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

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I was just in Banda Sea in early October. Conditions were quite rough, to the point that many boats (phinisis or those without a steel hull) had to alter their itinerary or turn around. Actually, you may find this somewhat interesting given the topics at hand.....I knew someone who was on the Ambai the same time I was on the Mermaid 1 and she e-mailed me while out there that the Ambai had to turn around and go back to Ambon due to the conditions. She also said Seahorse was out that way the same time and was getting inundated by the conditions. I heard the conditions were not normal for that time period, but it can happen. A steel hull was a lifesaver. We continued with the crossing and it was quite the toss around the first day or two; you know it's rough when even crew on board the Mermaid 1 were taking pills to prevent seasickness! If you do decide to do it, I highly recommend that boat for the crossing, or considering a steel hull boat if you are worried about conditions, or are more sensitive to seasickness.

I can't even imagine little Seahorse being out in those conditions.

But then what do I know. Perhaps she has an advantage of some sort.
 
Hi. I've updated the doc up to this point and have confirmed this by "liking" your post. Thank you for sharing. @NQtraveler76, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience. That is so upsetting and frustrating. Please keep us posted as you know more.



United made an announcement the other day (I think March 30th) that they are waiving mileage redeposit fees for tickets purchased with award miles that fall under the travel waiver. Did you do this recently or was it before? Double check this. If before the announcement, I would call back in and ask them to refund you those fees. There was another member here who was charged a change fee when they should not have and when he told me what dates he was traveling, I mentioned he qualified for the travel waiver. He called back and got it refunded.



I know you aren't doing this to "support me" given how this has unfolded but are doing it because it makes sense for you from a risk perspective or from a principle standpoint because you don't want to be supporting a company that is choosing to go with this outrageous policy. To be honest, I think it's the right choice. With so many other good liveaboards that have reasonable and fair rescheduling policies given this fiasco...Why put yourself out there like that? You aren't losing much in the grand scheme of things given how far away your trip is (just 100 Euro) but you have way more to lose if they do this to others again.

I'm happy to speak very positively about the Raja Ampat Aggressor if you're looking for another boat for that same time period; I've been on it before and their crew and safety is excellent. The Mermaid 1 is also very good, one of my favorites. I've also heard great things about the Samambaia. Unfortunately, I don't know what their current policies are about the current events, if that is swaying you in your decision.

I purchased my spot on the Raja Ampat Aggressor for 25% off and they aren't nitpicking me about the voucher amount or making me pay more for anything. They gave me a voucher for the exact sailing (10 days) in the same cabin for a date of my choosing so that I wouldn't be restricted to a "sale" sailing. That is how you do it.

If you also want to work with an agent, I only have great things to say about mine. :)

In fairness, they are back stopped by the larger mother company aren't they?
 
In fairness, they are back stopped by the larger mother company aren't they?

Yes, though each boat is still individually owned, and the same problems referenced still plague the company as a whole or the boats individually. Perhaps it’s also better cash flow management. I can understand it may not be an equal comparison. There are other small ops, including individual/single-boats companies, that are just doing free reschedules/100% value vouchers. That is also how it should be done.
 
I know this had been posted in another thread already but because of its impertinence I wanted as much people as possible to get to know.

Another three divers here extremely disappointed by Wallacea Dive Cruises’ policy. As part of a group of eight on a half-charter, we were scheduled to be on the MV Ambai on a 100% paid-for trip from 1-12 April.
Wallacea Dive Cruises cancelled
it as the MV Ambai did not sail due to Raja Ampat marine park closing before our trip was due to start.

