The final payment for our July trip to Iceland is due this week. We have flights and hotels reserved, including visits to our son and my brother on our way home. There are a couple of days in Reykjavik before we get on a brand new Ponant ship, Le Bellot. And the tour operator says they’re planning to operate the trip. Iceland is even planning to ease restrictions on international travelers by mid-June.
We’re not going. Even if they get permission to sail, the flight from Portland to Reykjavik is currently not operating. It looks like the “eased restrictions” would give us the choice of proving we’re COVID-19-free on arrival or quarantining for 14 days (which is longer than the trip). And neither of us is ready to fly yet.
Luckily, the tour operator offered us the choice of moving our reservations to 2021 (or even 2022) at no penalty (in fact, they’ll give us a $300 credit) – it wasn’t a hard choice. We haven’t quite figured out what to do with the various airline tickets – we might get a refund from Icelandic if they don’t reinstate the flight from Portland before our scheduled departure, but all of our domestic flights are likely to operate, so we’ll have to settle for credits for those segments.
We’re still looking forward to seeing Iceland – just not yet.
Shabbat Shalom!
Good luck with getting the cash refund from Iceland Air. Our flights in April were cancelled and our credit card chargeback was denied after pushback by Iceland Air claiming erroneously that it was a voluntary cancellation on my part (at least that’s the sense of the explanation I got from Chase). I gave up (and never got around to filing with the US DOT) and took the voucher offered which is good for several years, but only if Iceland Air is still in business.
I expect to take the voucher since we’re planning to do the same trip next year, but cash is always better unless there’s a sweetener for accepting a voucher.