Coronavirus Travel Policies & Advisories

This just shows that Southwest has the best policies. If all airlines adopt Southwest style policies, then they won't be so overwhelmed because all the change/cancel few free process would be baked in online.

Airlines should really think about if all the change fees they got was worth the headaches they have right now.

@Tiffany. Thank you, great summary.
Only Hungary is missing from the list despite it being a full EU member :-((((
Its borders will be closed to non-Hungarian citizens as of midnight tonight.

>You realistically can't travel to Japan at this time.

This is wrong at 2020/3/17 7am Japan time.
Unless you are from China, Korea, Iran, North Italy, San Marino, you CAN enter Japan.

Appreciate the effort. But you should focus on facts not opinion.

"Going somewhere is effectively the same as going anywhere". This is patently untrue in terms of everything from infection rates to treatment cost to mortality rates.

Great list. If you want to add LATAM's policy, it's here: https://www.latam.com/en_us/experience/coronavirus/

FYI - re the country table, both Ireland (Republic of), and Latvia are part of the European Union

Three very important locations are not shown. Timor Leste, Pitcairn Island, and South Georgia. Who cares about Italy or Ireland?

Thanks for the great airline and country lists!

Tiffany, this is great. I have an honest question I think I know the answer to, but has not been covered. Will the "one time change with no fee" most airlines are currently providing operate as a travel credit for only that passenger (as southwest credits do), or is there some possibility of being able to use those funds for other passengers and/or consolidate multiple funds for a single trip?

I am going to have to cancel about 6 paid flights on AA over the next two months, 4 for pleasure and 2 for work. One of those is F tickets for the whole family to Hawaii, and the work trips are not going to get "rescheduled." If I am left with 6 credits that can only be used to rebook 6 separate trips, that's no good as some of the original trips will never happen. If I am left with a credit of the amount paid for 6 my flights that I can use for any number of trips before 12/31, but only for myself, that is slightly better but still not ideal. But if I am just left with what amounts to a voucher that I can use for myself or anyone else, and can effectively use total the amount paid for all 6 flights to book tickets for the whole family on a trip we wouldn't have otherwise gone on, then I may have a sliver of hope of actually using the funds.

Hey Tiffany. Any news on if you book through a 3rd party like hotels.com?

I cancelled a prepaid Westin stay today online 36hrs before check in and they refunded me nothing. Tried to call westin and they said had to speak to Hotels.com. Tried to call them and the lines are totally jammed so cancelled online rather than no- show. Is there a way of getting the Bonvoy policy of refund more than 24hrs out??

@ Charlie -- Right now hotels.com doesn't seem to have a blanket policy, but that is who you need to work with. I'd email or chat versus calling!

RE: Emirates. I'm confused by those affected by travel restrictions - "Travel Vouchers for ticketed value. -Refund of unutilised tickets" Does this mean we have a choice of voucher or refund? The wait time is crazy long so was trying to be prepared with specific facts before getting through to someone. Thanks.

@ Hepworth -- Honestly, I think anything is probably possible at this point, but under current policies that's not really a thing, unfortunately.

Also just an idea: it would be awesome if this post was regularly updated and was pinned to the top of the OMaaT home page for the time being.

Thank you again for putting this together

@ Tiffany - Figured, thanks. I'm EXP (thanks Hyatt credit card), so maybe they will give me a little more flexibility. For now, not cancelling any trips until 48 hour mark, so can hope there is some sort of policy change (although, that would likely require a ban on non-essential domestic travel).

@ Jack -- We're on it (or something similar), just some technical challenges 🙂

Qantas have just announced further cuts....copy and paste of their press announcement....

As a result of significant falls in travel demand due to Coronavirus, and new government restrictions across multiple jurisdictions in recent days, Qantas and Jetstar will make further and much larger cuts to domestic and international flying schedules.
To be phased in from the end of March 2020 onwards:
Total Group International capacity will be cut by around 90 per cent until at least the end of May 2020. This is up from a 23 per cent reduction for the fourth quarter of FY20 announced last week and largely reflects the demand impact of severe quarantine requirements on people’s ability to travel overseas.
Total Group Domestic capacity will be cut by around 60 per cent until at least the end of May 2020. This is a major increase from the 5 per cent reduction for the fourth quarter of FY20 and reflects a rapid decline in forward travel demand due to government containment measures, corporate travel bans and a general pullback from everyday activities across the community.
This represents the grounding of around 150 aircraft, including almost all of the Group’s wide-body fleet.
Previously announced cuts in place from end-May through to mid-September remain in place and are likely to be increased, depending on demand.

