Travel right now: FAIR WARNING!

[Teacher Terry]

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.

It’s getting home that’s expensive not hiring a guide for a few days. I don’t want to pay a additional 1500-2000 for a flight and to transfer me to Dublin. I still feel like I have a bad cold so not feeling 100% either. I am really only close enough to see the cliffs of Mohr and it’s been raining daily. My friend said there’s so much fog that you could barely see them. At this point I just want to get home and see my little doggies. My son said Max is super clingy and having a difficult time which is why I only planned to be gone for 11 days. Now it’s going to be 15 by the time I get home.

 

[Prince_Alpi]

Having just returned from a weeklong, cross-country trip for a cousin's wedding and some sightseeing/vacationing in the area, I can safely say that the travel situation in the U.S. right now is... well, to put it kindly... a bit of a disaster. So this post is my "word to the wise" for those of us who might be contemplating travel but are wondering whether it's worth the hassle this summer. I have to say that, based on my recent experience, it is NOT, but read on if you're interested in the particulars.

First of all, the situation with air travel right now is an unmitigated disaster. Our flight from Atlanta to the west coast was canceled, out of the blue, as we were standing in line to check in for our flight. There were no other flights available (according to the agent), not even flights to nearby airports. And to add insult to injury, they refused to help us find flights on other airlines that were heading to (or close to) our destination, instead only offering us seats on a flight TWO DAYS from our scheduled departure. This was entirely unacceptable, as we would have missed the wedding and all related festivities entirely.

After a full 90 minutes of back and forth, with the agent calling (and being placed on extended hold) and DW and I calling and waiting on a one-hour hold with the airline, we finally got the agent to agree to escalate our dilemma to a top-level customer care rep who secured two seats on a flight to a city 120 miles away. We boarded that flight a full 2½ hours after our originally scheduled departure (that flight was itself delayed), and arrived at our new "nearby" destination at nearly 4:30am. We only laid our heads down to sleep, exhausted and exasperated, after spending an additional $250 to book a hotel room last minute near the new destination airport, and spending $35 for an Uber to take us there (no taxis available at that time of night).

The next morning, we had to get to our original destination city ASAP, but did not have a rental car or other ready means of transportation at our disposal. (Our rental car was waiting for us at the original destination airport). After looking at a few options, we decided to spend $140 to hire an Uber to drive us the 120 miles to our rental car pickup spot. When we got there, we stood in a one hour line to check in to pick up our car, only to be told that THERE WERE NO CARS AVAILABLE. Apparently, they were very short staffed and returning cars were bring processed (cleaned, prepped, refueled, etc.) by a skeleton crew, leading to 45-60 minute waits for people picking up their cars. So, we waited... and waited... and waited some more. Finally, after about 50 minutes, we got our car and were on our way. We literally felt like we'd won the lottery after driving out of there.

Fortunately, everything else on our trip went pretty smoothly after that, but boy was that first 24 hours a nerve-wracking, aggravating ordeal. My advice to anyone who is on the fence about traveling right now is, DON'T, unless you absolutely have to or you have a very easygoing, calm, happy-go-lucky attitude about delays, cancellations, and snags of all sorts you're very likely to encounter. Otherwise, probably best to wait until the summer travel crush is over and the airlines and rental car companies have regained their footing.

This is just scary, I haven't travel as much as I used to the pandemic got me a little bit feeling blah and not wanting to go thru the dilema.

I wish things go back close to normal soon.

 

[lajolla]

H and I still have no planned air travel. We don't normally travel anyway in the summer since we live in San Diego and just do things local and around Southern California since the weather is so nice. We are not tied to a summer schedule any long since our daughters are now adults.

For the time being we will continue to road trip as it is much less stress.

 

[MichaelB]

I’m reminded of this line from the film As Good as it Gets”

 

[W2R]

I’m reminded of this line from the film As Good as it Gets”

I hope not! Reading threads like this one makes me feel SO glad and grateful that we have no desire to travel. Since 2009, when we retired, we have left New Orleans only twice. Both times were for hurricane evacuations (Gustav in 2012, and Ida in 2021). The Ida evacuation was such a nightmare. Frank and I are seriously talking about not evacuating this summer for anything, no matter what storms threaten New Orleans. If/when that happens we'll probably change our minds but right now evacuating sounds awful.

