Author Topic: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?  (Read 32641 times)

charis

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #250 on: April 30, 2020, 07:04:05 PM »
I was bewildered to hear from elderly relatives (early 70s) that they are planning a week long hotel stay in Vermont in early summer.  What is going on? Are hotels really starting to open back up that soon?

penguintroopers

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #251 on: May 03, 2020, 11:00:50 AM »
If things start looking better we might go on a camping summer vacation in either Virginia or Maine.

If things look way better and Canada relaxes restrictions we would go to Niagara Falls in August like we wanted to before this.

Pretty much no matter where we go, its going to be a one or two week beforehand decision, with a lot of monitoring before we go.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #252 on: May 03, 2020, 12:10:30 PM »
If things start looking better we might go on a camping summer vacation in either Virginia or Maine.

If things look way better and Canada relaxes restrictions we would go to Niagara Falls in August like we wanted to before this.

Pretty much no matter where we go, its going to be a one or two week beforehand decision, with a lot of monitoring before we go.

August 2021 should be fine for your visit.     ;-)

BikeFanatic

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #253 on: May 03, 2020, 12:34:12 PM »
I canceled a trip in may and delta gave me a credit good for two years.

penguintroopers

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #254 on: May 05, 2020, 07:08:33 AM »
If things start looking better we might go on a camping summer vacation in either Virginia or Maine.

If things look way better and Canada relaxes restrictions we would go to Niagara Falls in August like we wanted to before this.

Pretty much no matter where we go, its going to be a one or two week beforehand decision, with a lot of monitoring before we go.

August 2021 should be fine for your visit.     ;-)

Haha! I like the optimism :)

salt cured

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #255 on: May 05, 2020, 07:23:40 AM »
I canceled a trip in may and delta gave me a credit good for two years.

I did the same with United. It's wild that refunds are so hard to come by in the airline industry. Refundable tickets can be 3x or 4x the price of non-refundable tickets (and then require a cancellation fee) making it hardly worth it. And insurance isn't going to help if you decide not to fly. It's a total racket.

skp

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #256 on: May 05, 2020, 08:28:07 AM »
I have a UP Michigan trip planned for the end of August that will probably be turned into a staycation.

better late

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #257 on: May 05, 2020, 08:50:58 AM »
Family in our neighborhood just left for vacation, to the beach with their 4 kids and another family with children. It’s not spring break or summer vacation so they all altered their plans to add a trip.

travelbug

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #258 on: May 05, 2020, 09:58:10 PM »
We were planning on visiting the USA again, but won't be now until at least 2022 and we will see how everything plays out before we make a decision. We may choose somewhere else. Otherwise it's domestic Australian travel for us for now....eventually. (we hope to go away in our own state to the beach later in the year.)

paulkots

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #259 on: May 08, 2020, 05:49:45 PM »
2020 was supposed to be a big year for me, planned a 60 day roadtrip from NC to Tuktayaktuk and all around Alaska, I would have been leaving in mid-July. With so much uncertainty, I am shelving the Canada/Alaska roadtrip.

Prairie Gal

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #260 on: May 09, 2020, 03:36:48 PM »
2020 was supposed to be a big year for me, planned a 60 day roadtrip from NC to Tuktayaktuk and all around Alaska, I would have been leaving in mid-July. With so much uncertainty, I am shelving the Canada/Alaska roadtrip.
That's a great long road trip. Too bad you have to cancel it but I can understand why. You'd be passing thru many states/provinces, and staying in multiple areas and many small towns. I'm going to just do an in-state (Calif) road trip and will be fairly isolated (even more so then staying here) so hope there aren't any issues. My main concern (this is probably TMI) but is access to public bathrooms. Before covid days when you had to "go" there was always a store, gas station, restaurant, park, rest stop, etc open. Now they are closed so long drives could he an issue.

I am a bit concerned about this too as I will be making an eight hour drive to my vacation this year. At least that is the plan at the moment. It's not until August, so fingers crossed that things will be open along the way by then. This is where guys have an advantage. I have heard that there are contraptions that allow a woman to pee standing up, but have never looked into it. Then there's always Depends. Just Kidding!

