Tallying up the pandemic travel losses

Or, when booking a tour choose wisely (Rick Steves' Europe which gave complete refunds).

Trip to London and Dublin for a wedding, Aer Lingus flight between the cities $300 voucher. All else cancelled with no fees. Trip to Croatia for small ship cruise, 400€ deposit moved to this September and reservation at B&B moved also. Rental car cancelled, no fee. No tours. We have 5 years to use the Aer Lingus voucher so hopefully that will not be a problem. We always book hotels with a cancellation policy even if it costs a little bit more. It will be interesting to see how travel changes in the next few years, if it changes much at all.

I still have my flight money banked with WestJet (and they've said I can request a refund at any time).
Rabbies still has my money and have given me a credit, which was extended to end of Sept, and I imagine will be extended further (it may have been already).
And expedia still has $ for a 2 night stay in Aberdeen, but that credit was extended as well - and if I lose that, it's only $150 or so.

On the flip side, we are putting money every month into our travel fund, so when we finally do get to go, you know I'm gonna book some really nice places.

Complicated scenerios with cruise credits, but in the end, I should be out of pocket - $0.00 for a 3 week cruise from Dubai to Venice April 2020.

$2100 credit with WestJet which gives me until July 2022 to book something, so technically it could be used for a flight in 2023. WestJet also gave me some free lounge passes.

I did get my $1200 back from WestJet on another trip when the airline cancelled. That was quick and painless.

Had to go to my bank to recover the $1500 when London Connection went under, but the bank came through and I got it all back.

Lost about $180 when I purchased a 1 year Scottish Historical pass, but the society is a non-profit and I didn't attempt a refund.

Interesting about your Rabbies experience Nicole. They had offered me a credit that would have had to be used by this June and they wouldn't budge. Neither would I so I was refunded my money.

Tangible losses- maybe $1000 from last summer's derailed plans. Ongoing emotionally wrenching impacts- incalculable, personally. We are fortunate to be physically healthy, financially stable with everyone employed in jobs that can be worked from home or at least not "front line" with health benefit coverage. But my mother won't know me by the time I can get there (if I can get there) later this summer, I missed that window. Family wedding cross country- huge rift- the conflicting information from the CDC and debacle with what is safe or not safe- it's privileged to be in the US and have the luxury of the two options of had the vaccine and hence "I am starting to fly and live life again" or, have had the vaccine but still don't think it's safe...relationship with neighbor with a very different approach to staying home than mine- maybe fixable if this is ever over.
I am starting to think the way I lived before, meticulously planning a yearly summer travel adventure and it actually happened? Might not ever return. When I thought a glitch was a delayed flight or misplaced booking? Kudos to RS for waiting to resume their tours!
..

Fortunately $0 - and only because I don't book very far ahead. When March 2020 came, I decided just to sit things out and not book anything going forward (until TBD...)

June 2020 Iceland self campervan trip. Took some time but a full refund from Icelandair. 100 euros of about 1800 euros for campervan rental. Can apply the 100 euros to a rental if done by 2022.

Lost more when Texas icestorms messed up an airbnb rental in Florida for winter break.

No losses here. Received credits that I’ve since used on domestic travel or refunds.

Out $320 on flights with TAP. That was the fee for us canceling. I had to get VISA involved, even though we paid for the refundable fare and weren't trying to get any kind of refund we weren't entitled to. Not thrilled about being out $320, but compared to many stories I've read about, it isn't bad at all.

Clearly some refunds/restoration took extra effort. Losing the equivalent of 2 or 3 nights’ lodging, or a really fancy meal or two is a shame, although some of the travel providers took huge financial hits this past year. For those still in business in 2021, and for families that didn’t lose loved ones to the virus, the pandemic was hopefully only a big bump in the road, and much better times lie ahead.

If people qualified for U.S. government stimulus check(s), hopefully that took off some of the financial sting from Covid-19.

I lost $330 on a hotel in Brasov, Romania for last May's trip--I waited a bit too long to book that segment and by then only non-refundable was showing so overall it's a small loss. My flight credit from United is good through next April so I have used most of it on a flight to NYC in October...who knows, maybe I will use the rest of it on London even if it's in the winter.

Zero lost yet from our planned May 2020 trip we cancelled. However, I moved a one night stay at the Sofitel Heathrow to this September, but I doubt I will use it and I don’t know that they will move it forward. I never book non-refundable tickets, but for some reason I did for that stay. Weird. Cost was less than $200.00 so less than trip insurance would have cost. Rick Steves Tours were great as was BA and all our other hotel reservations. Even my travel health insurance was fully refunded. I have no complaints, in fact, I still wonder what the point of trip insurance is as we have saved so much money over the last 20+ years by not having it, we’d likely still be ahead if we loss an entire trip’s money.

Have a voucher with Eurostar for ~ $200. Hope to use it before it 'turns to dust'

RS holding a deposit that will be credit for future tour.