 

[brett]

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

This is what we are doing. Just came back from a month in Portugal. Planning to go to Greece for six weeks or in September.

 

[Souschef]

It’s getting home that’s expensive not hiring a guide for a few days. I don’t want to pay a additional 1500-2000 for a flight and to transfer me to Dublin. I still feel like I have a bad cold so not feeling 100% either. I am really only close enough to see the cliffs of Mohr and it’s been raining daily. My friend said there’s so much fog that you could barely see them. At this point I just want to get home and see my little doggies. My son said Max is super clingy and having a difficult time which is why I only planned to be gone for 11 days. Now it’s going to be 15 by the time I get home.

Dear TT,
I am so sorry you are having the problem with your Ireland tour. In 2011, DW came down with a severe lung infection, and was not allowed to fly home. She had to spend 3 awful nights in a hospital which was subsequently closed. Fortunately, we had trip insurance.
To soften the blow for you, I have attached a copy of our Ireland trip. Perhaps some time in the future you can continue your tour
Get well soon!!

 

[Teacher Terry]

Dear TT,
I am so sorry you are having the problem with your Ireland tour. In 2011, DW came down with a severe lung infection, and was not allowed to fly home. She had to spend 3 awful nights in a hospital which was subsequently closed. Fortunately, we had trip insurance.
To soften the blow for you, I have attached a copy of our Ireland trip. Perhaps some time in the future you can continue your tour
Get well soon!!

Thanks Souschef! That’s scary to be in the hospital in a foreign country. Glad your wife recovered. I enjoyed the pictures and saw some of the same things. Our tour started in Dublin and I got sick the day we were to see the ring of Kerry. I also missed Galway, Aran islands, and a castle dinner. The 4 days I was on the tour the weather was beautiful but it’s done nothing but rain ever since. My friend said it ruined the last part of the trip.

I may feel different in a few years but right now I have been to Europe 5 times in 20 years and that appears to be sufficient. My DIL’s family lives in Poland and want me to come with the kids in 2 years for a big party. I would have to get amnesia at this point to even consider it). Maybe my tolerance for severe inconvenience and lack of sleep is decreasing in my old age.

 

[W2R]

I may feel different in a few years but right now I have been to Europe 5 times in 20 years and that appears to be sufficient. My DIL’s family lives in Poland and want me to come with the kids in 2 years for a big party. I would have to get amnesia at this point to even consider it). Maybe my tolerance for severe inconvenience and lack of sleep is decreasing in my old age.

That's the way I feel about travel in general! I spent most of my life traveling. First my travel-obsessed family dragged me all over the world almost constantly throughout my childhood (I never had as much as a week of summer vacation fun with other kids at home, and I even had to show up two months late for first grade, grrr!!). Then as an adult I had domestic travel for work almost every month which involved long working hours inside "exciting" places like conference rooms, convention centers, or federal offices in Houston, D.C., Miami, and other places that were neither new to me nor fun for me. Now that I am 74 and retired, and can do whatever I want, I decided to just put an END to it and enjoy my wonderful home instead. No more travel and I love it!

Not only will that make me happy, it will mean one fewer American trying to make reservations for overseas travel. Might make it easier for those who actually want to travel.

Being sick away from home is such an awful experience, even though your symptoms are not severe thus far. It's still awful, believe me I know it can be pretty dismal. Hang in there! Before too long you will be home and all this will just be a bad memory..

 

[Chuckanut]

Today's WSJ has a story about how messed up traveling by air is this Spring and going into Summer.

It's nice to know it only took them about 6 weeks to catch up with the early-retirement group.

There still isn’t enough slack in the system for airlines to recover as things go wrong during the summer, when sudden storms can shut airports down and force flights to find new routes, according to some industry observers and union officials.

Customers said they have faced hours long waits at airports and for help by phone. With flights about as full as they were before the pandemic, finding an empty seat when plans go awry can be nearly impossible.