Mr. Green

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #261 on: May 09, 2020, 03:57:42 PM »
2020 was supposed to be a big year for me, planned a 60 day roadtrip from NC to Tuktayaktuk and all around Alaska, I would have been leaving in mid-July. With so much uncertainty, I am shelving the Canada/Alaska roadtrip.
That's a great long road trip. Too bad you have to cancel it but I can understand why. You'd be passing thru many states/provinces, and staying in multiple areas and many small towns. I'm going to just do an in-state (Calif) road trip and will be fairly isolated (even more so then staying here) so hope there aren't any issues. My main concern (this is probably TMI) but is access to public bathrooms. Before covid days when you had to "go" there was always a store, gas station, restaurant, park, rest stop, etc open. Now they are closed so long drives could he an issue.

I am a bit concerned about this too as I will be making an eight hour drive to my vacation this year. At least that is the plan at the moment. It's not until August, so fingers crossed that things will be open along the way by then. This is where guys have an advantage. I have heard that there are contraptions that allow a woman to pee standing up, but have never looked into it. Then there's always Depends. Just Kidding!
This is something we'll have to adapt to as well. We drove 13,000 miles across the country last year over 90 days and not once did either of us have to go #2 in the wild. This year things will be vastly different. Not only will many public bathrooms be closed but I'm not sure we'll trust the ones that are if there's no air circulation in there. For all you know someone with the virus occupied a stall for 10+ minutes and left 2 minutes before you walked in. If you're using the stall yourself for an extended period of time it seems highly likely that you'd pick it up.

We're going to have to be a little more creative this year but that's okay. I've pooped in the woods before while hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's really not as bad as you'd think. I found the privies along the trail so gross that I swore them off in favor of going "au naturale."

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #262 on: May 09, 2020, 05:51:32 PM »
2020 was supposed to be a big year for me, planned a 60 day roadtrip from NC to Tuktayaktuk and all around Alaska, I would have been leaving in mid-July. With so much uncertainty, I am shelving the Canada/Alaska roadtrip.
That's a great long road trip. Too bad you have to cancel it but I can understand why. You'd be passing thru many states/provinces, and staying in multiple areas and many small towns. I'm going to just do an in-state (Calif) road trip and will be fairly isolated (even more so then staying here) so hope there aren't any issues. My main concern (this is probably TMI) but is access to public bathrooms. Before covid days when you had to "go" there was always a store, gas station, restaurant, park, rest stop, etc open. Now they are closed so long drives could he an issue.

I am a bit concerned about this too as I will be making an eight hour drive to my vacation this year. At least that is the plan at the moment. It's not until August, so fingers crossed that things will be open along the way by then. This is where guys have an advantage. I have heard that there are contraptions that allow a woman to pee standing up, but have never looked into it. Then there's always Depends. Just Kidding!
This is something we'll have to adapt to as well. We drove 13,000 miles across the country last year over 90 days and not once did either of us have to go #2 in the wild. This year things will be vastly different. Not only will many public bathrooms be closed but I'm not sure we'll trust the ones that are if there's no air circulation in there. For all you know someone with the virus occupied a stall for 10+ minutes and left 2 minutes before you walked in. If you're using the stall yourself for an extended period of time it seems highly likely that you'd pick it up.

We're going to have to be a little more creative this year but that's okay. I've pooped in the woods before while hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's really not as bad as you'd think. I found the privies along the trail so gross that I swore them off in favor of going "au naturale."

For those in the northeastern US and the Appalachians, the leaves of striped maple (Acer pensylvanicum) = nature's toilet paper.  Almost better than the real thing.

GreenSheep

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #263 on: May 09, 2020, 06:34:08 PM »
For road trips, I heard about this on a podcast (Young House Love -- typically about home improvement, but in this case they were discussing how they're going to make the drive from Virginia to Florida when it's time to move. Juuuust before all this started, they sold their VA houses and consolidated to buy one in FL.) I haven't tried it myself, but I've purchased a few of their (unrelated) recommendations in the past and have been thrilled with them.

https://www.amazon.com/Travel-John-66911-TravelJohn-Disposable-Urinal/dp/B000NV878S/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=travel+john&qid=1589070654&sr=8-3

BZB

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #264 on: May 09, 2020, 06:58:29 PM »
The only thing that will get me to travel in the next year or so is if work makes me travel. So far they seem to be sensible and all meetings have been changed to virtual format. There is an annual conference I usually go to in the fall to hang out with other colleagues in my profession, but thankfully I hadn't registered for it yet. It's in October and they still haven't decided if it will be live or switch to virtual. They will probably lose a lot of money from the hotel and conference venue.

