"Holiday Road" - The Official Vacation Thread

[blue911]

Road coelacanth

[Count Walewski]

Based on the number in the plate and the affordability of the car, I suspect that's Nick Madrigal driving up from the minor leagues.

[Natsinpwc]

Based on the number in the plate and the affordability of the car, I suspect that's Nick Madrigal driving up from the minor leagues.

I figured it was Obama.

[OldChelsea]

Virgin Atlantic files bankruptcy: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-crushes-airlines-virgin-atlantic-files-bankruptcy-20200805-4cklkly5ozhyfodqoxkagc7xze-story.html

Staying with the Washington-to-London theme, I was originally booked on the earlier of BA's two flights from Dulles in late November but got an E-mail this morning that this reservation was cancelled. I went onto the 'Manage My Booking' page on the BA site and was promptly able to book onto the still-operating later flight. Very efficient (and a pleasant surprise given how BA and other European legacy carriers are getting absolutely flambeed on Skytrax, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot about their rebooking/refund policies during the COVID period)...now let's just hope that somehow the international flights will get going again.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

BA just killed the all-business-class nonstop from Kennedy into London City airport.   

[OldChelsea]

BA just killed the all-business-class nonstop from Kennedy into London City airport.   

BA used to have a subsidiary called Open Skies that ran all-business-class flights to London City from Dulles and from one of the New York airports; at one time they also flew to Amsterdam and Paris. This was discontinued last year so this new development is not surprising. And the pace of change continues unabated; they retired all their 747's (originally they were going to phase them out over the next four years), eliminated First Class on many of their 787 and A350 flights. And such service as they are planning to maintain is coming back on very, very slowly (they are just now resuming service to Vienna, for instance)...the simple fact is, nobody's booking travel these days.

No doubt about it, when the international flights do resume, the whole situation is going to look A LOT different from the pre-March-2020 status quo ante.

[Count Walewski]

I called Chase today to start the ball rolling on cancellation of my flight to Krakow. The customer service rep I spoke to said they could only get me a voucher, but would escalate it to their boss who could perhaps get me a refund.

I just hope I don't have to contact LOT Polish Airlines directly, I can't imagine their customer service is especially good.

Meanwhile, Belavia Belorussian Airlines is happy to let me cancel my $165 flight with them: for a $108 cancellation fee.

[bluestreak]

These flights are all sold out, which is insane.  All of the hassle of air travel, none of the fun of actually being on vacation.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/eva-air-hello-kitty-fathers-day-flight/index.html#click=https://t.co/t9KFAAdxl7

[Count Walewski]

These flights are all sold out, which is insane.  All of the hassle of air travel, none of the fun of actually being on vacation.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/eva-air-hello-kitty-fathers-day-flight/index.html#click=https://t.co/t9KFAAdxl7

Taiwanese people are very big into simulated travel it seems:

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/taipei-songshan-airport-coronavirus-intl-hnk/index.html

[1995hoo]

BA just killed the all-business-class nonstop from Kennedy into London City airport.   

Too bad. I guess that explains why I couldn’t find it to book with miles for next year when I was looking at such things last week.

[OldChelsea]

I called Chase today to start the ball rolling on cancellation of my flight to Krakow. The customer service rep I spoke to said they could only get me a voucher, but would escalate it to their boss who could perhaps get me a refund. [...]

Vouchers rather than full cash refunds have been the standard procedure for cancelled flights in the coronavirus era, and according to a KLM representative this has been approved by the EU (Skytrax, Tripadvisor and Trustpilot are absolutely flooded with complaints about this).

[Count Walewski]

Well damn. A LOT voucher doesn't exactly have a ton of use. Though I hear their vouchers are transferrable, and I should be able to use my relatives in Chicago to find somebody willing to buy a voucher off me.

I am still waiting for LOT to actually cancel my flight. The flight is Sep 8 and this particular flight (Lot Flight 10) has been cancelled every day for the last 2 weeks at least.

[imref]

State Department is relaxing travel restrictions and aligning them more with the current state of covid-19 outbreaks in specific countries.

[OldChelsea]

State Department is relaxing travel restrictions and aligning them more with the current state of covid-19 outbreaks in specific countries.

