Holidays, trips & travel 2020

[Loralei]

If it were deemed to be safe how do you feel about going? Or is it too early to have clear feelings on that?

It's a bit early for me but P is adamant he doesn't want to go. We'd be self catering in a tiny apartment block (four apartments) on the edge of a smallish town, so we could avoid other people fairly easily, but I can't imagine it would be enjoyable or relaxing so I'd really rather save the £4k. P is going to call and see if they'll give us a credit note for the £250.

It makes sense to go for the refund, Flora. It doesn't look as if you get any preferential treatment as someone with an existing booking so better to have the flexibility. I hope the wedding cango ahead though; poor people.

[Pippedydeadeye]

I think we’re going to try & postpone our Mallorca break (mid July) to next year. It’s booked as a package, but with Ryanair flights, so there’ll definitely be a cost to pay. The next payment is due in about 10 days.

[Derek Nimmo]

Easyjet were utterly useless when I tried to cancel my flight to Israel in March (no response to any emails) as the country had gone into lockdown way before us, and I'd have only been allowed in if I'd quarantined for 14 days. For a 5 day trip :woteva: It just wasn't feasible.

Then they cancelled the flight and told me (via email) that I should just rebook for later in the year. Well (a) I don't think that air travel will be feasible by then and (b) they don't fly to Tel Aviv from Gatwick over the summer and don't reopen bookings til late Autumn, so I had no way to rebook even if I wanted to.

So I got Amex involved and it couldn't have been easier. Wish I'd just called them in the first place for advice, well worth doing if you've booked by CC I should think Smal.

[smalex]

That's difficult Flora, I hope you can get a refund (and yes, hope the wedding can go ahead!).
S still harbours a small hope we can go, but I'm also not sure how much we'd enjoy it, probably worrying until the last minute that the situation might worsen and it'll all be cancelled (looking forward to it is half the joy for me), or that things will worsen while we're there so we've spunked £8-9k and ended up kicking our heels, not being able to do the things we wanted to. I said we'd have to check out the terms of our insurance very very carefully anyway, to ensure we'd be covered if we happened to get it out there, because we'd be bunkrupted within a few hours if we got ill and needed to seek care. But if we don't get the flight money refunded or option to change, then it's £1800 down the toilet anyway (plus another £800 for an un-cancellable hotel reservation). I do wish it were taken out of our hands for certain, then we could just pursue a refund and know what we're doing.

Thanks Del! The CC company are my biggest hope tbh.

[Ella77]

I said we'd have to check out the terms of our insurance very very carefully anyway, to ensure we'd be covered if we happened to get it out there, because we'd be bunkrupted within a few hours if we got ill and needed to seek care.

I really agree with this being the most important consideration. I think you will get your money back by one route or another, it just might be a slow process.

I've said on another thread that I have flights to go to a wedding in Italy in July. The wedding hasn't been cancelled yet, and I'm selfishly hoping they find a way to postpone it massively. I'm so sorry for the couple involved, but I really don't want to feel forced to go to Italy this July for the sake of family harmony. There will be people flying in from all over. It just doesn't seem safe.

[smalex]

It seems implausible that Italy would allow people to jet in for a wedding from all over the place, before they've, for example, got their kids back to school. They've got their priorities right out of kilter if they do.

[Derek Nimmo]

I'd still contact the hotel as well Smal, they may well be open to a credit note for a postponement given the current circumstances - if not, fair enough but I think some companies are trying to maintain goodwill as well as cash.

[smalex]

I'd still contact the hotel as well Smal, they may well be open to a credit note for a postponement given the current circumstances - if not, fair enough but I think some companies are trying to maintain goodwill as well as cash.

I'm sort of hoping so. I feel like I need to be able to say 'look, the flight is cancelled / none of your tourist attractions are going to open, so is it possible to get a credit note?' but it feels too far out to be able to engage in that kind of conversation yet. Who can say if the hotel will still exist next year (or, if it would feel any better to go next year, even?!) but it would be better than just waving goodbye to it.

[Ella77]

Yes, one hotel refunded me in full even though it was a non-refundable booking. I didn't even ask! I will definitely use those guys again one day (I hope).

