Cancelled a Trip Because of COVID-19? You'll Want Read This Guide

Have you cancelled a trip recently? Millions of people are altering, rebooking, and even cancelling their entire trips because of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which can cause a headache especially if your trip consisted of multiple flights.

This quick guide will help you organize your thoughts, keep track of all the flight credits, and help receive as much of your flight credits as possible.

Step 1: Check The Airline Websites

Airlines are trying to be as proactive as possible, so the quickest way to get information and adjust your trip is online—some airline have even shutdown their phone service.

Visit your airlines website, as most companies have issued a travel notice about the COVID-19 pandemic. Save yourself hours by checking the website, reading the travel notices and following their trip adjustment recommendations. Below are a list of airline that our team as already interacted with:

• American Airlines: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/coronavirus-updates.jsp

• United: https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly/travel/notices.html

• Delta: https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisories/other-alerts/coronavirus-travel-updates

• JetStar: https://www.jetstar.com/au/en/travel-alerts

• Tiger Air AU: https://tigerair.com.au/coronavirus-update-and-travel-alerts

• Qantas: https://www.qantas.com/us/en/travel-info/travel-updates/coronavirus.html

• Alaska Airlines: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/advisories/travel-advisories?int=AS_HOMEADVISORY_-prodID:Awareness

• Virgin Australia: https://www.virginaustralia.com/nz/en/bookings/flight-status/travel-alerts/

Step 2: Read The Policies Carefully

Every Airline has a different cancellation terms, so make sure you carefully read before requesting a flight credit. For example Tiger Air AU is allowing flight credits for people who booked flights between March 15th to June 30th to reschedule their flights without a fee, where as JetStar is only allowing it for customers who’ve booked a trip between March 15th - May 31st.

Be sure to write down notes about each airline’s policy before doing anything. This will insure you’re not losing any value during the process.

Step 3: Fill Out The Cancellation Forms

Most airline are overwhelmed by the recent trip adjustments calls. Most customer service waits are hours long and will likely be the case for the next month. The best way to save yourself some time is to look for the online forms airlines are creating to adjust flights and send our flight credits.

Within each of the travel notice pages, there is a link that customers can submit flight refunds/cancellations. It’s important you write down all the information they’re requesting on the form as you’ll have to use it when booking your new flight with the credit vouches.

Airlines usually use your flight reservation code along with your surname as the way to apply your travel credits on future flights. Keep all this information in a save place!

Step 4: Call The Airline or Travel Agent

If your airline has yet to post a travel notice or they haven’t credited an online cancellation form, your next best option is to call the airline directly. Most airlines are requesting that people flying within the next 3 days should be prioritized—if you flight isn’t within the next 3 days, please help everyone out by either checking online or waiting until 3 days before your flight to cancel anything.

If you booked through a travel agent or credit card concierge, you may also call them directly for adjustments to your trip. Many times these services have more direct phone numbers to airlines so they can get answer quickly.

Step 5: Keep Track of Your Credits + Free Excel Tracker

Adjusting 1 flight is pretty easy… but things get really complicated if you’re flying multiple airlines on different days from different cities, which is why tracking all of your reservation numbers, values of your flights, cancellation terms, and credit expiration dates is VERY important. As mentioned above, Airlines usually use your flight reservation code along with your surname as the way to apply your travel credits on future flights. You’ll want to make sure you know when each flight credit has to be used too. Need a tracker for your cancelled trip? Download mine for free here: Free Flight Credit Tracker.

Here’s the system I used to keep track of everything from my cancelled backpacking trip to Australia and Bali:

Click here for a free Flight Credit Tracker!

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This pandemic is pushing the travel industry to uncharted territory… and we’re all learning how to deal with the repercussions—including the airline industry. Hopefully this article answered some questions, pointed you in the right direction, and helped you keep organized. Keep the travel spirit alive, and stay safe!

Cheers, Teejay

Now let’s hear from you! If this guide and tracker helped you, we need to know. Share them in the comments below and we’ll check them out!

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