An acquaintance is committed to giving a few presentations at that conference, and she's stressing out because her company is no longer paying for employees to travel to conferences for the rest of the year, and she doesn't want to take the risk, anyway.

My cousin is a flight attendant, and has taken a leave of absence.

sui generis

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #265 on: May 09, 2020, 07:41:19 PM »
I definitely benefited from a FUD (feminine urinary device) at times. Memorably, on the hike up Kilimanjaro, which becomes a relatively lunar landscape near the top with only a rare boulder to go behind. It was nice just to be able to walk off trail and turn my back. But ultimately still more work to clean and maneuver around, so when backpacking where there are trees and rocks, I go without. Seems like a good back up plan just in case though, for the new, no public restroom world!

Cranky

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #266 on: May 10, 2020, 01:36:48 PM »
I think we’ll be brave and drive to Wisconsin at some point this summer, and just use the bathrooms at the rest stops. We will definitely pack our own food.

But really, I don’t know what it will be like by July. Massive uncertainty.

JoJo

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #267 on: May 10, 2020, 08:20:08 PM »
My office is closed until August so I'm most likely driving half way across country to visit my parents.  I'm going to try to isolate for a week before fully moving into the house - sleep in my van, work on the deck (should be able to get wifi out there),  not sure what to do about bathroom.

BudgetSlasher

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #268 on: May 11, 2020, 10:33:35 AM »
The wife and I were talking about it.

We are full stop on air travel, for the foreseeable future. Even if we were to have positive antibody tests (we can leave how trustworthy the results are aside for now) and there is decent data to say that confers immunity. Neither of us really enjoy air travel and from what I have read air travel is even more tense/stressful now.

As for driving, we are talking about what to do when things really start to return to normal; we would both like to have a break. In reality we don't anticipate feeling comfortable doing with this (in an inter-state manner) until at least 2021. Even if there was no risk to ourselves, I imagine traveling before that for pleasure will just be socially awkward/stressful and many places will still be closed/limited. Plus many states have a quarantine when coming from out of state.

Within the state we are still taking day trips, most a weekend trip to a different area for a ~10 mile hike (other than passing people on the trail we don't see or interact with anyone). Perhaps when accomodations start to reopen and we will consider a longer jaunt with an overnight stay. But that will depend on how things play out in this state.

It has been a while since I have seen my parents, tomorrow is my grandmother's birthday, 1 now have a 1-week old niece, and my BIL and his wife just moved for a new job. We very much would like to visit my parents, celebrate my grandmother's birthday, meet my niece, and see the BIL's new home, but all of those trips are on an indefinite hold (the closest of those would be a 1,300 mile trip).


Jouer

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #269 on: May 11, 2020, 11:10:58 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #270 on: May 11, 2020, 12:59:15 PM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

GreenToTheCore

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #271 on: May 11, 2020, 01:28:00 PM »
2020 was supposed to be a big year for me, planned a 60 day roadtrip from NC to Tuktayaktuk and all around Alaska, I would have been leaving in mid-July. With so much uncertainty, I am shelving the Canada/Alaska roadtrip.
That's a great long road trip. Too bad you have to cancel it but I can understand why. You'd be passing thru many states/provinces, and staying in multiple areas and many small towns. I'm going to just do an in-state (Calif) road trip and will be fairly isolated (even more so then staying here) so hope there aren't any issues. My main concern (this is probably TMI) but is access to public bathrooms. Before covid days when you had to "go" there was always a store, gas station, restaurant, park, rest stop, etc open. Now they are closed so long drives could he an issue.

I am a bit concerned about this too as I will be making an eight hour drive to my vacation this year. At least that is the plan at the moment. It's not until August, so fingers crossed that things will be open along the way by then. This is where guys have an advantage. I have heard that there are contraptions that allow a woman to pee standing up, but have never looked into it. Then there's always Depends. Just Kidding!
This is something we'll have to adapt to as well. We drove 13,000 miles across the country last year over 90 days and not once did either of us have to go #2 in the wild. This year things will be vastly different. Not only will many public bathrooms be closed but I'm not sure we'll trust the ones that are if there's no air circulation in there. For all you know someone with the virus occupied a stall for 10+ minutes and left 2 minutes before you walked in. If you're using the stall yourself for an extended period of time it seems highly likely that you'd pick it up.

