last week with a status question and got a pro forma response,
When I called Chase I had planned to just ask about deadlines on filing a dispute. They transferred me to that dept who asked a bunch of questions. They said the refund would show in 7-10 days,

here in singapore its not so lucky all the time. i been following up for my mom's cancelled flights for the past 3 months and nobody from Vietnam airline or GotoGate (third party platform that i booked through) can give me a proper answer on what is gonna happen to my mom's money. AND the flights were cancelled by the airline, we didn't even initiate it.

My husband is still waiting on a refund from Delta. It has been two months and when he checks online it still says "pending". I told him to just contact Amex and go from there.

We just recently decided to cancel our trip to Iceland in August. We were very hopeful for the longest time, but the thing that made the decision for us is not having medical coverage if we came down with Covid there as our travel insurance specifically excludes pandemics. So we are postponing it until 2021. We booked everything last fall, and for 5 people it was quite costly. The good news is that our adult kids are able to take even more time by postponing it, so we will have a full two weeks there. I contacted every place that we had booked, and except for the airline and one hotel I have not heard back from, everyone has been very accommodating. One hotel that is very expensive and is nonrefundable was very kind and said yes to my request to change the dates. They normally do not do that either, so I am perfectly happy with that since we definitely want to stay there. The car rental company said they would do a refund if we wished, but were totally transparent and said they preferred to give us a few extras instead. So I am still thinking on that, but a vehicle for 5 of us plus luggage is expensive, so I might just take that stead.

For the trip next year, I am checking out a few trip insurance companies that do offer Covid coverage. They do exist as I have looked at two, but I am waiting as all those companies are dealing with the fallout over Covid and I think they will all be making some changes in their policies in the next few months.

mms - Sounds like you are doing ok with your refunds. Good thinking on the insurance. The airlines do seem to be the businesses that most people are having delays or issues with. On May 28 I see I misstatement where we are with LaCimpmagnie. Chase VISA has issued a temporary credit and the airline has 60 from May 28 to refute. I dont anticipate any issues as they canceled and we provided the info to Chase.