April is a very important month for us as a couple, as the 14th marks our wedding anniversary. Back in January, after a lot of searching, we decided to visit Latvia from the 12th to the 16th April with Ryanair. Obviously these plans were cancelled due to this viscous virus which took over the world right now. As you might have already noticed this is not going to be like our usual blogs. This time we are going to share with you our reactions and what we have done so far to adapt to the situation.
Like any other travelers, we we highly disappointed that we have to cancel our trip. First of all, because we had our mind set that we are going abroad in about a months time and also with the complication that comes with it. A lot of questions popped in my head the moment we actually realized that we cannot leave our home country, like;
- Should we move the flight date since now they are not charging for flight change?
- If so, to when should we move it?
- Will we be able to move the days off from work, from April to another month?
Honestly, I started panicking and yes I do believe that my health comes first but for us and fellow travelers like us it is a big deal. The fact that we are from Malta, a small island doesn't help as it makes us feel trapped. But any way back to the topic heh. I started by tackling the most important thing: If we change the flight date when would we like to go? So we decided it to move it to late June. The reason behind this is that; 1st of all there is 3 months to go so things might change and the fact that the temperatures would have risen there is a higher chance that the virus will be dead by then, since it is killed at high temperatures.
When we established the dates I made sure that I can actually get the days off, which I also managed. So the last thing we had to do was change the flight dates. I must add that the first time we booked we had already booked the seats too. It was also stated that we will only have to pay the difference in the fare price of the flight, which is completely understandable. But things were not at all as they seem.
I checked how much the flights were on the dates we wanted and then I started the change.
1) The amount we paid and the amount the system was showing we paid did not match
2) The fare was not the same price as those of when you book the first time, it was more expensive
3) We had to pay for the seats AGAIN
All this in our opinion was very unfair. We understand that they need to make money, but not in this way when we had already paid for everything. We tried changing the dates twice in two different days and the price which we paid also change from one day to another. Therefore, our last resort was to talk to them through a live chat.
Before we talked to an agent, we decided to check what borders are closed through their website, and Latvia was listed to be closed till 30th April but we did not receive an email that our flight got cancelled as of yet. To cut a long story short, to who ever we talked told us that we will have to pay an extra 70+ euros today to change the flights. Thus, we asked if we can get a refund since there are not flights going according to their site. Their reply? - you cannot get a refund unless you get an email or a message stating that you flight has been cancelled.
Finally we had given up panicking and trying to make this right. So we decided to wait until we receive the email, we see how this pandemic is going to develop and we shall take things from there.
Meanwhile, we also tried contact the hotel we were going to stay at ~ Hotel Albatross ~ via email, asking if we are able to move the dates. We must emphasis that we did not pay any deposits on the place as on the confirmation email it was written that they only accept cash on site. Although we did not get a reply in like 3-4 days, we completely understand this as they might not even be at work during these difficult times and tourist are the least on their mind right now.
We are honestly hoping that this will be over as soon as possible so that we can continue exploring the beautiful world out there. So our advice to do so is STAY SAFE and STAY HOME as much as possible to avoid the spread of this infectious disease!
Until our next trip fellow travelers :)
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