General Chat

I have a flight only holiday in October to USA, I check it every week and am hoping for a voucher if they cancel.

My daughter and sil and grandson Kieran were booked to go way two weeks ago and they had paid in full for the holiday

It was finally cancelled by the tour company 4 weeks ago and the money refunded back to their credit card

Has more problems getting the credit card company to refund the money back to their bank

Daughter wasn’t able to carry over her booked holiday from work so she took the two weeks off , she has been working from home anyway

Son in law firm is happy to carry over holiday to next year so they have rebooked to go to the Maldives next February,

They are hoping they will be able to take that holiday :-(

I had booked a week in a holiday cottage for the first week in July to celebrate our golden wedding. Both our children and the grandchildren were coming. I cancelled it with five weeks to go as it was obvious we couldn’t go. When I contacted the insurance company, they said if I had waited to within a month of going, they would have repaid the very large non refundable deposit. As I had cancelled it before that, they say they won’t pay. I have sent in a claim, but I think I am going to lose the money.

We were meant to be going to Barbados in May this year after along with my in-laws and some of their friends as we all raised money for the Barbados youth orchestra. We could have rebooked for but not worth risking health for. My in-laws are 66 and 69 years old.

We have no plans for any travel until December ............... it's basically difficult to go anywhere in Canada as almost all provinces are still instituting 14 day quarantines for anyone entering from anywhere else, whether that is from another province or overseas. The US/Canada border is closed to all but essential travel until mid August ........ that's essential workers such as truck drivers (goods must get through), health care workers). Anyone else has to go into 14 day quarantine ........... including professional sports.

If you refuse to go into quarantine and disobey all orders, the maximum penalty is $250,000 and/or 1 year in prison .............. and people who cross any border by land sea or air are followed to ensure they obey the rules.

We're encouraged to staycation in BC ........ but one friend discovered that going away to a hotel for a long weekend was little different from being at home as the restaurant was open only for dinner (very expensive. He had to provide his own breakfast, find lunch out, no room cleaning, no contact with anyone except front desk. The difference was that he saw fewer people to talk to!

I discovered in early June that the cross-Canada trains were taking bookings for after November 1st, no travel at all on those lines until then. I promptly booked our normal Christmas trip to and from Nova Scotia (3 trains, 2 of them sleepers). I did so with the understanding that all fares would be reimbursed if either the trains had to be cancelled because they had problems or there were difficulties entering other provinces or we ourselves were affected.

Less than 3 weeks later, the site showed that they were no longer taking sleeper or business class reservations even after November 1st. However, existing bookings were being held. Reason ............. they were still having problems working out how to operate sleeper and business travel and provincial regulations, all still in a flux.

I can see the problem ............ The Canadian from Vancouver to Toronto takes 4 nights/5 days, close quarters in corridors and dining car. The other sleeper train is only overnight, with 3 meals, but the same problem of spatial distancing.

They are taking bookings on all trains for economy class ...... ie, sit up for 4 nights/5 days. no meals except a few cold pre-prepared from a cafeteria-style galley ...... because they can do a reasonable amount of spacing. Everyone will have to wear masks at all times.

We're hanging in there, waiting to see what happens.

I haven't booked any hotels (usually do those in mid-November anyway), but having to spend 14 days quarantine in Toronto instead of just overnight or 14 days in NS when we're only there for 12 days would kill the trip ................. and anyway that would mean daughter and family would have to do 14 days quarantine if they saw us even once.

It's looking less and less likely that we will manage to do what was beginning to look like our possible last trip anyway.

We haven't seen the family since last Christmas, and the next possible time for seeing daughter and grandson would be next March, if covid allows them to fly here.

I was going for a month in sept to stay with my sister in Canada

We were going to do a two week cruise to Hawaii and the islands in the middle two weeks and sister had booked and paid the deposit for the cruise

I hadn’t booked flights as it was too far ahead or bought travel insurance so I haven’t lost anything

Cruise was finally cancelled a couple of weeks ago and her deposit is being refunded

It looks now like it’s next year so am hoping I will still be mobile enough to do it

My flight to UK end of April and back here in May was cancelled so money returned to me from the airline. I did have the choice to rearrange flight at no extra cost but decided refund was best.

How are others faring with their cancelled holidays?

We had rearranged our cruise for next year, but heard from the Travel Agent on Saturday that the Cruise Line has gone into admimistration. :-( :-( :-(

We have been assured that our money is safe (I assume it is still being held by the agent) but I am not holding my breath.

