Our summer vacation got cancelled. We pretty much knew it had to happen but were waffling on a final decision because of the money already spent. Then my brother and SIL’s flights from the UK were cancelled by the airline because his arriving/departing airports (NOLA/Nashville) are not one if the 13-14 airports travellers from Europe can fly direct into currently. The airline cancelling meant they got a full refund instead of a voucher which they would have got if they had cancelled themselves.
I cancelled the VRBOs and one hotel the same day. 2 were within the free cancellation period. The NOLA had a no refund policy but I think is refunding part of the $800 deposit. I’m not sure how much because the email I got said one number and the VRBO site says another. The host was not at all communicative so I’m not sure how the amounts were arrived at. The amount in the email was rather random. The amount on the VRBO site the difference looks like VRBO’s service fee which will leave me unimpressed by VRBO if it is the case (the site says they will refund service fees for trips through May 31 that are cancelled - ours was 2 weeks later).
Looks like I will be out between $330 - $450 depending on which number is accurate and including, ironically, the cancellation insurance which turned out to be a collosal waste of money.
My brother already received his refund from BA. I have yet to see any of my refunds. The VRBO site said it would take a while because if the volume of cancellations. They said up to 4 weeks which seems ridiculous to me.
I knew it was inevitable but it is still depressing. It is so rare for the 8 of us (me, H, brother and SIL, son and daughter and their spouses) to get together. I’m hoping next year. I’d like to be able to rebook all the same places as I had researched them so much and loved them. Out of curiosity I’ve been looking at availability and saw the NOLA one almost doubled their nightly rate which would put it out of our price range.
I do hate the thought of going 2 years without seeing my brother. Were getting old! Unfortunately it seems inevitable right now.
@swimcatsmom, I was getting my husband a biking trip to Italy for his 60th bday which is this summer. I paid about $1,000 for trip insurance, which I don’t normally buy, because the trip was so expensive. Of course we’re not going, and it was a waste of money too… but I still think it was important to have.
We may or may not plan for the same trip next year. Right now we are in “wait and see” mode.
I may have already posted this on this thread, but we have a biking trip to Vermont planned in October, and we are hoping to make that one, which will be a long drive from our house, but doable in a day.
ETA - I’m sorry your trip didn’t work out. It’s particularly sad because you rarely get together. I know it’s a lot of work to plan trips like that, when there are multiple couples/family units top around.
My travel experience yesterday- Nashville airport was so empty. All parking lots closed except terminal garage. $$$$. About 90% compliance with mask request in the airport. Limited security lines and spaced people out for distancing. Boarding (Southwest) in groups of 10- spaced out. Almost everyone on plane had masks. Plane was spotless and the only thing I really touched was the seatbelt and then I used hand sanitizer. Short flight. JAX airport clean and uncrowded.
Big hitch was rental car counter. They have laid off so many people. There was one guy for both Avis and Budget and a line of over 30 people. There were two stations with plexiglass shields but this guy was not at one of them and he wore not mask. No hand sanitizer in sight and he was touching everyone’s paperwork, licenses and credit cards. Not good. Some people in the line removed their masks. Glad to clear that place!
Quick stop for a business visit to one of our company locations. No masks in sight- not required here by Order and we have not yet put in our requirement for masks at all locations. Plexiglass shields at check outs and markers for distancing. Felt oddly normal.
Grocery store trip in FL was my first in several months since my husband does the shopping. Most customers masked and all employees. Felt OK- not crowded. This is not a hard hit area.
Condo complex is uncrowded and the unit is immaculate with all the new cleaning protocols posted. No one has been here in several weeks since private rentals aren’t allowed yet.
Beach is uncrowded- at least so far- and lovely. I needed this trip and was willing to take some risks.
So, we got the first half of our cruise refunded, threw it down as part of our downpayment on the pop up, and we pick up our little (emphasis on little) slice of nature this week. Thankfully, we saved most of our stuff from our other camper, so we need minimal accessories.
We head to our cousin’s farm to give it a test run in a few weeks, and then we’re staying in state for a week and will probably get in another weekend in state in early fall. It’s not vacation I’d envisioned, but frankly, none of this is what I’d envisioned, so I’m rolling with it, and I’m actually more content now. Hm…
One thing I will say: this pandemic is teaching us what is more important to us…
There were more people on the plane than a few weeks ago. Still staggered seating and AA gave out goody bags with water and fig bar since they are not giving out beverages in flight. Cute! I am in Dallas for a connecting flight. Almost everyone on mask. Otherwise, it looks normal. Many people flying. I will se what rental car counter looks like in a few hours.
I should be in French Polynesia right now on a sailboat. Still fighting with Air Tahiti Nui for a refund of 7 tickets. The sailboat charter company is just giving a credit voucher for a future trip. I’m not ready to rebook yet as once I rebook I would be restricted to the regular cancellation policy unless they had to cancel me again.
We booked a campsite in a Northern Ca state park for late August yesterday. We will also book a site for right before Thanksgiving once those dates open up. Both those trips we will meet up with D and her husband. The reservation site was only booking beginning of August as first available dates.
