Desirees

Hello,

Am not sure what to do, husband's cousin is missing, we were not aware of it till a couple of days ago (his family did not want to tell us anything until they were sure) and I have purchased a Bangkok hotel room via PL for our upcoming trip in March. I know hubby is not in the mood to go anywhere, I am leaving for India in about 2 weeks and will come back here in March. What should I do? It is about $400 and I did buy travel insurance, however only the death of direct relatives are covered. It is like another thing to handle in the middle of all the grief...

D.

roundtheworld

Call the insurance and see if they accept it. Shortly after the tsunami they are usually a bit more helpful. Also try to cal the hotel and see if they give you a refund, this is not an unusual request.

Morrissey

Only Priceline can give you a refund on the hotel if they so choose. Calling the hotel won't do any good. Call Priceline and ask them!

Desirees

So, I called PL and was basically told that they will refund my money only after they get a police report and or information with funeral timings and all. I told them I am not aware of what is happening in India, that I will be going there next week and will find out what is happening, whether they are at all accepting police reports, and how our religion handles the final rites of a missing person. I asked them whether there is any other way of doing this, if there is a memorial service she said she wants the name and phone number of the preacher, when I tried to explain that in our particular religion the priest lives in the temple and is not available for calls, she kind of closed me off with a mechanical "that is all I can do for you, we dont even give refunds but are willing to but you HAVE to provide us with the details". Details of what??? I explained to you how things work in our culture but you still want the "preacher's name and number" when we have a memorial service.
At this point, I will swallow the $400+ I paid, but I do wish PL was a bit more receptive to what I was telling them.

D.

Dianne47

This must be such a stressful and sad time for your and your husband, condolences to your entire family.

Your initial post is a little unclear, but it seems the relative is missing in India and that you are going there soon. What I would do first is send a notarized letter to Priceline explaining the circumstances. Send it certified with a return receipt, to prove they received it. In this letter you will explain what happened, what you were told on the phone, and what you intend to do to document your refund request.

When you are in India, approach local authorities and ask for a police report or some form of documentation saying the relative is missing in the tsumani. If any kind of "memorial service" is held, ask if the priest will write a description of the rites, date held, etc. These documents would have to be translated locally, with some kind of stamp or official letterhead stating they are a valid translation. Then send copies of the documents to Priceline, along with a copy of your original letter.

As one person above said, your travel insurance might refund the $400, but I would think you would need the same documentation to be successful in a claim. Again, condolences for this difficult situation.

ac/elite

Priceline once refunded several reservations (except for $25/night) for my parents when they had a medical emergency and could not continue with their trip. I dealt with Priceline for them, as they were overseas at the time. Priceline asked for the name and telephone number of the attending doctor. I gave them the name and number and the money was refunded to their credit card within 2 hours. Priceline never contacted the doctor as far as I know, certainly not before refunding the money. I think that Priceline asks for contact information to dissuade people from making false claims. If you call them with the name of the priest and the "telephone number", my guess is that they are not going to try to track him down in India.