Can you please add TAP Air Portugal's policy to the list?

@Tiffany - with regards to KLM - are they allowing you to simply change the dates of an award booking? I booked a promo award and would rather just move the dates as I’m sure the amount of miles necessary is now much greater.

This must have taken a lot of time to pull together. Thank you so much!

Thanks Tiffany, super useful. I got an email alert from PlanMorTrips about cheap corona fare from NYC-LHR for $119 this week and was about to pull it, but checked your site and decided to stay home. Deal is still valid for anyone else thinking about it. I might book it for next month though assuming this all settles and I can cancel for free. https://planmoretrips.com/corona-virus-flight-deal-alerts/

Today I canceled two British Airways avios bookings for AA flights for travel in March, first I tried changing them but the website tried to charge me the change fee (I think it was $55/person). Then I canceled them and I was not refunded the taxes. No big deal because it's not a lot of money but I thought they were waiving these fees.

still, you can see Finnair is doing a great job, of the list of program waivers, Finnair Plus is offering the most straightforward and easy solution, a stark contrast against United's "lol get rekt" attitude.
Also, Finnair has allowed me to change flights with no cost whatsoever, which is way better than a lot of US and European airlines that charge exorbitant fare differences. Kudos to AY!

Thank you for this information - very useful! One request, can you add JAPAN AIRLINES on this list?

@Tiffany or anyone,

Know if foreign national can fly into DEN via NRT as long as they have not been to China, Europe, etc in the last 14 days? I have a friend flying into DEN and want to double check to make sure he can gain entry into the US.

Super helpful! Thank you so much Tiffany!

I'm quite confused by the China entry. It says "you can't realistically travel to China at this time." I was looking at this this afternoon, and what I read is that if you travel to Sichuan, Shanghai, Guangdong, or Beijing from the USA, you must quarantine for 14 days, while other parts of the country allow free transit.

It would be great if you published an article on what hotels in Shanghai and Beijing are available to stay at for self-quarantine, particularly among Western hotels that offer loyalty programs. If you want to pay me, I'll write this article -- I have many contacts in the country -- and potentially another article about the experience of bringing my family back to China to wait out the epidemic. Many parts of China are probably among the safest places in the world to wait this out for now, owing to the careful surveillance and automated tracking/contact trackings via location-based miniapps built into WeChat. America should be embarrassed that months after China and others started sounding the alarm, even well-connected health care consumers in the US cannot easily get a test for COVID-19.

BTW - Well done! Clearly this was a lot of work - will be super useful to us all.

Very, very impressive work, Tiffany. This must have taken forever to compile.

Thanks Tiffany - a friend is stuck in Peru and she had been told about the mandatory quarantine but it's good to have the link to an official source!

What should I do about my Delta ticket that was meant for attending a convention in April. The convention cancelled. Changing my flight won't work in this case.

I don’t understand why you claim travel to China isn’t possible at this time. It definitely is, if you’re willing to either 14-day quarantine at a gov. hotel, or do a full day of testing to be cleared to enter. This is the current policy for Beijing. I also would say that China may be the safest place to be right now, with very very little growth in cases. They have it under control.

Tiffany, if my flight has been cancelled or substantially delayed, can I just get a refund through my credit card company? That would be much better for me than a voucher. Do you know if the major credit card companies, like American Express, allow this?

Has anyone worked out applicable fees for a Qantas refund cancellation. I'm hesitant to cancel for voucher as they state it has to be used prior to 7 November and I suspect there may be some price goughing closer to the 7 Nov expiration date.

Great, great work. Thank you.

@Tiffany great bit of work thanks, VS made some sizeable changes to their policies last night and published here;

https://flywith.virginatlantic.com/gb/en/news/coronavirus/cancelled-flight.html

Thanks Tiffany! BTW, you may want to check the travel advisory for Chile. Since March 18 the country is shutting down it’s borders (land, sea and air) to foreigners for 15 days.

( https://www.gob.cl/noticias/chile-ingresa-fase-4-por-coronavirus-y-presidente-anuncia-cierre-de-fronteras-y-asegura-cadena-de-abastecimiento/) I couldn’t find a link in english, sorry.

Thank you, Tiffany. This is an amazing resource -- better than something I would expect from a major newspaper! Y'all have done a great job during such a crazy time. This is but one of the reasons why OMAAT is the single best travel site on the web.

