it saddens me to no end, but i have to cancel my Island Hopper trip next month because a big work project sprung up. and again, yes, i do work 😉
while the Island Hopper flights themselves didn’t make it to my bucket list, it’s just a damn cool way to cross the Pacific. what did make my bucket list, though, is Palawan. doesn’t it look gorg?
alas, i was hoping to take time off since El Nido only gets a handful of hours of electricity a day, but even if i could have workationed from there, this project is so intense i’d basically never see the light of day anyways, so i might as well stay home. luckily i thought ahead and booked fully refundable accommodations, but the flight was $960.90.
i’ve (luckily) never had to cancel such a big trip before so i’m not sure how best to proceed. unfortunately, you’d think with all of these flights at least one would have had a schedule change so i could use that loophole, but NOPE. basically i see four options:
- just be out $960.90 (ugh)
- hope for a schedule change in the next 3 weeks, or a last-minute travel waiver (c’mon storm!) at which point i can hopefully cancel with full refund
- use the funds — minus a $300 change fee (ugh, but i guess better than $960.90) — for another trip, maybe towards a Thanksgiving-week-ish trip to Chiang Mai for Loi Krathong
- give the trip away like that guy who needed a woman with the same name as his ex to travel with him [warning: autoplaying video] — heck, whatever other Jonathan Khoo out there will even get a free night (and massage!) at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Honolulu (which i won in a contest) on the overnight there on the way out! (i’m assuming this is a legal option?)
i’m thinking about a combination of 2 and 3 — wait until the last minute for something that would give me a refund, and if not, the night before, just rebook for that trip to Thailand? i looked at options earlier today and it would be about $500-600 to change the flight, including change fee.
sigh. any advice from y’all out there?
also: happy new year!
Use the funds for another trip, m’dear. At least you won’t be out the entire amount. I’m not sure if you have to book that trip immediately, or if they will ‘hold’ the refund for you (I think they do).
Don’t feel so bad. I just made a contribution to the Vietnam Airlines plane fund for booking from the wrong city!
yikes!!! 🙁 i saw you ask, i think, about the 24h cxl policy for them recently :((
when it draws closer to the original travel date i’ll see if they can hold the refund amount — that way i won’t feel so pressured into making a travel decision i might regret later (and have to pay another $300 to fix!)
Thanx for the article and amazing info you have in your blog.
I didn’t need to cancel a trip right now but the article worth reading coz who knows what future holds.
Thanx for sharing and Happy New Year.
I sympathize with your pain. I have a similar problem where I booked flights for my ex-bf and me. One of them I lucked out since they schedule changed and refunded me full amount to credit card. The other one is on Etihad so either I can get credit in his name which will be 260$ fee when using credit + fare difference. So still trying to figure that out. 🙁
aargh :(( i’m glad you were able to schedule change out of one of them!!! 🙁 good luck with the etihad!