Cancelled/postponed trips due to COVID - please share your outcomes

[isihua]

Had to cancel a long weekend trip (10-12 April) planned to Subic Bay as my local government announced mandatory isolation measures for returnees post-travel to other ASEAN nations. Explained the circumstances to Arizona Dive Shop, with whom I had a dive + stay reservation. They were understanding and cancelled (no deposit made, thus refund not applicable). Would definitely book with them again once this blows over.

Flights-wise was slightly more complicated. Following the above-mentioned announcement, reached out to Jetstar Asia for refund/reschedule options. Both were declined with rather unsympathetic replies. A couple of days later, as more measures were announced by other nations in the region, they offered a credit to my account (albeit sans transaction/payment method fees). However, the initial bad comms (together with headlines of its rebooked flights being pricier than online rates for same dates) has unfortunately left a bad impression.

A separate accoms booking with Agoda was cancelled with no charges.

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

On the back of aquabluegreg's post and the hint that Equator are a UK company:
I know the UK brexited recently but they were part of the EU.
Why is this perhaps relevant? the legal base our refunding came from when our trip to the Maldives was canceled is a EU regulation from 1990 (see link below) hence should be applicable in UK as well.
Meaning that if the travel agent is not able to provide what has been agreed, he has to refund in total.

See Council Directive 90/314/EEC of 13 June 1990 on package travel, package holidays and package tours

 

[JesterDiver]

@JesterDiver @TabeaK

I'm the operation manager of @divedamai and am replying on behalf of my boss who probably have yet to read through the remaining thread or your responses since he posted the original reply as he doesn't visit ScubaBoard regularly. Anyway, my email is operations@dive-damai.com and would appreciate if you can write me an email so I can follow this through with him and come to a resolution. At this moment, he's a little overwhelmed as well with influx of incoming cancellation all the way till July 2020. I know your trip is in April and should be put into priority and I would like to do that for you. And yes, we will definitely want to come into a reasonable outcome and find a win win solution for all. So let's get in touch with me and we can take it further from there. We can always update this thread once we come to an agreement so people can have a reference to the progress.

Hello Dive Damai,

I will send you an email right away. I had a wonderful experience the last time I was on the Damai which is why we were all so surprised the stand that Equator Diving was telling us, your guests, that damai was taking. I hope to speak to you directly and perhaps work with you directly going forward. Equator Diving was very direct in telling us that the Damai was not offering reschedule or refunds. I am beginning to think that Equator was the one that was trying to do their best to push this back on the guests. I am hopeful that the great service and experience we had on the first trip is what we will have again. I look forward to speaking with you directly. And I am think you may want to talk to Equator as to how they are representing you to all of their customers. Thank you for reaching out and I will keep everyone in the loop as to how this goes.

Thank you

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Please make sure you post full resolutions to this. Lots of reputations on the line and that shouldn’t be anything to worry about as long as it is all brought to a resolution on way or another.

 

[JesterDiver]

I have sent an email copying Dive Damai Operations, Dive Damai Info and Equator Diving. I will keep everyone posted. We did receive an email from Damai over night saying that they have offered good will vouchers to clients toward future trips. This unfortunately is the opposite of what Equator Diving has told us.

Equator Diving also sent us an email overnight saying that they are surprised we did not note here on scuba board that there is a chance at a partial credit depending on how many people get claims approved. So here is a clip Equator Diving's email:

"For the liveaboard even if they cannot operate a trip, such as in the example you mentioned where a country closes it’s boarders, they still have considerable costs to meet - staff salaries, port fees, boat fuel relocation fees etc. If they cannot operate a trip due to their own fault, e.g. mechanical failure of the boat etc., then of course they have to allow rescheduling or refund, but where the reason for not been able to operate a trip is beyond their control, e.g. a storm or in this case a pandemic closing borders, they will not offer rescheduling or refund. I actually know of one boat in Socorro that if a storm prevents a trip they will offer you absolutely nothing which I think is terrible. In the case of Damai we will be able to negotiate a partial credit with them if the trip cannot operate but it will only be partial and in credit form. We will gladly add some more flexibility to the Damai credit and make it valid not only for Damai trips but also some other trips on some other boats we have trips scheduled on. Of course if it comes to this we’ll provide exact details.

So this is the reason we encourage guests to claim through their travel insurance. Worldwide we’ve seen many guests able to use their travel insurance to get refunds where they weren’t able to join trips due to coronovirsus related restrictions. Importantly if the trip can’t operate the more guests who are able to claim though their travel insurance the larger the partial credit we’ll be able to negotiate with Damai for those who don’t have travel insurance!


So if you do not have travel insurance just let me know and I’ll note this so if the trip can’t operate I will know that Jose and yourself are two of the guests we need to get a partial credit for."

My issue here is that Equator Diving is basically saying let's see how many people get their claim approved and then if you are denied, there will be some kind of partial credit that they can't quantify at this point.

 

[Dan]

I have sent an email copying Dive Damai Operations, Dive Damai Info and Equator Diving. I will keep everyone posted. We did receive an email from Damai over night saying that they have offered good will vouchers to clients toward future trips. This unfortunately is the opposite of what Equator Diving has told us.

