MORE EXPENSIVE FLIGHTS
Another agency, Super Travels, is helping about 180 customers with bookings over the next two weeks, as their travel plans remain uncertain.
The agency is offering affected customers the option to cancel their trips with charges, postpone their holidays, or switch to a different destination.
It issued an advisory for tours scheduled to depart on Emirates or Qatar Airways before Mar 15, including waiving administrative fees for those who want to postpone or travel to another region. The agency is monitoring the situation for those scheduled to fly from Mar 15 onwards.
However, making alternative arrangements has proven challenging.
Flights that avoid the Middle East can cost up to four times more, and refunds for destinations outside the Middle East are not guaranteed.
“The difficulty is that a lot of carriers at this point in time are already fully booked,” said Super Travels Group vice-president and director William Huang, who is also a member of the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS)’s outbound committee.
“Maybe I can get one or two tickets on Singapore Airlines; maybe I can get one or two tickets on Finnair. But if you want me to get a group of 20 tickets, I think that's quite impossible at this point,” he added.
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