Currently travelling RTW Business Award Oneworld, Coronavirus outbreak causing flight cancellations with some destinations inaccessible upon arrival.

[ButtermilkChicken]

Thanks everyone for the replies,

Update: Qantas called me an hour ago to ask me how I felt about AMS - HEL - Tokyo - CEB which would be a super long leg and in Economy instead of Business.

Considering the sheer amount of points used I have kindly explained that this was a special RTW flight and would prefer to head AMS-DOH-MNL route if possible.

At this time I'm told she will need to hear back on two things; confirmation from her supervisor and confirmation from the participating airline, Qatar.

I then added that flying into Hong Kong at any stage could render me unable to take any future flights and things are changing rapidly. Avoiding this in advance will prevent further hardship as it will be harder for me to communicate once I'm in Asia.

The ladys silence almost felt like she wanted to agree but couldn't out of workplace formalities.

Lastly, coming out of Japan I was scheduled to pass Hong Kong one more time back into Australia.

So,I should be receiving a phone call today on the following:

• Further options and whether or not the AMS-DOH-MNL routing is possible on their end and Qatars.
• Plus whether or not the MNL-CEB-MNL broken part of the leg will be waved by Qantas.
• Direct flight out of Philippines to Japan in the same class, bypassing Hong Kong.
• Direct flight out of Japan bypassing Hong Kong back into Australia.

 

[Quickstatus]

A most interesting thread!.
It will be interesting to see if the airlines add in some flexibility in RTW bookings in this nCOV environment, given that most have allowed cancellation, or free rebooking to/from affected cities

 

[drron]

Not showing flexibility to the pax quarantined on the cruise ship in Japan.twitter reports those that cancel QF flights are being charged cancellation fees.

 

[I love to travel]

Not showing flexibility to the pax quarantined on the cruise ship in Japan.twitter reports those that cancel QF flights are being charged cancellation fees.

Very disappointing. But as yields are dropping airlines are going to do anything they can to get revenue.

 

[PineappleSkip]

IATA is still maintaining its Timatic resource on Coronavirus, and it’s an invaluable guide to who’s restricted from going where.

IATA - International Travel Document News

CX website indicates the ban on travel from Philippines to HKG only applies to Philippines citizens. I’ve seen media reports that are similar.

Of course, you never know how the checkin agent is going to interpret all this. And with the best will in the world you don’t know what will happen when you enter country Z - the hapless Chinese who were banned midair from Aus entry are a case in point.

Best to do is check your itinerary on Timatic (the info the checkin agent will get the same info), check the website(s) of the airline , and the countries you’re aiming to travel to/transit, and FWIW I am checking media reports as well. That’s what I’m doing.

cheers skip

 

[Pushka]

IATA is still maintaining its Timatic resource on Coronavirus, and it’s an invaluable guide to who’s restricted from going where.

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/international-travel-document-news/1580226297.htm

CX website indicates the ban on travel from Philippines to HKG only applies to Philippines citizens. I’ve seen media reports that are similar.

Of course, you never know how the checkin agent is going to interpret all this. And with the best will in the world you don’t know what will happen when you enter country Z - the hapless Chinese who were banned midair from Aus entry are a case in point.

Best to do is check your itinerary on Timatic (the info the checkin agent will get the same info), check the website(s) of the airline , and the countries you’re aiming to travel to/transit, and FWIW I am checking media reports as well. That’s what I’m doing.

cheers skip

That link goes to Cathay site?

 

[PineappleSkip]

whoops, my bad. The Timatic coronavirus page link should be fixed now.

 

[Pushka]

whoops, my bad. The Timatic coronavirus page link should be fixed now.

And now bookmarked! Thankyou.

 

[daniella39]

We are in Cebu now on our one world award trip. We had booked our own leg in and out of the Philippines. We are picking up our owa with HK - LHR. Our flight with cebu pacific ceb-hk was cancelled and we have rebooked with cx.

Flights into hk from the Philippines are ok for foreigners but vice versa not so.
I'm keeping an eye on schedules to make sure flights are going, which they are. I'm also watching UK restrictions on travellers.

No offers of refunds unless your itinerary is impacted by travel restrictions. Ours is not at this stage.

Good luck all

 

[Ktan89]

Thanks everyone for the replies,

Update: Qantas called me an hour ago to ask me how I felt about AMS - HEL - Tokyo - CEB which would be a super long leg and in Economy instead of Business.

Considering the sheer amount of points used I have kindly explained that this was a special RTW flight and would prefer to head AMS-DOH-MNL route if possible.

At this time I'm told she will need to hear back on two things; confirmation from her supervisor and confirmation from the participating airline, Qatar.

I then added that flying into Hong Kong at any stage could render me unable to take any future flights and things are changing rapidly. Avoiding this in advance will prevent further hardship as it will be harder for me to communicate once I'm in Asia.

The ladys silence almost felt like she wanted to agree but couldn't out of workplace formalities.

Lastly, coming out of Japan I was scheduled to pass Hong Kong one more time back into Australia.

So,I should be receiving a phone call today on the following:

• Further options and whether or not the AMS-DOH-MNL routing is possible on their end and Qatars.
• Plus whether or not the MNL-CEB-MNL broken part of the leg will be waved by Qantas.
• Direct flight out of Philippines to Japan in the same class, bypassing Hong Kong.
• Direct flight out of Japan bypassing Hong Kong back into Australia.

Any update on this?

 

[SOPOOR]

A bit of a general question,
For those that have redemption bookings do people advise to be more careful compared to cash paying customers? Or are redemption fares better in situations like these in general?

 

[maia200]

Goodness gracious....this is a real journey. Looking forward to the updates.

 

[Matt_01]

I am just watching with interest as we have a OW rewards flight heading around the world next month and some of the points you raise is what is causing MrsM concern and we may end up cancelling the trip.