so for those who know, the ng family has been planning for a france+london trip for the last 2 weeks of this month for the longest time. so when we woke up last Saturday morning to the dreadful events in Paris, the husband and I were stunned beyond words. so much emotions and thoughts surging through our minds. we felt deep sadness for paris. we felt unsure if we should continue with our trip just 5 days from the attacks while state of emergency was declared for paris. we felt relief and gratitude that this could have happened 1 week later when we are there but didn't. we were thinking of all the sunken costs like air tickets, hotel accomodations, rail tixs etc and totally at a loss on what will happen to these if we decided to cancel the trip.
but being the ever pragmatic + optimist me, I know the best way to alleviate anxiety and worries is through action itself! so we sprang into action!
long story short, we called up SQ and in light of what happened, they were able to grant full refund on a case by case basis (we got it given our planned departure date is so close). so with that, we decided to cancel our Europe trip! and while there were more work to be done to follow up on all the other expenses paid upfront, we didn't want to waste our leave and deny ourselves of a year-end family holiday. it's a good thing that I'm always planning travel trips now and then even when there's nothing concrete. :P so I said to hubbi, given the timeline, Australia or japan will make the most sense. he decided japan and we were set!
both of us stayed up late on sat night to do the admin work while the boys slept blissfully unaware of all the changes. between us, we called up the various hotels, railway agencies etc to enquire on refunds/potential cancellation. we managed to cancel 1 hotel out of the 3 hotels booked for the trip. we were unable to cancel paris + London ones given those are non-cancellable reservations.... last time I always wonder why would anyone pay extra to book those cancellable accommodations. now I know... LOL well, I may start doing the same going forward given this experience. :P
able to get refunds back for TGV trains but the process is a bit of a hassle but not impossible. Eurostar is a gone case though. the good thing is we bought travel insurance and the insurance asked us to submit the supporting documents for their review. at least it's not a dead end yet for the 2 accoms + Eurostar! :P
in any case, we are fully prepared to forfeit all these when we decided to cancel the trip. weighing the pros and cons (safety!), hubbi and I are absolutely on the same side that we can always earn back the monies but putting our lives at risk unnecessarily should be avoided.
the review for travel insurance will have to wait after our trip though as yes! we are heading to central japan after all!
I was staying up late on sat night and using the full sunday to plan for a trip which we are departing tomorrow night! how exciting! LOL. this is really testing my adaptability skills to the max. and I think I pass with flying colors.
and it's really an experience trying to book accommodations this last minute. it was so stressful till at the end, I found everything funny and interesting. it's really surreal seeing message popped up at booking.com saying no rooms available for your travel dates. and no matter how you permutated the different cities, the same message appears. well done!
everything happens for a reason, I believe. and due to the last minute bookings, the kids (+us) will get to try new accommodations type for the first time!
we will be staying at a guesthouse (similar to a hostel - not new for the adults but 1st time with the kids), a jap style hotel (the kids can try sleeping on the futons for the first time) and airbnb (1st time for everyone!). I used to have reservations for airbnb hearing horror stories now and then but where else to try it than japan! our host seems like a very pleasant lady with good reviews on the website for her. so hopefully, it will be a good experience for us!
we got the air tickets + accoms booked on sat, rail pass bought yesterday and 3/4 of the itinerary (roughly) sketched out by me. we will be flying off tomorrow night and I think it will be interesting to see how this last min trip pan out! :D
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