We were going to Paris...
Updated: Mar 13, 2020
But our plans have changed in light of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Flights were booked, hotels were reserved, and reservations were made... but Paris isn't going anywhere, so we decided to put these plans on hold.
Samantha and I have been talking about going to Paris for years. We finally saved up enough money to book! And that's exactly what we did. We even have a Google doc to keep all of our day-by-day plans organized.
That might not seem like a big deal to you but that is very uncharacteristic of us. We decided to cancel our trip well before this virus was declared a pandemic.
However, the airline was not making it easy for us. We booked our flights with Air Transat and when I got a hold of a representative on the phone, she told me I would have to forfeit the $1,300 dollars that we paid for 2 return trips to France.
I couldn't help but think that Air Transat thought they were speaking to a Jenner. I do not have the "F YOU" money that would allow me to give up $1,300.
Amidst the global crisis, Air Transat wasn't even willing to transfer the balance to another flight. We made it clear that we did not want our money back. We just wanted this special voucher that we had heard all about on the news.
I decided to sleep on it because the idea of losing all of that money made me nauseous. On the one hand I didn't want to lose $650— and on the other I really didn't want to risk catching this virus,
We Tweeted at the company because we felt like we were going to take the "L" on this one.
A few days went by before the government declared the outbreak as a "national emergency" and it felt like corporations were finally taking this seriously.
After a few phones calls and multiple emails, we were told that they will be offering us a full credit for our purchase. Thank God.
I think Sam and I would have given up that money if Air Transat hadn't decided to be so accommodating—and it would have sucked big time.
I will be booking with them again because of how quickly they were able to react and implement efficient tools to cancel the flights!
Here is the link to follow if you need to cancel an Air Transat flight.