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

[outofofficebrb]

Hi, folks. I'm back and will update the doc tomorrow morning to include posts that have been shared since my last visit to Scubaboard. (Yikes, it has been way too long!) Sorry about the delay. I will "like" your post when complete and post again to confirm.

 

[outofofficebrb]

Updated the doc!

Here's our experience with refunds/credits/cancellations for a 4 week trip to Indonesia, planned 1.5 yrs in advance for May 2020.

- Return flights North America to Jakarta, with EVA Air, were fully refunded at our request, no problems.

- 9 Day trip at Misool Eco Resort, had been paid in full. No refunds, but "credited" us with 24 months to re-use. Bonus: it was booked at 2019 rates and they are allowing us to re-book at our 2019 rates. About a 20% gift.

- 8 day trip on Mermaid II. 25% deposit paid, balance was still owing. No refunds, but credit to re-book up to 24 months to use as well.

- several hotel rooms for airport layovers and 4 days in Bali all booked using Expedia. All refunded in full via Expedia. Very smooth process and refunded within weeks.

- Finally, flights with Garuda Airlines for Jakarta to Sorong and back. No refunds, and they demanded them to be re-booked by June this year, and used by June 2021. Therefore this rendered our 24 months credit windows with all of the above, useless, unless we wanted to kiss goodbye about $800 of Garuda flight costs.

Results: We re-booked both Misool & Mermaid II for June 2021 with compatable dates to get to both of them in June 2021, and use the Garuda credits in time. Will re-book the EVA flights asap, and various hotel rooms later.

So, assuming travel and pandemic situations allow us to go next June, I think we did okay. If we are able to get the EVA flights at similar rates, we will not be out any money.

Like everyone else, disappointed we couldn't go on our trip (20th anniversary present to ourselves) but now looking forward to next June! Hopefully!

I was recently on the Mermaid 1. Great operation/company/staff/food...One of my favorite liveaboards if not my favorite. You will have a great time...It will be worth the wait. Garuda has some updates to their policies that will be in our favor as I have hundreds of dollars in vouchers with them as well since my April trip got torched. Information About Operational Policy Due to the Impact Covid-19 Outbreak - Garuda Indonesia

we should probably set up some form of 'credit exchange' forum.

100% payment ( no crappy offers or requests for discounts) to take over someone's credit if they can't make the dates etc.

Yes, that might be good, if it is transferable.

GE includes more airports and INCLUDES TSA-precheck.

Question: Is the GE card a REAL-ID card?

Yes, Global Entry card is compliant.

 

[Dan]

My July 21, 2020 trip to Guadalupe, Mexico on Nautilus Belle Amie has been rescheduled to October 30, 2021 without any additional charge.

 

[Dan]

I’ll have a trip with Nautilus in July to Guadalupe, Mexico. We’ll see how it’ll turn out.

It turns out the Mexico border will still be closed until July 21st. So my trip has been rescheduled to October 30, 2021.

 

[CJS]

Was going to be in Komodo in October. QANTAS cancelled flights on Jun 17 and issued credit. I contacted them via QANTAS app the same day (they turned the chat function off soon after!) to arrange refund, which I am entitled to under consumer law. They arranged it and I have received the refund for the first flight and am waiting on the second. I contacted Current Junkies about refund on my $US 500 deposit for the liveaboard. I knew I would lose a chunk of it under their existing cancellation policy (like $150 + bank transfer fees). They offered it as full credit valid for 4 years or the refund, under original terms. I'm not sure if they'll survive or not, but I figured it might help to keep them going so am taking that risk. My Garuda domestic flights were purchased from the tiny balance of Garuda points my wife and I had between us. They will refund points, but with a 20% hit which will mean there is not enough to book again next time, so they are a write off. Had booked 3 nights of accommodation. Cancelled 2 without any issue. One night is non-refundable and I have sent Agoda an email about that, but don't expect much luck.

 

[Jase Carter]

The deal was the T&C airport was supposed to open on 6/1 now it's 7/22 so...I figure if it doesn't work out in August I will wait until early next year (winter) and make arrangement's. We will see!

Similar story for me. I'm now scheduled for the 8/29 trip. I'll have my fingers crossed.

 

[CWK]

Blue Manta and White Manta back to back trips in September 2020.

I’ve been advised that the trips are being cancelled by the LOB and that a credit equivalent to my deposits will be given for use within 24 months. Grateful thanks to my travel agent, Diversion Dive Travel in Australia.

 

[Saniflush]

I feel like this needs to be posted some other places as well but I am going to start with this thread.

So those of us who are looking to travel also know that there are some pretty stiff requirements in regards to needing a negative covid test within certain time limits. It has been my experience thus far that a lot of the time wasted in getting the result is due to the testing facility just being backlogged in just giving the result. I may have a solution for some people on this.

If you test through a major hospital network almost all of them use an online service called "My Chart". This is an app that you can download onto your phone and receive, view, and printout any testing that you have had done in that hospital group.

As an employer I have used this (or rather had my employees use it) that were waiting on a negative testing result in order to come back to work and it has worked like a champ. Most have been able to pull up their results in two or three days and none of them had ever gotten a call like they were supposed to.

We still have a Bahamas trip planned for mid September and if it goes I will be utilizing it to get my test results to fill out the Bahamas paperwork and to present at customs.

 

[Jcp2]

I think you are referring to the Epic electronic medical records patient access portal that may be offered from a health system to patients if that is the EMR that they are using that a registered patient can sign up for. The turnaround time is also dependent on the testing capability to testing demand in your geographical area. As an example, we have the ability to test within our hospital system, something that not all hospital systems have access to, so we can control testing turnaround needs proportional to patient acuity. It's not ideal, because all patients should be turned around quickly, but there just isn't enough capability anywhere. A sick patient in the ER or hospital will be tested on a platform that turns around within 2 hours, but we only have a limited capability for that. A symptomatic patient in the urgent care, outpatient clinics, or nursing home, as well as presurgical patients, will be tested in a central lab with a turnaround of 2 days. An asymptomatic patient in the urgent care, outpatient clinics, or nursing homes will also be tested in the same central lab with a turnaround of 2 days, but with lower priority, with overflow testing sent to a third party contracted national lab. They also promise 2 day turnaround, but they are the safety valve for most hospitals with in house testing, as well as the only source of testing for many other places. Currently, the real turnaround for overflow testing is 3-5 days, but that is because we are in a slow simmer area (Michigan) now. Once it gets busier (I hope not), we probably won't have any capability to turn around nonsymptomatic patients in house within 2 days, and the contracted national labs might go up to 5-10 days as they were in the peak of the surge. Of course, this is only one system (the one I work with), but this priority system was something worked out during the April surge for us, and I'm pretty sure that other systems that have gone through the same experience have some variation of this.

 

[Saniflush]

I am sure you are right and know a whole bunch of the inner workings that I do not. I am only going off the fact that when I had to have employees tested the ones that accessed their results online saved a few days as opposed to the ones that waited around for a call. I'm sure mileage will vary between regions and hospital groups but anything that could shave a day or two off of getting results could save a trip and in my businesse's case, saves a couple of days of not being able to work for one of my employees.