So What Happens if Your Flight is Cancelled due to Volcano?

I have a ticket to Barcelona (through Amsterdam) on Wednesday. Currently, my airline is allowing re-booking without charge (travel must be re-booked before June) and full refunds, but only if the flight is canceled. Travel insurance typically only covers things that happen to you (medical emergency, job loss, death in family) but not acts of god, although I think you can purchase insurance that covers this for an extra fee.

My tour is pre-paid and they do in some cases allow you to roll to another open slot on a later tour. I'm checking to see if I can delay departure for a week, but it might have to be September. I have no idea about my hotels, I'm going to beg for a transfer or refund.

In many, many cases you are just plain out of luck.

If a flight is canceled, the airline will give a you refund automatically....even if it's a "non-refundable" ticket.

The unhelpful answer is that it depends! As has been said airlines are refunding but as to the other instances it depends on the T&Cs of each.

We are in the position of having the final 50% of our apartment rental in Sorrento due for payment in a couple of days and there is no refund on no shows! I am thinking about e-mailing to ask whether they will show us any mercy if I pay and am then unable to fly. But they are within their rights to say no.

Here is just one example... my flight on Friday was canceled, and I was re-booked on another flight next Wednesday.

I'm in the same boat with an Paris apartment rental in May. Final payment is due on Thursday. A bit too late to buy travel insurance to cover it.

I'm going to have to email the guy and see what his thoughts are. Obviously this is a fairly isolated but big exception and I'm sure he has had to deal with it with other prospective tenants over the last few days

I am in France. I have a return ticket on United for April 29. Their website gives details about how cancellations and re-bookings will be handled, if necessary.

If some travelers are not able to get to Europe, those of us stuck here should have access to the lodging that they would have used. I've been wondering if I would have trouble finding a place to sleep if I am forced to spend more time on this side of the pond.

I intend to keep in touch with my hotels so I am sure to keep my reservations. My Eurostar ticket from Paris to London is paid for and confirmed, so that part is covered.

Brad...let's look at your questions one by one.

1) Credit cards can't just "reverse the charges." You can dispute a charge. But, if you agreed to a non-refundable price, and the product was available but you didn't show up, well it's not the suppliers fault. (Airlines are different.)

2) It depends on your travel insurance.

3) It depends on the tour company and hotel. As an example, RS tours will allow you to transfer free of charge to another date but their cancellation insurance won't cover a refund nor will RS give one. Every company is different.

As said previously, in your flight is canceled, or a tour is canceled, a refund must be offered.

As others have said, it depends. My daughter's French club trip to France just got cancelled and we were told by the tour company that we will receive a travel voucher that must be used by April 30, 2011.
If you've booked a tour that includes hotels, day trips, etc, I imagine they'll have some sort of policy that covers everything but the enrollment fee, and may not need your travel insurance at all.

Further to my earlier post, the hotel group who own the apartment we are renting in Sorrento have offered us a full refund or a stay later in the year if we are unable to fly. Such a relief! I suspect that under the present circumstsnces most people will get a sympathetic hearing from hotels etc. At my most cynical it seems that it is just good business sense for them to do so.

My travel insurance covers "natural disasters". We are not leaving until May 16 so I haven't done anything re: our trip plans but I assume a volcano would fall under the natural disasters category.

According to todays NY Times, most insurers are treating it as a "weather-related" disruption, not a natural disaster. (the natural disaster is only occuring in Iceland itself, with the flooding and heavy ashfall.)

US Airways let us rebook all the way in July at not extra charge..

I had a trip planned to Italy about a month after 9/11/01. The flights fell through when SwissAir stopped flying briefly and USAirways stopped issuing/reissuing SwissAir tickets for a while after that, so I was unable to travel. I had little trouble canceling "non-refundable" lodging reservations with a minimum of explanation. It's worth talking to the companies where you've prepaid, since they may understand that it's no fault of your own.

I did wonder if this would fall under the weather category, actually. My insurance lists "severe weather" and "natural disasters" under the same heading, so I really didn't need to determine which it was!

The charge will be made in your credit card and then you will get a refund. I booked my hire car couple of weeks ago so the payment was made. Now, I had to cancel it so will get a refund which will be reflected on my next statement. By the way, Auto Europe is not charging any cancellation fee.