DEAR TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER: My wife and I were scheduled to go on an Overseas Adventure Travel cruise to the Dalmatian Coast and Greece this spring. OAT canceled the trip because of the coronavirus. It offered to either rebook another tour and receive $500 per person or receive a full refund.

Christopher Elliott, the Travel Troubleshooter ...
Christopher Elliott, the Travel Troubleshooter 

We chose a refund. Two weeks later, an OAT representative called and said they “changed their mind.” No refunds would be available. We could either rebook or get a voucher.

Although I have sent many emails and have had three subsequent phone calls, OAT will not give us a refund. We are hoping that you can help us get our $30,000 back.

— John Gardner, Lakewood, Wash.

ANSWER: I’m sorry that Overseas Adventure Travel canceled your cruise. I think you and your wife would have had a great adventure in Italy, Croatia and Greece. OAT did the right thing by canceling your cruise. It wasn’t safe to travel.

But your case has absolutely nothing to do with coronavirus. OAT sent you not one, but two emails offering a refund. You accepted the refund. Case closed.

You can’t revise an offer like that. Once you put it in writing, you have to honor it.

Now, that’s not to say I’m unsympathetic to OAT’s position. Like other travel companies, it’s facing an apocalyptic event. The cruise industry is particularly hard-hit by all the COVID-19 cancellations. I can understand why it would prefer to offer you a voucher.

But a deal’s a deal. You could have appealed your case to someone higher up at Overseas Adventure Travel. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of the executives at Grand Circle Travel, which owns OAT, on my consumer advocacy site, Elliott.org. A brief, polite email to one of them would have probably shaken a refund loose.

And if that didn’t work? I might have contacted your credit card company. OAT’s email offering a refund would have made your credit-card dispute an easy win. Alternatively, you could have filed a case in small claims court, although you would have had to limit your claim to $5,000.

I contacted Overseas Adventure Travel on your behalf. It refunded the $30,000, as promised.

If you need help with a coronavirus-related refund, please contact me. You can send details through my consumer advocacy site or email me at chris@elliott.org.