[Jupiter]

We were supposed to fly to Chicago at the end of March with Aer Lingus. The flight wasn't officially cancelled as they were still flying US citizens home. We were not given an option of a refund at all. We got a choice to rebook for later in the year or take a voucher with an additional 10% on top. We took that option and the voucher arrived last week. It's valid until 2025 so we are happy enough with that.

[Princess Morripov]

Yes, one hotel refunded me in full even though it was a non-refundable booking. I didn't even ask! I will definitely use those guys again one day (I hope).

The hotel we were due to stay at in a couple of weeks did the same, I genuinely thought I’d have a battle on my hands but they were very proactive and rang mid-March and just confirmed they were refunding in full. Actually due to exchange rates I weirdly made £100 profit on it all too

Our flights were with Ryanair and I’ve had an email yesterday confirming the flights are now cancelled (May 9th & 16th) and they surprisingly gave me the option for a full refund as well as just rescheduling.

I have flights to Nice in June that so far EasyJet are asking me to rebook and British Airways are making out they will still be going then.

My brother has cancelled his wedding too but they’ve managed to shift to the same weekend next year. I’ve managed to cancel the accommodation we’ve booked for then and should get a refund in the next month or so for that.

Overall I’m not sure I want to go anywhere abroad until this time next year at the earliest, I feel really odd about the whole thing to be honest.

[Ella77]

I made £50 extra thanks to the £ tanking again .

I feel really odd about it too. I usually live for holidays, and like smal, love planning them, so right now I'm really missing that.

[Princess Morripov]

Me too. I love having holidays to look forward to and once I’ve booked something I love then spending time booking restaurants, fun things to do, etc, and coming up with a bit of an itinerary so it’s quite hard just having nothing. Just nothing to do or plan.

[Derek Nimmo]

I'm finding that aspect really tough too. Maybe I should start planning for my next big ends in a zero holiday in a couple of years time

[smalex]

We had lots to plan this year, it does feel like we're just going to be treading water until we can make firmer plans. We do have a trip to Cornwall planned in October half term with my family. Staying in a cottage with my parents, next door to my sister and BIL (staying in BILs parent's holiday cottage). It feels like it would/could be a fairly safe thing to do, but I guess it depends what the advice is about seeing grandparents/travelling within this country etc. I really hope we can go.

[Princess Morripov]

It’s our tenth wedding anniversary next year so we were thinking maybe we should just start thinking about something ridiculous for that to keep things going, perhaps just start looking at places/ideas (and not actually book anything). I quite fancy going away for a few weeks when we do eventually get to go away to make up for my lost mat leave and all the holidays we would have gone on.

I am going to put all the refunded money aside and also put away what we would have spent on the holiday we were going to go in in October so that can go towards the budget for something bigger next year, or 2027 or whatever.

[sally maclennane]

I'm finding that aspect really tough too. Maybe I should start planning for my next big ends in a zero holiday in a couple of years time

I was planning to go to NY for mine (in 3 years time) but I'm sure the orange twat will be reelected so now I'm not so keen

[Derek Nimmo]

Most of the residents of NY would be as horrified as you at the re-election! I'm thinking Vancouver and Seattle, Orange Arsehole notwithstanding.

[kiwi]

I am also missing the holiday planning lark, it's the thing that has got me down the most in all of this. Well, the only thing really tbh, I can live without seeing people.

We've got a rescheduled from March trip booked for Oct/Nov, I'm mentally preparing for that to be postponed again until after Xmas.

[Luce]

I'm desperately trying to stem my sadness about holidays because, ya know, but I'm so, so sad. Mostly for the kids who have been really excited about Mexico. F has known for a while that it's off but I only told Theo today. He took it in really sadly but didn't make a fuss or anything. It's just like he's kind of used to sad news now and it makes me want to throw myself on to the floor and wail a bit.

It wasn't that long ago that T and I decided we needed more holidays to plan and look forward to. Nothing huge, little weekends here and there. We managed one of them, it happened the weekend before we went into quarantine. The rest are all cancelled. We have our health. But it's sad.