"I have a flight in two days. How can I be sure that it will take place?" Many tourists are asking us this question. A lot of us hope that the planned vacation will pan out until the very last moment, but we may end up disappointed.
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If we have booked flights and the airlines do not cancel them, will we go on holiday?  If they restore connections and they are available on the airline's website, will they actually take place?  If online check-in is already possible on the airline's website, is this a flight guarantee?  Such questions are now being asked by a lot of future and, in many cases, would-be tourists.  

But the short answer to these questions is this: nobody today knows anything and thus nobody can guarantee that any flight will actually take place. 

Empty promises in announcements 

It is true that the airlines are announcing that they are resuming connections.  Some of them were already planning to do so in early May.  Ryanair is talking about July, Wizz Air about June.  LOT is resuming its intra-Polish flights in mid-June.  But as you can read in the news, what the airlines are actually announcing is a plan to resume, not an actual resumption of connections.  And that everything "depends on EU guidelines and restrictions and availability of airports". 

Because one thing has not changed since the beginning of the pandemic: we do not know when the restrictions will actually be lifted in the countries to which the carrier wants to fly, and for some of them when the flight ban will be lifted.

Two simple examples of how an announced flight may end up amounting to nothing:  LOT had flights available on its website a few days ago for the whole month of June, but had to cancel them until the middle of the month due to the government postponing the opening of borders. As a result of the regulatory uncertainty, many airlines are routinely postponing their flight dates. 

Pandemia koronawirusa. Do ostatniej chwili mamy nadzieję, że zaplanowane wakacje jednak wypalą, ale może nas czekać rozczarowanie. Na zdjęciu: Lotnisko Roisy, Paryż, 12 maja 2020
Pandemia koronawirusa. Do ostatniej chwili mamy nadzieję, że zaplanowane wakacje jednak wypalą, ale może nas czekać rozczarowanie. Na zdjęciu: Lotnisko Roisy, Paryż, 12 maja 2020 Fot. Francois Mori / AP Photo

There is still no guarantee that the ban on international air traffic will not be extended even further. 

Second example.  Ryanair announced last week that it is restoring the route network (i.e. that it has such a plan) from July 1, yet this week the company is already cancelling some flights because there is no interest in them.  And one of these flights concerned Greece, which is already opening its borders. 

If the carrier cancels a flight, we are not in a terrible position - at least we know where we stand and we will obtain a full refund.  But readers have written to us that, for example, the Wizz Air flight is due in a few days, and the carrier has not cancelled it yet.  As it turned out, the ban on flights from Poland was not to be in force on the days of the flight, but it was a near formality that it would be extended. Unfortunately, the government decided on it overnight.  So the flights could not take place, but the travelers learned this at the last minute.  Such situations can be repeated - every flight is essentially still under question almost till the moment you walk on the tarmac. 

The situation is even more dire for passengers who are to fly outside Europe in the summer.  The ban on flights outside the Schengen area will probably be lifted last. 

For example, one of our readers was supposed to fly to California with KLM in August.  But she doesn't want to - there are still many cases of infection there.  The flight is not cancelled and there is no information about whether it will be.  Our reader is lucky - KLM has just announced that flights booked before April 22nd can be exchanged for a voucher.  Passengers who booked after 21 April will now only get this option if the flight is cancelled.  Unfortunately, contrary to EU law, KLM does not offer money refunds. 

But the voucher is not an ideal option either.  - I don't want to postpone the flight until next year, because I don't know if the epidemic will still be there.  I also don't know what prices will be in a year's time and whether I will not pay extra for the trip,' she says.  If she chooses a cheaper direction, will he get the difference back?  No one is able to answer these questions now. 

So if you are tempted to buy a ticket, it is simply not worth it at the moment.  It can take a very long time to get the money back, and there is a good chance that the airlines will discourage us from doing so by the cumbersome procedures, hoping that we will abandon the process along the way.

***
Every day, 400 journalists at Gazeta Wyborcza write verified, fact-checked stories about the coronovirus pandemic for you.

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    Funny, article in English based and referring only to Polish measurements.
    już oceniałe(a)ś
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    I had flight booked to Warsaw with LOT in April, still no sign of return the money...
    już oceniałe(a)ś
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