Positive experiences with having to cancel

What a nice thread! I’m keeping this in mind next year. Thanks so much for posting!

Not all second party sellers of airline tickets are impossible to work with. We made 2 phone calls last week. One call was to the airline (Finnair) to get the authorization number and the second call was to the seller (Priceline) we bought from and our money was back on our cc in a week. We were pleasantly surprised at how quick and painless this was. Up front we were willing to take this risk because our RT ticket with only one connection in one direction was only $300 per person. These were tickets we’d purchased in early January.

not in Italy, but between the UK and France, the Eurotunnel (for taking a car through the Channel Tunnel, convenient because I drive to Europe) added a whole year to my frequent traveler journey expiry date. I called them in May and they said they were just sending out emails to all their frequent travelers and on June 1 we all had them.

Holiday Inn has extended validity of points and status a whole year and I didn't ask them.

Our RS tour of Portugal has been canceled for October and it was all refunded seamlessly. Our airfare was also refunded from Delta.

We had planned to go to Walla Walla Washington in late April for my birthday and booked an Airbnb. As time and shutdowns progressed we decided to cancel. Even though we were well outside of the refundable allowance when we did cancel we received a full refund. I felt bad for the owner, but at the same time was very grateful that we weren’t charged.

There have been all sorts of posts from people who have had positive experiences with refunds and cancellations; look at the forum history. Bud, the problem is with assuming that the same positive experiences with your listed businesses could be offered AGAIN, should a potential #2 COVID shut-down be necessary. That's not such a far-fetched possibility. IMHO, nothing at all is a given during these uncertain times!

In regard to accommodations, non-refundable bookings usually mean just that; non-refundable for any reason. While it's great that some have been able to issue refunds, vouchers or free re-bookings for these types of reservations, it shouldn't be a black mark on the property if they're following their published cancellation policies and can't, or won't, do so?

Just as it's been nice to see the many positive cancellation reports, the mudslinging at properties who've simply followed, possibly out of necessity, their non-refundable policies has been pretty sad. Rule of thumb: if unable to afford to lose the $$ should a plan fall apart for any reason, please don't make non-refundable bookings.

I was planning to go to Emilia Romagna back in March. The Italian outbreak and lockdown started 3 weeks before my planned departure.

The AirBnBs both cancelled and refunded without issue. Ryanair dithered for a week, then refunded the money. My car parking charges were3 covered by the "optional cancellartion insurance" - so my overall my total loss was less than £2 (the £1.75 I'd paid for the car parking insurance). I was very lucky, and I have great sympathy for people who really struggled to get any sort of refunds

We were supposed to go to France in April. Overlord tours for D-day beaches in Normandy was very prompt and understanding in returning my money, as was Exploreo Tours in the Dordogne. I will keep them in mind for next time I go to France.

Bud, we were going from PHL to CDG and then touring Normandy and Paris. Then training to Verona and going to the Dolomites for several days this May, returning from VCE to Philly. We were using reward miles and American credited us all of our miles and taxes without any issues, their customer service was fabulous. . Trenitalia and SNCF also refunded us completely, no hassle. The hotels we were staying at didn’t require any down payment, so we were fine. I plan to use them all again and extend my Dolomite stay in two years, earlier if a vaccine is convincing. I am using this time to practice Italian and read more about the Normandy invasion.

We had planned to go to Rome and down to Amalfi in May. Needless to say, we had to cancel. We had bought tickets on United (nonstop Washington to Rome) using Skymiles points to upgrade to Business and booked hotels in Rome (going and coming home) and in Conca de Marini. I called United and spent maybe five or ten minutes on the phone. Our points were restored the next day and the price of the tickets was refunded to our credit card about three or four weeks later without any penalty. I cancelled both Rome hotel reservations online without any problem and changed our reservation on the AC to September through email with the hotel, leaving our deposit. Now, September looks doubtful, so we've moved the reservation to May 2021. After reading about all the problems others have had, I think we were pretty lucky.

We were going Sept 29- October 15 going to Venice, Florence, Siena (Day trip), Rome, Pompeii, Positano and Capri (day trip).

Everything was paid in full and instead of asking for refunds we just changed our dates for the same time but in 2021. Everyone I have emailed has been awesome! All of our VRBOs have changed our dates, walks of Italy tours changed the dates of our tours. American Airlines has refund our flights, our water taxi in Venice just changed dates for us. And our Car driver from Naples to Positano changed our date for us as well. Only tricky one I haven’t been able to get an answer from is Ryanair when we were suppose to fly out of Naples to Barcelona after our Italy trip. Any tips on that? It’s not a huge deals as we would be out $159.