Traveling is different these days: what should you pay attention to when planning a trip

International travel restrictions, border closures and flight cancellations are just a part of the whole set of circumstances that make it extremely difficult to plan any trip these days. However, the consequences of such limitations and travel disruptions are often even more unexpected – and therefore more difficult to foresee when planning any journey.

An even more lax approach in difficult times by passengers regarding their rights along with the lack of coordination and proper dialogue between businesses in the travel sector and government legislators already resulted in ’left-behind’ situations with millions of passengers who have suddenly realised that they probably aren’t the government’s top priority in these difficult times. That, in turn, tended to result not only in travellers having extremely limited opportunities to defend their rights or even to return home when their journey is disrupted.

The crisis has affected everyone

Ultimately, it not only results in situations where they are forced to change their travel plans, but also in significant losses on their parts when a certain traveller is not able to recover money for the trip that did not take place. And while airlines and travel agents are already unanimous in blaming the authorities for movement restrictions, sometimes in an attempt to reduce their long-term losses, they are also often inclined to sell travel at a very attractive price to or from a destination, where these restrictions are already in place and there isn’t any prospect of lifting them yet.

So, anyone planning even the most necessary travel these days is often faced with the dilemma of whether it is worth trusting a carrier that is seemingly selling tickets for a trip that is already doomed to be cancelled, and whether it is worth accepting the carrier’s offer to postpone the trip or change the travel’s date rather than demanding a refund – even knowing that refunding is currently an extremely difficult and complicated process?

What should you think of when planning a trip these days?

Although we have repeatedly mentioned that every similar situation is unique, and the final decision still belongs to the traveler himself, based on our experience, we always call for an assessment of a few additional circumstances that a rare traveler thinks of.

First of all, this crisis is unlikely to last forever, and once it is over, the desire to travel wouldn’t be gone, to say at least. To justify this assertion, it is worth to mention that both the International Air Transport Association and the market research giant Oxford Economics, in their respective scenarios for the travel sector’s recovery, have predicted a sharp jump in demand for travel and international flights as soon as the pandemic will be taken under control and current travel restrictions would be lifted.

The only question that remains is whether we will face recovery by next summer or should we have to wait longer. As for businesses in the travel industry, while trying to survive the crisis, virtually any one of them is also in preparation for such a rise in demand and will certainly have something to offer to travel-hungry customers. And while it is likely that the ticket prices will also go up with an increasing demand, those who will be able to take advantage of the trip purchased during the crisis and postponed to a later date – without any additional fees and price difference applied – are probably even able to win in the long run.

We are always ready to help you

Second, even if you are an experienced traveler, you should spend much more time planning your journey today than, for example, a year ago. That’s because nowadays you should evaluate your flexibility in terms of travel dates and even if you are flexible enough, your main priority no longer should be the price, but to the overall likelihood that the trip will take place at all. Plane tickets, which are bought the night before the flight, aren’t much more expensive than the ones which you have booked in advance. Not anymore.

Finally, we want to remind you that the turmoil in the whole market has opened up new opportunities for even more effective, comprehensive and all-encompassing passenger rights defending which we are pleased to ensure. We have already mobilized our resources and took the advantage of our experience to help travelers in situations where earlier there was almost no need to get in a fight with any air carrier.

That’s right: we are referring to our new Ticket Refund service here as it is already available to any traveler who wants to get back the full amount paid for his or her plane tickets. If you are faced with such a situation and are not satisfied with the carrier’s options for rescheduling or taking a travel voucher, fill out our short form and we’ll get in touch with you very soon!

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