Cancel holiday over corona virus?

[Space Cowboy 1,466]

17 minutes ago, engelchen said:

 

They are playing chicken with you. The borders are closed, they have to cancel.

 

Absolutely right.

 

My flights, scheduled for next Monday, are still showing as "go."  I looked at the seatmap for the long-haul segment, and there's like 5 passengers total (on a 747).

 

It's clear the airline is playing "chicken," because if the passengers cancel, no refunds.

 

[diego.hh 37]

12 minutes ago, AnswerToLife42 said:

@diego.hh: why don't you offer her 500€ so the loss is a little distributed between you two?

Do you plan to visit fehmarn next year? Possibly she could give you a lower rate than.

I think, it is always good to be on good terms with everyone ( except the boss od Ryanair)

 

We planned a long weekend in Hamburg end of March.

I had the choice to book a room for 600€ and pay immediately or 700€ with the possibility to cancel.

Luckily I choose the more expensive option. The same with the train tickets.

Now I still have three days holiday left (have to take it 'til the end of March) which I can't really use,

and my company sent me home to do home office (still without VPN connection) sinse I am the oldest

guy in the team and they don't want to risk my life.

However, I also offered to take unpaid leave - as long as it takes.

 

@AnswerToLife42 Thanks for answering

The money is already booked from my credit card, it is like 1800 EUR, Fewo told me that the money is blocked and will be released to the landlady 1 day later the booking starts (28^th March), so basically I don’t know if am in the position of handling with the landlady, to be honest I don’t think the landlady will send any money back, she already satated that is my fault because I am not having with a reiserücktrittsversicherung, I understand she also wants the money.

The only way out I see here if there is any legal way to force Fewo to refund the money. Regarding coming back well probably that will be an option but we are two families with kids in the school so to agree in a new date will be difficult, so I don’t think I can commit to that

[atinherne 69]

2 hours ago, Space Cowboy said:

 

Absolutely right.

 

My flights, scheduled for next Monday, are still showing as "go."  I looked at the seatmap for the long-haul segment, and there's like 5 passengers total (on a 747).

 

It's clear the airline is playing "chicken," because if the passengers cancel, no refunds.

 

My flight to Ibiza also shows as still confirmed and I see around 10 seats taken 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

[HEM 11,070]

7 hours ago, keith2011 said:

Just wanted to update about my holiday (Pauschale) booked for 22nd March in Egypt. We have made the obvious choice not to go but it is still not clear if we will get any money back. To date we have not cancelled and the travel company are saying they will only guarantee a refund if they cancel but

 

6 hours ago, engelchen said:

 

They are playing chicken with you. The borders are closed, they have to cancel.

 

It seems that the travel agencies sit back & refer to what the German foreign office say.  A plea from Angie to say "don't travel" is worthless.

 

For my trip to Mallorca (with 4 tours of the island sights) is was clear last week that this would end in disaster but the ausländische Amt had not issued a warning so I had to cancel one day before at my expense (actually got 10% back).  I would have got there but have been confined to the hotel.  At least I avoided the mess which might have been even more expensive.

[HEM 11,070]

3 hours ago, atinherne said:

My flight to Ibiza also shows as still confirmed and I see around 10 seats taken 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

 

You have flights to Ibiza in March?  They are as rare as hen's teeth!

 

We have a vacation booked on Ibiza (our 16th) in September so are hoping...

[atinherne 69]

1 hour ago, HEM said:

 

You have flights to Ibiza in March?  They are as rare as hen's teeth!

 

We have a vacation booked on Ibiza (our 16th) in September so are hoping...

Yes with Eurowings 😫

[UpToWick 46]

I have a Condor flight booked for the 11th of April from Munich to Palermo. Palermo airport at the moment has only a couple of flight to/from Rome and Milan each day, the airport is de facto closed. So I was expecting the flight to be cancelled with high probability sooner or later.

Yesterday Condor sent me an email, changing my flight to be from Dusseldorf to Palermo, leaving at 6 a.m. Do these crooks expect me to go from Munich to Dusseldorf at my expense, potentially also staying overnight to catch an early flight?

 

I tried to contact them by phone multiple times, but their lines are overwhelmed. I then sent a message through the contact form on their website, asking them to either provide me a flight leaving from Munich (also 1 day earlier/after initially scheduled), provide me transportation and accommodation to Dusseldorf airport, or refund me the ticket.

If they will ignore my request, I'll see if my Rechtsschutzversicherung is finally useful for something.

[LukeSkywalker 7,604]

The German government advises against traveling abroad at the moment. You might get stuck like many tourists right now. Many borders are closed.

[keith2011 2,579]

I am very pleased to report that an email arrived this morning detailing a full refund for the holiday we booked and paid for to Egypt due to begin next Sunday. Yesterday we got an email from the travel agent informing us that the holiday had been cancelled, we did not cancel it ourselves. The airline we were booked on say the Egyptian government have forbidden passengers from the EU in their airspace, so they were flying empty till March 23rd to get returning passengers home.

Sad that the situation is such that holidays are no longer possible but relieved we got a refund.

[atinherne 69]

8 minutes ago, keith2011 said:

I am very pleased to report that an email arrived this morning detailing a full refund for the holiday we booked and paid for to Egypt due to begin next Sunday. Yesterday we got an email from the travel agent informing us that the holiday had been cancelled, we did not cancel it ourselves. The airline we were booked on say the Egyptian government have forbidden passengers from the EU in their airspace, so they were flying empty till March 23rd to get returning passengers home.

Sad that the situation is such that holidays are no longer possible but relieved we got a refund.

