Travel Changes?

[neurosx1983]

For those still going on the upcoming London/Paris ABD, looks like you're going to have Jennae as one of your Adventure Guides! She just posted that she's on her way to London!

Sayhello

If she’s on her way then that’s almost a certainty that they’re not going to cancel.

Let’s all give a collective shout out to our travel agents that have spent several hours on hold( and are still on hold) with Disney in all of their forms today...so we didn’t have to. Elaine from Dreams- thank you!

Also, wait times have gotten so ridiculous on the phone with airlines. British airways has a message that straight up says “our lines are too busy now, call back later”...you can’t even be on hold.

 

[lovetotravel]

If she’s on her way then that’s almost a certainty that they’re not going to cancel.

Let’s all give a collective shout out to our travel agents that have spent several hours on hold( and are still on hold) with Disney in all of their forms today...so we didn’t have to. Elaine from Dreams- thank you!

Also, wait times have gotten so ridiculous on the phone with airlines. British airways has a message that straight up says “our lines are too busy now, call back later”...you can’t even be on hold.

Waited 4 hours for airlines and 30 min for ABD in past 2 days.

ABD said they try to cancel trips as soon as they can determine to cancel per CDC guidelines and other deciding authorities. The minimum they cancelled is a week out. I doubt they would cancel the week of the trip unless it was a CDC level 3 overnight since people are enroute. It's important to let them know if you will be having a pre-trip so they know where you are.

I've never thought that ABD would be the risky travel company to book with. I've always booked with them because I felt otherwise. However, Tauck, AMA, DCL, and Delta have disproved my theory. I have gained lot of respect for those companies now.

 

[neurosx1983]

Quick tip: I called British Airways Hong Kong office (randomly) and someone picked up in 5 minutes. That's a tip in case the US lines are bogged down. Try a foreign office.

 

[lovetotravel]

Quick tip: I called British Airways Hong Kong office (randomly) and someone picked up in 5 minutes. That's a tip in case the US lines are bogged down. Try a foreign office.

Were you able to get a refund?

 

[neurosx1983]

No...they told me they can't do anything and I have to call Amex directly (where I booked it). Their wait time is several hours at this point...

 

[Angell]

Hi everyone. My family of four is booked on AbD Italy - Rome, Florence, Venice starting on June 5. It ends on the 12th and we are to board the DCL Magic on June 13 in Italy for the Greek cruise. AbD booked our pre-night stay in Rome and our postnight stay in Venice prior to the cruise.

DCL, as you might already know, has given us the green light to cancel and rebook up to 20 months out and refund us a credit. Anything over the price of the new booking would be available as onboard credit only.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that AbD has canceled the Amalfi Coast tour that begins on May 31. After multiple phone calls, they will not budge on letting me know about the June 5 Italy tour. They have said that they are less likely to cancel than DCL because the nature of small group tours is less inherently risky than that of a cruise ship.

50 % of the tour takes place in the northern region hardest hit by the virus. With all of Italy now on lockdown, I don’t know why they haven’t canceled.

 

[AquaDame]

Totally agree about Japan. They seem to have done a great job. It would be such a bummer to have to cancel the Games as well. I bet they also haven't had runs on TP I told my husband this is the excuse we need to get one of those toilets, LOL.

The Italy situation is almost unbelievable. So terrible and sad. I found out a friend of mine has an elderly uncle there who has died. Heart goes out to all involved.

I've heard the qualifiers have been rough given everything going on. Still sounds like they may be delayed but I agree it seems like they've been doing a good job of keeping numbers down (at least comparatively!). My coworker and others have said there IS a run on TP there though, as an aside. He checks every time he goes to a store and finally found a package of rose printed TP that smelled of roses. He said he was not THAT desperate and did not buy it.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

My coworker and others have said there IS a run on TP there though, as an aside. He checks every time he goes to a store and finally found a package of rose printed TP that smelled of roses. He said he was not THAT desperate and did not buy it.

OMG you are kidding me? Japan's toilets are so awesome, I can't imagine why. But dying on the rose scented. Too funny!

 

[morgan98]

I found out this morning a girl (who I know casually) at the gym returned from southern Italy on the weekend. She has been at the gym every day since she returned and says there were no cases in the region where she was so no one needs to worry. Even still at spin class today no one sat on the bike she was on yesterday and everyone in spin class was talking about her (she wasn't in the class). I wish she would self-quarantine. Her husband is a physician, so hopefully he would encourage her to stay at home if he thought she posed a threat to anyone. Word at the club is that no one is happy she's wandering around the gym, socializing and taking regular classes. I feel badly for her, but I wish she would stay at home for at least a week.