Equator Diving also sent us an email overnight saying that they are surprised we did not note here on scuba board that there is a chance at a partial credit depending on how many people get claims approved. So here is a clip Equator Diving's email:

"For the liveaboard even if they cannot operate a trip, such as in the example you mentioned where a country closes it’s boarders, they still have considerable costs to meet - staff salaries, port fees, boat fuel relocation fees etc. If they cannot operate a trip due to their own fault, e.g. mechanical failure of the boat etc., then of course they have to allow rescheduling or refund, but where the reason for not been able to operate a trip is beyond their control, e.g. a storm or in this case a pandemic closing borders, they will not offer rescheduling or refund. I actually know of one boat in Socorro that if a storm prevents a trip they will offer you absolutely nothing which I think is terrible. In the case of Damai we will be able to negotiate a partial credit with them if the trip cannot operate but it will only be partial and in credit form. We will gladly add some more flexibility to the Damai credit and make it valid not only for Damai trips but also some other trips on some other boats we have trips scheduled on. Of course if it comes to this we’ll provide exact details.

So this is the reason we encourage guests to claim through their travel insurance. Worldwide we’ve seen many guests able to use their travel insurance to get refunds where they weren’t able to join trips due to coronovirsus related restrictions. Importantly if the trip can’t operate the more guests who are able to claim though their travel insurance the larger the partial credit we’ll be able to negotiate with Damai for those who don’t have travel insurance!


So if you do not have travel insurance just let me know and I’ll note this so if the trip can’t operate I will know that Jose and yourself are two of the guests we need to get a partial credit for."

My issue here is that Equator Diving is basically saying let's see how many people get their claim approved and then if you are denied, there will be some kind of partial credit that they can't quantify at this point.

That sounds more reasonable than what @TabeaK was saying.

Alright, I just got final word, so I am ready to name and shame.

Dive Damai in Indonesia has just cancelled our April 19-30th Raja (Damai II) itinerary due to the travel restrictions and the fact that no customers would be physically able to get to the boat. They will not offer any refunds, nor will they reschedule affected passengers. They will keep our 100% paid-for trip (the Damai is a high end boat, we are talking ~6-7000$ per person) as a cancellation fee and have kindly send us a cancellation confirmation (via our travel agent), to file a claim.

For us this means at least a 20% loss of our money - IF the claim is successful, which probably is a big IF.


We had a wonderful time on the Damai II in 2018, but with this, we obviously will never be customers of theirs again and I will do my damndest to share my experience in every channel I can including when this is over. I will certainly do my research carefully once traveling is back on the cards and only choose LOB companies who have shown flexibility in this time.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Can you define ‘good will vouchers’ ?

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

The thing that gets under my skin is operators/agents grouping ‘refund or reschedule’ together in their verbiage. They are not the same thing.

I’m struggling to buy that operators can’t apportion 2 berths to accommodate reschedules for all trips over a 36 month period for example. Likely why so many operators have immediately come out with this solution. It really sounds to me like this tour company is trying to cover their spread losses/cancellation/refunds on other trips/operations by claiming the boat won’t refund etc. Also utilizing the ‘go and get a resolution from insurance first’ as a vehicle to delay cash flow issues to see if they can recover or have to declare bankruptcy. But I also agree that the issue appears to be with the tour company and not with the boat.

sure, I would probably argue that someone demanding a full boat reschedule for a group or demanding a specific 2 week window they want for reschedule etc may be demanding too much of the operator.

The aspect that appears to be getting up everyone’s nose is an alleged attitude of ‘well it’s act of god and we may go bankrupt so we are shifting all of the losses for your particular issue onto you and keeping all of your money’ as opposed to ‘this is sh1t for everyone, so let’s find a solution that still gets you what you paid for eventually and we get to still be in business’

any operator who has the ‘shrug, go ask your insurance company’ attitude and still claims to be customer orientated is deluded in my opinion.

 

[auto]

I still disagree I’m afraid. If ‘I would like a refund’ is out of the terms and condition when I booked, then I don’t think the operator is required to give one. It would basically be a run on the cash of that business. Highly unlikely they would survive and I would prefer not to have companies start considering the ‘screw it, let’s just declare bankruptcy and start again when it all blows over’

Canadian? Owner of the Nautilus? As a business owner if you are referring to the T&C's you have already lost the conversation. If you can't afford a rebook or refund, you need to examine your business model. Simple.

 

[TabeaK]

My issue here is that Equator Diving is basically saying let's see how many people get their claim approved and then if you are denied, there will be some kind of partial credit that they can't quantify at this point.

That sounds more reasonable than what @TabeaK was saying.

We are saying the same thing here - we were all communicating together with our vendors. We are now actively talking with all involved parties - and we will report back. There definitely is/was inconsistent messaging from the boat, the agent, possibly different messages from the boat to re-sellers who have purchased whole/partial charter - we are clients of Equator Diving and go with what they tell us.

We are sharing what we have been told about Damai's reaction, which obviously conflicts with Damai's messaging on here. We had hit a wall with regards to communication - and I am sure there has been mis-understandings along the way.

This thread has now opened up these channels of communication again, so I appreciate that and we are talking actively.

And we will obviously report on outcomes & recommend companies according to how they work with us on a solution. I am still optimistic we will find some kind of a solution. If everything turns out to be a miscommunication, I am happy to go on record and correct any statements about any company we work with. And these will obviously also be the businesses I will preferentially patronize after this mess blows over.

I will also be the first to say that we had a wonderful time aboard the Damai II in 2018 with the most stellar service of ANY liveaboard I have ever patronized; so I am looking forward to talking to them in person & working with them in the future - despite the (as I feel) somewhat aggressive messages they have sent us since we shared our experiences.