Returned home last night
Another experience...
Left our home in CO on 3/3 for a couple of weeks in Los Angeles area watching our grandson while his parents took an overseas trip. Plan was to head to Hawaii for 2 weeks from there.
Their trip to India went fine (India has a relatively low incidence so far), returning via Canada over the weekend.
We changed our travel plans to return home instead of HI. Should get airline credit, good through end of this year. Able to cancel hotel and car.
Condo owner says no refund, which falls within the contract due to short notice. Last e-mail, a few days ago, indicated we could book again at 50% of regular price. Stated she couldn't let us go for "free" because that would count against their time to use, per IRS regulations.
Fast forward, we used VRBO, who has now sent out an e-mail regarding the unusual times and steps they are taking. Says >95% of owners are providing some accommodations, and they are refunding all fees for COVID cancellations mid March through April.
We'll wait to see how it all shakes out. Even if a total loss on the condo, really no choice but to cancel. Gov. Ige has asked visitors not to come for 30 days. I sent the owner an e-mail asking how to go about booking the 50% off in the future, and then a second one letting her know we got home. It's our second rental through them and we've shared numerous e-mails, so sort of "know" each other electronically. She has not returned them in the time I'd expect based on experience. I'm guessing things are moving quickly, changing, and it will take time for everything to shake out.
One interesting observation... Hawaiian Airlines was running cheap airfares as of a couple of days ago. $99 one way, LAX to OGG. Saw seats filling on the plane, not dropping. However, I also noted that despite filing the paperwork 48 hours before the flight (they said you needed to cancel 24 out for credit), I still showed as being on. Since it was a non stop, perhaps other cancelled flights were transferring passengers to this one, and presumably other seats showing as booked would be empty.
Moving our flight up on United from BUR to DEN actually saved money since new fare was low. Small airport, but when we got there, the parking garage you pass between rental cars and terminal was 100% empty (not positive but I believe it's for long term parking - definitely not the one where the rental cars are). Not a single car. We were the only ones checking in. Then they had to turn on the conveyor at security for us. Turns out on top of the slow down the Salt Lake flights were cancelled due to an earthquake there.
Good news! The restaurant was open so we could get a bite before our flight. The plane was a CRJ that seats 50, it was about half full. Flight got in 30 minutes or so early. I'd watched their prior flights (Boise to SFO and SFO to Bur) which were also 30-45 minutes early. I assume this was due to less flying/ground congestion so no wait for take off and landing spots. Arrival in Denver - not so busy, but not deserted. Hard to put a number on it.
Today we went grocery shopping, primarily for fresh items, but also some canned since we had an extended trip planned we were totally out. No problems at small local store, though they were out of paper products and low on bread. Limit of 1 dozen on eggs. Some other limits, but none that we needed. Very orderly compared to some of the panic buying we saw in LA last Friday.
So we are settled in and hunkered down with a fresh snow storm on the way. Happy to be here, never thought I'd be so happy to see snow coming in instead of on a long planned vacation in Hawaii.