Travel right now: FAIR WARNING!

[athena53]

My take away is not to avoid international travel, but to stick with self guided travel. If you do that, a lot of these obstacles can be avoided. Or at least only do local tours, not a full package.

That worked for me in Munich and Malta. I had a great private guide in Malta that I found on TripAdvisor. My "safety valve" on my E. Europe tour is that the first couple of days are in Tirana, Albania- so if I arrive a day late I'll miss something but the group will still be in Tirana.

 

[iloveyoga]

You are in our neck of the woods. Enjoy your stay!!!

Beautiful country we very much enjoyed it thanks. We have moved on to a cabin in Estes Park.

 

[iloveyoga]

Oh yes. Beautiful country.

In an RV trip some years ago, we also visited Wind Cave NP to the south, and drove the State Route 87 loop. There's a lot to do there.

I saw so many places we could have stopped, we will have to go back some day. I like to collect National Park stamps and there were many in that area.

 

[Chuckanut]

I had two plane trips and car rentals in the Spring. All went well.
But, the airline did announce about two weeks before departure that it would be cancelling about 5% of it's flights in the near future due to staffing issues. Passengers would be notified and rebooked on other flights. I guess it worked as I had no issues on any flight coming or going.

The rental car was also not a problem other than price ($!$!$!!$!$!). But, I knew that going into the deal. I did use Costco for car rentals since they offer a 2nd driver for free. Other than that the plane and rooms were booked directly.

I am still amazed at the number of people who automatically book through one of the web travel companies. I do that only if the web travel agency has a significantly lower price, which occurs just often enough to make me check prices.

 

[Marita40]

Tried to fly on AirCanada to Montreal over Memorial Day weekend. Never made it. After standing in line 3 hours with one person at the counter, flight was cancelled. Next flight was the following day. I bailed. On the other hand I just returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and all the flights were on time. Came down with a MASSIVE cold on the way back and this is my second day in bed.Totally miserable.

 

[Sunset]

Tried to fly on AirCanada to Montreal over Memorial Day weekend. Never made it. After standing in line 3 hours with one person at the counter, flight was cancelled. Next flight was the following day. I bailed. On the other hand I just returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and all the flights were on time. Came down with a MASSIVE cold on the way back and this is my second day in bed.Totally miserable.

How horrible.

I stopped using AirCanada 2 decades ago for this very reason, a lack of staff and the one there had terrible customer ability, actually went on break while I was in line for last flight out at night.

Did you self test to make sure it's not covid ?

 

[Trailwalker]

My DW had no troubles on her cheap Allegiant flight from Wisconsin to Nashville and back home on Friday. She dodged one bullet and then caught a different one this morning, testing positive for Covid for the first time. Mild cold symptoms, so far.

 

[Marita40]

Sunset, It is not Covid. I have to admit that AirCanada was terrible. Unfortunately all I got from them was a voucher for a future flight. I do have travel insurance and put in a claim but no response yet.

 

[tmm99]

No if I leave my room the tour company will quit paying my expenses and literally leave me here. I get a few tv channels that mostly suck. I am reading, napping and talking to family and friends through the messenger app.

Man, that sucks, but thank goodness that you have the Internet connection! At least, you can communicate with your folks and us on early-retirement.org and you can surf the net.

And I know your travel company is paying for all your expenses, but if you can find a delivery place for better food someplace outside, maybe you can check it out? It may be worth it even if you have to pay out of pocket if you can make your stay even a little bit better.

 

[Teacher Terry]

No exercise! I would go out of my mind. I'm not exaggerating. I would undoubtedly create a scene and get myself in trouble.

I am also used to exercise everyday as I walk 3 miles. Ugh! Also the tour company would love me to break isolation as then they are off the hook to get me home which involves driving me 4 hours to Dublin and my flights.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Teacher Terry, I’m very sorry you are going through this. I hope it gets resolved soon.

My take away is not to avoid international travel, but to stick with self guided travel. If you do that, a lot of these obstacles can be avoided. Or at least only do local tours, not a full package. And stick with tour groups that have a good reputation in dealing with issues when they arise (aka Rick Steves).

I’m on my second trip to Europe this year and so far it’s been fine. Lots of people, but considering the precautions I see (little to none), I’m guessing there’s a lot of covid out there.

When I was married I always did self guided interspersed with some local tours. Now traveling with a friend and neither of us have any decent sense of direction we thought a tour would be the best. Their reviews were good. Had I at least kept my airfare separate I could have paid to transport myself the 4 hours to Dublin and jumped on my flight home Monday.

Also at the airports were flights being canceled and my friend had to spend a extra 8 hours traveling on top of the original 16. I am just hoping to get home smoothly considering it will be the July 4 weekend. Color me done for a long time. I am lucky my son is handling the dogs or that would have been another problem.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

We just finished a 12 day, three country trip in Europe. We were largely fortune and had only a few delays...but we encountered one family who was seriously screwed.