Thats awesome! 

Would you mind sharing the agency? 

I am with expedia so far nothing ...

[diego.hh 37]

Hello I would like to update the situation after talking with the lawyer from verbraucherzentrale,. (As a recap we rented a house for 2 families in Fehmarn in SH, from 28^th March to 4^th April with Fewo, the landlady says, not my fault will not refund).

 

1.

Fewo-direkt has no liability on this matter, they can only refund the service charges In my case 182,07 EUR, this is in my opinion bad news but there is nothing we can do.

2.

From today in Schleswig Holstein is closed for tourists

https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/schleswig-holstein/Coronavirus-Schleswig-Holstein-fuer-Touristen-gesperrt,corona882.html

 

So basically we are entitled to a refund of 100 % of the payed amount, but this is a private claim, so we have to ask the landlady to please refund, because of the current situation in SH.  If she does not react to the message, we need to send a letter (einschreiben), if that does not help we will have lo lawyer up, as we are talking of 1800 EUR, I will go for the legal way if necessary in the case the landlady doesn’t want to return the money, so in this case this will take some time.

 

 

 

[arunadasi 7,074]

11 hours ago, UpToWick said:

 

 

I tried to contact them by phone multiple times, but their lines are overwhelmed. I then sent a message through the contact form on their website, asking them to either provide me a flight leaving from Munich (also 1 day earlier/after initially scheduled), provide me transportation and accommodation to Dusseldorf airport, or refund me the ticket.

If they will ignore my request, I'll see if my Rechtsschutzversicherung is finally useful for something.

 

 So you would fly if they change the flight back if they do not refund?

[keith2011 2,579]

10 minutes ago, atinherne said:

Thats awesome! 

Would you mind sharing the agency? 

I am with expedia so far nothing ...

We booked online via Check24 (Travel agent) with the travel company AurumTours, the airline was Corendon Airlines. It was a paulschle booking.

Good luck

[sluzup 249]

20 hours ago, diego.hh said:

@AnswerToLife42 Thanks for answering

The money is already booked from my credit card, it is like 1800 EUR, Fewo told me that the money is blocked and will be released to the landlady 1 day later the booking starts (28^th March), so basically I don’t know if am in the position of handling with the landlady, to be honest I don’t think the landlady will send any money back, she already satated that is my fault because I am not having with a reiserücktrittsversicherung, I understand she also wants the money.

 

The only way out I see here if there is any legal way to force Fewo to refund the money. Regarding coming back well probably that will be an option but we are two families with kids in the school so to agree in a new date will be difficult, so I don’t think I can commit to that

 

Contact the credit card company and make a claim with them.  They should sort it out.

[diego.hh 37]

8 minutes ago, sluzup said:

Contact the credit card company and make a claim with them.  They should sort it out.

 

@sluzup

Thanks for your suggestion, I already talk with the Bank, they said, that as I agreed on a contract with Fewo, I am not entitled to charge back, all I can do I start a claim. I wanted to be sure before doing this what is the liability of Fewo in this matter, and I was told from the verbraucherzentrale lawyer that Fewo, cannot refund the money, as this is a private matter between the landlady and me. We will see what happens, I am going to talk with the landlady to clear her position on the matter. We will see.

[Rushrush 286]

Normally I am against state bailouts and such But in this case the bankruptcy of a lot of airlines and tourist hotels is going to have a Massive on the economy.

 

A bigger worries for me actually, it is local restaurants. I’m part of an expat group which meets weekly in a restaurant I don’t know if they’ll be any left standing if they have to close for two months.

[LeonG 14,797]

11 minutes ago, diego.hh said:

 

@sluzup

Thanks for your suggestion, I already talk with the Bank, they said, that as I agreed on a contract with Fewo, I am not entitled to charge back, all I can do I start a claim. I wanted to be sure before doing this what is the liability of Fewo in this matter, and I was told from the verbraucherzentrale lawyer that Fewo, cannot refund the money, as this is a private matter between the landlady and me. We will see what happens, I am going to talk with the landlady to clear her position on the matter. We will see.

 

 

I know in similar cases, booking.com lets you cancel through the website and plead with the landlord to waive the cancellation fee so in the end, the landlord decides.

[LeonG 14,797]

9 minutes ago, Rushrush said:

A bigger worries for me actually, it is local restaurants. I’m part of an expat group which meets weekly in a restaurant I don’t know if they’ll be any left standing if they have to close for two months.

 

A friend of mine owns a restaurant.  I talked to him yesterday and he said he's not affected too much because he also delivers and deliveries may even increase while restaurants are closed for eat-in customers.  He had however talked with colleagues who don't deliver and they were pretty pessimistic as they are losing the bulk of their income but still have to pay staff, pay rent and utilities.  Apparently in NS, there is some kind of financial assistance being offered to small business owners in this situation.  Restaurants here are allowed to be open from 6 am to 6 pm, at least for the time being.

[arunadasi 7,074]

We often order takeaway from an excellent Indian restaurant here. My son is friends with the owner and we get a full meal for two for €10. The restaurant is very popular, always bustling, so I can imagine they'll switch to mainly takeaway. Last time I popped in to order (next time I'll order over the phone), which was last Saturday, many tables were occupied and the waiters seemed as busy as ever. I think they also do deliveries.

[diego.hh 37]

20 minutes ago, LeonG said:

 

I know in similar cases, booking.com lets you cancel through the website and plead with the landlord to waive the cancellation fee so in the end, the landlord decides.

I will contact the landlady again, if nothing happens I will lawyer up