S35flyer- If you had full fare tickets, then by definition they are refundable. That’s why you pay more for a refundable ticket. It’s the non-refundable tickets that can be stalled.
Delta appears to be one of the better US Airlines to issue refunds due to the COVID-19 Virus. I believe KLM is in the same boat as Lufthansa with regards to being about bankrupt. As of today, it has been about 2 months since I initiated a refund request from Lufthansa and I still haven't heard a word or received a refund. In the meantime I initiated a charge back with my Credit Card about a month ago. They issued me a temporary credit, however, I still have a minimum of two weeks to go to receive a full refund. I will check back with them again and see where it stands. I feel I have a better chance of recouping my money with the charge back process. Also, Lufthansa is still in negotiations this week with the German Government for a $10 billion dollar bailout loan, should hear news soon as to what will transpire. Otherwise, Lufthansa is filing for bankruptcy protection. I hope it doesn't go that far and I don't know how that will affect all the millions of people with refund requests around the Globe. It appears KLM is about to receive some bailout funds so hopefully they can start processing refunds soon. What a mess. I did hear from another Tauck Member on this board that they recently received their refund from Lufthansa, however, their air was purchased thru Tauck, so I think preference may have been given to select vendors, not sure. Or perhaps the fares were fully refundable versus a non-refundable ticket as I believe fully refundable tickets will be given priority. I do know, from reading several blogs and posts on the Lufthansa Facebook page that there are many unhappy Lufthansa customers, many who have also been waiting 2 months or more for refunds and are being given canned responses or no response at all. So sad. Who would have thought a giant in the industry like Lufthansa could fall, but I guess all companies are vulnerable during this crisis.
Here is an article from today concerning Air France and KLM from Flight Global news source:
The advantage of booking flights with Tauck is that Tauck are responsible for giving you money back whether they get the money back from the airline or not.
Sam your right. I read your post and wondered myself as originally they had wanted 900 to refund the tickets, that was back in their early April procedures. They were non refundable business class. We got them June 2019, so the details escaped me, I figured any two tickets for 14k were full fare, not true. Regardless the point is they changed policies and we got the refund no penalty.
We have just seen the money appear as a credit on our Amex card for Cancelled tickets. We were told it would take two billing cycles, but it has only been a week. We sure have a lot of money stuck on Amex for all manner of cancellations. Which of course is not a bad thing right now. Hello Amazon, what can you sell me today 🤪
And now, the rest of the story... we received a full refund from KLM. Nine weeks from the time I first requested the refund. It took a while, but I'm so glad to have refund and not a voucher. We have a Dream Saver voucher with Tauck, as they only gave us half of our deposit back. The voucher will expire 12/31/2021 so I sure hope it will be safe to travel in 2021.
We had booked our 3 of 4 flights for this departure through KLM Flying Blue, to use miles for business class. I called and no questions asked the reservation was cancelled, and the miles were back in my account while on the phone, with the taxes refunded to me within 3 days to my credit card. Could not have been simpler. Same for a segment with United.
It just updated the current passport and visa requirements. It could be an ‘automated’ email that goes out six months before the trip. It could be an indication that they really think the trip will happen. Or, it could be both. The trip requires a fair amount of ‘prep’, especially for those who have not done it before ... as you know. Getting visas and updated passports takes time and a bit of money, so I tend to think they would not be sending us down that road if they thought there was ‘little’ chance of the trip happening. I hope to get some use out of my TSA pre-check, and Global Entry ... although even with pre-check if you have knee replacements you are still treated like a suspected terrorist.
Hmmm, that raises two points. First, since we haven't been there in awhile I haven't been following it, but are either Kenya or Tanzania doing e-visas now? Secondly, I wonder, since travel has been so restricted by the gov't and COVID, I wonder if CBP will extend the date of expiration of our Global Entry? Figure the odds? We are the gov't and here to help.
They have extended Global Entry
Was reading somewhere today that Safaris may not get back to normal until 2024
You know I don’t think tours to East Africa will be going in June
Where did you see that? All I've seen is that the renewal grace period has been extended from 6 to 12 months due to the temporary closures of interview sites, but only to members who have applied for renewal before their expiration date. I'm sure that will go away sometime after COVID is gone and they have worked through the backlog. We just renewed last year so are good for another 5 years. What I was asking was have expiration dates been extended? I guess that is too much to ask of the gov't.
