Tuesday, 11 December 2012

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How to Cancel a Trip


It's life. You don't always get to choose the circumstances in which you live, and despite all my enthusiasm for traveling, there are some things that are more important. Occasionally those things will raise their heads, and travel has to become a secondary consideration. It's happened to us this Christmas, and unfortunately, we're finding ourselves needing to be closer to home than a trip to Anaheim allows. We've put it off as long as possible, hoping for a different solution, but now it's time to cancel our trip.


Putting aside the sadness of the moment (You are feeling sad for us right?), how do you go about cancelling a trip? If everything you booked is refundable, you've got no problems. Simply pick up your laptop and cancel everything yourself. What if you've prepaid for things though? Or if you've used rewards or bonus nights that can't be cancelled? Are you completely out of luck? You might be, but here are some things to consider when cancelling a trip:

CANCEL YOUR RESERVATIONS EARLY


I know the tendency is to put off cancelling as long as possible in the hopes of a miracle (darn lottery tickets!), but make sure you're keeping an eye on your cancellation dates. Most hotel rates that aren't prepaid can be cancelled up to 48 hours before arrival without a penalty, but some require 72 hours notice, and on a reservation I made just last week I saw that the hotel I was booking wanted a full 7 days notice to cancel without charge. Lori kind of laughed when I showed her that, as the only thing I'm capable of planning 7 days in advance is that it will be Sunday again and I'll be watching football. Unless of course it's not Sunday, in which case I'm not capable of planning anything that far in advance. 

IS THAT HOTEL RESERVATION REALLY NON-REFUNDABLE?


I know that the reservation says non-refundable, but I've never had a hotel not help me out in some way or another when I had to change something. It's important to not be demanding though, as the hotel is completely within it's rights here to simply stick you with the bill. Asking nicely if there's anything they can do to help you out will usually produce some sort of benefit for you, even if the only thing possible is a credit with the hotel. Of course they might just be helping me out because they don't want to deal with my head negotiator. Would you want to argue with her?


CANCELLING YOUR PLANE TICKETS


Flight plans are very different than hotel reservations. Unless you forked over the extra money when buying it, your flight is probably non-refundable. What you can get though, is a full credit back with the airline...for a fee. How much that fee is makes a huge difference as to whether it's worth cancelling or not. If the fee is $50 and you get a $250 credit with the airline, it's worth doing. If they want to charge you a $100 fee for a $69 flight, you might want to reconsider. It's even more complicated if you made your reservations with miles, as you have to decide the value of those miles to you and whether or not it's worth paying to get them back. I've had mixed results with airlines and their helpfulness with cancelling flights. Alaska is fantastic to me, and has always been very forgiving. Allegiant won't even give me the correct phone number to talk to anyone about cancelling my flight. It's like my bar days all over again. Allegiant...I don't want to date you, I just want to talk on the phone.

IS A DATE CHANGE BETTER THAN CANCELLING?


While getting a refund isn't always possible, sometimes changing your date is. Bumping your reservation into the future allows for one of two things; a chance to reschedule your vacation, or an opportunity to try the whole cancellation process again. Just moving your vacation to a later date is obviously easier, but if you're not planning on coming back (or if there's a court order prohibiting you from doing so), then pushing the reservation off lets you call back and try cancelling your reservation again, this time with somebody who might take pity on you. Again...just like my bar days.

DID YOU GET EVERYTHING?


You book a lot of things when planning a vacation, so when you have to cancel, it's easy to miss something. You'll probably remember to cancel your hotel and flights, but did you remember your rental car? Did you book a night at an airport hotel because it included parking? What about your dinner reservations? I once got a bill for a shuttle ride that I'd booked and forgotten to cancel, even though I wasn't within 3000 miles of the shuttle at the time I was charged. Keeping everything in a single file or email folder is probably a good idea. If misfortune strikes and you do have to cancel your trip, it's pretty easy to just go down the list of confirmations and cancel them one by one. No matter how excruciatingly painful it might be to make all those calls.


Cancelling a trip is never fun, but it's not the end of the world. We'll be making the best of our needing to be closer to home by spending more time in Seattle over New Years, and doing a little exploring as we make the rounds of family at Christmas. Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon and we'll be off and roaming again. If not...well at least I hope I remembered to cancel everything this time.

This post is a part of Travel Tips Tuesday at Suitcases and Sippy Cups and Walkingon Travels. If you didn't get here from there, you should go check it out. There's people there who can probably cancel things without crying on the phone. They're rocks I tell you...absolute rocks.