 

[Souschef]

Dear TT,
The hospital was in Brooklyn,NY! It might as well have been in a foreign country. While DW was in the ER, patients were coming in with gunshot wounds, stabbings, and the like. Each victim was surrounded by his "homies"

 

[MarieIG]

Dear TT,
The hospital was in Brooklyn,NY! It might as well have been in a foreign country. While DW was in the ER, patients were coming in with gunshot wounds, stabbings, and the like. Each victim was surrounded by his "homies"

Work required me to spend a lot of times in Brooklyn (Kings); and I usually went in by subway, as the morning traffic jams were torturous. I made all efforts to get out before sundown, which typically wasn't a problem in the summer, although winter time can be problematic. My sympathies to your DW getting stuck there.

 

[martyp]

A friend was returning from Ohio to Bangkok. If he and his wife were to fly from Ohio the ticket price was to be $10,000. They booked a flight out of Newark for $3,000. Two of their flights were canceled. They eventually arrived in Thailand 3 days later.

 

[harllee]

I have pretty much decided I am done with air travel. I have not done any flying since Covid but even before I had several trips that were flight disasters. I am still traveling but I am driving. In April we went to New Orleans for the NCAA basketball final four and we drove. The driving trip was actually fun. We spent a night on the road each way. I retired 20 years ago and traveled the world. I am glad I did it then, I don't want to do it now.

 

[Ronstar]

My biggest travel problem is DW. I could have extended our Glacier NP trip this summer a few days by staying in a cabin with no private bath- restrooms and showers a short walk away. She nixed that plan.

 

[explanade]

Dear TT,
I am so sorry you are having the problem with your Ireland tour. In 2011, DW came down with a severe lung infection, and was not allowed to fly home. She had to spend 3 awful nights in a hospital which was subsequently closed. Fortunately, we had trip insurance.
To soften the blow for you, I have attached a copy of our Ireland trip. Perhaps some time in the future you can continue your tour
Get well soon!!

Did they actually pay out?

Which insurance and product?

 

[audreyh1]

Today's WSJ has a story about how messed up traveling by air is this Spring and going into Summer.

It's nice to know it only took them about 6 weeks to catch up with the early-retirement group.

Did that mention staff and crew shortages due to people being out sick?

 

[Sunset]

This is what we are doing. Just came back from a month in Portugal. Planning to go to Greece for six weeks or in September.

Amazing how time flies.... Can you share where you stayed or visited and what you thought of the places ?

 

[Scuba]

This is what we are doing. Just came back from a month in Portugal. Planning to go to Greece for six weeks or in September.

We haven’t been to Portugal yet but absolutely loved our six weeks in Greece in 2018. We want to return and see some of Greece that we didn’t see last time. Also we wouldn’t mind revisiting most of the destinations we did see.

We aren’t traveling this year because of health issues. We had a trip to Hawaii booked in April and a week before departure, DH had a heart attack and emergency quadruple bypass surgery. We cancelled two months in Croatia planned for July and August, as well as a couple of smaller domestic trips. I’m having shoulder surgery in a couple of days. Might as well fix everything we can this year and hopefully we’ll be back to it next year.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

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?

The grandmother was holding an Air Canada ticket in her hand, but I don't think that they did all this. I think that was the flight they rebooked her onto.

I a suspiciion that the travel agent/tour planner actually had control of the air fares and the responsibility for booking/rebooking/resolving the issues. They were having additional problems due to the time zones involved...the tour operator was in the US...asleep.

 

[Teacher Terry]

That's the way I feel about travel in general! I spent most of my life traveling. First my travel-obsessed family dragged me all over the world almost constantly throughout my childhood (I never had as much as a week of summer vacation fun with other kids at home, and I even had to show up two months late for first grade, grrr!!). Then as an adult I had domestic travel for work almost every month which involved long working hours inside "exciting" places like conference rooms, convention centers, or federal offices in Houston, D.C., Miami, and other places that were neither new to me nor fun for me. Now that I am 74 and retired, and can do whatever I want, I decided to just put an END to it and enjoy my wonderful home instead. No more travel and I love it!

