We had a holiday to Italy planned for May this year. Obviously that’s not going ahead now.

We’ll likely get the flights refunded, if EasyJet are still in business. The accommodation have said they cannot afford to refund us, but have offered a transfer of the holiday to next year. They are a small farm stay and their only source of income is the summer holiday season. Also my wife read that a law was to be introduced in Italy that meant accommodation could just offer a transfer/voucher.

We paid on credit card so should they go bust in the meantime we’d be covered (CC confirmed this, even with moving the booking).

I need to investigate insurance, I would think anything coronavirus related is going to be excluded for the new booking, but I’d hope all other scenarios are still covered. E.g. losing your job, long term illness.

We could rebook to June 2021. But there are a lot of unknowns.

The other option is to pursue a refund through the Credit Card right now on the basis that the accommodation can’t provide what we booked.

In some ways I feel rebooking now and letting the accommodation keep the money would perhaps mean they are more likely to be in business next year. However, that money is also a couple of months worth of mortgage payments for us.

What would STW do?

I would.

having similar issues with Air BnB, their cancellation policy doesnt extend past 1st June (yet) so no refund from them, insurance company says they dont cover pandemics.
we could probably move our booking but i think i would prefer the cash back if i can get it and maybe spend it on a UK bike trip if that posiible.
not too happy that the credit card company has to potentially stump up my refund though.

I assume you don’t have insurance in place for this year?

Anyway, assuming not then yes I’d re-book for 2021, it’s the least worst option if they really won’t refund.

It’s a big gamble of course, if their only source of income is Holidays what’s their plan? They can’t afford lose income this year when Italy if pumping €750bn of stimulus into their economy how do they plan to survive 2021 without income because all their bookings are carry-overs from 2020 and there’s no more stimulus money?

Yes.

Colorado in September. We booked each bit independently and made sure we had insurance in place. However, Yellow Jersey cover wasn’t as comprehensive as others it seems.

Either we try and get each bit transferred to next year or try through the credit card to claim.

Although things might go ahead in September, I’m expecting America to take a lot longer to recover from this than most.

Need to check the insurance but having discovered just how twisty yellow jersey are, we’d probably not be covered for getting CV19 while in the states.

I assume you don’t have insurance in place for this year?

We do have it but only my policy covers cancellation due to FCO advice (my policy is from my bank). My wife’s and son’s doesn’t cover for FCO advice… and neither policy covers end supplier failure. Hence we booked on a credit card. We’d overlooked the FCO advice bit on my wife’s policy, you live and learn!

I assume you don’t have insurance in place for this year?

We do have it but only my policy covers cancellation due to FCO advice (my policy is from my bank). My wife’s and son’s doesn’t cover for FCO advice… and neither policy covers end supplier failure. Hence we booked on a credit card.

That’s a pain, I really can’t get my head around how Travel Ins is handling this.

Obviously FCO is advising against travel and won’t be lifted in the next few weeks, but if it only covers you and not your Wife and Son’s that’s not a great help.

We (Mates and I) booked a place in Morzine for a week at the end of June, £2k+ none of us have insurance apart from the Guy who booked it for us and it’s the free kind you get with your bank. We were hoping it would cover the whole thing “Yes Mr Travel Ins, I booked a 5 bedroom Chalet for myself”.

Anyway, as above, if you’re confident your CC co will cover you taking into account the delay and all that you might as well sit on it until next year, I don’t suppose there’s much stopping you calling them at any point between now and June ’21 if you suddenly need the money back.

Although things might go ahead in September, I’m expecting America to take a lot longer to recover from this than most.

Agreed, their CDC has already all but said that they’ve not done nearly enough now to avoid a second peak that will land in their Flu season and overwhelm their Healthcare system.

They were uniquely badly placed to handle this, a fractured and profit-driven Healthcare system, a leader who doesn’t care about anyone or anything that doesn’t profit him personally and millions of people who’ve been told it’s okay to believe whatever ‘fact’ is most convenient at the time.

Trump won’t be able to bully many nations into opening their borders with the US with trade deals. Which is a shame, my SIL lives in NYC and is desperate to leave even if it kills her residential status, even NYC which is meant to the brains of the US is like the Wild West.

I’d push hard for a cash refund from wherever you can.
June 2021 might be fine but if it is, there will be some bargain holidays as demand will be low due to the general economic turndown.
This may sound harsh, but cash is better in your bank account than anyone else’s.

We’re in a similar position for Florida next Easter. Just doesn’t look like it’ll be sorted by then but equally at the moment Virgin have our money so may be best getting it off them for now!