We're going to have to be a little more creative this year but that's okay. I've pooped in the woods before while hiking the Appalachian Trail and it's really not as bad as you'd think. I found the privies along the trail so gross that I swore them off in favor of going "au naturale."

FYI, a WAG bag is a great option. They're mandatory in some backcountry situations and are a better alternative than the emergency plastic bag option.

How to Use a W.A.G. Bag: Leave No Trace Skills Series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpiX07wPKgE

billy

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #272 on: May 11, 2020, 04:10:01 PM »
Ya, instead of out road trip planned right now, we are on a covid vacation, not too bad, making good food, binge watched 3% tv show, and just started latered carbon.

mm1970

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #273 on: May 15, 2020, 10:54:08 AM »

I cancelled an Air BnB reservation for mid-May. I had paid half so far, with the rest due at the end of April. The host refused to refund me, so I lost a little over $500. I think I will try calling Air BnB tomorrow, based on what you guys have said. Can't hurt.
Definitely can't.

I figure, best case - this thing fades more quickly than anyone thinks and I re-book my tix to go in June!
Medium case - this doesn't happen and AirBNB extends the cancellation refund to end June.
Worst case - I'm out $1000.

I could, possibly, change the AirBNB to next year.  That's another option. I really want to go back to Kauai!!
Welp,

Got an email from the hosts today, as Kauai has extended their 14 day quarantine until the end of June.  They offered to change or cancel.  I am choosing to cancel, with the hopes of re-booking the same place next summer.  If everything is calmed down by then.

Rural

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #274 on: May 15, 2020, 11:43:36 AM »
It's official, no work travel allowed at least until August, so I'm completely off the hook. Not that I was going, but now I'm not going and will not get any grief for it.

Dicey

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #275 on: May 15, 2020, 12:28:03 PM »
Our new-to-us RV is still sitting in the driveway. Interestingly, the original owner replaced the batteries in 2018, but one of them failed, so DH replaced them last week. Turns out our little Sprinter is full of poison pills. If you remove the batteries, the ignition locks up completely. It's a hassle to reset. The key fobs don't work either, but we think that's related to the fancy alarm system that's apparently responding to the locked ignition We would probably have learned this out on the road somewhere, so I guess we're lucky it happened in our driveway. We're deliberately not making plans, because we don't want to create a burning desire to go anywhere.
Thank goodness DH is a DIY pro or this thing would bleed us dry.

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #276 on: May 15, 2020, 06:15:44 PM »
I finally cancelled the last leg of our air travel yesterday.  I found out that the airline had rescheduled it by more than an hour, so we were eligible for a full refund.  So out of a planned total trip cost of around $5,700, we're only out the following:

$25 cancellation fee for one of our lodging nights
$7 and change booking fee for the third party site that booked our air travel
$64 premium for flight cancellation insurance (which we didn't use because the airlines refunded us directly)

We had pre-paid around $2k of the total planned trip cost, so I consider us very lucky to only be out a little less than a hundred bucks.  Every entity we dealt with lived up to their cancellation terms.  One hotel even refunded our money even though it was a pre-paid, no refund room (and I didn't ask them to refund the money).

We've had some very tentative discussions about going somewhere in the fall, but we're not even close to making any concrete plans.

Cassie

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #277 on: May 16, 2020, 07:32:25 PM »
Our motor home would have been a money pit if not for a handy husband. Ours only got 9mpg. Ugh! 

rachellynn99

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #278 on: May 17, 2020, 02:12:20 AM »
I was bewildered to hear from elderly relatives (early 70s) that they are planning a week long hotel stay in Vermont in early summer.  What is going on? Are hotels really starting to open back up that soon?

Many hotels and B and B's never closed. I'm not sure what the directive was/is in Vermont, but in my state, lodging outside of State Parks never shut down.

rachellynn99

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #279 on: May 17, 2020, 02:17:45 AM »
It's official, no work travel allowed at least until August, so I'm completely off the hook. Not that I was going, but now I'm not going and will not get any grief for it.

I work for a University and they just told us no out of state travel will be approved for the Fall semester. So nothing out of state until at least January.

toocold

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #280 on: May 17, 2020, 06:14:04 AM »
We just cancelled our month long trip to Maui.  We got all of our refunds back but it's a trip we really wanted.  Oh well, always next year.

