The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated global tourism due to the travel restrictions imposed by most countries across the world. All across the world, travelers are scrambling to cancel trip and get refunds or reschedule any future travel plans, which have caused the global travel industry to spin into a state of confusion and panic.

Trip Cancellation Due to Travel Restriction

Just like many other travelers, our travel plans have been disrupted by the pandemic as well. We have planned to travel for 10 days in Switzerland. It was our first Europe trip and we were really looking forward to it. However, we were forced to cancel our travel plans due to the travel restrictions imposed by both the Swiss and Malaysia governments.

Months before we cancelled our trip we have already started to worry that we might not be able to get our money back. There are a lot of news online reporting that airlines and hotels are refusing to refund travelers due to lack of funds.

Travelers are advised to check and try to make a claim on their travel insurance for their cancelled trip. But we have not bought a travel insurance, so this is definitely not an option for us. Anyway, there is also a high possibility that a travel insurance might not cover the Covid-19.

But our worries came to nothing as we have managed to obtain a full refund of all the travel expenses that we have already paid thus far. It was easier than I expected. So, I thought it will be good to share about my personal experience in getting our money back. Hopefully, this would be helpful to anyone who are in the same situation as me.

What We Had Booked and Paid

We have already booked our flight tickets and all our accommodations in Switzerland. All our flight tickets and accommodations were booked late last year, way before the Covid-19 was known to the world. In total, we have already spent about RM 10k on this trip.

Flight Tickets

For flight tickets, we have booked directly with Singapore Airlines, which requires us to transit in Singapore. We had a Silk Air flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore (and vice versa) and a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Zurich (and vice versa). Both flights are booked on a single ticket.

On top of the flight tickets, we have also paid for seat selections. All these were strictly non-refundable.

Accommodation

Other than flight tickets, we have also booked four different hotels in Switzerland via booking.com. Among the four, two of them were non-refundable. The other two come with free cancellation where full refund will be given if the cancellations are done within the stipulated time.

Getting Refund For Our Flight Tickets

Requesting for a refund from Singapore Airlines is fairly easy and straightforward. Singapore airlines has issued an updated global travel waiver policy for customers affected by Covid-19, making them eligible for free rebooking, bonus flight credits and full cash refund.

As of September 2020, all tickets booked on or before 15th March 2020, for travel up to November 2020 are eligible for refund. Customers can either choose to retain the full value of the unused portion of their tickets as flight credits or full cash refund. Flight credits can be used to book any new travel up till 31 December 2021.

Singapore Airlines is offering bonus flight credit worth up to SGD 500 as an incentive to encourage passenger to opt for a flight credit over a full cash refund. The bonus flight credit will be awarded based on original cabin class of travel. Please refer to the global travel waiver policy for more details.

Based on the latest flight schedules released by Singapore Airlines, our flight has not been cancelled, so we were worried that we might not be eligible for a refund. But fortunately, a refund is allowed as long as the above conditions are met.

How to Request For a Refund

If you have purchased a Singapore Airlines or Silk Air ticket directly from Singapore Airlines, simply fill up the Online Covid-19 Assistance Request Form to submit your request. You can choose to retain the value of your flight as flight credit, cancel your booking and request for a refund or change or rebook your flight. Fill in all your booking details and submit your request.

We opted for a full cash refund instead of flight credits because we do not know how long the pandemic will last. So, we decided that it is better to cancel rather than rescheduling the trip.After submitting the request, I have received an email confirmation informing me that my refund has been processed and it will take about 4-6 weeks, depending on my bank's processing time, for my refund to be credited back to my original mode of payment (which is credit card). But surprisingly, I have received the refund in just 4 days! The refund is shown as credit in my credit card statement.

Please note that Singapore Airlines will continue to review the policy and cut-off date based on the impact of the Covid-19 globally. So, do not cancel and submit a request for refund too early. You would need to wait until closer to your travel date for the latest updates.

However, for those who have booked your tickets through travel agencies or third party site, you will have to contact your travel agent or the booking website for a refund. Singapore Airlines will not be able to process refund request for tickets that are not booked directly with them.

Getting Refund For Our Accommodations

Cancelling and getting refunds for the rooms with free cancellation was pretty easy. All we need to do was to select the booking that we want to cancel and click on the cancel button and it will be done. Just like the flight tickets, the refunds have been credited back to my original mode of payment within a few days. But please take note that:

1. You can only cancel for free only if you book the rooms with free cancellation

2. You have to cancel within the stipulated time

How To Get Refund For Non-Refundable Booking

However, for non-refundable rooms, the refundability of your reservation would be up to the discretion of the provider. Even though Booking.com has established a Force Majeure cancellation policy aimed at travelers who have been in an area affected by Covid-19, who have been prohibited from entering the country they intended to travel to and who will face suspension of on-arrival visas. refunds for non-refundable bookings are not guaranteed. Please note that the Force Majeure will not apply to bookings made on or after 6th April 2020.

Knowing that, I decided to email the hotels about two weeks before our arrival date to explain about our situation and requested for free cancellation. The hotels have replied me that they could cancel the booking on their side and I would need to contact Booking.com because we have a contract with them.

I managed to get in touch with one of the Booking.com customer service officer using their live web chat service. The officer was very friendly and helped us to send in the cancellation and refund requests to the hotels. We were asked whether we could accept a voucher instead of a full cash refund if the hotel refused to refund us. But we insisted that we would prefer a full cash refund to a voucher and would be willing to share the losses with the provider.

But surprisingly, both the hotels allowed us to cancel our reservations for free, without any questions asked. It takes about 2 days for the refund to be credited to my credit card statement. We were really thankful for that and would definitely book with them in the future when international travels are allowed and safe again.

Conclusion 

Based on my experiences, I feel that airlines and hotels have become more flexible and generous with their cancellation policies now as compared to a few months ago. However, most airlines are offering vouchers or flight credits, not full cash refund when passengers cancel their flights due to concerns about Covid-19. So we are really happy to know that Singapore Airlines is offering full cash refund as an option, even for uncancelled flights.

As cancellation policies continue to evolve, I would suggest that you wait until closer to your travel date before requesting for a refund . This will get you a better chance in getting the full refund. Also, make sure you cancel your travel before your travel start date to ensure that you do not forfeit any refund.

We were also surprised that the amount of refund that we got back was slightly more than what we have originally paid due to currency exchange rate. All our hotel reservations are charged in Swiss Franc (CHF), which has appreciated against the Malaysian Ringgit over the past few months. It was a really nice surprise!