canyonwalker | (Reply)

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Refundability is important in making travel reservations right. Major health risks remain today and it's unclear how quickly they'll diminish. Here's my approach to it:

1) I'm currently estimating it'll be sometime in May when I can complete my two-dose vaccination. I'm not looking to plan any air travel before then. Hawk and I may do a few weekend-type road trips in April and May. We'd book hotel nights for those. Cancellation policy isn't a huge concern as we'd likely only book them a week ahead of time anyway.

2) For May-June travel I'd want 100% refundability. Fortunately, with my preferred airline, Southwest, I effectively have that. And hotels generally have 2- or 3-day advanced cancellation policies at worst.

3) For later summer travel I might be willing to risk an air cancellation fee. That's relevant because we'd like to fly to places not well served by Southwest— meaning we'd have to fly a legacy airline with legacy cancellation fees. I expect that July is far enough out that things should be better by then.

4) For late-2021 travel, like Thanksgiving, I think I'd be fine booking travel that's not refundable without a fee. I do have options that are fee-less, so that reduces the total amount of financial risk. I'm not considering booking a $3,000 use-it-or-lose-it travel package!