Holidays, trips & travel 2020

[smalex]

Ooh! Our (un-amendable) hotel reservation in NYC just got cancelled! It was £850 so I'm really pleased. Just the flights to sort out now.

[Ella77]

Good news!

[smalex]

It's so wierd to be thinking: YES my holiday is cancelled

What a year.

[Ella77]

It really is. We’ve had a small refund from our US car hire, but we’re still waiting for the flight refunds. And now the Italy trip is definitely off, so we’ll be trying to get refunds for those flights as well (with the usual caveats that I don’t want the airlines to go bust, but ).

[smalex]

Is that the wedding trip? What a shame...but equally... thank goodness...

I hope you get the money back asap. I don't mind putting a hold on the flights so we can book again for next summer (when they release the flights) but the risk of them going bust is such a concern, so I do want the money back really... which I know just makes it more likely they go bust, but y'know. It's nearly two grand! It's a lot of money (to us)

[Ella77]

That’s a lot of money full-stop.

Yes, they’ve cancelled the wedding. I feel very sorry for them, but honestly it’s the first mild adversity either of them has suffered really ever, so I think they will be ok.

[smalex]

It must be heartbreaking but at least it can be done in the future. So many things people are missing are gone forever.

[Ella77]

Definitely.

[Estrella]

I’m glad you’re getting refunds. It’s all so up in the air. We were lucky with both trips we booked to be refunded straight away (but we were only talking hundreds rather than thousands).

I’ve just booked us to go away in July school holidays and also a break between Christmas and New Year. Camping obvs, since we invested in a caravan and have only managed to use it once due to Covid.

[Dandelion]

I was meant to be flying to Rhodes this morning with my best friend, but obviously am not!

Tui did process our full refund back to us yesterday though. That can sit in savings until we are ready to book Vegas for next year.

A caravan will be amazing to have where you are, Est. All the beaches and national parks! Glorious.

[Ella77]

That sucks, Dande. I’m sorry.

Yesterday BA promised me a refund within the week for our Italy flights, which sounds too good to be true! I didn’t have any luck with the official refunds number, which kept dumping calls, saying there was nobody to take them, so I went back in through the menu and just did my usual thing of pressing * repeatedly until I was put through to a human .

[happyhighlandcoo]

Our Greek hotel for August has cancelled on us this week. I swing from being sad as I really wanted to go, it is beautiful with a private pool and garden for our honeymoon but then I'm relieved as it was a lot of money and I thought we might end up losing out if Greece opens up again but quarantine could make things tricky for us with work etc. Still got flights and another hotel booking to think about as we were doing a multi-island trip. We'd still go if Greece is open and they do the air bridge thing, depending on case numbers at that point.

[AshleyX]

Fingers crossed for your refund, Ella! We were meant to be waking up in Crete for our first day of a fortnight today. I keep torturing myself by looking at the (perfect) weather . We got vouchers from BA for the flights and are hopeful we might be able to go September instead, but we’re not booking anything. We hadn’t got round to booking accommodation so that was handy.

Which islands were/are you going to, Coo? Hope you get there!

[Ella77]

I’m sorry you’re missing Crete. It all sucks.

[AshleyX]

Thanks, Ella! It really does. And I know I’m one of the lucky ones in lots of ways. I can’t wait to get our lives back, for all of us in every way, big and small.

[happyhighlandcoo]

Sorry to those missing holidays right now. Rhodes and Crete both sound very lovely.

We are/were going to Athens, Paros and Santorini. Now not sure whether we'll go because of the whole wedding/honeymoon thing.

[AshleyX]

Oh, Coo. That sounds wonderful. A honeymoon trip is all the more special to (potentially) miss. I hope it all works out.

[Estrella]

I was meant to be flying to Rhodes this morning with my best friend, but obviously am not.
A caravan will be amazing to have where you are, Est. All the beaches and national parks! Glorious.

I’m sorry for your missed trip.

That’s exactly it. Summer and winter are such different holidays but so perfect in every way. I’m just about to book a third trip for September holidays to Noosa for some beach time. Winter is in the country - greenery and camp fires and bush walks. And our summer holiday is on the Sunshine Coast on the shores of a lake, so paddle boarding and lovely national park walks.

[Ella77]

Wow, I’ve had my BA refund already, and I only spoke to them on Friday! I’m very impressed with that. Still nothing from Virgin, who we spoke to in March .

[smalex]

That's very good!