I just got a lengthy e-mail from our club and they are specifically asking anyone who has returned from a level 3 region to stay home for 14 days. I wonder if she'll be at the gym tomorrow? I am very impressed with their extensive measures to combat transmission.

Yeah, this is the kind of stuff that makes you wonder. My husband was not in a harder impacted region either and he did not have much heavy social contact. However, he did take trains twice and he flew. You never know who you come into contact with. Like I sad before, he is here at home and I am working from home. Luckily, we have a great home gym and we can still run/walk outside by ourselves too.

We specifically don't want to be those people that a case is tied too. Unfortunately, you don't know about the symptoms. Plus, even in Italy, yes they have tested a lot more people than we have in the US. But many of those people have been in the harder impacted regions. People were still traveling about Italy. There is some undetected in every region.

 

[carpenta]

We are suppose to do a Tauck trip London and Paris trip in April but who wants to go if all the "tourist" areas are closed such as the museums......Travel all that way and look out a hotel window and get sealed in your home when returned? I don't think so....

 

[Cliffside]

Hi everyone. My family of four is booked on AbD Italy - Rome, Florence, Venice starting on June 5. It ends on the 12th and we are to board the DCL Magic on June 13 in Italy for the Greek cruise. AbD booked our pre-night stay in Rome and our postnight stay in Venice prior to the cruise.

DCL, as you might already know, has given us the green light to cancel and rebook up to 20 months out and refund us a credit. Anything over the price of the new booking would be available as onboard credit only.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that AbD has canceled the Amalfi Coast tour that begins on May 31. After multiple phone calls, they will not budge on letting me know about the June 5 Italy tour. They have said that they are less likely to cancel than DCL because the nature of small group tours is less inherently risky than that of a cruise ship.

50 % of the tour takes place in the northern region hardest hit by the virus. With all of Italy now on lockdown, I don’t know why they haven’t canceled.

Yes it seems that ABD is inexcusably slow in their response to this worldwide crisis. We are booked on the first Danube River Cruise and they have not been at all flexible with their cancellation policy, even though the state department and the CDC has advised against traveling by cruise ship. I know it is not a ocean liner but there has been a quarantined river Cruise in Egypt. Besides those warnings Amawaterways is allowing a generous cancellation policy whose ships they are using. Other river Cruise companies are following suit.

I also don’t understand how they are not being more flexible for their Italy adventures based on what is going on there.

I hope they improve their customer service and start caring more about their clients.

 

[Lalovestotravel]

We are suppose to do a Tauck trip London and Paris trip in April but who wants to go if all the "tourist" areas are closed such as the museums......Travel all that way and look out a hotel window and get sealed in your home when returned? I don't think so....

From speaking to our friends who live in Paris, it sounds like they may become a level 3 in a matter of days. She said that they have cases above 1800 now and remember France is the size of Texas. However, it sounds like a level 3 will not stop ABD from canceling the trip. I am so perplexed as to why they are not canceling or postponing these trips. Crazy!

 

[disneyholic family]

I am completely stunned by ABD that they're going ahead with the UK/France tour this week.
Every authority has said do not travel if you don't have to.
Every authority.
Who is ABD? Hello? Anybody home?

My alma mater, Johns Hopkins, not exactly lightweights, have cancelled just about everything.
And we're not talking just travel, though that too.
All in person classes have been cancelled and they are switching to remote instruction. All in person classes cancelled. Not some. All.
Undergraduate, graduate, professional. All.

and all non-essential international travel is prohibited.
And domestic travel is strongly discouraged.

And they've told all students who left for spring break to stay home.
Do not return to campus.

Hello? ABD? Anybody listening?

.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If she’s on her way then that’s almost a certainty that they’re not going to cancel.

Let’s all give a collective shout out to our travel agents that have spent several hours on hold( and are still on hold) with Disney in all of their forms today...so we didn’t have to. Elaine from Dreams- thank you!

Also, wait times have gotten so ridiculous on the phone with airlines. British airways has a message that straight up says “our lines are too busy now, call back later”...you can’t even be on hold.

Just wanted to add, I've had good luck with both Delta and Jetblue over the past few days. Delta has a callback feature, so even if your wait time is 3 hours, you can simply record your name and they will hold your place in the que and call you back so you aren't physically on hold the whole time. I've also found their customer service agents to be incredibly knowledgable of the new cancellation/change policies and have been very helpful as well.