Wallacea Dive Cruises effectively advised that it is not financially feasible for them to offer their customers „free-of-charge“ reschedules. Instead, here is what Wallacea Dive Cruises expects us to put up with:

- no refund, even though they cancelled
- a 20% cancellation penalty
- an 80% voucher for a trip next year that is one day shorter
- voucher cannot be transferred to other parties/guests, so if for unforseen reasons you cannot go you cannot even pass on your spot but will lose all your money
- trip cannot be rescheduled unless they cancel (not specifying what penalty they may choose to apply then)
- voucher not valid if the company is no longer financially able to honour it

Our group paid them a 100% of the price, and is now supposed to pay hundreds of dollars per person on top of that; for a shorter trip; and only if we manage to coordinate eight people again to go as a group next year (otherwise we will lose even more money, and those who cannot go will lose all of it).

Given all the above, needless to say that our dealings with Wallacea Dive Cruises so far have severely affected our faith in this company. Under the current circumstances, we cannot recommend Wallacea Dive Cruises to anyone, and would not book with them again.

Some of us had bookings with another operator (Aggressor) who was proactive and offered a 100% reschedule for a similar trip next year (at the same price paid for the cancelled trip even though this was on a 25% discount).

Quietly weeping
 
I knew you wouldn’t take this one well...You’ve always had such great things to say about them, as have other people. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :(

Thank you

:(:(
 
Orlando - June (haven't officially cancelled trip yet, but we're going to)
RCI timeshare: will be the same as above - just waiting to get closer to travel date.
Southwest airline: waiting (and hoping) for Southwest to cancel flight - paid outright - not sure how this will shake out but we would plan to use for trip next spring.

Update to post 319 on page 32.

Although Delta Airline refunded all taxes/fees and gave us all of our miles back for our April Grand Cayman trip, we only got $89.58 of $126.22 taxes/fees back for fall Alaska flight - but all of our miles were put back with no fee. Our friends, when they tried to cancel the Alaska flight, were told there would be a $150 fee to put their miles back - they are waiting until the travel date gets closer to cancel. We talked to the right person on that one. Somewhere along the line not all of the Canada/US taxes/fees didn't get refunded or haven't been completely refunded yet. Not going to call and risk them realizing we didn't pay a fee to give us our miles back.

For the June FL trip, since Southwest Airlines had changed both of our flight times to FL and back home by more than an hour, we asked to cancel our flights and get a refund. They said that we would get a non-refundable credit to be used by Dec. 2020, but that once the cancellation was approved in 7-9 business days, our credit card would be credited back with the full amount paid for the tickets - but may not show up for 1-2 billing cycles.
 
Look on the bright side by keeping your money in their bank they saved you from the 20% loss you would have suffered had you invested in the market!

Dunno about that I've made more than that so far one of my airline stocks shot up over 50% and UA shot up 12% yesterday alone.. :)
 
Hello
I am French and I discovered the messages on your forum; I am in the same case (we are 6 to be exact). Wallacea retains 15% on our payment for a cruise from the end of April to the beginning of May in Rajat Ampat Indonesia. We have indicated our disagreement imputing that COVID 19 forbids us to fly (flight cancelled anyway) and that we would like to postpone this cruise at no cost as most do (checked on the internet about 10 ) tour operator or dive travel provider).

That's a really amazing and outrageous decision.; their reason is, as for the other people in this forum, that they have fixed costs ... and so do we as divers and citizens!

the terms and conditions (they have changed (before a special report about COVID 19) and now the paragraph disapeared) on the Wallacea site do not mention penalties in the case of force majeure (such as Covid 19).

We tried to take legal action because French law protects us but Wallacea is a structure based in Indonesia and therefore outside the legal scope of French law.
Beyond the fact that we warn all traveling divers of the unacceptable conditions of Wallacea and doinc to avoid this provider, we will try again to negotiate but their last email was unequivocal. Do you think that a collective action of all the people concerned could have an impact and make them change their decision? Sorry if my English is not very correct.
Kind regards to all of you
 
Hi, everyone. I have an update.

Our half charter contract is with the agency we booked with and the agency then has a contract with Wallacea. According to our agent's agreement with Wallacea, Wallacea is not under any obligation to issue any refunds, etc. to the agency but given the situation at hand and our agent's persistence :heart:, were finally able to come up with a resolution that was acceptable and fair for all parties involved.
 
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