Having to reschedule holiday

[shabbadoof]

Hi all

Our dog this week has been diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer and so will be starting chemo in the next week or so.

We have a 2 weeks holiday to Disney booked in early November so am now looking at moving it.

I spoke to ATD on live chat tonight who told me to email a specific address which I’ve done asking if we can move our holiday from November 19 to September 2020 and stay at Coronado springs resort so will see what they say.

In regards to the flights I’m not sure what to do.

We booked direct with Virgin Atlantic and the tickets are Economy Delight.

Am I best off ringing VA and cancelling the flight and see if I get a refund OR do nothing until the middle of October and then ring then and ask to move the tickets to September 2020 as I can’t do it now as the flights are only on there until mid August at the moment.

Any help would be greatfull, head is totally spinning here!

[sprocket]

Firstly sorry about your dog, i love dogs.

You maybe able to move the Disney booking, but VA is a different story. If it was a VH package you may have success, but a flight only booking you will hardly get anything back, if anything at all. Changing your tickets to next year will cost a small fortune, expect a 4 figure number for the family.

Travel insurance will be tricky, but some do cover cancellation if your pet requires life saving treatment. But they may argue that as the treatment will be well under way, then someone else can help. This all depends on the travel insurance company you have and how it would interfere with the holiday.

Another option maybe to look for a good dog minder. Some really good ones will look after the treatment while your away, costs more, but far far less than you will pay VA to change your dates.

Sorry, I dont want to say this, but as a dog lover I have to. These are just my feelings. You said its terminal bladder cancer, so wouldnt it be far more humane to let him/her go now, rather than suffer through chemo. Chemo is horrific enough and a dog doesnt understand. Im only saying this as you said its terminal, so Chemo will only increase life a short while extra. If you do go ahead, please please research about the side effects they will have while going through this. It will be very traumatic for your family to watch.
Either decision will be extremely hard to make and nobody wants to make either one.

[nsign]

we have just gone through something similar, but with our cat. We were due to travel out beginning August and about 2-3 weeks before he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his front leg, resulting in him needing his leg amputated and for a few weeks after, constant care and frequent trips back and forth to the vets.
I had done a DIY trip - BA flydrive, Disney hotel and park tickets via ATD. We found out that our Travel insurance wouldnt cover it, but we did have pet insurance with very limited cover.
Anyway i rang round the suppliers, told them the situation and checked our options. they were surprisingly understanding and helpful.
Deciding factor was our flights - we had to take them within 12 months of booking them which for us was May. We have re-arranged it for next Easter (tied to school holidays). BA transferred our booking and even wavered some amendment charges to keep the cost down - we paid 1 fee + car hire amendment fee rather than 4 fees which i was most grateful for. Disney moved our hotel booking from August to April, meaning we had to pay the difference and similarly with ATD, they took back our 2019 Disney tickets and re-issued 2020 tickets, albeit at the difference in cost.
All in all, haven't lost out massively, just had pay difference between this years costs and next years with a premium for Easter and a few amendments fees, so it could have been much worse, which i was expecting when we first found out the bad news. We would have lost more cancelling than we will have to pay to alter.
I would suggest ringing your suppliers and find out the options and tell them how upset you are . If you happen to speak to a pet lover you may get lucky as i think that helped with BA.
Hope it works out - PS we got 2 cats, 2 dogs and a rabbit so know how special pets are - part of the family. And when you see our cat now getting around on his 3 legs, you realise we made the right decision, even if it was questioned at the time. Good luck

[shabbadoof]

Originally Posted by nsign

we have just gone through something similar, but with our cat. We were due to travel out beginning August and about 2-3 weeks before he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his front leg, resulting in him needing his leg amputated and for a few weeks after, constant care and frequent trips back and forth to the vets.
I had done a DIY trip - BA flydrive, Disney hotel and park tickets via ATD. We found out that our Travel insurance wouldnt cover it, but we did have pet insurance with very limited cover.
Anyway i rang round the suppliers, told them the situation and checked our options. they were surprisingly understanding and helpful.
Deciding factor was our flights - we had to take them within 12 months of booking them which for us was May. We have re-arranged it for next Easter (tied to school holidays). BA transferred our booking and even wavered some amendment charges to keep the cost down - we paid 1 fee + car hire amendment fee rather than 4 fees which i was most grateful for. Disney moved our hotel booking from August to April, meaning we had to pay the difference and similarly with ATD, they took back our 2019 Disney tickets and re-issued 2020 tickets, albeit at the difference in cost.
All in all, haven't lost out massively, just had pay difference between this years costs and next years with a premium for Easter and a few amendments fees, so it could have been much worse, which i was expecting when we first found out the bad news. We would have lost more cancelling than we will have to pay to alter.
I would suggest ringing your suppliers and find out the options and tell them how upset you are . If you happen to speak to a pet lover you may get lucky as i think that helped with BA.
Hope it works out - PS we got 2 cats, 2 dogs and a rabbit so know how special pets are - part of the family. And when you see our cat now getting around on his 3 legs, you realise we made the right decision, even if it was questioned at the time. Good luck

