Ridiculous China Waiver Policy
 

Trying to cancel my award ticket on OZ to Mainland China right now....they are saying they have a waiver only for flights FROM China but not TO China....like actually this might be the sickest waiver policy I've ever heard of....it would be one thing if they just didn't have one but to have one and specifically exclude flights to China is just sick in my opinion. I know it's only 20 Euros but I can hardly believe that with the situation as it is they consciously chose to exclude flights to China from the waiver.

Have you looked at the exact wording of the waiver yourself? The agent you talked with could be wrong. OTOH, is your time worth more than 20 Euros?

They have a waiver because of the current situation? Wow! I'm genuinely surprised! Do other airlines also waive their (much higher) fees (either from or to China)?

Took less than 30 seconds to find the policy online. OZ has a full refund / reissue waiver for tickets purchased prior to 1/27, extending through 3/31.

https://flyasiana.com/C/US/EN/custom...01250001193799

I can't find a waiver written anywhere for Aegean....this is based on what a phone agent told me.

I think the sarcasm is uncalled for....almost every major airline with flights to China has issued a waiver for this time period and many people are really suffering right now due to the outbreak.

Yes, however OZ's waiver applies only to OZ issued tickets, I'm referring to an A3 issued ticket.

the cancellation policy is 20 euro for award?

Yes.

deleted

​​​​​??
Absolutely no sarcasm and if you "discovered" any, then think again if you might be looking at it in such a way yourself. I get multiple (aviation) news feeds daily and I expected news about every airline waiving fees (meaning actively encouraging people to not fly!) would have reached me (without me having to search for it). I can't remember hearing or reading about anything similar, at least not when not flying into an actual war zone... Did they do the same with the swine flu for example? Perhaps they did and I just didn't hear about it. Also "China" sounds a bit "extended" isn't it just one specific major city that actually has a large number of people who contracted the virus? Plus it has already reached half the world, so why not waive fees an all flights, to... everywhere? (death toll in China's capital is the same as for example in Germany) It would make perfect sense to not only waive fees but cancel the flights into a "hot zone", like the province where a large number of people are confirmed infected but still, that huge country can't be (and still definitely isn't) entirely a hot zone. This reminds me of how the world was faced with pretty much every "major outbreak" that's happened since the H1N1 in 2009. First cause world-wide panic, then create a new super expensive vaccine for the insurance companies to be "forced" to pay (or even worse, people themselves) plus new medication etc. Sure I wish no illnesses and viruses existed, but guess what! They do. And the more you "fight" them the "better" they get (or they just transform and force you to start from scratch).
I'm sorry for everyone suffering from anything, but unless I am convinced that millions are infected (actually, with our current population numbers I would raise that up to 1 billion worldwide and that's still just 12%) with something that kills considerably more people than the "common flu", I will at most just avoid the relatively small region that's full with it and just get on with my life (sure if you have a baby or if you're over 80 years old I would probably extend "precautionary" measures, but you also do that in general anyway).

I can't tell if you're being serious or not.

BA (https://loyaltylobby.com/2020/01/29/...ravel-warning/) and Finnair (https://loyaltylobby.com/2020/01/28/...-china-routes/) are suspending routes to China. United is cancelling many flights too (https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/28/2...ights-canceled).

Pretty much every major airline flying to China has issued a waiver besides Qatar who I think are being quite unreasonable at this point because transit in major cities has started to shut down due to the virus outbreak.

BA, Emirates and Air France/KLM certainly have. Same counts for all Chinese airlines. Finnair and to a lesser extent the big American 3 too. They even fully refund cash tickets completely. Although it depends on your travel date (and sometimes time of booking as well) if your flights fall under such waivers. Most of the times, they only include flights which take place in the next couple of weeks, and not flights as far out as the summer.

I had an award ticket on China Eastern (booked through AF/KL Flying Blue) which I cancelled as well due to the virus outbreak, with the normal 50 EUR miles redeposit fee fully waived without a problem.

Aegean doesn't fly to China, so they can't cancel any flights to or from China.

In addition to the potential concern about being infected, there's also the problem of logistics inside of China. Many modes of mass transportation have been cancelled, both intercity and intra-city. If you go to China today, you may end up sitting in your hotel the entire time, unable to go anywhere. Even worse, if your airline decides to cancel flights after your arrival in China, there's no way for you to get out. You'll be stranded in China for weeks, or months, or ... nobody knows.

But who is responsible in case you booked a flight on another Star Alliance carrier with Aegean miles?

I cancelled my Air France/KLM Flying Blue issued ticket on China Eastern. Got a full refund/miles redeposit fee waived as Air France had a waiver in place. China Eastern has such a waiver as well, but that would (I think) not have any effect on the 50 EUR redeposit fee for my Flying Blue miles as that is a matter entirely for Air France and only waived because of the Air France waiver.

I imagine that it is might be similar with an A3 issued ticket on another *A airline.

@1353513636, what's your date of travel?

A3 will be following the operating airline's policy here, so if OZ cancels your flight then obviously you'll get a refund. This is very much an evolving situation and clearly the priority for all airlines is to deal with those who are travelling in the next few days. If they issued a travel waiver or cancellations for months in advance then that would swamp the communication channels and those who needed immediate help - some of whom will need repatriation - would struggle to get it.

Every indication is that the situation is going to get worse before it gets better, and therefore I'd expect travel waivers and cancellations to be extended as time goes on.

If you're not due to travel in the next few days then I would hang fire until your flight is formally cancelled.

Someone on the desk has obviously not seen the policy update from OZ. OP needs to call back and speak to a supervisor if need be as its the OZ policy that dictates the refund although A3 charge the admin fee which in theory should be waived but that is not a legal requirement. Its a gesture of good will if they waive it.