Traveler creates Youtube video about requesting refunds

Link

Embed

Copy and paste this HTML code into your webpage to embed.

EUREKA, Ca (KIEM) – Many residents have had to cancel travel plans due to COVID-19. A man and his friends were going to travel to Europe but had to cancel, now they are facing hurdles when trying to get their money back.

Boston resident Zachary Clifford and his four friends purchased their plane tickets for Europe back in July of 2019. They then paid for transportation to and from each European country, as well as their hotels.

“My friends and I, we were going to Europe this Friday actually,” Clifford said. “So, pretty unfortunate. We were planning on going to Britain, France and Spain.”

It wasn’t long into 2020 before Clifford and his friends began to think about canceling their trip. Around February they began to pay close attention to the spread of COVID-19. Once it hit Italy and eventually the U.S., they began their cancellations and refund requests.

“Then as they got closer to Spain and we were like well we should probably think about canceling this or moving it,” Clifford said. “And then once President Trump declared in March no travel from Europe to America we knew we had to cancel at that point.”

When it came time to cancel, the group collectively decided to request money back from the most expensive things first. For them, that was the hotels.

“We knew that a lot of people would be canceling,” Clifford said. “And that hotels should be more lenient just because of what Europe was going through and what America was starting to go through.”

With the nearly impossible progress of requesting refunds from hotels and airlines, Clifford decided to share his lengthy but successful outcome through a YouTube video. He includes tips like calling the companies you booked with in the morning, so you can get a live person by lunch time and requesting to speak with a supervisor if all they offer is a credit.

“Just don’t give up,” Clifford said. “You just have to keep calling these companies, keep trying to give money back. Because like I said in my video, they only want to give you credits and you don’t know when you’re going again.”

In hopes that everything settles down, Clifford and his friends plan to reschedule this trip for next spring.