Thanks all -- I had lots of help in putting the charts together (obviously not many new travel bookings right now, and we have smart people that we want to keep working). We'll do what we can to keep everything updated as frequently as possible, and really appreciate the notes here when things change.

Sudan has closed all airports and borders. I know this isn't a country most people visit, but it is relevant to some.

@Tiffany Thank you for all the information. For Canada, beginning March 18, 2020 the Government of Canada will, for air travel specifically: Bar foreign nationals from all countries except the United States from entering Canada.
It was announced Yesterday afternoon https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/03/16/prime-minister-announces-new-actions-under-canadas-covid-19-response

Seems to me that the windows of opportunity to change most airline travel bookings are far too short, unless there will be rolling deadlines, which no airline, travel provider or hotel group has indicated.
The notion that you may be able to confidently re-book by, say, April 1, or May 1, or whatever, is fanciful and totally unrealistic. This thing is gonna be with us for at least the next 6 months, probably longer.
In some cases the original reason for travel may have passed (family event, business conference, using annual leave, etc, etc.) and nothing less than a full refund, or fee-free redeposit of miles will do. Credits for later use may not cut it. I get it that every airline needs to hold on to every penny they can, but the flying public is not their piggy-bank. So, get with the program guys, and do the right thing! Your meanness will not be forgotten.

Here is the latest policy for Aegean:
https://en.about.aegeanair.com/media-center/press-releases/2020/aegean-to-offer-greater-flexibility/

Hello!

Does anyone know anything about Avianca‘s policy for reward tickets on partner airlines (Swiss)?

Southwest is refusing to give back money
In travel funds accounts. They are not
Extending any fund deadline dates. They will keep our $308. It is OUR money. If you cancel an upcoming flight, that money will go to travel funds and THEY will KEEP
it too. At this time with the Coronavirus
Threat, their policy must change!

Japan has updated its restrictions. Effective March 21 Visitors/Travelers (Including Japanese) arriving in Japan from following countries/regions will be asked to first stay at designated facilities for 14 days, and to avoid using any public transportation.

Member state of Schengen Agreement(*), Ireland, Andorra, Iran, United Kingdom, Egypt, Cyprus, Croatia, San Marino, Vatican, Bulgaria, Monaco, Romania

(*) Iceland, Italy, Estonia, Austria, Netherlands, Greece, Swiss, Sweden, Spain, Slovak, Slovenia, Czech, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Hungary, Finland, France, Belgium, Poland, Portuguese, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg

Note that Aer Lingus information is outdated. Aer Lingus now offers rebooking without fees or flight vouchers for total flight costs +10%.

I think hotels.com implemented a new policy. I was recently able to cancel my non-refundable booking for a full refund. https://www.hotels.com/page/coronavirus-booking-information/

@Thomas M.

I managed to get the miles redeposited on a Star Alliance partner award (ANA flight, still hasn't been cancelled).

I forwarded the booking confirmation to [email protected] and requested a cancellation and miles redeposit without penalty as instructed by the call-center.

if you're updating the country list, Sri Lanka is essentially closed. No arrivals allowed from March 19 for at least two weeks. Departures are allowed but I think flights are drying up as you would expect. I got out on 3/18. I believe my original departing flight for 3/22 to DOH has been canceled. Country is currently under a curfew since 6PM on 3/20 until 6AM on 3/23. All national parks have been closed since 3/15 for at least 2 weeks. Schools also closed.

Thailand
In addition to the information above, arrivals are now required to present a valid medical certificate ( no older than 72 hours) as well as details of a travel insurance policy covering medical/hospital treatment.

If anyone has the uncapped free night award from IHG left to use, try emailing corporate. I still had one due to expire on March 26, 2020 and got the current one deleted and a new one reissued with a one year extension. And it looks like the uncapped portion also transferred over.

@ Tiffany -- Where's Korean on yout list?

@ Peacenrespect -- This pandemic is not political. Try showing some respect.

We have flights booked on LaCompagnie and have been offered the option of postponing the flights or getting a refund. I'm concerned that since the airline only travels between the US and France, that they might have to declare bankruptcy. Given that there is no way to know what the situation will be a month or two from now, we're leaning towards requesting a refund. We paid around $2500 for two round trip tickets, a great price, but not useful if the airline goes out of business. But we probably would have to pay significantly more than that if we end up re-booking the flights for late May or early June. Any advice?

Can you put a little note in the title which tells us that you’ve just copied a post from a few days ago so we don’t have to click it and check.

Tiffany: What happens with paid seat upgrades on Alaska? Do they also get rolled into the change/cancel policies or are we SOL?

