Travel companies that are allowing free cancellations related to Covid-19

If you’ve made travel plans before the spread of Covid-19, you might be second-guessing whether to push through with them or not. If you’re wondering if travel insurance will protect you from a cancelled trip, you need to know that standard policies usually won’t protect you if you’re cancelling out of fear.

Some travel policies will only allow free cancellations for trips to countries that the government has advised the public to defer travel plans for.

Fortunately, though, some travel companies are changing their policies in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. Here are some of them:

Royal Caribbean Group

Royal Caribbean Group’s new “Cruise with Confidence” policy is currently allowing cancellations up to 48 hours prior to sailing so guests can have more control over their travel decisions. Guests will get full credit for the fare that they can then use on any future trips in 2020 or 2021. This applies to existing and new bookings.

Airbnb

Airbnb’s cancellation policies usually range from flexible policies to super strict policies. Due to Covid-19, however, they have rolled out an “extenuating circumstances policy” that applies to reservations that need to be cancelled due to travel warnings or restrictions given by health or government authorities.

Accor

Accor currently accepts cancellations without any penalties for travelers going to and from Accor properties in mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea until March 31, 2020.

Best Western Hotels & Resorts

Although Best Western hasn’t released a global cancellation policy per se, they have asked their hotels to exercise understanding and flexibility if someone requests for a cancellation.

Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels currently offers penalty-free cancellations until March 31, 2020, for travelers coming from China or those with upcoming reservations in properties in China.

Hilton Worldwide

For the month of March, Hilton has put in place cancellation waivers for various regions, including Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and China.

Hyatt Hotels Corp.

Hyatt will be waiving their global cancellation fees for travelers living in or traveling to China, Japan, Italy, and South Korea until March 31, 2020.

InterContinental Hotels Group

Intercontinental will be waiving their cancellation fees for guests going to or coming from mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Italy, and South Korea until March 31, 2020. The reservations will need to have been directly booked with the hotel, though.

Marriott International

Marriott will also be waiving their cancellation fees until March 31, 2020 for travelers going to or coming from mainland China, Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, the Maldives, French Polynesia, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Italy, Samoa, and New Caledonia.

Peninsula Hotels

Peninsula Hotels has waived their cancellation fees for all of their properties worldwide until April 30, 2020.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts

Shangri-La will be waiving their cancellation fees, regardless of where you might have booked your stay from, for any bookings made before March 1, 2020. This applies to travellers coming from Greater China, Japan, Korea, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

Wyndham is waiving their cancellation fees for travellers coming from or going to Greater China, Italy, and South Korea until March 31, 2020.

Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific is allowing travellers to make unlimited changes for free for bookings made until April 20, 2020. However, the trip will need to be completed by February 28, 2021.

Jetstar

Jetstar will be waiving change fees for international bookings made until the end of March, with travel on or before June 30, 2020. This is limited to one free change per traveler.

Scoot

Scoot will waive change fees and offer refunds to travellers affected by entry restrictions to the destination countries until April 30, 2020.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines will waive cancelation fees for travellers with tickets issued before March 4, 2020 going to and coming from mainland China, Macau, South Korea, and Hong Kong until April 30, 2020.

United Airlines

United has waived some of their cancellation fees for domestic and international flights, though terms and conditions apply.

Even if your airline or hotel of choice is not on this list, it wouldn’t hurt to give them a call and ask. Airlines and hotels are changing their rules by the day, depending on the outbreak updates, so give them a call if you want to cancel your plans. They might allow a refund or at least allow you to change your booking dates.

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