Prairie Gal

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #281 on: May 17, 2020, 06:55:54 PM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I was finally approved for a refund from Air BnB for a trip that was supposed to happen this weekend, but still have not seen a credit on my credit card.

I still have two Air BnB reservations in France for October. I reached out to both hosts for refunds, but was refused. So, I will wait and see what happens closer to then. The trip will definitely not be happening, but hopefully Air BnB will extend their extenuating circumstance policy so I can get a refund.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #282 on: May 17, 2020, 10:11:27 PM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.

former player

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #283 on: May 18, 2020, 02:12:21 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.
The "hosts" (ie the business owners) were legally in the right and may have lost their main source of income for a year or more.  Maybe they can't afford the charitable gift, or prefer to give to a different cause?

The situation is no-one's fault, so surely this is the situation that travel insurance was designed for? (Although of course the travel insurance companies are going to the small print too, and not many people read the small print before buying which itself is a problem - particularly for those who just go for the cheapest quote without comparing what is actually covered.)

beltim

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #284 on: May 18, 2020, 06:02:08 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.
The "hosts" (ie the business owners) were legally in the right and may have lost their main source of income for a year or more.  Maybe they can't afford the charitable gift, or prefer to give to a different cause?

The situation is no-one's fault, so surely this is the situation that travel insurance was designed for? (Although of course the travel insurance companies are going to the small print too, and not many people read the small print before buying which itself is a problem - particularly for those who just go for the cheapest quote without comparing what is actually covered.)

There are too many different circumstances to say that the hosts were legally in the right.  Depending on the timing and location, there are plenty of places where it would not have legal to stay in an AirBnB.  In those cases a refund would legally be required, since the business could not offer the product that they had accepted money for.

One can just as easily put the burden of insurance on businesses.  Business interruption insurance is a real thing, and can cover pandemics (see for example Wimbledon).  It is not the consumers fault if the business does not carry such insurance.

former player

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #285 on: May 18, 2020, 06:47:05 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.
The "hosts" (ie the business owners) were legally in the right and may have lost their main source of income for a year or more.  Maybe they can't afford the charitable gift, or prefer to give to a different cause?

The situation is no-one's fault, so surely this is the situation that travel insurance was designed for? (Although of course the travel insurance companies are going to the small print too, and not many people read the small print before buying which itself is a problem - particularly for those who just go for the cheapest quote without comparing what is actually covered.)

There are too many different circumstances to say that the hosts were legally in the right.  Depending on the timing and location, there are plenty of places where it would not have legal to stay in an AirBnB.  In those cases a refund would legally be required, since the business could not offer the product that they had accepted money for.

One can just as easily put the burden of insurance on businesses.  Business interruption insurance is a real thing, and can cover pandemics (see for example Wimbledon).  It is not the consumers fault if the business does not carry such insurance.
I was going by jouer saying the hosts were within the rules to refuse repayment.  If the rules put the risk on the buyer then it's for the buyer to cover with insurance, if the rules put the risk on the business then I agree it's for the business to insure.  I would guess that in future any accommodation business wanting advance bookings and goodwill would be looking to do that.

Prairie Gal

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #286 on: May 18, 2020, 08:47:54 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.
The "hosts" (ie the business owners) were legally in the right and may have lost their main source of income for a year or more.  Maybe they can't afford the charitable gift, or prefer to give to a different cause?

The situation is no-one's fault, so surely this is the situation that travel insurance was designed for? (Although of course the travel insurance companies are going to the small print too, and not many people read the small print before buying which itself is a problem - particularly for those who just go for the cheapest quote without comparing what is actually covered.)

There are too many different circumstances to say that the hosts were legally in the right.  Depending on the timing and location, there are plenty of places where it would not have legal to stay in an AirBnB.  In those cases a refund would legally be required, since the business could not offer the product that they had accepted money for.

One can just as easily put the burden of insurance on businesses.  Business interruption insurance is a real thing, and can cover pandemics (see for example Wimbledon).  It is not the consumers fault if the business does not carry such insurance.
I was going by jouer saying the hosts were within the rules to refuse repayment.  If the rules put the risk on the buyer then it's for the buyer to cover with insurance, if the rules put the risk on the business then I agree it's for the business to insure.  I would guess that in future any accommodation business wanting advance bookings and goodwill would be looking to do that.