Air was FF miles so that all came back.

All things considered, just an inconvenience vs serious financial harm.

Was looking forward to flying the BA LCY-JFK all biz class 'babybus'. That now looks to be extinct.

Flights from LAX - AMS, AMS - MUC, CDG - LAX: Vouchers given, LAX - AMS & CDG - LAX rebooked for this coming Nov/Dec at a lower price. Will rebook AMS - MUC next month.

Insurance Policy for trip, voucher given, reactivated for this coming year, no added cost for same coverage.

Hotels & Apartments: Funds returned from those that required a deposit.

Train tickets weren't booked yet in 2020, so no loss or issues from them. Will book 4 months out from Nov.

Hoping as everyone else is that travel to Europe, from the U.S., will be possible and not require a COVID test to enter every country visiting.

Allan - I forgot about the heritage pass! But I had used some Xmas money from my mom to pay for it, so I'll just look at it as a donation.

As for Rabbies - I didn't try to get a refund from them in the beginning. They gave me a credit good for a year, then in March of this year, I got an email from them saying they were extending the credit to Sept 30. I figured as soon as we can go, we will - and we had already paid off the credit card (we pay in full every month) so didn't really need to worry about accruing interest. I guess by the end of Sept I can book some tours, and can change them up to 2 weeks out - so I'll rebook for May 2022 and keep my fingers crossed!

"But do not worry if you are still unsure – you can book for any date, and if you want to change this for any reason then we will be delighted to move it free of charge up to two weeks before departure. It’s the least we can do for the faith you have shown in us. Not only that, if our prices go up, we’ll discount your future booking, so you can get an equivalent tour experience for the value of your credit note."

I didn’t have a europe trip planed last year as my travel partner (my father) was ill. But I was planning a trip into Canada (Toronto and Montreal) Over to Niagara through wester New York then home through Ohio stopping at the Air Force Museum It was scheduled for about 2 weeks after Covid lock downs started…
Dollar value lost for Hotels canceled is 0 as I mostly didn’t pay upfront.
But the damage was cataclysmic in that my father was never able to go anywhere again befor his passing and as such we lost our last trip together. (Our last trip to Europe having been canceled the year before when he was diagnosed).

No financial losses related to 2020 travel. Delta cancelled our BOS-MAN /LHR-BOS flight and issued a refund. RS refunded all costs for the Best of England tour. Hotels before and after the tour were booked as refundable.

Definitely lost some money, not sure exactly how much.

I was in Egypt when everything started shutting down in March 2020. My travel insurance would have covered me if I had gotten Covid, but it didn't cover me for anything caused by "government action" -- e.g., airports and hotels shutting down. So, I lost the last week of the trip. We couldn't get through to Turkish airlines to change our plane tickets, and so we opted to buy a ticket from Egypt to Istanbul rather than risk getting stuck indefinitely in Egypt. When we got to Istanbul, we weren't allowed through passport control. Turkish was able to get us on a flight back to the US the next day at no charge. Fortunately, there was a hotel inside the Istanbul airport. Of course, we had to pay for the night in the "Yotel," but it was worth it to have a shower and bed for the night. After one look at the departures boards, with virtually every flight cancelled, we opted to get the first flight back to the anywhere US, which was to JFK, instead of waiting an extra day for a direct flight to Atlanta. So, we also had to buy a ticket on Delta from JFK to Atlanta.

In summary, I suppose I was out maybe $400 in plane tickets and $100 for the airport hotel in addition to the time we missed on the trip.

I still have no regrets. Egypt was great until the airports started shutting down, and whatever we missed on the trip we made up for with a lifetime of stories about a very unique end to a trip.

We have about $2000 in non refundable vouchers that we probably won’t use. All except one expire this year, and likely won’t get to Europe until 2022.

Since we had our dog with us, we booked pet friendly cabins on ferries to/from Naples to Sicily, Ascona Italy to Croatia, and Amsterdam to Newcastle in early January 2020-about $1200 . All cancelled, expiration dates for non refundable vouchers are extended through 2021, but unlikely we will use this mode of transportation without our dog with us. (Back in the US now)

$550 voucher for apartment in Prague, expires end of this year and unlikely Prague is on the top if the list when we return to Europe.

Voucher for £200 deposit for Hadrians wall hike, good through 2022. This one we actually might use next year.

$120- non refundable Deutsch Bahn tickets.

Surprisingly, we received refunds for all of our Trenitalia tickets. And except for the one apartment in Prague, cancelled all lodging at no cost. QM2 deposit refunded.

But still a bit bummed that our great exit plan went up in smoke.

Rabbies and Caravan refunded all of our deposits for tours-Caravan even refunded the travel insurance cost! The only money we lost was for theatre tickets in London. However, it is annoying that my husband insists on flying(to use up tickets from last year) to places where I would prefer to drive. Yes, I know that sounds entitled and spoiled and it is certainly nothing compared to what happened to douglas. His situation reminds us all that we should not put off travel. Because they had done that in previous years, he does have many wonderful memories of the trips he did take with his father.

