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My trip cancellation experience

Posted by (TX) on

Like a lot of others, I've had to cancel an upcoming family of 6 summer holiday in Europe and I thought I'd share my experience. I was able to get a refund or credit on almost everything (still waiting on $22.50 from a local train operator in Sweden), but a little persistence was needed as not everything was automatically refunded/credited.

  • Flights - If you think you flight will likely be cancelled, wait until the airline cancels it before taking action, this way you will be more likely to get a refund. My flights were booked on American Airlines (but operated by BA). American made it pretty easy to get a credit but to get a refund you had to jump through a few hoops. First, I waited until my original flight was cancelled (this usually is not done until 3 weeks before the actual flight). I then called and asked about a refund and they directly me to their special refund site. The first attempt at a refund was denied and I had to call again then get directed to a customer service website to fill out another form after which they admitted the error and gave me a refund. Total time - about 2.5 weeks.
  • Hotels - These I cancelled before my flight cancellation if possible. My STF hostel booking was able to be cancelled/refunded 30 days before the trip. My booking.com was able to be cancelled/refunded. My AirBnB originally was outside the date they were giving credits but I waited and they extended the dates for which they would give a credit (used these credits to book something local and secluded later in the summer).
  • Transport - I only had train tickets booked and the rail operator was only offering credits to be used within 180 days. Another forum member suggested contacting them directly and I did and was able to get a full refund (minus a short local transport section).

Summary, be hyper aware of any cancellation deadlines and don't miss them. If you think your flight will likely be cancelled, wait until it actually is to get a refund rather than a credit. Plan to spend some extra time contacting companies directly rather than just accept what they post online regarding refunds/credits.

Hope this helps someone else,

DJ

Posted by
4505 posts

In regard to flights, I had a flight from Calgary to Glasgow with a connection in Halifax. The Halifax to Glasgow was cancelled but my Calgary-Halifax wasn't only not cancelled, but was changed to a red-eye through Toronto. I had to phone to get the whole thing cancelled. It was explained to me that when flights are cancelled the software is programmed to find solutions. So when my flight was cancelled, it looked at the 2 legs separately and found a solution for half the flight. At the end of the day Westjet was very good to work with and everything worked out fine.

Posted by
1520 posts

Darn, DJ, I misunderstood yr title, I hoped this was about favorite ways to decompress, unwind and re enter after coming home from a trip. 😏

Posted by
980 posts

@doric8, Ha, I wish. Edited the title for clarity.

@Allan, yes the default seems to be they automatically rebook you or push you to get a credit even if you are really due a refund. I was amazed at how many hoops I had to jump through to get a refund from the airline but a rebooking was almost automatic. I get that the airlines want to hold on to the money if at all possible, I just wasn't prepared for how MUCH they wanted to hold onto my money.

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