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Delta vacations Xmas trip to St Maarten: options now that hotels closed due to Irma.

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Delta vacations Xmas trip to St Maarten: options now that hotels closed due to Irma.

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Old Sep 10, 2017, 5:22 pm
  #1  
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Delta vacations Xmas trip to St Maarten: options now that hotels closed due to Irma.

We were scheduled to travel to St Maarten from December 26th-31st via delta vacations but on Friday they called and told us that all hotels are closed for the season due to Irma. They gave us the option to refund our money or choose another destination. If we choose another destination we are laying peak rates which are almost double what we paid when we booked earlier this year. Do we have any other options to rebook without paying exhorbitant rates or are we better off just taking the refund?

Thank you in advance
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 5:51 am
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This question seems more appropriate in the Delta forum as opposed to the travel destination. I've alerted the moderator to move the thread. As for options, aside to a complete refund, did you ask the Delta customer service on this? Most Caribbean destination have been affected due to hurricane Irma. Some exceptions are Puerto Rico.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 6:25 am
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Originally Posted by arollins
This question seems more appropriate in the Delta forum as opposed to the travel destination. I've alerted the moderator to move the thread. As for options, aside to a complete refund, did you ask the Delta customer service on this? Most Caribbean destination have been affected due to hurricane Irma. Some exceptions are Puerto Rico.
"Most Caribbean destinations" is a bit of an overstatement. Antigua, Sint Maarten, Anguilla, Tortola (BVI), USVI, Turks and Caicos and isolated parts of the Dominican Republic and Cuba have been impacted. If you are set on going to the Caribbean, try Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Cayman Islands.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 8:44 am
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Please follow the thread as it moves to the Delta Air Lines forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Senior Moderator.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 8:50 am
  #5  
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OP should start by reading the contract/T&C from Delta Vacations, which is more of a package travel agent than part of DL airlines.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 9:21 am
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Originally Posted by arollins
This question seems more appropriate in the Delta forum as opposed to the travel destination. I've alerted the moderator to move the thread. As for options, aside to a complete refund, did you ask the Delta customer service on this? Most Caribbean destination have been affected due to hurricane Irma. Some exceptions are Puerto Rico.
While Delta is in their name, Delta Vacations is nothing more than a travel agency. Owned by DL, but not operated as part of DL.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 5:40 pm
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Originally Posted by RTDBM
We were scheduled to travel to St Maarten from December 26th-31st via delta vacations but on Friday they called and told us that all hotels are closed for the season due to Irma. They gave us the option to refund our money or choose another destination. If we choose another destination we are laying peak rates which are almost double what we paid when we booked earlier this year. Do we have any other options to rebook without paying exhorbitant rates or are we better off just taking the refund?

Thank you in advance
I'm not sure how Delta Vacations works in this situation so you might want to read the terms and conditions as well as talk with them about pricing for other options.

As for where else you might try, I'm not sure what you're looking for in a vacation but Aruba provides similar entertainment options as SXM (though I find the dining options far inferior in Aruba) and would be unharmed by the hurricane. All three of the ABC islands are fantastic in my opinion, but it is also a much longer flight if that's a concern. I'm in SXM once or twice a year so this is tough and not many places offer the things I love about SXM but gun to my head, Aruba is a really solid backup option.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 5:51 pm
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I think that if you didn't buy the travel insurance that you should consider yourself extremely lucky if they are offering a 100% refund.

BTW, I, too, love Aruba--heading there for ten days in November.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 6:15 pm
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Originally Posted by 355F1
I think that if you didn't buy the travel insurance that you should consider yourself extremely lucky if they are offering a 100% refund.

BTW, I, too, love Aruba--heading there for ten days in November.
Huh? Lucky they are refunding your money for a service they can't provide?
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 6:24 pm
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Originally Posted by Aliquot
Huh? Lucky they are refunding your money for a service they can't provide?

Ever heard the legal term act of god? The contract may not require refund of prepaid reservations in this case.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 7:37 pm
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Originally Posted by flyerCO
Ever heard the legal term act of god? The contract may not require refund of prepaid reservations in this case.
Whatever the contract says, I think most people would expect Delta, given their standards of customer service, (regardless of what division of the company, it's got their name on it) to provide a refund if the service can't be delivered. Certainly this would be required of the air portion of the package.

OP: Speaking of airfare, I wonder if this is one way that DL can help reduce the costs. Couldn't the waiver be used to rebook you to another location without the air ticket costing more money? The hotel will be what it will be, but I would think you should be able to get some help here.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 7:42 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by jdrtravel
Whatever the contract says, I think most people would expect Delta, given their standards of customer service, (regardless of what division of the company, it's got their name on it) to provide a refund if the service can't be delivered. Certainly this would be required of the air portion of the package.

OP: Speaking of airfare, I wonder if this is one way that DL can help reduce the costs. Couldn't the waiver be used to rebook you to another location without the air ticket costing more money? The hotel will be what it will be, but I would think you should be able to get some help here.
Delta Vacations isn't part of Delta. IIRC it's another name for Apple Vacations, which seems to be a large "travel agent" specializing in selling lots and lots of package trips.
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Old Sep 11, 2017, 8:11 pm
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Delta Vacations isn't part of Delta. IIRC it's another name for Apple Vacations, which seems to be a large "travel agent" specializing in selling lots and lots of package trips.
OK, but it has the Delta name and branding, so my point is that I think it's reasonable to expect a certain level of good customer service. I would be very surprised if customers were told that they had lost all of their money for vacations because of an Act of God clause for a trip that had not even started.

I see this clause (if it's even there) being invoked if weather or other issues cause the vacation to be less enjoyable. For example, it thunder stormed the entire time on your vacation, or there was a terrible heat wave that made being outside unbearable, etc.
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Old Sep 12, 2017, 3:01 am
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Originally Posted by jdrtravel
OK, but it has the Delta name and branding, so my point is that I think it's reasonable to expect a certain level of good customer service. I would be very surprised if customers were told that they had lost all of their money for vacations because of an Act of God clause for a trip that had not even started.

I see this clause (if it's even there) being invoked if weather or other issues cause the vacation to be less enjoyable. For example, it thunder stormed the entire time on your vacation, or there was a terrible heat wave that made being outside unbearable, etc.
Exactly this. Even to suggest that Delta wouldn't refund the money is absurd. Act of god or not.
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Old Sep 12, 2017, 3:46 am
  #15  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Delta Vacations isn't part of Delta. IIRC it's another name for Apple Vacations, which seems to be a large "travel agent" specializing in selling lots and lots of package trips.
It's not the same as Apple Vacations, it's one of the vacation brands of MLT Vacations -- https://www.mltvacations.com/index.html. At one point they operated the United Vacations brand, but that has since been switched to another travel company and they now only brand a few other Skyteam carrier vacation package sites. OP might want to ask Delta Vacations if they could provide a Promo code for a discount on a new trip in addition to the refund. Sorry, I just don't see them going beyond that and I don't think trying to involve Delta itself is going to be particularly fruitful.

Last edited by xliioper; Sep 12, 2017 at 4:09 am
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