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Thanks for your reply

I’ve spent most of today emailing back and forth with ATD and we have now moved our booking to September 2020 staying in all star sports instead of Coronado springs. The reason I had to downgrade the resort was because all that was left at CS at that time is preferred took which meant moving it would cost me around £1500 because I am having to move the holiday so late in the day I had already lost 50%

ATD have been great to be fair and even added a complimentary £100 as well so I only have around £600 difference to pay to move the resort/ park tickets to 2019/2020

Will deal with virgin Atlantic in October when the September flights come online and I can move our booking.

I’m not sure how it’s going to go with claiming the reschedule with holiday insurance (I’ve used virgin money) but will give them a call tomorrow to see.

Needs to cancel car hire next, I suppose there isn’t anything I can really do about universal tickets is there?

[Guest]

Originally Posted by shabbadoof

Thanks for your reply

I’ve spent most of today emailing back and forth with ATD and we have now moved our booking to September 2020 staying in all star sports instead of Coronado springs. The reason I had to downgrade the resort was because all that was left at CS at that time is preferred took which meant moving it would cost me around £1500 because I am having to move the holiday so late in the day I had already lost 50%

ATD have been great to be fair and even added a complimentary £100 as well so I only have around £600 difference to pay to move the resort/ park tickets to 2019/2020

Will deal with virgin Atlantic in October when the September flights come online and I can move our booking.

I’m not sure how it’s going to go with claiming the reschedule with holiday insurance (I’ve used virgin money) but will give them a call tomorrow to see.

Needs to cancel car hire next, I suppose there isn’t anything I can really do about universal tickets is there?

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If you haven't activated the Universal tickets (in the gate in Florida) I'm pretty sure they are exchangeable (for a small fee) to a later year.

Who did you buy them from?

[Taffy1959]

Originally Posted by shabbadoof

Thanks for your reply

I’ve spent most of today emailing back and forth with ATD and we have now moved our booking to September 2020 staying in all star sports instead of Coronado springs. The reason I had to downgrade the resort was because all that was left at CS at that time is preferred took which meant moving it would cost me around £1500 because I am having to move the holiday so late in the day I had already lost 50%



ATD have been great to be fair and even added a complimentary £100 as well so I only have around £600 difference to pay to move the resort/ park tickets to 2019/2020

Will deal with virgin Atlantic in October when the September flights come online and I can move our booking.

I’m not sure how it’s going to go with claiming the reschedule with holiday insurance (I’ve used virgin money) but will give them a call tomorrow to see.

Needs to cancel car hire next, I suppose there isn’t anything I can really do about universal tickets is there?

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Sorry to hear about your dog and hope all will be ok.
We had to cancel our holiday a few years ago and had booked all our park tickets through Florida Escapes.
I emailed them explaining the situation asking if I could exchange them and pay the difference for the following year.
They agreed to this with no problem at all.

[shabbadoof]

Hi all!

Well I'm back with a slight update

In a week or two we would have been ringing up Virgin Atlantic and asking to move the flights to early Sept 2020 from November 2019, paying £300 moving fee + price difference

HOWEVER

This morning I got an email from VA and our flights have now moved 3+ hours from their original times (this can be a mixture of departure and arrival flight) and so I am now entitled to a full refund (which I have claimed) and can re-book for Sept 2020 without paying the 'changing flights' fee and without the pressure of having to have something rebooked before we were due to fly at the start of Nov 2019!

Just wanted to share this in case it helps anyone else in a similar situation!

[ClaireNJ]

Originally Posted by shabbadoof

Hi all!

Well I'm back with a slight update

In a week or two we would have been ringing up Virgin Atlantic and asking to move the flights to early Sept 2020 from November 2019, paying £300 moving fee + price difference

HOWEVER

This morning I got an email from VA and our flights have now moved 3+ hours from their original times (this can be a mixture of departure and arrival flight) and so I am now entitled to a full refund (which I have claimed) and can re-book for Sept 2020 without paying the 'changing flights' fee and without the pressure of having to have something rebooked before we were due to fly at the start of Nov 2019!

Just wanted to share this in case it helps anyone else in a similar situation!

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Great result pleased for you
How’s your dog doing

[shabbadoof]

Originally Posted by ClaireNJ

Great result pleased for you
How’s your dog doing

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Hi Claire

Thanks for asking, he's doing OK so far in himself. He's lost a bit of weight so the vets are telling us to double feed him, so some for the tumour and some for him basically.

He's 2 rounds of chemo so far and is due another this Friday. It's amazing how dogs react to chemo with next to no side effects from it. He feels a bit groggy afterwards and then the next day he acts like nothing has happened.