Mr. B read it on the Global website months ago, maybe things have changed. Membership was extended out an extra year. Airports are going to be so quiet when travel starts up again, it probably won’t matter if you can’t do Global entry. I wouldn’t care, just to be able to get on a plane and go sometime would be wonderful. Right now I’m about to take a walk in the miserable wet weather here.
Sam, yes, we can use Amex to get Global Entry.. I thought the issue was that they were not doing interviews. Some renewals will need another interview, some will not from what I have heard people have experienced.
British - I hadn't heard that re-interviews were required for renewals of Global Entry. I wonder if that is if people allow their old Global Entry to expire before renewing? If that's the case then you might have to re-interview. The last time I renewed, no re-interview was required. There is something similar to that for a driver's license. If you allow your old one to expire before renewing you may be forced to retake a test, and not just pay a fee.
British
2:01PM
Sam, yes, we can use Amex to get Global Entry.. I thought the issue was that they were not doing interviews. Some renewals will need another interview, some will not from what I have heard people have experienced.
According to a press release CBP says they are scheduling and doing interviews again and have improved the process so it will more efficient this time (sure, wanna buy a bridge?).
A little history:
Our Global Entry memberships were not due to expire until Feb & Mar 2020, However in May 2019 I decided to check the CBP website and learned we could have renewed 12 months prior to expiration, so, as they say, "out of an abundance of caution," we immediately applied for renewal. My application, dated 5 May 2019, was processed and approved, in about a week, on 13 May, without the need for an interview!!! My wife didn't get her Conditional Approval until 6 September!! For some reason (random selection?) never revealed to us, she needed an interview. Our nearest NC location is 5 hours away by car, but was booked up. They only release a months worth of appointments once a month and only a few weeks prior!!! Our nearest location is Richmond, a little over 3 hours away but they were booked solid as well. I was able to get an appointment for my wife at Dulles- 5 hours north of us. A bit later, I decided to give Richmond a call and was able to talk to the agent who told me when new dates would be posted, but, since appointments are centrally managed, I would need to cancel our Dulles appointment before attempting to book an interview in Richmond. I took a chance anyway, cancelled Dulles and a few days later, lucked out and got a Richmond appointment. Her interview was not until 2 December, however, but she got her final approval a few days later on 5 December 2019- 7 months after she applied!!!!!
I can't imagine what it will be like now! I wouldn't wait, I would apply at the soonest opportunity. Your CBP profile will say when the soonest date you can apply for a renewal- but should be 12 months, day-for-day prior to your birthday.
To the point made by British, I have read that it will take time (though I did not read til 2024) for safaris to get back to normal. What I have read is that it will take time for the animals to fully reacquaint to human interaction. I know that currently, many guides are going out just to help maintain familiarity with humans and safari vehicles. We are booked on K & T for July, 2022 and hope things are somewhat normal as far as the safari experience goes.
We have the Global Entry renewal interviews next week at DFW. Ours had expired July of 2020...no difficulty booking times, even back in December. We get emails from GOES saying we can do it upon arrival on our next international trip...we aren’t waiting to do that. Did not need an interview for 2015 renewal. This time we did!
I know British will say ‘no way’ for gorillas in August. We plan on seeing lions in June. We have canceled four trips in “that year”, but we are optimists. If I were not an optimist, I would never have made that first carrier landing, nor the hundreds that followed. As my recently departed friend and crewmember often said, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” We will travel again, and I think it will be sooner rather than later.
The Gorillas tour is so wonderful. The guides continue to visit the gorilla families daily, so there should be no problems for you. The trek is really tough because of the humidity and the altitude but we would go again in a heartbeat. Will you be able to go in August, who knows.
We thought this link was for Kenya and Tanzania and Sealord's future exciting trip! Discussion topics seem to change like the wind and get far off topic.
Comments
S35flyer- If you had full fare tickets, then by definition they are refundable. That’s why you pay more for a refundable ticket. It’s the non-refundable tickets that can be stalled.