Not only will that make me happy, it will mean one fewer American trying to make reservations for overseas travel. Might make it easier for those who actually want to travel.

Being sick away from home is such an awful experience, even though your symptoms are not severe thus far. It's still awful, believe me I know it can be pretty dismal. Hang in there! Before too long you will be home and all this will just be a bad memory..

W2R, I have wondered why you hated traveling and that explains it. I never traveled as a kid and my parents didn’t travel until I grew up and they were in their 50’s. When I was raising my kids we took them to visit family and friends in upstate New York for 2 weeks every summer and one year we stopped in Washington DC for a week which we all loved.

In my early 40’s my third husband and I took our first European trip to Italy and was hooked. Now that I think about it the last 3 times we went to Europe things didn’t go smoothly. The worst was 2010 when we left for Poland on Wednesday for my son’s wedding in Poland and arrived Friday afternoon with no luggage, no sleep and had to shop for everything for a 2 day wedding.

The only reason we didn’t miss the wedding was because I held up a entire line of people at 1am insisting they get me there and they were trying to get rid of us. If I hadn’t planned to arrive so early we would have missed it. We also traveled a lot domestic in our motor home and car. My mom went to Europe in her late 70’s and early 80’s with my brother a few times. That woman always had more energy than me). I am really grateful that I didn’t get very sick because being alone in a different country super sick would have been terrifying.

 

[Pellice]

Update on my travel insurance issue. [The insurance company denied my claim for tour cost reimbursement because they said the flight cancellation was an issue of "overbooking" - as though a fully loaded flight would be entirely canceled BECAUSE it was overbooked - a ridiculous reason]. Much to my surprise, because I thought airlines never gave the reason for a flight cancellation in writing, AA confirmed that the reason for the cancellation was weather.

I'd already submitted proof that the entire flight was cancelled, not just my ticket. Now I've got proof that the cancellation is for a "covered reason." Am trying to figure best sequence for getting my reimbursement done. Submit the proof via the "portal" and give them a week? Submit and follow up with a phone call tomorrow? Write a vaguely threatening email to the provided email address and tell them I have the goods? Or call and ask them where to send this to handle most expeditiously?

I am going to share the name of the company as soon as I get this resolved, as they outright lied to me in denying my claim. I'm also going to write the NJ insurance oversight authority, AND complain to the tour company that their recommended insurance provider is trying to bilk customers.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Things are finally working out. The really nice young guy from the tour company has managed to bypass the evil 3rd party company they contract with and got me home. So I have flights booked. He also got permission to send a private driver and not expect me to navigate a bunch of public transport for the 4 hours to Dublin. There’s no train in this town.

He also got permission to move me a day early so I can spend the night at a hotel in the Dublin airport. The other company was adamant that I couldn’t step a foot out of the hotel until 12:01 am on the first. My mom always said if you have to be old you might as well use it to get some perks when you can. He said that he will now work on hotel and transport. I am so relieved). BTW I don’t think any of this has to do with the travel insurance I took but with their Covid promise they offer to everyone.

 

[Gremlin]

So glad it is working out and you’ll finally get home to hug your dogs. Fingers crossed the trip home is uneventful!

Things are finally working out. The really nice young guy from the tour company has managed to bypass the evil 3rd party company they contract with and got me home. So I have flights booked. He also got permission to send a private driver and not expect me to navigate a bunch of public transport for the 4 hours to Dublin. There’s no train in this town.

He also got permission to move me a day early so I can spend the night at a hotel in the Dublin airport. The other company was adamant that I couldn’t step a foot out of the hotel until 12:01 am on the first. My mom always said if you have to be old you might as well use it to get some perks when you can. He said that he will now work on hotel and transport. I am so relieved). BTW I don’t think any of this has to do with the travel insurance I took but with their Covid promise they offer to everyone.

 

[Souschef]

Did they actually pay out?

Which insurance and product?

The company was Allianz. Some of the medical expenses were covered by Medicare, The rest by trip insurance, including return airfare. I stayed overnight with my DS and BIL instead of in a hotel. I took them out to dinner to repay their hospitality, but the insurance would not cover it. If I had stayed in a hotel instead, they would have covered that