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I picked the right time to start a travel company…

This has been a very difficult time for all of us.  The collective, global way of life has changed. Whether this is a small alteration or a major shift remains to be seen, but it is certainly not the 2020 we were all expecting.  With so much uncertainty, we are all being forced to reevaluate what our wants vs our needs are, and for a lot of us, we are facing a very real shortage of money, food, and weirdly toilet paper.  I have personally been put into a position to change a lot of my plans, both short and long term. I can’t offer advice on how to adjust to our current normal, but I can help with adjusting your travel plans.  So that’s something, I hope.  

During the months of March-May, I had five trips planned.  I have cancelled four, so far, and am waiting to see how May looks as we get closer.  When looking into the adjusted travel restrictions and constant changes that were being made by local and federal government agencies, I had to act quickly for some and spent some time deciding on the trips I had booked out in April.  My first adventure was going to take me to Southern California, to Disneyland, of course. I found out while I was in Portland that Disney had made the decision to close both the American parks, and with only 2 weeks until my trip, I knew they weren’t likely to reopen until after I was scheduled to go.  I had booked my usual hotel, the Anaheim Hilton, and since I always book direct with my HHonors number, I hadn’t prepaid, and had the flexibility to cancel as long as it was more than 48 hours in advance. One of the many reasons I always choose to, and recommend you also, book direct. They have since updated their cancellation policy to allow for previously changeable reservations, so rest assured, if you had a prepaid or unchangeable reservation during the pandemic, Hilton is doing their best to accommodate changes and cancellations.  I also booked my flight with Alaska Airlines, because they are my #2 choice in air travel, and they had a good flight deal. They allowed me to cancel my flight right from their website, and issued me a credit to be used within the year. Most airlines are currently allowing either 1 change or cancellation per reservation with no fee, but make sure you know which you would prefer before moving forward. This means that if you have a trip planned and you are unsure if you will just reschedule your plan or cancel outright, you will only be allowed to do one, without a fee.  If you choose, for example, to just reschedule, and then are in a position where the travel is then not possible, you will be unable to cancel without fee. I decided to just go ahead and cancel, rather than push it out for a later date. I am really glad I made that decision because Disney decided to just close the parks indefinitely rather than reopen in April, which was their original plan. That was one trip down, and three to go before I felt comfortable with my choices.  

The next was a spontaneous day trip I was taking to Portland with a friend.  We ended up getting tickets for $60 each, round trip, which is about what the gas costs from Seattle to Portland, and decided to live it up and fly.  As it got closer to our April 7th adventure, and things just kept escalating, we decided to just call it off. I am so grateful I decided to book with Delta instead of Alaska, because where Alaska gave me a flight credit, Delta just refunded my purchase.  The money was back on my card in 1 day, and I didn’t need to call or worry about a credit expiring in the future. I just went to the Delta website, signed in to my Skymiles account, found the trip(s) I wanted to change, and followed the prompts. If you have a trip booked through Delta and don’t have a Skymiles account, you just use your name and confirmation number and the steps are the same from there.  I next had to change our Las Vegas trip, which was booked through Delta Vacations. This allowed me to book the flight and hotel together, but because of that, it required me to process my cancellation through Delta Vacations instead of Delta Airlines. This was slightly more confusing for me, because the website listed my refund at only $60 instead of the full $650 I had paid. I had received an email about my upcoming trip letting me know it was possible to receive an E-Credit for my trip, but the website cancellation process didn’t indicate that.  I went ahead and trusted the information in the email, because due to the very large number of changes people were making, the website might not have been as up-to-date. I proceeded with the steps for cancellation, and after it processed and I had the chance to call customer service to sort everything out. Delta has the call back feature, which is so helpful right now while they are trying to help so many people. My wait time was listed at 90 minutes, and as fun as it would have been to listen to scratchy hold music, I opted for the call back. Once they got back to me, it was super easy to confirm that I was in fact going to be receiving a credit for my trip, and no harm done.  I also asked about a different reservation I had booked for a hotel through Delta Vacations and was unfortunately told it was through a third party site. This actually didn’t sit as well with me, because as I said, I don’t like to use third party booking sites for my travel. I wish it had been more clear that the booking wasn’t being processed through Delta Vacations, but now I know.  

I next had to cancel the trip I have been most looking forward to.  The Husband and I were supposed to be going to Tokyo at the end of April.  Neither of us have ever been to Asia, and we were so excited. I had even convinced him to go to Tokyo Disney.  Insert sad emoji. I had to cancel three different parts of the trip, the flights, which I had purchased with miles and cash, the Tokyo Disney reservations, and the hotel.  The easiest part was the Disney portion. I just went to their website, and cancelled from there. They are also waiving fees for reservations during the park closure and for at least a month after.  The money was back on my card less than 24 hours later, including the foreign transaction fee. Success. I then cancelled my hotel, the aforementioned “Delta Vacations” hotel, which processed no problem, but still hasn’t shown up on my card statement.  They did say it will take up to 30 days, which is understandable, so I’m willing to give it a bit more time. The flights ended up being the only complicated part. I was able to cancel my flight through the Delta website, but I couldn’t cancel my husband’s flight for some reason.  This is what prompted the call with Delta that I mentioned before. Because I book so frequently with Delta, I was able to use one phone call to resolve three different questions. As I mentioned, my flight was booked with Skymiles, plus the taxes and fees, and my husband’s ticket was a combination of miles and money.  Rather than refund the miles and issue a credit for the cash, they just gave me the amount of miles I would have spent had I booked both with miles, and refunded me the cash for the taxes and fees. This worked just fine for me, because I ended up with over 80,000 miles, and I have no worries that I’ll be able to put those miles to good use.  The refund showed up on my card in less than 24 hours and the miles were in my account within a matter of hours. Go Delta!!! 

I am still hoping to get back to my jet setting ways soon, but the health of our communities and all humans is more important, so until then, stay safe, and please, if you can, stay home.