Air BnB, the company, is over riding it's hosts policies and refunding non-refundable deposits even where the host has refused. So, good on them. They make you jump through lots of hoops to get there, but at least they are trying to keep their reputation for customer service intact. They are also compensating the hosts for these losses. This is an unprecedented situation.

Air BnB started out on the premise of people renting out extra rooms or spaces in their own homes. Now people buy or lease lodgings specifically for Air BnB purposes, as a business. This is where the wheels fall off the bus in this situation, imho. Those people are looking at mortgages or lease payments with little or no income coming in. One host described it to me as a "disaster". I asked the host in Paris if I could just change my reservation to 2021, but she said she couldn't do that because she is giving up the apartment after the end of the year. Case in point. This is actually illegal in Paris, by the way. To have an apartment for Air BnB purposes. They are only supposed to rent out their own place for a limited number of weeks per year, and live there themselves the rest of the year.

One thing is for sure, I will never book an Air BnB (or VRBO) again that doesn't have a liberal cancellation policy. Interestingly, they now have a filter for this.

JoJo

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #287 on: May 18, 2020, 09:14:05 AM »
Lots of Nat Parks starting to open today. Trails, bathrooms and some camping sites. Here's a site that tracks Nat Parks in all states and seems to update daily. For example: I'm heading out today to Joshua Tree in Cali which opened today with hiking, climbing, parking, bathrooms, and family camping. No entrance fees right now either. Grand Canyon and some others are open too but very limited hours for hiking only.

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/alerts.htm

I'm going to check out Yellowstone tomorrow.  It's quite a drive - all accommodation including camping is closed so it's a day trip for everyone. 

mm1970

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #288 on: May 18, 2020, 11:00:50 AM »
For those of you fighting with AirBnB, did you ever get it resolved? My wife and I had a trip booked to USA in middle March and cancelled less than a week before going. That meant $0 refund from the host, according to their rules. They were quiet dicks about it so we took our troubles to corporate. AirBnB itself were great. Refunded us the whole cost.

I wouldn't be so quick to call the hosts dicks.  You knew the rules when you booked the trip, and the pandemic wasn't their fault any more than it was yours.

Hosts seem like dicks to me. It was cancelled due to the pandemic, so refund the money fully. The normal argument is that if not cancelled the booking could have been given to someone else. But not in this case. Very wrong to keep that money when the customer enjoys no benefit. That’s just bad, greedy business and not the attitude when people need their money. So if they’re going to punish the guest for taking the chance and booking with them then they deserve to be called out for being dicks.
The "hosts" (ie the business owners) were legally in the right and may have lost their main source of income for a year or more.  Maybe they can't afford the charitable gift, or prefer to give to a different cause?

The situation is no-one's fault, so surely this is the situation that travel insurance was designed for? (Although of course the travel insurance companies are going to the small print too, and not many people read the small print before buying which itself is a problem - particularly for those who just go for the cheapest quote without comparing what is actually covered.)
Yeah, this is a tricky bit.  I gather it varies a lot by location.  An AirBNB host with a nice beach cottage or cabin in the mountains within a few hours drive of Los Angeles can probably afford to have a more liberal cancellation - compared to our hosts in Kauai.  Their cancellation policy is: you forfeit the deposit.  However, I got word from AirBNB this weekend that they will refund our money due to the quarantine requirement.

Travel insurance, in general, does not cover pandemics.  Shutting off the economy like this is going to hurt someone (everyone), but who?

Pandemics hurt everyone, yes, but the travelers should not eat the cost if they aren't able to go.  If you cancel for other reasons (I don't feel like going), fine, eat the cost.

Had we not gotten refunded I would have immediately tried to rebook this exact same condo for next summer.  I actually want to do that, but feel like it's smarter for me to wait until next spring to see how things are.  It was supposed to be my 50th birthday trip.  Well, 51st birthday next year or our 25th anniversary, whatever.  Except the condo is 1BR with a sofabed, and next year my kids are gonna be 15 and 8.  The 14 yo is almost bigger than me and he could grow a LOT in a year.

YK-Phil

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #289 on: May 18, 2020, 01:50:46 PM »
COVID-19 has pushed me to re-evaluate some of my priorities and as a result, I decided to quit a couple of part-time gigs I really love in order to pursue other interests, one of which is to drive down to Mexico for the winter after exploring some of our favourite camping and hiking spots in the US Southwest, then go to Panama later in the spring. Problem is, the Canada-USA border is closed to non-essential travel so I need to think of something to do in the meantime. My wife would like us to spend some time in Okinawa where her family is. Tempting, but I really hate flying...I am looking at the option of sailing on a cargo ship, maybe a trans-Pacific cruise (eeewww), but the pickings are slim...

