Cancellation of flights due to Coronavirus, what to do?

La coronavirus global health crisis in which we are immersed, has hit the world of travel, so it can now be difficult to travel, particularly to certain destinations.

But when the health crisis began in March, many of us already had some trips planned, even with flight and hotel reservations already made.

Before the need to suspend said trips that we had planned, just as it happened to me, and before possible new incidents that may arise, we may have the doubt of what to do to cancel flights, or what happens if it is the airline itself that cancels them.

Below we are going to give you some advice from our own experience, and the airline recommendations and platforms online in legal services such as Claimant.

Flights suspended due to coronavirus, what to do?

To begin with, don't panic and don't rush, you have to think carefully about the steps to take.

The situation with a flight booked for a week is not the same as if you have bought a ticket for a couple of months later.

In our case we had a reservation for a Immediate trip to Morocco, but given the speed of events, instead of rushing to cancel our flights, we waited until the date of the trip approached.

In this way, we do not cancel the trip, but finally Morocco was the one who declared the closure of the country for flights and maritime routes from Spain, which resulted in the immediate notice of suspension of the flight by the airline, in this case, Ryanair.

If we had wanted cancel flight to Morocco, that is, if it is you who you want to cancel the flight, you have no right to ticket return, unless when purchasing the tickets you had contracted the flight cancellation insurance that some companies offer you.

Likewise, you should consult the particular conditions of the travel insurance that you have contracted to see if in cases like the current one, it covers the cancellation of the trip with the recovery of the money invested.

And you must keep in mind that it is not the same as a country that has placed restrictions on the entry of Spaniards, such as a 15-day quarantine or the requirement of a prior PCR test, without cancellation of flights by airlines, to that the destination country of your trip has decreed the suspension of flights.

This is the case of our aforementioned trip to Morocco, or of possible trips from Spain in which the airlines were the ones that canceled flights due to the widespread closure of borders, which led to the almost total suspension of its activity with layoffs of thousands of employees.

Given this situation, in the case of the aforementioned Ryanair You will receive an email from the company notifying you of the cancellation and offering change of flight dates or the refund of the amount of the tickets.

Change of dates of canceled flights

If what you opt for is change dates, it will have to be within the availability currently offered by the airline, which with the current state of the coronavirus crisis Looking ahead it may vary.

Furthermore, it is not known what the real duration of this global health crisis will be, and the expansion of the flight offer will only be effective when it is considered that this crisis is on the way to a solution.

In these exceptional circumstances, the airlines They are not charging the usual fees for date changes, although you will have to pay for the possible price difference compared to what you initially paid.

Refund of tickets for canceled flights

In the case of our flight scheduled for March and which was suspended, we requested the refund of the amount paid, and within a few days we received the payment in our account.

But once the crisis was widespread, on March 15, the website of Ryanair collapsed and system to claim said refund It stopped working, causing a huge panic reaction among customers that was shown on the company's social networks.

We confirmed this because we had a couple more flights booked with that company for the following two months.

Days later her own Ryanair sent the email again flight suspension notice with a new system to request a refund of the amount paid, which already worked properly when it came to claiming a refund for the tickets for the other flights we had booked.

Of course, the refunds did not arrive, which led us to contact their official website via email to claim said refunds.

Shortly afterwards we received a new email offering us a flight coupon for the amount claimed for future use, which we reject.

Since we still did not receive the refund, we decided to contact Ryanair via email on their official website to claim said returns, and the response was a second email offering choose between the flight coupon or the refund.

We again opted for the refund of the amount of the tickets, and a few days later, we finally received another email announcing that in a short time we would receive the amount claimed in our account.

The truth is that a few weeks have passed and we are still waiting to receive these amounts in our account, although some friends who were traveling with us and who also requested a refund have already received it.

In short, we are still waiting and the truth is that the company already warned us of a possible late payment due to saturation of requests.

Cancellation policies of airlines due to coronavirus

We have told you the case of Ryanair from our experience, but the truth is that each air Line is carrying out a different policy, such as offering change of flights, vouchers to redeem on future flights o refund of money paid.

Here you have indicative information about the cancellation policy that various airlines began to apply, like the aforementioned Ryanair, Vueling, Iberia, Air Europa, Air France, KLM, Finnair o Luthans.

With this information you will see that they never offer a refund of the money previously paid for flights canceled due to the coronavirus.

If this last circumstance occurs, you should know that Companies are obliged to offer refunds for flights that they have canceled, even if it is due to the special circumstances of the health crisis.

Of course, due to the cancellations caused by these circumstances, You do not have the right to claim compensation from the airline.

How to request a refund for a flight purchased from an online agency

Face to request a refund for a canceled flight whose tickets you have bought from a online agency, and not directly on the airline's website, you must know how to act, since it is said agency that must make the refund.

In our case, we also had some flights reserved for May with the online agency BudgetAir.es, which were canceled by EgyptAir, the company we were going to fly with.

This agency contacted us with the following instructions:

Firstly, check the status of the booked flight, which can change quickly, and you may receive notification of your flight cancellation with some delay.

You will find the most up-to-date information on the status of your flight on the airline's website.

If your flight has already been cancelled, we will be the ones to start the process as we will receive a flight cancellation notification from the airline, and we will check with the airline if the refund is applicable to your case.

If so, we will request the refund for you and you will receive an automatic email about the status of the return.

The airline will refund the amount of the ticket and, once we have received the refund from the airline, we will proceed to refund you.

The truth is that in the following months, and until now, we have received several emails from BudgetAir.es indicating that they are doing all the procedures with EgyptAir for claim the amount of the flights, but until now they have not had an adequate response.

In short, we are still waiting…

Agency package travel flights

In the cases of combined agency trips, the law says that if it is the consumer who decides to cancel, they will have to pay a penalty.

But with the crisis coronavirus they are given unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances at the place of destination or in the immediate vicinity that directly affect
significant to the execution of the combined trip or to the transportation of passengers to the destination.

In this case, the traveler can cancel the trip before the start of the trip without paying any penalty, but no compensation can be claimed.

Voucher redeemable for one year or ticket refund

In this regard, the Government of Spain has published a royal decree on March 31, which, compared to the hitherto exclusive obligation for travel agencies to refund tickets, allows them to offer a voucher redeemable for one year since the end of the State of alarm and its extensions.

If these tickets have not been used in a year, they will have the obligation to make said refund within the 60-day period.

Here you have more information about these circumstances.