What does THB do during a pandemic?

THB and DB are self-isolating and keeping our social distance at our beach house, about 15-20 minutes north of Monterey. It is now at least 5-10 minutes faster given the lack of traffic on Highway 1. We rarely go to E-ville, and do our best to keep our distance from everybody.

So what are THB and DB doing? 

We tried synchonizing swimming, the pool is closed at MDC

We tried jumping around holding our stuffed animals, too exhausting

Then we went back to the tried and true: vegging out in front of TV waiting for phone to PING! How about Frozen? Sure, we haven't watched that since 9am this morning

What was left? Well, the obvious: figuring out how to handle cancelling all the trips in the hopper. Perfect for filling up the days of sheltering in place.

In no particular order:

Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the first week of August

THB had paid for all but expenses on the ground in August, so here's what he had to take care of:

- Tickets to Olympic events: Cosport, the authorized agent for ticket sales in the US has announced that while they haven't finalized anything for Tokyo 2021, they will almost assuredly keep our money if we want to keep our tickets. The postponement means there will be more tickets available at some point (things were sold out months ago), so it is possible THB will go for more than just the last 7 days of the 2021 Games

- Airline: THB and KBM have non-refundable business class tickets on ANA (the biggest expense of the trip). No announcement yet on what ANA will honor. United, a partner of ANA,  announced in early June that all cancelled flights will come with a 24 month time frame for using the credit (i.e., no refund). ANA may cancel these flights (likelihood: 75%?) and thus might return the money even for non-refundable fares (seen note below re Alaska Airlines). In any case,  THB will have to re-schedule flights as soon as ANA posts their July-August 2021 schedule.  Bottom Line: THB is waiting on doing anything right now. 

- Hotel: THB booked two pre-paid non-refundable rooms at a small very conveniently Japanese hotel, part of the Sotetsu chain. THB contacted the hotel and they agreed to refund the funds paid. Their booking agent (Agoda, a separate organization) uses a web-site that goes by what is on the reservation: non-refundable. 

THB called Sotetsu again and they then coordinated the following: THB cancelled the bookings using Agoda's site; Agoda's site then sent an announcement saying that the refund was in the form "Agoda Cash" and could be applied to any Agoda property if reservation was made in 6 months and used within 12 months. Hmmmmm...Tokyo Olympics are 15 months away! THB sent Agoda an e-mail with gist of agreement with Totetsu and Agoda customer service then responded with a refund for the bookings will be made in US$ within 30 days. One of two bookings refund came with 48 hours, after 10 days THB hasn't seen the second refund. 

Insurance: THB insured the cost of the flights because it was the most exposed expense, and the insurance only kicked in if either or both THB and KBM were unable to travel due to illness. It did not cover the cost of the flights if most everyone but THB and KBM got sick! THB is hoping that the insurance ends up covering the new flights, he does not think the insurance company will refund for a pandemic regardless (among many other things they don't cover). TBD

Cruise and land option in Glacier Bay and Denali NP, Alaska, June 2020

Aside: this is the 4th time THB and DB have gone deep into planning a trip to Alaska, our 50th state to visit. The first three times we backed down, the trip didn't seem right. This one was more a spur of the moment type thing, we booked it in January of this year in less than 2 days. 

THB and DB were scheduled to take an Uncruise cruise in and around Glacier Bay with a land extension to Denali National Park arranged by Uncruise. This trip was cancelled in early April by Uncruise (almost too ironic to point out). 

- Cruise: Uncruise has created a certificate (basically a credit) to be used (e.g., as a down payment on a future trip) by year-end for any future travel on any one of their cruises (e.g., they also go through the Panama Canal) except in the Galapagos (clearly their number one outing and a trip THB highly recommends - doesn't have to be with Uncruise). Since THB and DB had only put down 10% on the cruise and 50% on the Denali portion, this isn't a huge amount of money.

- Flights: One very short and efficient call to Alaska Airlines and a the entire itinerary was cancelled and a refund made with 48 hours. The reason given for expediting the refund: one of the legs had been "rescheduled" to be an hour later than planned. Great service!

- Insurance: Another quicky: the call was answered right away and the outcome was no refund, instead a credit for the full amount of $1,600, good for any trip taken by Jan 2022.  Rhetorical queston: how could the insurance not cover for cancellation by the trip provider? Maybe only with a lot of arguing and fighting with insurer and a refund of costs by the cruise line...in which case there would be no need for insurance at that point?

X marks the spots that you cannot shelter-in-place

Hawaii in early March 2020

THB joined LB for 8 days in Hawaii, cut short to 5 days when the pressure grew of the possibility of being stranded on Maui. Hawaiian Air changed our tickets without a fee.

DB was to join THB and LB for 4 days in Hawaii. By the time she could get through to Hawaiian Air (by then, contacting airlines had become hours-long waits and ineffective e-mails) they would only provide a credit for the return flight (the flight from Oakland to Maui had already departed) to be used by the end of the year, and refunded the $80 upgrade fee. The rental car, umbrella and beach chairs, and snorkel fins and mask places all truncated their costs to the actual 5 days. No refund for LB for the unused condo costs (nor was one expected).

Maybe Once In A Lifetime won't be part of the marketing going forward (if forward it goes)

NY in September 2020

So far  the only planning for this trip has been to buy tickets to two Broadway Musicals, American Utopia and Girl from the North Country. 

Will physical distancing still be enforced in the fall? No airplane or hotel reservations have been made yet. Likelihood of cancelling: pretty high on theater events, possible otherwise?

Bogot: guess the traffic on right had not got the shelter-in-place directive

Colombia and Mexico City in November 2020

Visiting 3 Colombia cities on a tour for 9 days, with a focus on art and architecture. Just DB and THB in Mexico City for 5 days, (same focus) staying at the Four Seasons and using an art guide for several of the days. Air travel has been booked and paid for.  A deposit is down on the Columbian tour. So far, no changes have been made. Likelihood of going: probably 50-50 as of now (April 15, you don't have to pay your taxes for another few months!).