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #290 on: May 18, 2020, 01:55:52 PM »
I would really like to find travel options to get overseas without flying, for the long-term future.  I won't be able to avoid it entirely (I assume), but I'd like to be confident and have easy ways to look up options, the same way we do for flying.  Even as a FIREd person, I'm not sure I'll have the patience and time to get to places like Africa (from CA) without flying, even if there are reasonable options.  But I'm very serious about minimizing flying more in the future.  For so many reasons.

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #291 on: May 18, 2020, 02:15:03 PM »
I would really like to find travel options to get overseas without flying, for the long-term future.  I won't be able to avoid it entirely (I assume), but I'd like to be confident and have easy ways to look up options, the same way we do for flying.  Even as a FIREd person, I'm not sure I'll have the patience and time to get to places like Africa (from CA) without flying, even if there are reasonable options.  But I'm very serious about minimizing flying more in the future.  For so many reasons.

I'm really curious why you'd rather be on a ship than plane, given the horror stories of people trapped on cruise ships. Everything I've read suggests that if the plane is not at maximum capacity and you can maintain social distancing, it's not as much of a germ spreader as we initially assumed due to the way the air circulates and is filtered. Obviously it's not risk free, but once we get to the point where overseas travel seems worthwhile to me again, it seems WAY safer than a ship.

sui generis

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #292 on: May 18, 2020, 02:35:37 PM »
I would really like to find travel options to get overseas without flying, for the long-term future.  I won't be able to avoid it entirely (I assume), but I'd like to be confident and have easy ways to look up options, the same way we do for flying.  Even as a FIREd person, I'm not sure I'll have the patience and time to get to places like Africa (from CA) without flying, even if there are reasonable options.  But I'm very serious about minimizing flying more in the future.  For so many reasons.

I'm really curious why you'd rather be on a ship than plane, given the horror stories of people trapped on cruise ships. Everything I've read suggests that if the plane is not at maximum capacity and you can maintain social distancing, it's not as much of a germ spreader as we initially assumed due to the way the air circulates and is filtered. Obviously it's not risk free, but once we get to the point where overseas travel seems worthwhile to me again, it seems WAY safer than a ship.

Most of my concerns aren't about health, and as I mentioined this is a long-term goal, not a pandemic-period goal.  I think the airline industry is dangerously monopolistic which is a detriment to our economy and consumers and am not happy about the bailouts they've gotten during this period, followed by layoffs and preceded by stock buybacks, etc.  I'm sick of being treated like shit by most of them and I continue to be concerned about the environmental impact.  I'm hoping things don't just go straight back to normal in air travel after the pandemic.

But yeah, I'm definitely not getting on a boat, in particular a cruise ship, any time soon.

mancityfan

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #293 on: May 18, 2020, 03:52:34 PM »

I live in hope that air carriers in the US will look to improve their service. How they treat passengers. Greater leg room. Stop charging people add on fees. They are a monopoly, and they collude on pricing. It really has been difficult to see them get bailed out again, because they treat  people like s*it.

DadJokes

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #294 on: May 19, 2020, 09:38:14 AM »

I live in hope that air carriers in the US will look to improve their service. How they treat passengers. Greater leg room. Stop charging people add on fees. They are a monopoly, and they collude on pricing. It really has been difficult to see them get bailed out again, because they treat  people like s*it.

I've only flown Southwest for years and have no complaints (I also haven't actually paid for a flight in years due to credit rewards).

I dread flying international since I'd have to use one of the other airlines. Maybe Southwest will expand to Europe one day.

sui generis

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #295 on: May 19, 2020, 11:00:02 AM »

I live in hope that air carriers in the US will look to improve their service. How they treat passengers. Greater leg room. Stop charging people add on fees. They are a monopoly, and they collude on pricing. It really has been difficult to see them get bailed out again, because they treat  people like s*it.

I've only flown Southwest for years and have no complaints (I also haven't actually paid for a flight in years due to credit rewards).

I dread flying international since I'd have to use one of the other airlines. Maybe Southwest will expand to Europe one day.

