Anontrav

I made a throw away account and I’m not gonna read the replies because I know the outrage will be huge.
but still I want you to know.

I booked a C class ticket from europe to bangkok. Covid! No change fees!

but then I got covid. In Thailand. Where they lock you up in a hospital or a field hospital for fourteen days. The other option would be to postpone the ticket. Lock myself in an apartment for a week and then travel back.

no change fees but fare difference. 2800 euro fare difference for all flights in a week. For a ticket that had originally cost me 1400.

so they were the options. Hospital plus pay the 2800 (maybe my travel insurance would have paid a bit, but I doubt it), self isolation and pay the 2800 for sure. Or just fly.

I did the latter. My country of origin had scrapped the obligatory PCR test, so I could just do it.

I hated it. I was double masked. Didn’t eat. And used the lavatories only once. But I simply couldn’t afford the 2800 fare difference.

maybe airlines should take this into consideration when charging exorbitant fare differences and exposing their staff and passengers to desperate passengers like myself.

bpk6h

Firstly - Ok, I'll go on record and say I don't begrudge you for the choice you made. I appreciate as well your attempt to limit spread on the flight. These days I fully expect that every flight I take will include some passengers that are Covid positive - the data from Singapore (and Taiwan) indicate a fairly high probability of this even when a PDT is required. Thus, I take responsibility for myself.

Secondly - At the same time, while I have flown a fair amount during the pandemic, I have not taken any holiday flights since 2019. All of my flights were strictly to see family and all but one trip was after I was fully vaccinated. Of course, I'm making an assumption that your trip was holiday related. If that was indeed the case, you undertook a known risk for nothing more than pleasure during a pandemic by flying a continent away. You could have taken a holiday near home. As such, I would also not have an issue with you being financially penalized. The risks were obvious and there is travel insurance (had you purchased) that would have covered your case.


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sbs2716g

That why you should have claim your travel insurance since you need insurance to enter Thailand.

pogonation

Isn’t this exactly what travel insurance is for? I haven’t seen a single policy nowadays that doesn’t have cover for covid related quarantine etc. So yes you absolutely did do the wrong thing and placed other people at risk. You should take a credit card, pay up then immediately submit a claim to your insurance provider.

Ghoulish

For future reference, I have also found myself looking at huge fare difference when I need to make a last minute change.

A one way, or sometimes even RT ticket may be cheaper (especially originating from BKK) than the fare difference, and you can still use your original return flight later.

hardworking21

Wait ... travel insurance is still covering changes / cancelations due to COVID? I've seen many times where when you select the policy, it now calls out that "since COVID-19 has been around as of March 2020, it no longer counts as an unplanned / unmitigated disaster that we will cover, blah blah blah".

Ghoulish

Yes most travel insurance covers Covid related expenses, and having $25,000 of it is in fact a requirement to travel to Thailand. JL provides it for free, but you have to apply.

Firemansam

Just purchased TI for our trip to Vietnam in July. Has full coverage for covid related expenses and medical expenses.. granted the cost was also about 80% more than what we used to pay.

Considering OP is not coming back, it won't matter all that much, but expect anything less than high change fees for short notice changes etc etc is naive at best.
Stop the whinge, claim it on insurance or suck it up I say.

hardworking21

Ah see I was just in Thailand and had to buy the same insurance for Test & Go program ... I thought the $25K only covered *medical* expenses related to COVID, not general expenses (aka if you went to a hospital or had to get general flu meds, etc. that would count in the $$, not say additional flight costs due to changed flights).

alamah

I am surprised to hear what happened to OP. Did you tell SQ that you needed to change the flight becausae you tested positive? I am always under the impression that SQ is very accommodating for medical reasons, waiving change fees and fare differences.