Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with my upcoming travel plans. In February, I booked a trip with Qatar Airways from Philadelphia to Kyiv in business class. The trip represented fantastic value, but also was an incredible opportunity to fly in Qatar Airways business class again. Even better, this trip included flights on Qatar’s 777 with QSuites, 787, and A320 with lie-flat seats. Simply put, I was very much looking forward to this trip from a flight review perspective.
I was also looking forward to the actual trip itself. I’ve never been to Ukraine, so I was excited to visit and explore Kyiv. This trip also included two 18+ hour layovers in Doha, which is a city I’ve been excited to revisit.
Since this was a trip I actually wanted to take, I didn’t want to just cancel my itinerary. Instead, I wanted to rebook everything as originally planned, just a year later. So, I’ve tried to wait to make any changes to my upcoming trip so that I could book flights in late April or early May. Unfortunately, Qatar Airways had other plans.
Qatar Airways COVID-19 Flight Cancelation
A few days ago I received an email that Qatar Airways had canceled my flights between Doha and Kyiv. Following the email I logged into my Qatar Airways account and noticed I no longer had confirmed flights. Instead, I only had the option to cancel my existing trip with a few options. Specifically, Qatar Airways gave me three options.
- Call Qatar Airways and rebook my trip, as originally planned, for a later date.
- Cancel my trip and request a full cash refund.
- Cancel my trip and request a travel voucher for 110% of the original price paid.
As I looked through the options I was originally going to go with step 1 and just rebook everything. Then I realized that I could only do this by calling Qatar Airways which would result in long hold times. Since I didn’t want to wait on a phone hole, I decided to just cancel my trip.
When canceling I then had to decide if I wanted a travel voucher for 110% of the original ticket price or a full cash refund. After a few minutes, I decided to go with a full cash refund.
Why I Want A Cash Refund
Getting 100% of my ticket value back in a voucher would have been a decent deal. In this case, I would have received about $150 of extra value. The issue with a voucher is that I only have a limited time to use it and I have to use it with Qatar Airways. There was also a possibility that my future trip would have cost less than the voucher, leaving me unused value anyway.
By getting a refund I can go back to the drawing board and use the cash I get back to book another trip. In fact, Qatar Airways is still offering great prices between PHL and KBP, so I could actually book the exact same trip for the same price.
Getting cash back also gives me an opportunity to take advantage of a better deal in the future. Perhaps when things start opening up again Qatar could offer even better prices on ex-US flights. In that case, I could actually end up saving some money.
Finally, I wanted my cash back because of the time value of money. I didn’t want my money sitting with Qatar Airways for a trip that might not happen for a while. Instead, I could put that money back into my bank account and earn interest on the savings. It’s always better to have cash in your account working for you than with an airline giving you nothing in return.
Final Thoughts
While I’m sad that Qatar Airways canceled my upcoming trip, I’m excited to be getting all of my money back. My hope is that over the next few months I’ll find some incredible flight deals that represent even better value than the trip I originally booked. If all else fails, I’ll hopefully be able rebook my original trip at the same price in the future.
Now, the real question is how long it will take for my cash refund to arrive. So far it’s been about 3 days and there have been no updates from Qatar. I usually expect to receive cash back from a refund within 14 days so I’m hoping Qatar Airways will stick to that timeline.