This is my wish. I remember the days when we used to call Southwest "Southworst". But those days are long gone and they are by far my favorite noe. Luckily they do fly to a few places in Mexico, central America, maybe the Caribbean if I remember right. And I haven't had a chance to take them to Hawaii (obvs that's not international, but it was big news when they started those routes). And they make everything so easy. If possible, they are the only airline I'd fly, but lacking routes to Europe, Asia and Africa certainly limits things.

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #296 on: May 19, 2020, 11:09:05 AM »
Wow, lots of comments about my AirBnB comment about the hosts being dicks. A few things I'd like to clear up:


- this isn't a single family owning a second home; this is a corp owning multiple resort-like rentals
- I didn't call them dicks b/c they didn't refund us; they were dicks b/c of the way they spoke to us and handled things
- a business can be within their rights to do something, and still be dicks for doing it; that's how we decide to say fuck them and do business elsewhere. 'Within your rights' is the bare minimum expectation around these parts, not the definition of good service.

I'm glad my post sparked some comments, though. Cool to see how others think and see the situation.

Splashncash

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #297 on: May 20, 2020, 02:49:41 AM »
Another AirBnB question/issue - our visit to Southern CA for college tours set for mid-June is out.  Our AirBnB host in LA refunded us 100%.  The AirBnB host in San Diego will not.  His response was this:

"Also, travel is fine. I have a lot of people/guests staying aboard throughout this time so the cancellation reason has nothing to do with travel not being open."

So... for those of you in CA (I'm looking at you, @spartana, @Dicey), is the host correct and travel has been happening as cavalierly as he is suggesting?  My state just extended our 14 day quarantine for visitors/returning residents until the end of June so I kinda assumed travel was not yet back in full swing.  Are we getting a skewed version of what is happening on the mainland?  Thanks for any insight.


edited to fix poor bat signaling...
« Last Edit: May 20, 2020, 10:22:17 AM by Splashncash »

Prairie Gal

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #298 on: May 20, 2020, 08:34:24 AM »
Another AirBnB question/issue - our visit to Southern CA for college tours set for mid-June is out.  Our AirBnB host in LA refunded us 100%.  The AirBnB host in San Diego will not.  His response was this:

"Also, travel is fine. I have a lot of people/guests staying aboard throughout this time so the cancellation reason has nothing to do with travel not being open."

So... for those of you in CA (I'm looking at you, spartana[/member]]@spartana, Dicey[/member]]@Dicey), is the host correct and travel has been happening as cavalierly as he is suggesting?  My state just extended our 14 day quarantine for visitors/returning residents until the end of June so I kinda assumed travel was not yet back in full swing.  Are we getting a skewed version of what is happening on the mainland?  Thanks for any insight.

You should be able to get a refund through Air BnB's extenuating circumstance policy. They will make you jump through some hoops, though. You will have to submit documentation. The state 14 day quarantine policy should be enough.

mm1970

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Re: Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?
« Reply #299 on: May 20, 2020, 12:49:26 PM »
Another AirBnB question/issue - our visit to Southern CA for college tours set for mid-June is out.  Our AirBnB host in LA refunded us 100%.  The AirBnB host in San Diego will not.  His response was this:

"Also, travel is fine. I have a lot of people/guests staying aboard throughout this time so the cancellation reason has nothing to do with travel not being open."

So... for those of you in CA (I'm looking at you, spartana[/member]]@spartana, Dicey[/member]]@Dicey), is the host correct and travel has been happening as cavalierly as he is suggesting?  My state just extended our 14 day quarantine for visitors/returning residents until the end of June so I kinda assumed travel was not yet back in full swing.  Are we getting a skewed version of what is happening on the mainland?  Thanks for any insight.

You should be able to get a refund through Air BnB's extenuating circumstance policy. They will make you jump through some hoops, though. You will have to submit documentation. The state 14 day quarantine policy should be enough.

Yes, this is what I did for my Hawaii trip.  I had to upload a screen shot of the current status of Hawaii (14 day quarantine).  But they said they'd refund me (didn't check credit card to confirm).

Los Angeles still has a lot of cases, so I'm not surprised they refunded. 

For San Diego, I would go to their local/ county website, and check the status.  California is starting to reopen, but we are only on stage 2.  So, if you are unable to do the things you are there to do, then you should be able to cancel.

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/hhsa/programs/phs/community_epidemiology/dc/2019-nCoV/health-order.html