Wanderlust Wednesday-Week 4
Yes, I'm aware that today is Thursday. But I had no idea this didn't go up on Wednesday until I just logged in to respond to comments. Apparently, I scheduled this for the wrong date. I will get my act together before next Wednesday. In the meantime, I want to talk about how to cancel a trip because this is something we just had to deal with. Canceling a vacation isn't exactly something we like to think about when we're getting excited about making travel plans. But it's a reality of traveling, and its something that should be considered while planning a vacation.
Honestly the best way to cancel a trip is to do it before you book. Once we reach the point in travel planning where we are actually booking and paying for our trip, I start a mental tally in my head. If something happened and we had to cancel, would we loose any money? And if so, how much?
2.) Read the Fine Print
Most people probably don't consider the cancellation policy until it's too late. It's a pain in the butt, yet I always read the fine print. To me the details of a company's cancellation policy are just as important as considering cost or location. Depending on when you cancel, it's rare that you will get all of your money back, but there are plenty of airlines, hotels, etc. that will offer you most of your money back. And those are the ones to book with in the first place.
3.) Think Twice about booking Non-Refundable
There is nothing wrong with booking non-refundable travel options, but there is definitely a big risk involved. Make sure your prepared to take it. Some trips that we plan are absolutely set in stone. Just short of a family emergency, there is no way we would cancel. In those cases, I will happily book non-refundable flights or hotels to save money. Other times, we plan a vacation with the hope that we can do it. That's when we book refundable all the way.
4.) Travel Insurance?
For us, whether or not we use travel insurance and the type of insurance we get varies. Many of the travel credit cards we use actually offer a form of reimbursement insurance. Even still, we tend to seek out additional coverage for certain types of trips. I'll save the details of when to consider coverage for another time, but suffice to say…you don't want to end up canceling an expensive trip, only to wish that you had the insurance to cover your loses.
Another great post! We may have to cancel our anniversary trip for this summer, and I am thankful to know we won't lose any money if we have to cancel or reschedule. I also make sure we have the longest time possible if we need to cancel, for that specific trip we can cancel 3 days before and still get our money back. A huge benefit to being a loyal hotels.com is their cancelation policies, they will almost always work with you even if you had a non-refundable room.
ReplyDeleteThanks Macy! But I'm so sorry to hear that you guys may have to cancel your anniversary trip, I hope that you guys are able to reschedule it. And I would definitely agree with you, having loyalty to certain companies certainly helps. The key is picking the right companies before you book.
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