So my travels are definitely cancelled and have been for the past few weeks. I did shoot ANA an email about the coronavirus and if I was entitled to any additional refund - to which they did not reply and I assume they intend not to reply as they have ignored a previous email of mine months ago in regards to any age limit of a child using their bassinets. I'm not too pressed about it, but it is the second time I had to cancel with ANA, leaving me about $800AUD out of pocket for airfares alone.
BUT THINGS CHANGED and ANA extended their cancellation to my flight dates - and I received the FULL amount of my flight tickets back, which was nothing short of AMAZING. I'll definitely fly with ANA in the future and wouldn't consider any other carrier - they have been that on point with handling this case, and I'd love to support them in the future.
The other thing I did was cancel my Airbnb, which unfortunately had a strict cancellation policy, meaning the 50% I paid is essentially a goner. I noticed on the Airbnb FAQs there was a section about having to cancel due to circumstances beyond my control, and coronavirus was listed as one. Thinking that there was no harm in trying, I decided to contact the support to give it a go.
Truthfully speaking, their customer service takes a while to respond. But when they do respond, they are helpful (though not very proactive as there were several communication mishaps, like not forwarding my information to the host, without explicitly telling me to forward the information to the host directly). The host was pretty brutal in the respect that they refused to give me a refund, which I felt was pretty mean considering that things in Japan right now are really quite serious.
Let's recap on the things that have happened in Japan in the past few weeks:
- Hundreds of people sick due to the cruise parked at Yokohama port - but now they are mostly gone back to their countries - but not without needing to pass through the airport - eek. At least two health workers who went aboard the cruise has been diagnosed.
- Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios to shut from end of February to March 15 2020 to lessen chances of people congregating.
- Pokemon Go Raids in Japan cancelled
- Students to go back to school again, later in March - possibly even later, causing great havoc due to lack of nurses and teachers up in arms about lack of income for several weeks
- Large department stores like the ones connected to subway hubs are shortening their hours. Places like Sukiya are shortening their hours or even reducing their menus to just beef dons so people can just order and walk straight out asap
- Hokkaido residents told to basically stay at home and not go out at all
- Toilet paper is now gone from lots of supermarkets and stores because some idiot wrote that face masks and toilet paper are of a similar composition (this makes me really mad because this happened in Hong Kong too and why are people so gullible to think that surgical mask filter material is suitable for wiping your butt and vice versa?!)
- People are panicking and stockpiling everything and anything like ramen and long life foods
- Olympic committee considering Tokyo Olympics to be cancelled as a possibility, though we know that Abe and his government are trying hard to say no to this
- Masks are still forever in shortage and still no buying limits actively imposed where they are available so you see a huge influx of tourists buying them up to bring them back to their country to most likely, resell for a killing
- Citizens getting worked up over people coughing on public transport without wearing a mask and getting into arguments, or even resorting to pressing the emergency stop button
- ...and more.
... and yet this host still refused to give me even a partial refund.
Yes, I know I am not entitled to it if they refused me a refund. Yes, I know the economy in Japan is a mess right now and more than ever the host probably needs more money than I do, but that doesn't mean that the money is not important to me. These are extreme circumstances. I honestly would have loved to stay at the Airbnb and it was honestly not my intention to cancel, but I cannot take the risk. Not with a young child.
Anyway, after standing my ground as Airbnb did have a few mishaps in communicating with me (and the host basically took me on a ride with zero intention of refunding a single cent), I was able to get back my service fee. You could say it was a consolation, or even a prize, but if considered a consolation it was all the consolation I needed. OR NOT.
PART TWO OF AIRBNB: BOY THINGS CHANGED SINCE!
After I received my service fee refund from Airbnb, they updated and extended their full cancellation policy to the dates my original trip was supposed to take place. Was I annoyed? Yes - because their original dates should have stretched to my vacation in the first place, as did ANA with their flights.
Did I try to get my money back - with the emphasis on try? Yes.
Did I get it back? No. A bit fat angry no.
Their customer service is more than a bit of a joke after they have refunded their service fee (suddenly because you didn't pay them a service fee they owe you absolutely nothing), and they have very obscurely added in their terms and conditions that their refund policy only applied to existing reservations, with zero leniency - so they didn't care at all for past reservations at all, despite the fact that the pandemic really did screw us all over. I understand the money is probably with the host already (but then again, why would you pay the host when the stay never took place - as in, you should be paying the host after the stay dates have been completed - does that make sense?) Customer service was rude and didn't care. When telling them I didn't want to ever book with them again, they didn't care again either. That's ok. Because they've lost me for good this time.
Would I book again with Airbnb? No.
Would I book again with that host? No.
The host's attitude to my request for a partial refund has actually dampened my spirit and positivity towards this holiday destination, but it won't be enough to deter me from visiting. I will simply book elsewhere and take my business somewhere else. But now that Airbnb has lost me for good, I'll have to consider booking a hotel again. It is more expensive, and expensive by far, but at this point in time, I'd rather do this than give more money to Airbnb's appalling handling of COVID refunds.
At the end of the day I did get a partial refund. My travel insurance were unable to give a refund, but did put my file as a credit so I could use it for my next trip, which was fairly generous of them.
In the end I am out of pocket about $1500AUD, plus a travel stroller and two luggage cases - though I consider the stroller and luggage cases my own and not really out of pocket. That's a lot of money I can't get back. But oh well...
Yours,
EDIT: So I finally received a reply from ANA and they have cancellations for flights up to April 5 2020, which unfortunately my trip was out of this particular window. They will have some updates and if that is the case I should be able to ring up for an additional refund (if I haven't interpreted their reply incorrectly). I cannot claim anything from my travel insurance as it was my own decision to cancel, but now that Japan travel is now considered yellow alert... hard to say.
EDIT2: ANA was excellent and did honour the rest of my flight tickets, as they extended their flights to accommodate my flight dates. It was awkward calling them and speaking to a Japanese person who tried their best with their English (but it wasn't the first time I had called them, so that's fine) - it took a long time on the phone, but I did get through, and they did refund me.
Airbnb on the other hand as you can gather from my edits in the above post, have really no sense of shame and everything flew out the window as I was no longer considered a customer, without an "existing" reservation and service fee refunded.
