The Big Back Up
This is probably the most drastic pandemic travel plan I have helped with. The Back up.
Simply put, you book two possible trips, taking pains to make each one refundable or, even better, with arrangements that you pay for there such as on check out.
This is my latest example.
Imagine this. Let’s say you’ve only got one 2 week period in April all year in which to travel? You partially want to go to Kyoto, but you also have a dream trip to Madeira you’d like to take.
With the Pandemic, there are decent chances either place could get shut down for travel restrictions.
What to do?
In this case, There were two issues. One is that for Madeira, My client wants to stay in the Reid’s Palace. He wants the best and that hotel has to be cancelled at least one week prior to stay to hold a reservation and cancel it without having to pay any $$. In the case of Japan, the Ritz Carlton, you have to fly first to the west coast, because that’s what you have to do for refundable tickets. (Tickets to Asia get much more competitive in many ways where the Asian Carriers can compete)
He is set to leave April 9th, on March 30th, we have a meeting and on that date. We will cancel and refund in full the option he does not take. Also, hopefully, right before he leaves he’ll get about $5-7K added back onto his credit card from the refunded plan tickets (he flies business class)
The Pandemic Extreme Back Up plan is possible for economy travelers too. Refundable tickets are much cheaper and easier to get than ever. I’m never a fan of nonrefundable specials under the best of circumstances and for pandemic travel, no way.
Also, I keep having people say “I will get insurance.” Folks, for Travel Insurance, Covid is a big, fat exclusion. It’s not covered. Even when you get a CFAR (Cancel For Any Reason) policy, you still can’t say Covid. You have say “bad hair day” or “I suddenly find I don’t like Mexican food”
But, what you can do, for this, is just book trips leveraging items like credit card guarantees and fully refundability. You can’t find this in every case, but in many of them you can.
This is to the point that I have some clients planning two trips at the same time. It is seeming smarter all the time.