Just to add a bit of additional detail to the entry for Jordan (above, in the list of countries):

"As of March 17, 2020, the Government of Jordan will suspend all flights to and from Jordan. U.S. citizen tourists should contact their airlines to change their flights accordingly. Land and sea borders are closed to passenger traffic. Travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice."

From: https://jo.usembassy.gov/health-alert-government-of-jordan-suspends-flights-as-of-march-17-march-14-2020/

You’re missing a couple airlines under the status extension, virgin Australia are giving people status credits (varying based on level of status) and extending status 12 months. And Qantas is also extending everyone’s status by 12 months

In terms of the travel vouchers (specifically for KLM-Air France), would it be a voucher with a dollar value or basically a voucher that gets you an economy ticket of the same type that you originally booked. I ask because I got a very decent fare for two round trips to Canada from Europe and it would be sad if in the end, I would still need to pay the difference (even if the fare class remained the same). As in, I spent 500$ on a round trip but I don't know what date to change it to since I'm not sure when the travel ban will be lifted so I request a voucher. Once I realize when I can travel, I go back to book a ticket, however there are no tickets for that value. Anyone can provide insight? Thank you.

What about countries like Ethiopia, Djibouti, Mauritania and eritrea don't they count for anything given they aren't on the list!

Thanks for putting this together. Unfortunately, your note regarding award tickets on United is not accurate based on my experience as a Million Mile Flyer:

"Award tickets for travel through April 30, 2020 are not being charged redeposit fees (based on our experience so far after calling in)."

I've spoken with two agents and both say they are not permitted to make exceptions to the policy. United is charging $75/ticket redeposit fees even though they messaged "no change fees" and nothing regarding penalties on award tickets to encourage people to book flights.

I didn't see Qatar Air.

And tell your friends at the little airline that thinks they invented First Class : get rid of the front line idiots in the Phoenix Call center that don't know their job

This is great, but a few inaccuracies

1) The UK does not have any travel restrictions. The US, however has imposed travel restrictions on Foreign Nationals that have been in the UK in the previous 14 days. This should be listed under the US, not the UK.

2) Canada states Borders closed to non-residents, effective March 16. However there is an exception for US Residents. Land Borders are restricted to essential travel only. It does not appear that this restriction applies to Air Travel.

3) Similar to Canada, Mexico has new Land Border restrictions that also limit non-essential travel. Again, I do not think that these apply to air travel at this time.

Can you please add Free Night Certificate expiration extension? I think Marriott and Hilton are offering that, but not IHG and Hyatt. I suspect Hyatt eventually will because it is consumer friendly.

While there's no official policy as such, Booking.com now has a link under the cancel button where you can request that the property provides a full refund on any non-refundable bookings. I've had success on 3 bookings, failure on 2. Better than nothing.

Singapore bans all transfers in Changi from 23 March 11.59pm.

No mention about traveling to the Caribbean (specifically Turks & Caicos) ?? Is this a safe area?
Thanks for all your work Tiffany.

@ Charlie7927 -- We would recommend that you stay home at this time; less concern about where you're thinking of going, and more where you're coming from.

FYI on AA—they are charging redeposit fees for award tickets with travel in April. Booked two tickets early Feb for mid April travel. Tried to cancel and said it would be $150 to redeposit (for each account) or I can use miles for another ticket by Feb 2021. For now will just wait it out and see if they cancel flight

Has anyone else figured out how to call in to Avianca LifeMiles service center to have a Star Alliance award ticket canceled and the miles redeposited? When I call the 800 number there isn't even an option to talk to someone live! You just sort of wind up cycling through menus without being able to reach anyone....would hate to lose the 100K miles I used for the ticket (and the partner airline cancelled the flight to boot)....of course, that problem does seem small compared to extended quarantines, mass sickness/death, losing one's job and a 30% plunge in net worth....all things many, if not most of us are facing now....

@Nicholas - how long did it take for LifeMiles to get back to you after you e-mailed them at [email protected]?

So if I have a Lufthansa ticket for a cancelled flight next week, I don't need to do anything to receive credit? Will that just happen automatically? Just look out for an e-mail.

I had to call them for a change pre-COVID, and that was emotional enough. These are difficult times and 30 minutes of hold to talk to an angry fraulein might just push me over the edge.

Also, who is re-booking these flights? We can have no idea when things will go back to normal.

I am getting very disappointed with travel situations where you are supposed to get a credit for future travel.

I thought my reservation for travel is for day and time certain, and if the company can't provide that day and time certain, a credit is really not acceptible.