I got E-mails last night from the embassies in London and Stockholm indicating this new policy. Makes more sense now with some countries introducing selective liberalisations of their COVID-era entry requirements.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I have not flown LOT but I hear generally positive reviews.  They have a very new fleet (I think their long-haul routes are pretty much all running 787s). 

[Five Banners]

I called Chase today to start the ball rolling on cancellation of my flight to Krakow. The customer service rep I spoke to said they could only get me a voucher, but would escalate it to their boss who could perhaps get me a refund.

I just hope I don't have to contact LOT Polish Airlines directly, I can't imagine their customer service is especially good.

Meanwhile, Belavia Belorussian Airlines is happy to let me cancel my $165 flight with them: for a $108 cancellation fee.

In Soviet Russia, flight cancel you

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

I looked up Belavia's fleet and it's pretty modern (Boeing/Bombradie/Embraer).  Guess they retired the old Soviet rustbucket Antonovs.   

[Count Walewski]

Belavia's website crashed when I hit the "refund" button, and now looking up my flight results in 0 results. I guess I'll watch my credit card for the next few weeks to see if a refund ever shows up.

[OldChelsea]

TSA Agents Behaving Badly, episode 431 - just posted on the Boise Airport forum on Skytrax:

'A young woman was ahead of me at the TSA line and an older grumpy TSA agent told her to put a jacket on because her tank top was "pretty revealing." There was nothing special or revealing about this tank top, just your normal tank top that shows your shoulders as a tank top does. The airport is not a private school or a church. This man had no right to tell this poor girl to put a jacket on. Who does he think he is? The pastor of a church? She probably felt so embarrassed and ashamed and had absolutely nothing to feel that way about. He said it loudly enough that all of the people visibly turned around in line to look at her. The TSA in this airport need sensitivity training. This agent should be reprimanded. He is not this woman's father or authority figure in any way besides to check that she and everyone around her is making safe decisions to fly, he is not the dress code police. Despicable. It's 2020, women can wear a tank top if they choose to and absolutely nobody at the airport should feel that they have the authority to tell someone to cover up.'

[OldChelsea]

The ax came yesterday for two of my BA bookings (Stockholm and Bratislava, both October) - however I was able to re-book both of them quite easily and with only a slight cost increase in accommodation, for February/March and April respectively. BA have been quite good with re-bookings thus far amid the covid situation.

BA officially says goodbye to the 747: https://www.britishairways.com/travel/flightops/public/en_us?p_faqid=8368 - so long old friend, it's been a good 40 years together.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Probably the end of 4-engine passenger jets, period.  Hard to imagine anyone wanting to fly them now...those A380s are basically as viable as the Spruce Goose. 

[OldChelsea]

Probably the end of 4-engine passenger jets, period.  Hard to imagine anyone wanting to fly them now...those A380s are basically as viable as the Spruce Goose. 

Airbus apparently took quite a beating on the A380 - they have quite an inventory of finished aircraft they couldn't sell which are now being scrapped. A pity since it's a nice plane (I've flown them several times with BA and Air France) but it's just the wrong kind of aircraft at the wrong time.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Yep.  Not to mention the countless millions spent on "improvements" by airport authorities around the world to accommodate them (longer runways, higher jetways, larger gates).

[Count Walewski]

Chase says they will refund the 86,000 ultimate rewards points I spent on my LOT Polish Airlines flights, and that I will receive them back in 15-30 days. Or rather, the Chase guy I emailed said that, and it stands in stark contrast to what the Chase guys I contacted by phone and Chase.com support chat said. We'll see if my forum shopping is rewarded...

Refund from Belavia Belorussian Airlines has not yet arrived. I'm not optimistic. They might be a subsidiary of Aeroflot soon enough if you're following developments in that country...

[OldChelsea]

Australian airline Qantas does not expect its international routes to open up before mid-2021; service to US may resume later that year - https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-qantas-posts-1bn-loss-as-rocked-by-covid-19-turbulence-12052933#:~:text=Qantas%20has%20posted%20an%20annual,bn%20hole%20in%20its%20revenue.