I had incredible good fortune using the JetBlue chat feature last night. I noticed an announcement from JetBlue that stated they were now waiving change/cancellation fees for any flight over the next few weeks regardless of when it was booked. I cancelled a flight for March 25 just a few days ago, prior to them implementing this new policy and was charged a $200 fee. I got on the chat feature and within minutes a customer service agent put that $200 into my JetBlue travel bank. I thanked the agent and Jetblue profusely for being so lenient during this time.

 

[lovetotravel]

No...they told me they can't do anything and I have to call Amex directly (where I booked it). Their wait time is several hours at this point...

So you booked through Amex travel? I always wondered what the cancellation policy would be for flight not booked directly with airlines. Why do you have to cancel with Amex?

 

[Rapunzellover]

This whole situation is really ruining ABD for me. I'm not happy seeing how they are dealing with this. It seems quite botched. Refunds and cancellations compared to say, Tauck are lacking, imo. I'm probably not gonna do advance booking with ABD again, even if it means missing opening day prices. I think if I travel with them again, it will be last minute booking.

I fully expect my school in CA might go remote after Spring Break, possibly before. And that sucks so bad cause most of my community college students lack online access.

 

[Cliffside]

This whole situation is really ruining ABD for me. I'm not happy seeing how they are dealing with this. It seems quite botched. Refunds and cancellations compared to say, Tauck are lacking, imo. I'm probably not gonna do advance booking with ABD again, even if it means missing opening day prices. I think if I travel with them again, it will be last minute booking.

I fully expect my school in CA might go remote after Spring Break, possibly before. And that sucks so bad cause most of my community college students lack online access.

I totally agree with the lack of response from ABD. It is really disgraceful that they are so behind in dealing with this crisis. My river cruise adventure is not until June but it would surely give me peace of mind if they would adopt some of the policies that their competitors are. It really makes me feel that they don’t care about their clients. I don’t think I will be able to book another adventure after I am seeing how they are dealing with this situation.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I just received an e-mail from Scott Dunn. They are not going to budge.

I hope you are well. My name is Rikki and I am working with our guest relations team to assist with queries around the latest coronavirus outbreak.

The situation around coronavirus is terrible and remains completely unpredictable. While I do understand your concern we are bound to follow official government advice and that advice has not changed. While we would endeavour to get as much back from our suppliers as possible and refund that to you, the deposit is non-refundable. You can try to claim on your insurance but they may also not cover you if the state advice has not changed.

I really do understand your concern but given how unpredictable the situation is, we have to remain consistent with our approach. We have been in communication with other industry leaders and are confident our policy is consistent with theirs.

Let me know if you have any questions and how you wish to proceed.

I could respond in so many ways, but that won't change their mind, so I am not going to waste my energy. I would like to know what "government advice" they are referring to. Has the UK government stated that people that have booked travel must complete it? Why are they "bound" by government advice? They are a privately owned company. Seems like rubbish to me.

I read through my AIG travel policy last night and even if I had purchased "cancel for any reason" insurance I would've only recouped 50%. Currently I have prepaid almost $17,000.00, so I'd still be OOP a significant amount of money. I am going to PIF on March 20th and hope the virus has stopped spreading in Europe by the time that we travel. I know that money should not be a factor in my decision, but my brain can't separate it.

I have no love for Scott Dunn -- I will never book another trip with them. They have not given any reason why my deposit can't be transferred to a Canadian Rockies trip, which seems plausible to me, since I asked that no tours, airfares or hotels be booked until I have my Russian visa.

 

[sayhello]

From speaking to our friends who live in Paris, it sounds like they may become a level 3 in a matter of days. She said that they have cases above 1800 now and remember France is the size of Texas. However, it sounds like a level 3 will not stop ABD from canceling the trip. I am so perplexed as to why they are not canceling or postponing these trips. Crazy!

I believe, from what I've seen, that they are waiting on a CDC Level 3 declaration for a particular country before cancelling those trips. But the CDC have not changed their warning Levels in at least a week or more. None of the changes in France or the UK or the United states have been reflected on their website at all. I'm afraid that the CDC is just not going to make any changes, and are just listing general, overall warnings like "don't cruise" "only necessary flying if you're over 60" etc. I think that's a pretty narrow way for ABD to define if trips get cancelled or not, but there you go.

Sayhello

 

[disneyholic family]

and there you go -

the WHO just declared covid-19 a global pandemic

so ABD are you listening yet?

.