I could have written this post! A topic near and dear to my heart right now.
I had definitely been lulled into a sense of complacency after years of international travel with very minor hiccups and even those ended up being resolved favorably. This coronavirus crisis has definitely made me think of "new rules" of international leisure travel that essentially mirror yours:
1) I too will only avoid booking air tickets with OTAs going forward, even the big name ones. Although I have to say Lufthansa has given me more trouble than Priceline on refunds, but still getting automated callbacks 3-4 DAYS after calling in to resolve flight cancellations is something I don't have patience to deal with again.
2) As a rule I always used to book refundable rates, but got tempted into making a couple of pricey prepaid non-refundable bookings for spring and early summer travel this year and even though hotels have been amenable about date changes, I think I am going to lose a considerable amount of money on these because it's unlikely these trips will happen.
3) I'm the poster child for booking complex, multi-carrier, multi-country trips 331 days in advance, and with many of those trips cancelled in April and May already, dealing with multiple airline carriers, hotels, rail providers, and tour operators has been a pain. I too will try to compromise on 'Type A' travel planning going forward. Once bitten, twice shy.
4) And finally, I will try not to fall victim to panic and not change or cancel plans too early either. I ended up paying some change and cancel fees on some partially refundable travel when the coronavirus impact starting getting severe and those flights ended up getting cancelled anyway, so I could have saved on those fees had I just waited it out instead of cancelling them voluntarily right when I decided to not travel.
Hearing the ordeal some folks had to go through to get on repatriation flights after borders started closing has also made me rethink some unusual and fairly remote solo travel I've planned for the wintertime. I am not sure I'll feel comfortable taking those trips as scheduled either, at least for 2020 and 2021. Returning to a familiar and favorite destination is far more likely for me for the foreseeable future, which I know the 2019 version of me would have scoffed at!
Originally Posted by
sp427
Hi all, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum (but I couldn't find a more appropriate one), or if this has already been discussed in a single thread here or elsewhere, but I was looking to hear what other people have learned from their experiences over the past few months and what they'll do differently going forward. Below are mine, for travel that's entirely personal and international -- curious to hear yours! Thanks (btw: cross-posted on TripAdvisor & FT)
- I'll only book directly with airlines, definitely no more OTAs (I've previously used Orbitz/Expedia and never had issues, but I've also never had to deal with cancelling/changing flights with them). I've only had to deal with AA & Qantas for my upcoming flight cancellations/changes and it's been very easy with both.
- I'll think twice before automatically choosing the cheapest/non-refundable fare.
- Not sure I would use a travel agent anymore, given the risk if they go bust. I've only used one once, flight-only, for an upcoming flight in July which will probably get cancelled, but I'm not sure the agent will survive through July (please correct me if my thinking on this is wrong, but I'm reading so many reports on TripAdvisor of people's agents shutting down shop and the airlines won't deal with them b/c it was booked through a 3rd party).
- I pretty much fly OneWorld and I'll make sure my flights are booked with the AA or QF airline code so that if I have to cancel/change, it'll be easier to deal with (ex: I had 2 flights booked from SYD > South America in March and in June, both had a SYD > SCL Santiago Chile leg on the same QF plane, but one was booked with the QF flight # and the other booked with the Latam flight # -- Qantas was easy to deal with for cancellations/credits as we have status, Latam not so much).
- I always use Hotels.com to book hotels and they have been great, even at refunding the non-refundable rooms, so I might still book non-refundable rooms through them but will be way more cautious (I just got my $7k refund, but it took the full 30 days). If I were booking direct or through anyone else, I'd probably only book a refundable room. I'll probably no longer consider AirBnb as an option.
- Travel insurance: I'm not sure I'll actually pay for this anymore, given the difficulties people seem to have with getting paid on claims. I have the CSR card so I'll probably just rely on that & also make sure I have some form of medical/evacuation-related insurance, just in case.
- I'll book everything related to the same trip on just 1 credit card (in the past, I've put initial & final deposits on different cards, or flight and hotels on different ones -- but this may not matter as much).
- I probably won't book things SO far in advance anymore; I'm usually a type A planner and due to other trips earlier this year, I still hadn't booked anything other than flight & hotel (by mid-March) for trips in April and in May -- and I was very stressed for not having done it months ago, but it turned out to be a blessing because there was so much less to cancel/follow-up on.