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!