We were fortunate and have no monetary losses from last year. Our trip to Iceland was cancelled, and everything was refunded in full minus the Northern Light Inn and the car rental. The car rental said they would refund if we wanted, or if we let them keep the money to help get them through, they would give us extras for when we go this year. That worked for us. The NLI was gracious and let us change the date even though they did not have to. All excursions were also refunded in a very timely manner.

We had planned trips to India and Israel for summer 2020 (work related, but DH was going with me and we were adding personal time to each trip). I booked the India tickets at the end of February, and had almost pulled the trigger on a tour in India and the Israel airfare, but we left for Spain on March 2 and I decided to wait until we got back because things were starting to get ... interesting. Of course, the rest is history. We got home on March 10, everything shut down two days later. Thank goodness I had not paid for the tour. We were eventually refunded the airfare by United after they cancelled the flight, as well as the insurance I bought through United (business class tickets to India, plus my upgrade = about $5k), but the inter-India flight with Vistara was never refunded. I emailed them multiple times and even had one of our employees in India try to contact them but never heard a word from them. It was only about $250, so I consider myself fortunate overall. And especially grateful for the Spain trip before everything shut down.

Ours is similar-just international driver's licenses, 2 sets of ferry vouchers, and 1 hotel voucher. Overall, we're not fussed-this was a world stoppage and we faired fairly well, physically and financially. We 5 trips in the works between now and Christmas, when we're retiring.

$1200 United DFW-LHR and Berlin to DFW took 6 months of complaining and filing complaint with DOT eventually got refund they wanted to only give me a voucher despite them cancelling my initial flight and shifting my flight 6 hours later and thru Chicago.

I stay at hotels so had put about $180 in deposits for London Amsterdam Paris Gimmelwald Munich Berlin. Took a year to get refund but company kept their promise to refund before April 30 2021. Only monetary loss was was $25 for Amsterdam hostel is now a voucher

I consider myself lucked out. My 9-day Italy bike trip originally booked for June 2020, then re-scheduled for September before being fully cancelled:

• Bologna pre-trip hotel was pre-paid and non-refundable, but got refunded b/c hotel closed.
• Rome post trip hotel was booked refundable and refunded.
• Flights for June were re-booked for September, then when Europe closed to US, my leg ORD->FRA disappeared. I jumped on United right away and got a full refund, b/c there was an "unacceptable itinerary change."
• Bike tour company 200 British pound deposit carried over; I've re-booked the same trip for this September (fingers crossed...).
• I thought the trip insurance was a write-off, but when I rescheduled the same trip for this September they gave me a voucher for what I paid last year because I never took the trip!

Flights now booked for this year; hotels reserved with free cancellation.

Three week trip to England cancelled April 2020- rail and air refunded with minimal loss. Prepaid six nights at London House Hotel which they will not refund. The rate was non refundable but they were not open even if we had been there . They offered to rebook until only until September 2021. I just contacted them to see if they will extend given the situation and they said no. Very disappointing. A hard financial loss to accept. Our cancellation insurance does not cover “global pandemic”.
Any suggestions for us?

Three week trip to Spain October 2020- all refunded except two nights in Burgos. Small hotel no longer in business.

Live and learn- no matter the savings I will not be prepaying any non refundable hotels again.

Renee:

That is bad news. I can't believe that the UK won't be open to tourism in September, can you go then? Or propose rescheduling to an off-peak time like November 2021 or February 2022 when they are not full anyway?

I think one of the lessons learned from the pandemic is that insurance increased the losses for most people, since they had to pay the premium on top of the losses.

My ability to sue for money was serendipity since the tour company was located in my state so I could use the local county small claims court. Otherwise one has no recourse except to travel to a hearing room at the county where the tour company is located. Sometimes a person's state attorney general may help a large group.

Fully refunded:
* 2 tour deposits, Rick Steves and Road Scholar
* Airline flight to Dresden. Return, Zurich to Medford, Or
* Hotel reservations in Dresden, Prague, Ljubljana, Luzern, Wengen, Zurich.
Non-refunded: Flight from Ljubljana to Zurich; $286. I was warned when booking that it was non-refundable, so I consider it a small price to pay for a planned 6-week trip.

insurance increased the losses for most people, since they had to pay the premium on top of the losses.

I was fortunate in having used Nationwide for the travel insurance for my 2020 trips. They refunded 100% of the premiums I paid for 2 trips that were cancelled by the providers - in a timely fashion by providing evidence (emails) of the cancellations.

So my travel losses in 2020 were limited to pre-paid items in Russia (1 hotel night, a couple of ballet performances) for which I received full refunds, but had about $50 in exchange rate losses when the ruble tumbled during the spring of the pandemic.