TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Cancel, Delay or Postpone

Sadly...my guess is that the U.S. will not be on that list....but we will continue to hope!!!

My wife and I have our 16th charter in the BVI scheduled for late May and early June. My charter company will allow us to reschedule but I have elected to postpone the decision. Things may change significantly in the nest 6 to 7 weeks. We plan to wear masks and use eye protection on the travel days, if we are allowed to travel. Once the two of us get on the boat, I feel safe.

We are keeping ours in place for late May/June at this point too — but I am thinking that the US response to this pandemic will not encourage them to allow us in...wait and see I guess...and hope for a positive turn.

There has been some legislation put forth to try and identify who is from where...

https://bvinews.com/advanced-passenger-information-legislation-being-introduced/

I think this is the gazette story Peter was referring to. At the very least it has the list of restricted countries (US included).

It will likely require a login which is free and easy to get.

No login necessary, Jason. Thanks. I wonder what percent of BVI tourism is from these countries...

I can say 100% of our guests. I'd guess the top 5 in order are: US (including PR and USVI), UK, Canada, France, Germany

Looks like Quebec is going to start relaxing its economy measures in the next couple of weeks as they are on the downward slope - a number of other Canadian provinces also seem to about to reach that point - Air Canada and WestJet have also rehired most of their staff - the Canadian government is offering a wage subsidy of 75% of preexisting wages and $2,000 a month for any unemployed people.

The US is probably the worst in the world at this point. I'm from the US and I wouldn't let us in if I were them. I have a charter end of June, so we shall see.

Agree ^^^^

This thread's getting a bit unwieldy too navigate but I'll add my 2 cents. This topic of charter trip cancellation has been discussed here and on other forums that I follow. I'm posting as this may be helpful to others.

We also have a charter trip planned in late June - but not to the BVIs - I'm posting here because the BVI forum is charter oriented. Our charter is with one of the largest international management firms. We were fortunate in that the firm modified their cancellation policy a bit for us with some significant urging and special arrangement by me - they've allowed us to defer our full payment to 30 days out. Alteratively, we can cancel at that time with a relatively modest fee. I was happy with that alteration and feel that its reasonable.

Of course, the stated alternative - available to us and everyone - is to simply reschedule later in 2020 or hold a future credit. Unfortunately we can't reschedule (coordinating a few families) and I'm unwilling just to bank a credit as I'm not a lender and that's what banking a credit effectively means - nothing more or less. Its a horrible alternative.

What I find interesting - for whomever is interested - is that the daily rate that we originally booked our trip at - has fallen since our original booking - that's not that surprising really. I think that's relevant and others who are in similar situations might want to investigate that as well. I've not brought this up with the charter firm. Frankly, other than this quick look, I think its somewhat irrelevant as I think its highly unlikely we'll be taking our trip given virus closures, etc. In our case, we had also intended to visit several countries as a part of this itinerary which is also a complicating factor.

Hope my thoughts are helpful to others with trips scheduled in the June/July timeframe.

I just filed a dispute with the credit card company for a May trip as I don't want the counter party risk with a charter credit...

Sorry?? 'counter party risk'???

sorry...the risk that the charter company will declare bankruptcy.

I just want to get cash back and reset as we did with Irma...

OK, makes sense to me.

Hey Bailau - I'm curious as to how this works out for you so if you don't mind reposting the results here, I'd appreciate it.

For what its worth, I'm anticipating significant fallout in the charter mgmt and boat ownership industry - much greater than any issues due to hurricanes, etc - I fully understand your lack of desire to hold a credit - otherwise known as an unsecured loan without interest.

I will let you know...the charter company is not happy about me filing a dispute with the credit card company and wanted me to unwind the dispute to give me a future credit. To be clear the base has been closed in this case so they have cancelled. They have some time to appeal the dispute but really don't have grounds. I was trying to find out if the charter company's business interruption insurance would cover this...and from my view this is no different than Irma.

I also have Jet Blue counter party risk but the flight has not been cancelled yet and Island Bird risk and interestingly a couple of Stubhub suites for Capitals games. I expect Stubhub to declare bankruptcy at some point soon and then will have to work through suite owner or Caps. Issue here is NHL is "postponed" and not cancelled

On the other side I have guests for my beach house in NC that have counterparty risk with me. For them I told them if they cant get to my house due to regulations for whatever reason they will get a full refund and if they want to come back next year that is their choice

I do think the economic 2nd wave will be far worse than the pandemic wave and very much hope and pray I am wrong...

BVI is closed to Sept 2nd for anyone but BVI Islanders and residents per this article..

https://bvinews.com/no-entry-for-lo...OIvQG3JTW4RPwTBKSAK2K27Khm5cxM46GVxjIKkg


"For three months after June 2, only BVIslanders and residents will regain access into the territory. But, Premier Andrew Fahie said access will only be granted under strict conditions."

you need to apply with 7 days notice to be allowed entry on the flights into EIS

I have a charter with Sunsail end of June, which was already rescheduled from April 24. At this point I feel like they should have to give refunds. It's not right if they keep stringing people along with reschedules during hurricane season or far out in the future.

Also shouldn't have to let them keep thousands of dollars as a credit for a year.

It's my understanding that credits for future bookings is a kind of industry standard; flights, cruises, hotels etc; for us all to pull together to keep people & companies solvent for the future. These companies will have a black hole in their income/ trade which is completely irrecoverable.
it's your choice I guess to go for a refund if you want, that's understandable.

It is a very difficult time for everyone. Loss of personal income, risk of charter insolvency, borders/flights closed, risk of future travel and many other factors in these unknown economic and personal health issue times. I agree we all must do our personal best to stick together but we all have individual perspectives. Some may be able to weather the storm while others may not. Multiple crew members also impact charter plans as the need to address multiple perspectives. I will personally do my best to support the industry but struggle with immediate and future plans.