I’m lucky that my home is a great place to vacation in place.
@swimcatsmom
It is true that VRBO is taking 2-6 weeks to refund people, I have cancellations which I approved as soon as requested and that’s been a couple of weeks. The money is already in my bank account (because I am qualified for early payments, not all hosts are) so it’s not even money in VRBO accounts, it’s money in my bank. They still have not debited me and other hosts have said 2-6 weeks. I, personally, would prefer they take it immediately as, psychologically this whole time of cancellations and refunds is painful and I’d just like to be done with it.
Also, it is standard VRBO policy that guests are only refunded VRBO fees if the host refunds 100%, but in these COVID times, you might give VRBO a call and ask for special dispensation on that. I am not sure if you are better to call now or wait until you see how much you get.
I am still waiting for the refund of the deposit on my refundable hotel reservation. I canceled the reservation a month ago, and they said it would be up to 30 days. OTOH, Alaska said it would take up to 6 weeks to process our refunds, but the money appeared in our account in a week.
Just checked in the hotel. It was good to see the receptionist use hand sanitizer after serving each guest.
The connecting flight was also painless, staggered seating, a little more full.
My rebtal car experience was nothing like MomofWildChild’s. Iit was quite empty. They were still in the process of putting up plexiglass barriers. Not every booth was open.
I’m not being critical…just wondering how you are able to manage this travel.
Just curious. Are you traveling for business? Around here…I can’t think of one business that is allowing public transportation for business trips of any kind…and this includes for essential work.
Plus…in our state, every time you travel OOS, you get to quarantine for 14 days when you return (exception for HCWs and other first responders who are doing work related travel).
My DHs Company has also asked that their employees take no OOS personal trips. Since the office is reopening on a limited basis this week, anyone who has traveled OOS on a personal will be asked to WFH for 14 days (but like I said…our state has this anyway).
My kid arrived on Sunday from OOS…no public transport…came in the car alone. She is will be self quarantine for 14 days.
My husband’s sister, the one who struggles with undiagnosed mental illness, called and said she wanted to visit. I was listening to the phone call with my husband. I could hear him saying, “OK, when?” Ack. I jumped in and said, “You have to tell her that if she comes she has to quarantine in our house for 14 days.” I wouldn’t have been happy if she’d agreed to those terms, but I knew she wouldn’t. So now she’s decided she’s going to visit extended family in Canada. Uh, I don’t think she can, and I told DH, but that’s all I will say.
@MaineLonghorn - That’s more generous than I would have done. I would have said 14 day quarantine in a hotel and then allowed to come to the house!
We just went through this with family members who wanted to travel through 7 states to visit a medically fragile relative. Thankfully the family they were traveling to see said they’d have to quarantine somewhere else until they were allowed to see the ill person. They cancelled.
@momofsenior1, good point. I will remember that if someone else wants to visit. Our house is full, anyway, with all three kids home. I will broach the subject with DH later today after he’s done working.
I think there needs to be a realization that much of the country is not affected the way the northeast is. The county to which I traveled (and am right now) has only had 60 total COVID cases. The county in which I live has no current COVID hospitalizations. Precautions are still being taken- masks on grocery employees and many customers, social distancing etc.- but it just isn’t the same environment throughout the country.
Even though we have VERY LOW prevalence rates in our state, we are all still being very cautious as we don’t want to anyone to infect anyone else and start a bad chain of infected people.
My H and I are talking about rescheduling our sailing trip for this same time period next year. We have a huge credit with the charter company that we will lose if we don’t go somewhere. It’s hard to imagine planning for a year from now but I think the longer we wait the harder it will be to get the boat we want. They are going to have everyone who they canceled plus those who were planning on going next year. We can book anywhere the charter company works but I think we will try again for Tahiti.
We also have a companion ticket on Alaska that I need to look into the expiration date and if they are extending that. We had planned on using it for Hawaii.
And a nice shout out to Delta Airlines. About two weeks ago, they granted us a refund and said it could take up to two billing cycles to receive it. It was complicated by the fact that the credit card used to purchase the tickets (and therefore the one where the refund had to go) had been hacked…account closed…new number issued.
The credit appeared on the bill we received today! Wow! That was quick. And funny, we owe no money on that account so in bold face caps it says “do not pay anything on this account, you have a credit”.
Almost $800 credit. We would rather be going to the graduation this week…but at least we got our money back.
Thanks for the information @somemom . Very useful. 2-6 weeks is a long time. I think I’d be less anxious if I was more certain what the NOLA refund is going to be. Or maybe not. There is a fair amount of money out there and I’d like it safely in hand.
Interesting about the service fee. I was wondering why the 2 other properties that offered full refund up to a certain date just refunded the lot including the service fee. All the more reason to avoid booking a non refundable in the future. Having said that, the only reason I would have expected to cancel is if something had happened to one of us old fogies in the group.
I feel bad for the hosts. They must be being hit hard. My hope is to rebook the same properties. Possibly not the NOLA one as her price almost doubled so is out of our price range. Hoping maybe that’s a temporary thing because she doesn’t want to rent out right now. Or something ?