Dilemma changing flights due to trip cancellation

[opusman]

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on a dilemma I'm facing at the moment.
At fairly short notice mrsOpusman & I have had to cancel a Europe holiday due to her mother needing heart surgery.
We have insurance via Anz Platinum card so not too worried but I'm having trouble deciding what to do about the flights we have booked.

Currently we are booked on MH as they were pretty cheap when we booked back in April - approx $12500 total for 2 x J MEL-LHR return.
My options are:

• Change booking to our new dates (March next year). This will cost approx $4100 total
• Cancel and rebook later. The cancellation fee will be $870 total

My preference is to cancel and rebook in the hope that a QF sale comes up (would prefer to go QF) between now and next March. The problem with that is:

• Not sure what the chances of a sale are, and
• If a sale doesn't come up we would be left having to rebook at the going rate and (presumably?) would have missed our opportunity to claim the fare difference on insurance.

Does anyone have any suggestions / insights that may help? We were meant to fly out this coming Sunday so I need to decide fairly quickly!

Cheers!

 

[DontGetMeStarted]

First of all I am sorry to heart about the surgery your mother in law needs, I went through similar with my Mum 18 months ago for open heart surgery, she is still with us thankfully but it was a tough time...just a thought though are you really covered if this was perhaps a pre existing condition, I know that I wasn't going to be covered when we left a few months after Mums surgery to London with MAS and it was a risk that we took. A few months later again we were booked to go to Beijing with JQ and she was not a 100% so had to cancel some cheap tickets, I wrote to JQ with a specialist letter and they allowed me a cedit for 6 months for the full amount. I think the the pre existing condition (if it is one) is an issue with most insurance companies. Best of luck though

 

[amaroo]

I wrote to JQ with a specialist letter and they allowed me a cedit for 6 months for the full amount.

This is good advice.

When I broke an ankle QF allowed me to manipulate a SYD-HKG-SYD ticket to suit what I wanted......bloody bad luck - it was a work trip in F and I had to flick pass it onto to my 2IC

Had high hopes of boarding the plane on crutches however, when they told me they couldn't operate for 3 weeks due to swelling - the game was up

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Wondering if anyone has any thoughts on a dilemma I'm facing at the moment.
At fairly short notice mrsOpusman & I have had to cancel a Europe holiday due to her mother needing heart surgery.
We have insurance via Anz Platinum card so not too worried but I'm having trouble deciding what to do about the flights we have booked.

Currently we are booked on MH as they were pretty cheap when we booked back in April - approx $12500 total for 2 x J MEL-LHR return.

My options are:

• Change booking to our new dates (March next year). This will cost approx $4100 total
• Cancel and rebook later. The cancellation fee will be $870 total

My preference is to cancel and rebook in the hope that a QF sale comes up (would prefer to go QF) between now and next March. The problem with that is:

• Not sure what the chances of a sale are, and
• If a sale doesn't come up we would be left having to rebook at the going rate and (presumably?) would have missed our opportunity to claim the fare difference on insurance.

Does anyone have any suggestions / insights that may help? We were meant to fly out this coming Sunday so I need to decide fairly quickly!

Cheers!

1. ANZ Travel Insurance: read the PDS thoroughly, particularly the bit that says "we will not pay" as they would not generally pay cancellation penalties and/or additional cost of rebooking flights if the MIL's heart condition was pre-existing. Was she under the care of a Cardiologist, on heart medication etc at the time you took out the travel insurance?

2. Rebooking MH flights: Just say you do rebook & pay the adcoll of AUD4,100.00 to go in March next year. That date may not end up being suitable if the M-I-L is still convalescing or something else comes up so you may need to change your dates yet again. This change fee on top of the initial fares of AUD12,500.00 now becomes AUD16,600.00 - I think that's a bit too much to pay however that's entirely your business & only a decision you can make.

3. Booking new flights on a different airline: Even if a QF Sale doesn't come up in J, there are plenty of ways to get to Europe & back in a Premium Cabin without breaking the bank. If I was in your shoes I would elect to cancel the MH flights, cop the AUD870.00 cancellation fee (which you may or may not get back from the Travel Insurance company) then in the mean time check out some alternative options & don't rebook until you know the M-I-L's surgery is a success.

4. Alternative Business Class options:

a) Do you have any QF ff points to burn? If so you could maybe do a JASA ex MEL to Asia & return then purchase a J class fare ex Asia to Europe & back.

b) Keep your eye out for a JQi Sale ex Aust to NRT or KIX in Star Class like they had recently for around AUD549.00 to AUD849.00 one way with Plus Bundle AUD200.00 for points/SC earn. You could maybe use some QF ff points ex NRT or KIX to Europe on BA or JL & do a Partner/Classic Award.

c) If not already members, sign both yourself & Mrs Opusman up to AA AAdvantage & Avianca Life Miles asap so you can take advantage of any bonus points offers that come up. Buying points in these programs can be an extremely affordable way of travelling J on an award ticket. You can still travel on QF (or other One World airlines) using your AA points & the Avianca Life Miles can be redeemed on Star Alliance Airlines on a one way basis which can be handy.

I'm quite confident that you will be able to get to Europe & back in March in Business economically, not necessarily by waiting for a traditional sale but by creating your own 'sale fare' by using some of the above methods but definitely for less money than the original price of the MH tickets.

Best of luck to the MIL for the upcoming surgery.

 

[opusman]

Thank you all for your responses and kind words!

I am fairly confident we will be covered by insurance as we booked the flights in April and the first time my MiL had any inkling of heart problems was in June. We have a letter from cardiologist and transcript from her GP confirming this.

Obviously we won't know for sure until we put a claim in though, which is why when I discovered the MH flights would cost so much to change I started considering the idea of cancelling. $16.6k total seems like a lot for MH and if it ends up that insurance doesn't cover it I think I'd rather be spending that or a bit more on QF or CX.

@ozbeachbabe: Thanks for your well-reasoned arguments which have helped clarify the issue a lot! I guess my only real hesitation now at cancelling is the question of how long MH will take to process a refund. Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

[opusman]

Just wanted to report back that ANZ Platinum travel insurance paid out nearly $5K for cancellation expenses, and we are leaving next week on rescheduled holiday