It goes without saying that 2020 has been off to a rocky start. Over the past few months we’ve seen a completely drop off in demand for travel. This is of course because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also because many of us are under some sort of stay-at-home order (except Sweden). As a result, no many people are eager to fly anywhere right now. It’s also unclear when people are going to be willing to fly again. With that, nearly anyone with scheduled travel plans have either moved their booking to a later date or canceled.
My Upcoming Travel Plans
I’ve personally ran into this exact concern myself. Earlier this year I booked some fairly extensive travel plans for June and July 2020. Those plans include a Qatar Airways trip from Philadelphia to Kyiv and a British Airways trip from Paris to Chicago. I booked those flights back in early March before the U.S. saw any European travel restrictions. However, even now, I’m wondering if I’ll take these trips over the Summer.
Even if it’s ‘safe’ to travel in June, do I want to put myself at risk? Also, if American waives elite status requirements, do I even want to take these trips? The answer to both of those questions, right now, is no.
While I know that I probably won’t take either of those trips, I’ve held off making any changes just yet. I have no interest in canceling either trip because both trips were a great value. Instead, I’d like to push these trips into 2021 to get a head start on earning elite status next year. However, I still don’t know what American plans to do in regards to elite status requirements. So, I’m going to continue waiting until June when I actually have to make a decision.
Qatar Airways Sort Of Sent Me A $100 Travel Voucher
In many ways, this patient approach has already paid off. I called American Airlines in early March to make travel changes to a trip in April and was told that I wasn’t eligible for a cash refund. I called back a week ago and because American’s schedule changes I became eligible for a refund which arrived a few short days later.
My patience was again rewarded by Qatar Airways this week. Early in the week I received an email from Qatar Airways which notified me that “a travel voucher is on the way.” When I saw that in the subject line of the email I assumed my flights were canceled and Qatar Airways was providing a travel voucher to use at a later day. However, when I opened the email I was surprised to find the following message.
As a way to thank you for your recent booking, we are offering you a travel voucher of USD 100 to be used for your next trip between 1 June and 15 December 2020.
We will email your voucher number within 48 hours of completing the first flight of your original trip.
From the message, I was surprised to find that Qatar Airways is potentially giving me a $100 travel voucher. I was also surprised to find that this voucher is contingent on me taking my original flight.
Final Thoughts
I have to give Qatar Airways credit for being creative. Offering ticketed passengers a $100 travel voucher is a creative way to keep people from canceling or changing upcoming flight plans. If I end up sticking to my originally planned flights, it’s nice to know that I’ll pick up an extra $100 in future travel credit. However, I’m not really sure $100 is enough to convince me to stick with my original flights.
In the case of the Qatar Airways flights, these were booked as part of an American Airlines elite status mileage run. If American waives its elite status requirements in 2020, I won’t need to fly these this year to qualify. Instead, I’d like to move these into 2021 to get a head start on next year. Even if I don’t know that answer come June, will I feel like it’s safe to travel? I’m not sure. In that case, I’ll probably try to move these to later in the year anyway.
So, while the $100 travel voucher is a nice and creative gesture, for me, it’s not enough to convince me to stick with my original plan. However, I’m going to hold off making any changes until later this year. Hopefully by June I’ll have a better idea of what American is going to do and a better idea of when it will be ‘safe’ to travel again.