How is best way to deal with this, currently I am asking my credit card company to dispute the fees.

I have a cruise booked April 19. the cruise line cancelled all cruises up through april 11. But have no clue as to what happens after the 11th.

Living in a state with lock down, and in a situation of being of an age with certain health problems I don't find that a cruise ship can adhere to mandatory separation especially for meals, and shows. let alone all else going on on board.

So is a refund something that should happen?

you are missing the policy for Copa Airlines:
https://www.copaair.com/en/web/ca/coronavirus-updates

Per the Alaska fine print, waiver for award flights is only applicable to those ticketed by Alaska itself, exclusive of its partners' flights.

"This waiver is valid only for tickets issued by Alaska Airlines, which you can identify by a 13-digit ticket number that begins with Alaska Airlines code "027".
Tickets issued by other airlines with a different carrier code (ticket numbers that don’t begin with “027”) are subject to the waiver policy of the other airline."
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/advisories/travel-advisories?int=AS_FLIGHTDEALS_-prodID:Awareness

Wow, Ryanair - usually not the most customer-friendly carrier - expedited refunding my easter flight with just a three clicks. Credit where credit is due.

BTW, the German cabinett is pushing the EU-Commission very hard to implement a "Voucher Only" process of refunding flights affected by the corona pandemic. So if you are after getting money back, you may want to speed up your efforts.

Stay healthy and positive everyone!

I see all airlines listed EXCEPT Allegiant. We are supposed to be on a plant 4-4-2020 to head to a cruise that was canceled by the president in March. I have called the airline and they refuse to give me a refund. this trip was for my twin seniors spring break. I did not want to cancel at all but the cruise was canceled and therefore, the hotel and flights need to be canceled. The hotel was not a problem at all, they were great and completely understood. The airline is being less than stellar. I will not be able to use an FCV as my twins will be going to different universities and their breaks do not line up.
Please help
Shelly

Single data point:
LH SFO-FRA-RUH and return flights for 4/9 were canceled since Saudi Arabia is completely closed to air traffic.
Had prepared myself for pushback from LH over a refund, and while I was given a hard sell to take a voucher, the refund is on its way (presumably, still no email confirmation of it).

I don't appreciate how out of date some of the info here is given it was updated 'today'. In regards to the airline status extension, Qantas & Virgin Australia should be there. United and Singapore Airlines have also announced status extension programs to all members

I had an international flight with Turkish airline schedule for April that was cancelled by the airline. They offered a full refund and I got a confirmation that it will be refunded to my credit card account with which I bought the tickets. However, they neglected to tell me in the first place that there will be a delay. I didn't see the money so I called back to ask, and just now learned that they will deposit the refund * two months after the emergency situation is over *.
Good to know... poor service not letting me know in the first place.

This overview is one of the most helpful travel websites out there currently, many thanks!

Hi,

Anyone has much luck with lifemiles via [email protected] or their call centers? I called up the (800) 284-2622 (option 2 - for English) and (option 3 - for lifemiles) and got no options for an English speaking lifemiles redemption changes. I had emailed them a couple weeks ago via their site and [email protected], and received a response that all COVID-19 related changes have to be called in. With the call center being "closed", how do one even make any changes?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Hi .. Thank you for your efforts .. But i have suggestion regarding this post .
I see that you didn't update the restriction and boarders opening updates .. specially the announcements issued by the official government of certain countries , for example that Georgia announced few days back regarding opening the boarders to the tourists starting 1 July . and Turkey announce that it will be open for medication tourist starting from 1 June or some time in June .

i believe the update is necessary for this post other wise its only historical information not reflecting the currant status .

Thank you

Thanks for this very useful article!
We were supposed to start a one-year-long world trip in April that obviously didn't happen.
As we had two weddings to come back to Europe to, we booked several flights in advance.
One was booked through Expedia and was supposed to take us to South Africa with Ethiopian Airlines - still haven't heard back from them.
Lufthansa gave us "flight credits" but failed to give us an update which made us miss the deadline for a rebooking.
Skytours gave us a voucher that we can use until the end of 2022.

In total, we probably lost about 6000 € in flights only 🙁

But hey, we did a road trip through Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Greece this summer, which was great.
And now, we managed to get to Costa Rica to still get a bit of "world trip-feeling".
It was a bit of an administrative struggle to get in but it all worked out and I must say we feel very safe because of these strict measures.

So your Delta safety video post
You’re saying the mask mandate would be lifted in September
Why right before flu season
I hope they extend it