Delta appears to be one of the better US Airlines to issue refunds due to the COVID-19 Virus. I believe KLM is in the same boat as Lufthansa with regards to being about bankrupt. As of today, it has been about 2 months since I initiated a refund request from Lufthansa and I still haven't heard a word or received a refund. In the meantime I initiated a charge back with my Credit Card about a month ago. They issued me a temporary credit, however, I still have a minimum of two weeks to go to receive a full refund. I will check back with them again and see where it stands. I feel I have a better chance of recouping my money with the charge back process. Also, Lufthansa is still in negotiations this week with the German Government for a $10 billion dollar bailout loan, should hear news soon as to what will transpire. Otherwise, Lufthansa is filing for bankruptcy protection. I hope it doesn't go that far and I don't know how that will affect all the millions of people with refund requests around the Globe. It appears KLM is about to receive some bailout funds so hopefully they can start processing refunds soon. What a mess. I did hear from another Tauck Member on this board that they recently received their refund from Lufthansa, however, their air was purchased thru Tauck, so I think preference may have been given to select vendors, not sure. Or perhaps the fares were fully refundable versus a non-refundable ticket as I believe fully refundable tickets will be given priority. I do know, from reading several blogs and posts on the Lufthansa Facebook page that there are many unhappy Lufthansa customers, many who have also been waiting 2 months or more for refunds and are being given canned responses or no response at all. So sad. Who would have thought a giant in the industry like Lufthansa could fall, but I guess all companies are vulnerable during this crisis.
Here is an article from today concerning Air France and KLM from Flight Global news source:
https://www.flightglobal.com/strategy/air-france-klm-targets-60-capacity-recovery-by-year-end/138269.article
The advantage of booking flights with Tauck is that Tauck are responsible for giving you money back whether they get the money back from the airline or not.
Sam your right. I read your post and wondered myself as originally they had wanted 900 to refund the tickets, that was back in their early April procedures. They were non refundable business class. We got them June 2019, so the details escaped me, I figured any two tickets for 14k were full fare, not true. Regardless the point is they changed policies and we got the refund no penalty.
We have just seen the money appear as a credit on our Amex card for Cancelled tickets. We were told it would take two billing cycles, but it has only been a week. We sure have a lot of money stuck on Amex for all manner of cancellations. Which of course is not a bad thing right now. Hello Amazon, what can you sell me today 🤪
And now, the rest of the story... we received a full refund from KLM. Nine weeks from the time I first requested the refund. It took a while, but I'm so glad to have refund and not a voucher. We have a Dream Saver voucher with Tauck, as they only gave us half of our deposit back. The voucher will expire 12/31/2021 so I sure hope it will be safe to travel in 2021.
Bobbette, that's good to know about KLM, thanks for the update!
We had booked our 3 of 4 flights for this departure through KLM Flying Blue, to use miles for business class. I called and no questions asked the reservation was cancelled, and the miles were back in my account while on the phone, with the taxes refunded to me within 3 days to my credit card. Could not have been simpler. Same for a segment with United.
We just received an email from Tauck with instructions and information for the June 26, 2021 trip.
Good luck Sealord. We are very jealous! Hopefully you can get Seth again.
You can't just leave us there!!! What did they say? (paraphrasing is OK
)
It just updated the current passport and visa requirements. It could be an ‘automated’ email that goes out six months before the trip. It could be an indication that they really think the trip will happen. Or, it could be both. The trip requires a fair amount of ‘prep’, especially for those who have not done it before ... as you know. Getting visas and updated passports takes time and a bit of money, so I tend to think they would not be sending us down that road if they thought there was ‘little’ chance of the trip happening. I hope to get some use out of my TSA pre-check, and Global Entry ... although even with pre-check if you have knee replacements you are still treated like a suspected terrorist.
Hmmm, that raises two points. First, since we haven't been there in awhile I haven't been following it, but are either Kenya or Tanzania doing e-visas now? Secondly, I wonder, since travel has been so restricted by the gov't and COVID, I wonder if CBP will extend the date of expiration of our Global Entry? Figure the odds? We are the gov't and here to help.
They have extended Global Entry
Was reading somewhere today that Safaris may not get back to normal until 2024
You know I don’t think tours to East Africa will be going in June
Where did you see that? All I've seen is that the renewal grace period has been extended from 6 to 12 months due to the temporary closures of interview sites, but only to members who have applied for renewal before their expiration date. I'm sure that will go away sometime after COVID is gone and they have worked through the backlog. We just renewed last year so are good for another 5 years. What I was asking was have expiration dates been extended? I guess that is too much to ask of the gov't.
