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My vacations keep dropping like flies. You may be in the same position if you had a summer full of trips using miles and points.
Summer 2020 Changes
I already posted about how we had to cancel/postpone our trip to Universal and Disney World that was scheduled for end of May and early June. It’s a bummer, but we’re not really losing any money at this point.
Since the Olympics were pushed to 2021, my daughter and I will no longer be attending the gymnastics Olympic trials in St. Louis. I canceled our hotel, and Hyatt immediately refunded my points. I’m hoping to get a refund for the event tickets. or attend next year on the new date.
In mid-June, my son was going to a sports camp at a popular college a few hours away. My entire family was going to meet up with him at the end of the camp for a campus tour and an overnight stay in town. A few days ago, the University canceled all student activities for the month of June. His camp was rescheduled for early July, which is when we had a short trip to Cancun already scheduled.
We decided to cancel our trip to Cancun. Canceling the hotel was no problem, but it looks like we’ll be stuck with some airline vouchers that we will need to use (book flights, not fly) by the end of the year.
We still have an August trip to Denver on the books and a September trip to Boston for the Laver Cup. I doubt either trip will happen, not because I don’t think people will be flying by then, but because I think the events will be canceled. Update: The Laver Cup was canceled for 2020.
And now, all of a sudden our summer is pretty wide open!
2021 Changes
These trip changes in 2020 aren’t happening in a bubble. We already had plans for 2021 that will need to be pushed or canceled.
We currently have a big cruise planned for spring break next year. I’m not feeling great about cruising right now (see this post). Unless we hear of some major air filtration improvements and plans from the cruise lines soon, we will likely cancel that cruise. Plus, we may decide to use our airline voucher to schedule a different trip for this time period.
We had been tentatively planning a trip to Paris and Switzerland next summer with miles from our recent new Chase United Explorer Mileage Plus cards. But, we now have a Disney/Universal trip rescheduled, as well as possibly a new trip to the Olympic trials and/or a rescheduled Laver Cup. So, we may need to put Europe on hold.
I Haven’t Stopped Dreaming….
All of these postponements, cancelations and uncertainties haven’t stopped me from researching and dreaming about future trips. I know it may be a while before we get back in our travel groove, but I must stay positive.
How about you? Are you still dreaming of your next vacation and planning for future travel?
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
Just curious, why did you cancel Cancun? Why didn’t you wait to see if they cancel you so that you could get a refund?
@Talchinsky My son’s college camp now happens at the same time, so I know for sure we won’t be going to Cancun. I haven’t officially canceled our flights, but I’m playing chicken with the airline. So far, Sun Country has only waived fees for flights through May 31. If they don’t extend that, and don’t cancel our early July flights, I’d have to pay $200 per person (X5) to use the funds for different flights. That almost negates the value of our flights. But if I cancel prior to 60 days, I can get a voucher for the entire amount with no change fees. Of course I’d love it if they just canceled the flights so that I could get the cash back, but these flights are seasonal routes that don’t start up until the summer. So far, they haven’t been canceled.
My Rick Steve tour for Easter Europe was just cancelled on Monday by RS (out of my control). I had padded the tour with side trips to Germany and Switzerland for a total of 24 days. I am just in the process of cancelling (as of this morning, it appears I am able to cancel my Delta One RT tickets (one way SD=>AMS and one way AMS=>SD) and get my miles and fees all back. I definitely want to rebook for June 2021. There are just so many unknowns for next summer, but I will have to do a month to month of wait and see.
This is also a different type of domino effect where airlines lose out, tours lose out, hotels lose out, restaurant lose out, etc. Just on this one trip….Craziness is an understatement!!!
BE SAFE!
@JB I’m sorry your Rick Steves tour was canceled. You’re right, there’s a lot of downstream effects from all these travel cancelations. 🙁
We were scheduled to see the Milwaukee Bucks in mid-March – cancelled. Next up for me is a scheduled trip to Chicago to see the White Sox on May 20. That will likely be cancelled as well. My June business conference in San Luis Obispo, CA was cancelled yesterday. We have a trip scheduled to Denver over the 4th of July. Hopefully that will be a go.
@R Johnson Sorry to hear about all of your canceled trips. Hopefully 4th of July trip will still be on.
I want so bad to plan something for the future, but my husband is a hospital administrator so I have absolutely no idea when he will be able to take a vacation. On a happy note, we have six nights in a condo on a private beach this month that we will be able to take. It’s a stay we booked as a necessity because we are selling one house and needed a place to stay before moving into the new one. So I have that to look forward to to keep me going.
@Jennifer I’m glad you have those six nights to look forward to. Enjoy!