In January and February many DansDeals readers grabbed what seemed like the deal of a lifetime, tickets to Israel for under $300 round-trip.
Now that seems like a lifetime ago.
When Air Serbia started cancelling flights, several DansDeals readers were able to either change flights without paying any difference in fare or get a refund.
But now Air Serbia has changed their flight times, which broke many valid connections from Tel Aviv to JFK and removed flights in both directions from their schedule.
For example while August 3 and August 5 were previously valid returns from Tel Aviv to JFK via Belgrade, they are no longer viable due to schedule changes.
The flight from Tel Aviv on August 3 leaves at 7:10am and arrives into Belgrade at 9:10am. However the flight from Belgrade to JFK now leaves on August 3 at 7:50am, which causes the flight to be cancelled. The next available flight is on August 5 at 7:50am, so if you are willing to take a 46 hour connection in Belgrade you might be able to convince Air Serbia to book you on that.
The flight from Tel Aviv on August 5 leaves at 2:35pm and arrives into Belgrade at 4:35pm. However the flight from Belgrade to JFK now leaves on August 5 at 7:50am, which causes the flight to be cancelled. The next available flight is on August 7 at 1:15pm, so if you are willing to take a 45 hour connection in Belgrade you might be able to convince Air Serbia to book you on that, but then you would arrive at 5:15pm on a Friday.
The good news is that schedules are still very much up in the air and flight times and dates will still be changing. Plus, we don’t even know when Israel will start allowing foreigners into the country.
Personally, I’d just sit tight and see what happens instead of taking a refund now.
What have you done with your Air Serbia tickets?
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23 Comments On "Air Serbia’s New Schedule Causes Tel Aviv Flight Cancellations, But Don’t Rush To Cancel"
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@Dan thanks for having us in mind, I haven’t done anything since, as I am not sure yet what I want, in general is there any rush to ask for a refund or respond to their emails?
Hi Dan I bought 5 Ticket for late July with Azerbaijan Airline
do you have any idea what are they plan ?
is there any website i can see what about resuming flight to from US ?
I requested a refund from trip.com 2 weeks ago and still have not received it though. They said that due to COVID-19 there are a lot of cancellations and refunds are taking much longer to process. I’m hoping to just wait it out and eventually receive the refund. There were just too many variables involved (including the possibility that Air Serbia might not even survive this pandemic) that I wanted to just get back my money. I didn’t want to schedule a nee flight way down the line because at this point nobody knows what will be in a week or a month from now. Anything could change at any time. Who knows what my schedule or the airline schedule will look like in a few months? It was just too uncertain for me.
I had a flight for May, was waiting too long for trip.com to proceed refund do I disputed charge which I won.
What will happen if refund goes through?
Same for me. I got the money from the dispute
i called Air Serbia and they pushed taking a refund… I was too freaked out by how frantic things seemed and took the refund. Chase said it would take 30 days to post but posted within 6 hrs
Under Israeli law might the airline be required to offer alternative routing based on a change of more than 5 hours to arrival time?
Flights in August were cancelled. I’m waiting at least til the end of June before doing anything.
I have personal experience with Air Serbia canceling a flight.
They were horrible to deal with.
They are well aware of TLV route cheap tickets and they have no reason to be accommodating.
I tried to dispute my 5 tickets on Air Serbia for Pesach with my Citibank Mastercard (costco) and they just denied the dispute to my shock. I may challenge the decision but JustFly, who I booked through, said I can get a refund through Air Serbia (but when I called Air Serbia they said they are not dealing with any tickets purchased through a agency). Will wait a few more days to see what happens with JustFly but feeling I’m going back to Mastercard to raise hell…
Ok, that makes sense – I guess we’ll sit tight and wait 🙂
I just found correspondence in my spam from Air Serbia saying my flight Belgrade to Tel Aviv on August 4 was canceled and another email that my return flight om August 25 has been updated (although it seems to say the same time as before).
Any advice on how to proceed??
Does anyone have any updates on this? Is there still a chance that Air Serbia will change back their schedule? My flight is August 3.
Yep, I wonder what will happen to my money I paid. Anyone opt in for a refund and how did that go?
I opted for or refund. Flight was cancelled in May…. still waiting
I’m in the same boat. Outbound flights cancelled, return flights “updated”. What the consensus on how to proceed?
Are you willing to take a longer layover in Serbia?
How much longer of a layover?
I booked with trip.com, I received notice that my flight was cancelled (early may) I called trip.com right away to request a refund, I am still waiting for it… has anyone who booked with trip.com received their refund yet?
I had a May flight with Air Serbia thru Trip.com that was canceled. I waited to see if they would fly again in August. That’s not likely so I requested a refund today. Trip.com talked about a refund or a voucher. I sent them an email that DOT of the USA mandates a refund if requested. We’ll see what I get.
Hey, I just got an email that my flight was canceled, but I can reschedule for any flight up until June 2021, and if there is a fare difference, they won’t charge extra! 🙂
where did you book? I booked with chase Ultimate reward points & they told me today that I would need to fly before November 30 2020 with the same routing in order to not pay fare difference. Prob is they do not have any flights w the same routing! Not before nov 30th or any othr dates i tried!
Bought a couple of tickets with Chase UR points, anyone had luck lately changing these tickets or getting refunds to UR points?