Mr. B read it on the Global website months ago, maybe things have changed. Membership was extended out an extra year. Airports are going to be so quiet when travel starts up again, it probably won’t matter if you can’t do Global entry. I wouldn’t care, just to be able to get on a plane and go sometime would be wonderful. Right now I’m about to take a walk in the miserable wet weather here.
Isn't Global Entry free for you anyway with your American Express Platinum card? Might as well renew it for the five more years.
In two weeks I will book our XMAS Mkts flights!
Sam, yes, we can use Amex to get Global Entry.. I thought the issue was that they were not doing interviews. Some renewals will need another interview, some will not from what I have heard people have experienced.
British - I hadn't heard that re-interviews were required for renewals of Global Entry. I wonder if that is if people allow their old Global Entry to expire before renewing? If that's the case then you might have to re-interview. The last time I renewed, no re-interview was required. There is something similar to that for a driver's license. If you allow your old one to expire before renewing you may be forced to retake a test, and not just pay a fee.
According to a press release CBP says they are scheduling and doing interviews again and have improved the process so it will more efficient this time (sure, wanna buy a bridge?).
A little history:
Our Global Entry memberships were not due to expire until Feb & Mar 2020, However in May 2019 I decided to check the CBP website and learned we could have renewed 12 months prior to expiration, so, as they say, "out of an abundance of caution," we immediately applied for renewal. My application, dated 5 May 2019, was processed and approved, in about a week, on 13 May, without the need for an interview!!! My wife didn't get her Conditional Approval until 6 September!! For some reason (random selection?) never revealed to us, she needed an interview. Our nearest NC location is 5 hours away by car, but was booked up. They only release a months worth of appointments once a month and only a few weeks prior!!! Our nearest location is Richmond, a little over 3 hours away but they were booked solid as well. I was able to get an appointment for my wife at Dulles- 5 hours north of us. A bit later, I decided to give Richmond a call and was able to talk to the agent who told me when new dates would be posted, but, since appointments are centrally managed, I would need to cancel our Dulles appointment before attempting to book an interview in Richmond. I took a chance anyway, cancelled Dulles and a few days later, lucked out and got a Richmond appointment. Her interview was not until 2 December, however, but she got her final approval a few days later on 5 December 2019- 7 months after she applied!!!!!
I can't imagine what it will be like now! I wouldn't wait, I would apply at the soonest opportunity. Your CBP profile will say when the soonest date you can apply for a renewal- but should be 12 months, day-for-day prior to your birthday.
I renewed Global entry last year. Easy peasy. No interview..
To the point made by British, I have read that it will take time (though I did not read til 2024) for safaris to get back to normal. What I have read is that it will take time for the animals to fully reacquaint to human interaction. I know that currently, many guides are going out just to help maintain familiarity with humans and safari vehicles. We are booked on K & T for July, 2022 and hope things are somewhat normal as far as the safari experience goes.
We have the Global Entry renewal interviews next week at DFW. Ours had expired July of 2020...no difficulty booking times, even back in December. We get emails from GOES saying we can do it upon arrival on our next international trip...we aren’t waiting to do that. Did not need an interview for 2015 renewal. This time we did!
We are booked to see the Gorillas in August...what are the odds? Slim to none?
I know British will say ‘no way’ for gorillas in August. We plan on seeing lions in June. We have canceled four trips in “that year”, but we are optimists. If I were not an optimist, I would never have made that first carrier landing, nor the hundreds that followed. As my recently departed friend and crewmember often said, “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.” We will travel again, and I think it will be sooner rather than later.
The Gorillas tour is so wonderful. The guides continue to visit the gorilla families daily, so there should be no problems for you. The trek is really tough because of the humidity and the altitude but we would go again in a heartbeat. Will you be able to go in August, who knows.
We thought this link was for Kenya and Tanzania and Sealord's future exciting trip! Discussion topics seem to change like the wind and get far off topic.
An interesting article for K&T travelers
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/magazine/the-last-two-northern-white-rhinos-on-earth.html
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