"Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I hope you had a chance to walk around the christmas market...so much amazing food, from truffle pasta to venison sausages to raclette. 

We have 3 full days in Brussels and for one of those days I booked a bus tour that takes us not just to Bruges, but also to Ghent. Not sure how beautiful Ghent and Bruges will look on a cold December day, but I'll find out!

Ghent of course is where the treaty that ended the War of 1812 was signed. My previous experience was a buddy of mine about 10 years ago calling me and saying "hey I'm in Ghent, can you help me find the building where the Treaty of Ghent was signed" - and with the help of Google I found the building and told him exactly where to go. Yeah I'm the kind of friend you call for something like that.

[Count Walewski]

Alas, I had to cancel our trip to Brussels and Paris because my mother-in-law got really sick. But I still get to have a novel experience: filing a trip insurance claim!

[Natsinpwc]

Alas, I had to cancel our trip to Brussels and Paris because my mother-in-law got really sick. But I still get to have a novel experience: filing a trip insurance claim!

I had one last summer when the hurricane cancelled our flights back here to Orlando. The airline we were on couldn't;t rebook us for three days.  Was staying with son so not hotel.  Found another airline one day late.   Wasn't sure what they wanted to see so just submitted what I could.  Got paid some amount a couple weeks later.  Not sure how they calculated but seemed reasonable.  Allianz I believe.

[wj73]

Alas, I had to cancel our trip to Brussels and Paris because my mother-in-law got really sick. But I still get to have a novel experience: filing a trip insurance claim!

So sorry about your trip! Hope your MIL is doing better now.


Would love to hear how your trip insurance claim goes. I have had an Allianz annual policy for a few years, but have never (thankfully) had to make a claim, so I have no idea how much of a hassle it is.

[Count Walewski]

Yeah I pay $300 or so for trip insurance every time I book one of these big international trips. The only time before this that I had to cancel a trip was my 2020 trip to Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine and the insurance policy I bought in 2019 definitely didn't cover COVID so I made no claims and ate the non-refundable costs. I'm lucky that so much of my Paris/Brussels trip was refundable, including the flight there and all hotels. I am filing a claim for my flight back from Paris to Dulles, for my tickets to the Louvre and Versailles, and for our New Year's Eve cruise on the Seine.

I got 180,000 MileagePlus miles back from United and already blew them on new trip. Gonna take the entire family to Zurich in August. Last time I flew to Zurich there was a literal wallet inspector randomly checking passengers for undeclared cash as they boarded. Guess that's a problem on those flights.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

That's amazing.  Last time I blew a boatload of miles we flew luxe all the way around with a stop in Zurich and I remember signs everywhere about cash but didn't see any actual enforcement.  Those 500 Euro notes must be especially desirable for nefarious deeds, get 'em into some CHF secret account and you're as clean as a whistle.

The Chase United cards have pretty good travel insurance baked in. 

Last time I flew to Zurich there was a literal wallet inspector randomly checking passengers for undeclared cash as they boarded. Guess that's a problem on those flights.