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A friend of mine comes to see me on New Year's Eve. “Are you going to Thailand next summer? Then I'm coming!!" Then I was still in doubt. “I pay half of your ticket as compensation that I can stay with you and your wife in Surin.” My doubts disappeared and we delved further into it.
In February, I took the plunge and went shopping for tickets. Many prices and many web search engines further I come to the German version of Expedia and found tickets 200 euros cheaper than on the Dutch page of Expedia. That in itself was worth a smile. Shopping apparently pays off.
Tickets paid by credit card and everything okay. We get 2 booking numbers and the trip was booked.
Because we are going with 3 people, we decided to reserve the seats as well. Did this and paid a total of 390 euros in reservation costs for the seats. It's a lot of money, but after all we didn't want to be spread over the plane.
We spent weeks planning and discussing what we are going to do in Thailand. Passing through Surin, elephants, temples, circuit in Buriram etc. etc. I've been coming to Thailand for almost 20 years so we have plenty of places we like to visit. Accommodation is almost free because we have a house in Surin where there is enough sleeping space for a small army.
Everything okay until Covid-19 arrives. The uncertainty whether the trip would go ahead is nerve-wracking. Finally there is a cancellation of the flight from Düsseldorf to Helsinki. So that was not good. Then just call. After a 15+ minute wait I got on the phone with a friendly lady from Finnair and we went over the situation. Then we decided that we would go from Düsseldorf to Helsinki a day earlier and leave the original flight from Helsinki to Thailand as it stands. We also thought an evening in Helsinki would be fun. Now the technique let me down for a moment, it turns out that my phone disconnects after exactly 30 minutes. Boy, so I called again.
After another 15 minute wait I got a gentleman on the line. Explained everything and said my phone hangs up after 30 minutes. If he wanted to call me back if this happened. All this was no problem. Again told my story and the flight was already adjusted to Helsinki 1 day earlier. “What a strange flight you have now,” says the gentleman, “you have to wait 27 hours” in Helsinki. That can't be done, can it?" I say “no problem, we will stay in Helsinki for a night, this was suggested by your colleague”… “that is not very wise” says the gentleman “you are not entering Helsinki at the moment, and we do not know whether this is can on the day you get there, this is of course a risk” well that was another surprise that we hadn't thought about and so good that he passed this on. Thank you technique.
We looked further and there was still a flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki available on the same day. So we chose this one. So we thought, that is also arranged. Now to arrive in Frankfurt, which is about a 3-hour drive from my hometown. The taxi we had arranged to take us to Düsseldorf was willing to take us to Frankfurt, but for an extra 300 euros. Well if that's all and we can still go on holiday then we'll do it. Supposedly done, everything ready for the holiday.
The departure date of July 24 is slowly getting closer and closer. Watch Thailand blog daily, keep an eye on all other sources I can find from Thailand, but little hope that July 24 will actually take place. Last Saturday, the redeeming answer also came: the flight to Bangkok has been canceled by Finnair. Slightly relieved, I passed this on to my fellow traveler and we decided to move the trip to December. Checked with my daughter's work and school and my employer has no problem with it, and even my daughter's school has given permission to go a week earlier than the already existing Christmas holiday.
Started chatting with Finnair via the web page yesterday, I had tried this before but never got a hold of anyone as the queue was too long. I had to try again and again. But yesterday I was number 3 in the list so I stuck around and after extending the session several times I got a lady on the chat. I explained the whole story and I passed on the reservation number. Fine, I thought, she was going to look for flights.
After a few minutes she reports that the outward journey is no problem to reschedule, but she did not have a return journey that belongs to this reservation. Well you can, because I have 2 reservation numbers. So I pass on the 2nd number, and you might already guess…. This has not yet been canceled and we are therefore not entitled to move this ticket to December free of charge.
Pot full of coffee. Of course that sucks. I ask her what the extra costs are. Well that's 400 euros pp extra. Boy oh boy… that's a lot of money. Then we better cancel I thought. And book a new flight, but with Finnair. But that also turns out to cost a lot of money.