We were in Athens and they were flying to LA. 13 people on a trip coordinated through a travel agent. Their original flights got nuked and now the airline was trying to figure out how to get 13 people (grandparents through kids about 8 years old) to LA.

They moved four of them to a flight 3 hours later...and then that flight got delayed by 3 more hours.

They moved five of them onto some routing that left for Istanbul at 4a the next morning, on to somewhere else, and then to LA from there.

...and just refunded the money on the other four tickets and told them to sort it out themselves. I've never heard of that before. Here's your money back. Good luck.

It was chaos and I felt very badly for them.

Our flight left on time...I don't know how their story ended.

 

[gayl]

Plane left LAX gate to come to OAK 45 minutes late. Already late at beginning of day (was scheduled to leave at 5 am ... LA must be a mess,)

Made it!! And already unpacked

 

[NW-Bound]

Made it!! And already unpacked

Alright! Nowadays, just getting there is reason for celebration.

 

[finnski1]

I am also used to exercise everyday as I walk 3 miles. Ugh! Also the tour company would love me to break isolation as then they are off the hook to get me home which involves driving me 4 hours to Dublin and my flights.

How do they know if you "break " isolation?

 

[MC Rider]

How do they know if you "break " isolation?

Yeah. Bribe someone at the motel to cover for you.

 

[athena53]

...and just refunded the money on the other four tickets and told them to sort it out themselves. I've never heard of that before. Here's your money back. Good luck.

I sure hope the travel agent came through. I don't use one anymore (the ones my employers had were so clueless I had to tell them about airports they didn't know existed, like Toronto City and London City) but that's when they should prove their value.

What airline was it that just left them on their own like that? A US-based one?

 

[Souschef]

Tried to fly on AirCanada to Montreal over Memorial Day weekend. Never made it. After standing in line 3 hours with one person at the counter, flight was cancelled. Next flight was the following day. I bailed. On the other hand I just returned from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and all the flights were on time. Came down with a MASSIVE cold on the way back and this is my second day in bed.Totally miserable.

That has been our experience, too. I have cold medications from about a dozen countries.
I had to get some in St. Petersburg Russia, so I found a pharmacy, got out my little book and ask for cold meds in Russian. The man standing in line behind me was smiling, I figured it was because of how badly I pronounced it, but I got them.

 

[Calico]

How do they know if you "break " isolation?

If she has a swipe card for entering her room, they can probably access those records to see if she left and returned. Just saying.

 

[Out of Steam]

That has been our experience, too. I have cold medications from about a dozen countries.
I had to get some in St. Petersburg Russia, so I found a pharmacy, got out my little book and ask for cold meds in Russian. The man standing in line behind me was smiling, I figured it was because of how badly I pronounced it, but I got them.

The US seems to be an exception in being able to buy non-prescription medicines without talking to a pharmacist.

 

[Scuba]

I have related in a couple of other threads that I am stuck in Ireland with Covid and missed half my tour. They left me behind in the middle of nowhere. They refused to fly me out until 7/1. My friend who met me here left from O’hare airport and got stuck in London for half a day arriving in Ireland 8 hours late. I am hoping my trip home is uneventful but it a few days before July 4th.

I’m so sorry this happened to you. Hope your recovery goes well and you get home without too much difficulty.

 

[Scuba]

Teacher Terry, I’m very sorry you are going through this. I hope it gets resolved soon.

My take away is not to avoid international travel, but to stick with self guided travel. If you do that, a lot of these obstacles can be avoided. Or at least only do local tours, not a full package. And stick with tour groups that have a good reputation in dealing with issues when they arise (aka Rick Steves).

I’m on my second trip to Europe this year and so far it’s been fine. Lots of people, but considering the precautions I see (little to none), I’m guessing there’s a lot of covid out there.

I was thinking the same thing - independent travel rather than a tour company must have more flexibility.

 

[Timeisprecious]

DW and I are planning to travel cross-country to see our DD and SIL in the not-too-distant future. I can hardly wait!

 

[Teacher Terry]

How do they know if you "break " isolation?

The front desk clerk is recovered from Covid so came to visit me this morning as she is a American. The visit was nice and she wanted to book me a driver to visit some of the places around here within a few hours that I missed. She said none of the staff would tell. I told her there’s no way I am staying all this time just to have the tour company refuse to send me home. If I wanted to pay my own way back I could have left last week.

 

[tulak]

The front desk clerk is recovered from Covid so came to visit me this morning as she is a American. The visit was nice and she wanted to book me a driver to visit some of the places around here within a few hours that I missed. She said none of the staff would tell. I told her there’s no way I am staying all this time just to have the tour company refuse to send me home. If I wanted to pay my own way back I could have left last week.

Idk how much money is involved, but maybe it’s worth it?

You’d get a chance to see some highlights of Ireland that you’d otherwise miss and in the worst case pay for a one way trip back home?

It could be an inexpensive and fun way to end a trip that went bad.