Many Hong Kongers (including expats) are repatriating their kids and students from Europe/UK and USA before they get in total lockdown. Flights are very full and atrociously expensive.

As of yesterday, you could still travel freely from HK to Ireland, so the lady was right. From QR general policy, you should be able to get a travel voucher.
But what the situation will be today or in a few days is unknown yet. It seems that the EU is closing its borders to non-nationals. No details yet. Just wait a bit and try again.

Just announced - HKG will require, from Thursday, quarantine of all arrivals for 14 days.

I guess that means policy will be updated to allow free cancellations?

QR had already moved my departure flight forward by 5 hours and the return flight back 6 hours... and the flight numbers had changed...

I'm pretty confident that it will be shut soon.... let's wait and see

Nope. Refer to my conversation with the call centre lady, she said there's no ''travel ban'' leaving Hong Kong, it's just that you need to go through the 14 days quarantine period upon returning. oops

I'd rather accept a travel voucher than waiting for 777's announcement.

Instead I applied for the refund, there was a press issued earlier saying that cancellation fee should be waived. Though there is nothing from QR after I submitted the refund request...

It is simply not sure whether it is suitable to fly to Europe within a year, not only the virus but also social reaction towards Asian.

it's impossible now, see their reply to me earlier today via email
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...00955447b5.png

Then I hope the voucher time limit would be extend if, sadly, the situation doesn't improve much in future

nope. 361 days upon coupon being issued, that's the reply I've got from Qatar.
I told them what if your company goes into liquidation, she replied sorry it's the company's rule.

That's it. By pure coincidence, I checked minutes ago the status of my future flight between WAW and HKG via DOH on April 30th (DOH-HKG on May 1st) and they simply cancelled QR816. we are now booked on QR818 which makes use leave WAW 12 hours before.
Moreover, the return from HND on May 16th simply does not exist anymore. Looks like QR stopped HND flights in May to only focus on NRT. Did not get automatically rebooked from NRT. Did not get informed of anything despite the fact they have all my contact details. I understand they are extremely busy right now, but I would assume they have automatic systems in place to inform passengers in case of cancellations. Anyway, I am going to ring Amex travel this afternoon to get a full refund. I won't accept a travel voucher. Good luck and best wishes to everyone stranded or affected by this COVID-19 mess.

how did it go with Amex?

I’ve tried using the app and website to cancel the booking for a refund but the buttons don’t seem to work - they’re present and appear normal, but seem ‘frozen’.

It is understandably very difficult to contact airlines by telephone at the moment, so I am considering your approach too, contacting the CC company if I still can’t reach the airline.

Well, in my case, it was more Amex travel agency which I contacted, as I booked through them. The agent confirmed that I should receive a full refund on my card given that 3 segments out of 5 got cancelled in the booking, but he also said that QR will refund, not Amex travel... and that if I don't receive anything within 7 business days, I should call back Amex travel. I did not attempt to go through the Amex claims department (yet), but I am confident they will tell me to pound sand if I ask them.. Let's see in 7 days if I ever get back my 6650 Euros...

Sorry to say but QR818 has 6 confirmed cases, and that gives a warning.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...d07e7bd85e.png