The ticket that was canceled by Finnair will be refunded, but the cost of the seat reservations will not be refunded. Canceling the return journey also costs about 200 pp because it has not been cancelled. All in all it costs 1200 euros to cancel. New tickets cost 2800 and then we have no seats etc. so we choose to reschedule the trip and then pay the extra costs.
So I learned a few things:
If you book a trip, make sure you only have 1 reservation number with a return, not 2 single reservation numbers. This is not because of me, but because of Expedia, who have booked this with Finnair. If there hadn't been a covid, nothing would have happened, of course, but yes, I don't do it anymore.
Another point is that you have to look carefully at what you will and will not get back in the event of a cancellation.
Hopefully in December we can enjoy ourselves and grab a nice cool blonde and laugh about this whole thing!!
Submitted by Michael
If you book directly with the company, you do not have that problem of 2 different reservation numbers. I wonder whether, in the end, you really end up with a broker that is so much cheaper than when you book directly.
We had booked with Thai air on June 23, this trip was also cancelled, after sending an email we made a free rebooking to December 10, we fly from Brussels
Good afternoon Pierre,
Did you not think it was a risk to book to BKK just over a week ago, while there was plenty of speculation whether Thai Airways would go bankrupt, and whether there would still be flights in the autumn?
But still success!
He HAD booked for June 23, so not on June 23 itself, which is a bit difficult, isn't it? And indeed it is questionable whether the borders will open / will be open for tourists in December, given how things are going now, the date is always being extended by a month.
This whole Covid-19 could turn out to be very disadvantageous for the booking agencies. It is becoming increasingly clear that booking directly with the airline pays off when there are problems. Then you'll be glad you paid a few bucks more for this. Then many of those booking agencies may fail in the future. Luckily I booked directly with Swiss Air for November. Hopefully we can go to Thailand again without any problems.
It has been repeated many times: book directly with the airline you are flying with. The few tenners of advantage can become a pretty annoying disadvantage if there are problems. And something happens more often than you think.
I had for April
a BRU – BKK flight with Thai Airways
a BKK – BRU flight with Emirates
about 6 domestic flights
All these flights were booked through providers: edreams, gotogate, etc…
Except for a few via NokAir
The refunds have only been processed for Nokair.
For everyone else it is waiting and there is hardly any communication.
In the future I will only book directly with the companies themselves.
ok, let me stick to KLM then, +/- 800 return, directly to Bk.
Taxi via STA, return 140, together, sometimes with other people, but ok.
Book yourself with a Thai airline and make it correct, in terms of connection and flight times.
Because I'm going somewhere else than standard package KLM, no package for my trip.
Check, check, double check every time.
I went to CM once and booked an internal flight via nl booking office, received a message back that it would go via Don Muang BK, no option you have to go straight through BK, wouldn't make it to the plane, I hadn't ordered either. So no idea why nl buro had adjusted this.
It finally went well after some phone traffic.
It's always exciting.
After returning from Bangkok in January, I was looking at the prices of tickets to Italy, Spain or Portugal for a week in June. Found cheap tickets for Porto.
During a domestic flight in Thailand in January, we were the only ones without a face mask. I then wondered if we/Europeans underestimated COVID-19, or were the Thais who exaggerated? Gradually realized that booking cheaply for Porto was a risk. Still decided to wait and see. This turned out to have been the better choice. In May, with great difficulty, I was able to move my week's leave from June to September. Now I will no longer look at the prices of airline tickets for a week in Portugal. So many factors are uncertain that you cannot plan properly. So I will wait until the end of August to see how the situation evolves. Then we will decide whether it will be a week's flight to the south or a week's car holiday to Germany. These are uncertain times, and you have to act accordingly.
Boy, what a story with a lot of hassle. And you also remain cheerful, which is admirable. Have fun in December, if it's all resolved by then.
For example, I heard today that Thai people who want to go to Schengen as tourists are currently being refused at check-in because they are not waiting for even more Thai people to repatriate with a two-week quarantine obligation. Phew.