Written by Steve Pratt

Comments (24)

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Ummm...Steve did you do something bad on your extra day at Disneyland and now they won't let you come back? :) Sorry, about your vacation change, anyway. That's not fun!
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
LOL. You know, there's always a couple of stories that happen on trips that I just don't feel comfortable blogging about Jessica. We'll have to talk about those kind of things when we finally meet up in Texas.
Sorry you have had to cancel your Christmas trip to Disneyland but you're right that sometimes other things take priority. It seems like all of our plans going forward are going to have a big question mark hanging over them due to elderly parents and failing health but we'll take it one trip at a time - until now I have never worried much about cancellation insurance but it's become very important in my travel planning.
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
It's definitely not like it was when we were younger is it Lisa? The days when we used to just take off at the last possible moment?
Umm...it's just dawning on me that I should probably clarify the use of the term "we" in this answer....
Ohhh, you're getting a big fat sympathy vote from Colorado on having to cancel Disney. :(

On a happier note, I'm glad Lori gave you her real phone number, though...
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
She didn't have a lot of choice....I just kind of followed her home....
All these years I've been reading so many travel blogs out there, and I've actually never read a post anyone's written on this topic before! It's very useful information too, because I've never (knock on wood) up til now had to cancel a whole trip before. Really good post, Steve!
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
Glad you enjoyed it Sonja. Come back next week when I write a post on how to stop at every rest stop with a mile marker that's a prime number. Bet you've never read a post on that before either!
I'm with Lisa - I've never bought cancellation insurance but feel like it's coming to that time with ageing relatives. At least you've replaced Disney with Seattle - did I just say that? It will be raining cats & dogs in Seattle in all likelihood but at least it will be warmer than Kelowna.
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
I've never bought cancellation insurance before either Leigh, but it's starting to make a little more sense to me. I'm just never sure how easy it would be to use when I need it. I have some pretty steep suspicions when it comes to insurance companies.
If it's not snowing, I'll be fine with Seattle, although it has no chance of living up to Disney. At least the coffee will be better.
Oh no. Sorry to hear you had to cancel Disney. Seattle is a lot of fun too :) I'm with Lisa and Leigh. Before kids I never considered cancellation insurance but now that I'm a parent and I've seen how easily they get sick at school when someone with a runny nose just breathes on them, we buy it.

Your head negotiator looks like she means business! I wouldn't want to cross her path ;)
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
I haven't won a negotiation in the last 11 years. Somehow she ended up on her mothers payroll.
Sorry to hear your trip to Disney isn't going to work out this time for you. My preference would actually be Seattle, but then again, I'm weird like that. :)

It's a rough decision to cancel a vacation, even more so if your deposits or expenses are non-refundable. We never purchase travel insurance because we really try not to spend that much on our vacations. That doesn't mean that I wasn't freaked out when we booked an Alaskan cruise last year. As our departure date drew nearer, I was positive that something would happen to delay us from getting there. I was so relieved when we stepped on that boat.
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
Oh the cruises are nerve-wracking aren't they? I hate putting that much money up front on something, and I'm with you...I was a complete nervous wreck until the departure.
Oh no, after you finally convinced everyone to return to Disneyland! :(:(:( Having to cancel the trip was one of my biggest fears when I booked nonrefundable Delta plane tickets to the other side of the world 8 months in advance. Had no idea you can reschedule. I did try to move one of the flights once by a few days, and with the fine, it would have been the same cost as booking a new flight.... Maybe if you reschedule by more days/weeks/months it gets better?

In any case.... At least you'll get to explore some of Kelowna (and post some snow pictures, right?), and I hope whatever is holding you there will work out and you'll be able to travel again very soon!
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
I wouldn't hold your breath for any snow pictures Ayelet. It's been snowing here for almost 3 days, and I've had just about enough of it. I'm seriously thinking about turning the heat in the house to full and opening all the windows to try and melt a path on the driveway.
Travel insurance would sort that out, partly. We travelled a lot to the US but never really bothered to get one. But on the first occassion we did, a death in the family occured 2 days before our departure. We got back about 80%. Which is why we now always get one, particularly when travelling to the US
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
I guess the other way to look at that might be that travel insurance sure is unlucky for you guys. :) Glad you had it when you needed it though.
Oh no! I hope the Disney gods don't hold this against you :) Those pesky airlines are really fun to deal with if you have to change and/or cancel flights, aren't they? I've never bought trip insurance either but agree that it may be something I need to consider especially with aging parents.
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
The Disney Gods are very forgiving. Certainly more than the airlines are. I've considered buying travel insurance before, but I'm not sure the insurance companies would be any easier to deal with than the airlines are.
So sorry you had to cancel your trip!
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
Thank you. I knew fellow Disney-ites would sympathize.
I'm sorry you had to cancel your trip. Disneyland will be waiting for you. These are such great tips. I've only bought travel insurance for a few of the cruises we've taken but not for anything else. Thanks for the reminder. I'm sure Seattle will be fun for the family. Hope everything works out for you!
1 reply · active 631 weeks ago
Oh I fully expect Disneyland to be waiting for us. In fact, I expect them to close until we can get back there. How they could even think about carrying on without us coming to visit is beyond me.

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