Jessica Puckett: No, I mean, I think that’s definitely, the past year of travel planning has definitely changed the way I deal with all of my vacation and travel planning. Yes like you said I had to cancel a trip to Italy like most people had to cancel because of the pandemic but also last October I had to cancel a trip to Napa Valley because of the forest fires there. And yes, I think travel stress is definitely the term I would use to denote these two things. It took a lot of calls, a lot of emails. I got my money back for these two trips which was no easy task. And I think it completely changed my perspective on the way I will book air travel and hotels. I think from now on, once the trip reopens, I’ll probably block a week or something on my calendar – and a month or even a couple of weeks in advance I’ll check what flight deals are available, what hotels I choose can book, and then just jump on it.
I think the industry will shift in that direction too, especially when we see a bit of that Reopening after COVID-19, starts to improve a bit. I know there will likely be a lot of air deals in the industry just to get people back on airplanes. Hopefully this is conducive to the last minute booking that I’m interested in.
THE: When you look back on these two trips that ultimately weren’t trips, what is your greatest booking regret? What do you wish you hadn’t?
JP: I will say I booked through a third party for the California trip, I think through a third party for the hotel. And they were really great. They got my money back but it was definitely an extra step calling my hotel, calling the third party, emailing, paperwork, back and forth. And both of them were very flexible and I got my money back, but it was definitely complicated. So, I think in the future I’ll try to avoid that. I’ll say yes the airline, the hotel, even some tours we had planned, all were really flexible, that was good. But it took a lot of energy and it was a little overwhelming.
And I was able to book a kind of impromptu vacation after the California trip had to be canceled. And I went with my friend too BelizeI’m the couple’s travel booker so I canceled everything in California and booked everything for Belize. And we’re finally here. I was so overwhelmed and deeply wounded after all the travel stress that we actually tried to plan activities and when we were there this hotel concierge wrote, “Oh, you can snorkel. We did hikes in the Mayan ruins, “all that great stuff. And I actually started to cry. I was so stressed out.
MC: Jess.
JP: I said, “I can’t plan anything else. I just want to sitting on the beach. “So, yeah, that was a little breaking point. So hopefully to avoid that in the future.
MC: I think that’s a fair thing to ask forward.
Megan Spurrell: I agree.
MC: Megan, I know you wrote about it, but I feel like the real million dollar question everyone is grappling with right now is: should you cancel your summer or autumn trip? Should you cancel it now? Should you cancel later? Shouldn’t you cancel it at all? I feel like Jess said there are so many options which is really overwhelming and not many responses. What advice did you give people what to do?
