How we escaped from the coronavirus or tickets for 5 thousand dollars

EIf your phone rang at 2.15, you can be sure that bad news awaits you. It turns out that the chances of hearing something bad increase if you are an American traveling abroad during the coronavirus pandemic.

Travel ban from Europe to the USA and online booking

The voice on the other end belonged to our daughter, wanting to make sure my wife and I already knew that “President Trump just banned all travel from Europe!” But no, we didn't hear that, because we were fast asleep in a rented Parisian apartment where we spent a week, intending to return to New York only on Saturday.

Now, suddenly, our plans are in jeopardy. We turned on the TV and checked Twitter. In fact, the president appeared to be enacting a broad travel ban starting at midnight Friday.

I went online and desperately tried to change our Saturday flight to something earlier, but my attempts to rebook or cancel were unsuccessful. We called the support number, and in response we heard that the waiting time for a conversation with a support representative would be four hours.

Worried that we would miss the seemingly approaching deadline to return home, we started looking for new tickets - without canceling the old ones. It was immediately apparent that less than an hour after Mr Trump's announcement, crowds of other excited travelers were trying to do the same.

We pressed the button for booking a flight, but in response we saw the same inscription "no longer available." It was like trying to catch a firefly that hovered in front of you for a moment and then winked before you could grab it.

What remains available for booking are some strange connecting flights. For example, expensive 30-34 hour flights with airlines that we have never heard of.

All of a sudden there were economy class tickets for the same day from Paris to New York, but for several thousand dollars each. Because my credit card benefits allow 24 hour cancellation, I took the plunge and used it to buy two one-way tickets that combined cost over $5,000. We figured that if we could eventually get better terms by changing our old tickets, we could still get our money back for these new ones.

As soon as I hit the buy button, there was an update on CNN news: President Trump's travel ban does not apply to Americans in Europe, only foreign nationals. Exhaling, we tried to cancel the booking we had just made - and quickly found that it was impossible!

Online cancellation options were either not available or just didn't work, and waiting times to connect with airline representatives were now up to six hours. in you and tourist rights. My credit card customer service line wasn't inspiring either, with music constantly playing for two hours before shutting down.

Unsuccessful attempt at the airport and flight home

We have chosen the last available option, a real quest game: get to the airport and try to cancel your booking in person through a ticket agent. We packed our things, assuming that if our scheme did not work, we would have to decide on the spot whether to fly this plane and decisively end the situation.

After 45 minutes of a taxi ride, we were at the Charles de Gaulle airport. Stepping inside the airport, we stared at an incredibly long line of passengers who were hoping for help from a ticketing agency. It was obvious that in the hours it would take to finally get to the customer service desk, our flight would be over.

We discussed what to do. Looking back at the growing chaos that seemed destined to intensify in the coming hours and days, we swallowed hard and pulled our passports and "golden" tickets out of the bag. The airport employee who checked our things said we weren't the only ones. He explained that he had just learned from a passenger that he bought tickets online this morning and paid as much as $20,000 for three economy class tickets, and is now trying to cancel the booking.

After hearing this story about someone else's problem more serious than ours, we waited for the boarding announcement for a flight to New York, climbed the plane's ramp and joined other exhausted Americans who wiped the armrests of the seats with disinfectant wipes. Sitting in our seats, we involuntarily wondered if it was really safe at home now ...