They are dealing with customers in departure date order, so we are a long way down the list.

In the meantime we have down-sized a bit and booked ourselves a week on a narrowboat instead. Not quite the same, but a good substitute. :-)

That's such a shame, Sylvia - and not so much a holiday, more a constant shuffle!

We usually have a family holiday on a campsite my sister helps run - it's not open to the public, just school groups, cubs, guides etc, so we have it to ourselves.
Sister wasn't going to have one this year (bit of a busman's holiday for her) but as I pointed out, quite a few of the extended family will have 'lost' their holidays this year - and being in the open, coronavirus is less likely to spread - I mean, we could have our tents 3 metres away from each other ! :-D
I think it will be going ahead. :-D :-D :-D
I love seeing grandchildren, great nieces and nephews, and other people's children who are vaguely related by marriage, turn feral - with no personal responsibility :-D

Due to fly to Portugal today, made the decision to cancel last night, the Apartment money we thought would be lost but after contacting the have allowed for the booking to be standing for 12 months, email received to confirm so grateful for this.Lost flight money and also Taxi transfer,
got refund for return taxi though.

Does anyone know if you can claim back the Governmnet Taxes from the Flight after you should have travelled impossible to get through to Easyjet.

My daughter, OH and 10 year old son left Canada last Wednesday for a 10 day vacation in Florida with her in-laws and then at hotels for DisneyWorld and NASA. Almost everything was pre-booked and arranged as their son has autistic tendencies.

Early yesterday (Friday) they heard that DisneyWorld was closing on Monday ....... that would have been the second day of their 6 day visit there.

By yesterday evening, their travel agent had changed their tickets from Sunday 21st March to Tuesday, and they had re-arranged their visit to DW to start today and go through Monday. The hotel allowed them to move in a day early and stay only 2 nights. DW allowed them to move some of the pre-booked arrangements from the original date to Sunday, and they will get refunds or vouchers of some sort for a future visit.

They also received emails from her OH's employer (school board) and from the son's school. S-i-l has to go into a 2 week quarantine at home before he will be allowed to return to work, and son also has to go into a 2 week quarantine at home before he can return to school. It was also recommended that parents and other family members of schoolchildren also voluntarily enter quarantine.

Meanwhile Canada has imposed its won restrictions, and all the Public Health officials are saying that anyone returning from an international trip, including the US, will be checked on entry back into Canada and advised to go into 2 week quarantine (not yet an order!).

I think daughter will be covered by at least one those restrictions ........... and anyway, I doubt her OH could stand being alone with his son every day for 2 whole weeks! He's not very patient, and likes to do his own thing.

Not cancelled as such, but no longer planned; this year we celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary and were thinking of booking a European river cruise.

Then thought that we might go to Perth, but the actual date is the day before Australia's Fathers' Day and most of the hotels are already booked, though there may now be a few cancellations ;-)

We will be cancelling our UK May holiday. We paid the balance a few weeks ago. :-(

I have a UK holiday booked and fully paid for for May.

My husband has desperately wanted to go away for a while but he has IPF and we really don't know what to do about it. He says he wants to make his mind up nearer the date.

My OH's daughter was coming over from France in Feb but had to cancel because of work issues. She re-arranged her trip for next Thursday, but is doubtful she will make it.

We have a two week UK holiday booked in May, that will be cancelled on Monday. Our diamond wedding is end August we have two weeks in Lanzarote booked last week August first week September will have to hope that will be ok so nothing to do yet.

Tourist banned here for at least 2 weeks

My nephew's wife had arranged a trip to Italy, in April, for his 40th.

Eldest daughter's bloke was going to arrange a trip to Italy for her 40th, in July - fortunately, as she works for the NHS, she didn't have her shift details until this week - and now they've changed anyway - leave is cut.

How many others have either cancelled or had cancelled for them holidays.

I know Rollo has had to forego his trip to USA - anyone else?

OH and I have a diamond wedding anniversary coming up later this year and have booked ourselves a cruise as a treat!! After the PM's announcement that over 70's should avoid cruises, we were wondering what to do, but the matter has been taken out of our hands. All cruise ship companies based in UK and USA have cancelled all cruises. The dates when they hope to resume vary widely, from 1/4/20 to 31/5/20, and so do the compensation packages. Ours is one of the better ones, so we will probably do the same cruise next year - and pretend we got married a year later than we actually did!! :-)

That's assuming we are still here. :-(