The One With No Rest Days- Pre Trip Report- It all went a bit wrong...

sandr · 28 Sep 19, 09:44 PM

I had a dream a week or so ago that we had arrived in Florida and I couldn’t stop crying because I was so excited. I woke up and decided that today was the day I was going to choose the hotel for the second week of our trip. We had originally decided to just book a very cheap I-Drive hotel. When I looked at the “very cheap” hotels (sort booking.com lowest to highest!) I was a little underwhelmed. They all looked ok but then I read reviews about cockroaches and stains on bedsheets. I’m well aware that we will be spending minimal time in our room but it needs to be ok-ish.
Surprisingly, Universal’s Endless Summer Resort was coming up quite cheap. I had originally budgeted £450 for the second hotel, and this was coming up at £574 for the week. I booked it. Probably the most impulsive decision of this booking process so far but I blame the dream, it got me excited.
The resort looks great, it’s close to the Universal parks and it looks clean. It only stretched the budget a little, and because we are staying there I decided that a car was literally pointless, so that saved us money too! What could go wrong?

Well, a lot.

A few hours later, news hit that Thomas Cook might be going bust. Yup, Thomas Cook who were meant to be flying us to Orlando. Thomas Cook who gave me amazing value flights and I was so insanely happy.
I quickly checked what would the consequences be should the worst happen. We had only booked flights and thanks to my smart Mother, we booked on a credit card so we should be entitled to a refund. I quickly checked Virgin’s prices and they were averaging around £400 per person, much cheaper than when I booked with Thomas Cook so I figured it will all be fine!

Monday morning I woke up to a text from my smart Mother telling me that Thomas Cook have gone bust. I checked Virgin again. Flights were now £1500 each. Crap.

What followed is days of stressing, panicking, obsessively checking flights, and tweeting Watchdog about the sheer greed of Virgin. Direct flights just went up and up and at one point, Virgin wanted over £4000 to take us to my Happy Place. I tried everything, I tried flying from any UK airport but all direct flights were coming up so expensive.

This holiday is a huge stretch for us financially, and as much as I wanted to I couldn’t materialise money to re-book fights at this amount and I was getting so upset that we would have to cancel all together. To make things worse, HSBC told us they basically “dunno” when we will get our refund on Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and it could be “any time at all”. Really helpful, thanks.

Today I finally rebooked flights after many different proposed routes and lists of pros and cons. We are flying indirect with Virgin and Delta (booked via KLM) at a total cost of £895. The journey out is going to take almost 14 hours and I’m not looking forward to it, but what matters is that we are still going. We are going to see it as an adventure. A long and uncomfortable adventure.
I’ve been able to book our seats for the short Delta flights, but I’ve not worked out how to do it for Virgin yet. Apparently it’s not possible to pay for an extra suitcase coming home, so I’m basically going to take one outfit with me and wear what I buy!

It’s not ideal and it’s really messed with my plans and the control freak inside my brain is having a meltdown, but I know that there are lots of people worse off than us. Had we booked on a debit card, our holiday would be cancelled now as we simply couldn’t have afforded to pay for flights twice.

But, we are still going to Florida. Just!

28 Sep 19, 09:44 PM	#1
	28 Sep 19, 09:44 PM sandr Gone all Goofy
sandr Gone all Goofy Join Date: Sep 19	The One With No Rest Days- Pre Trip Report- It all went a bit wrong... I had a dream a week or so ago that we had arrived in Florida and I couldn’t stop crying because I was so excited. I woke up and decided that today was the day I was going to choose the hotel for the second week of our trip. We had originally decided to just book a very cheap I-Drive hotel. When I looked at the “very cheap” hotels (sort booking.com lowest to highest!) I was a little underwhelmed. They all looked ok but then I read reviews about cockroaches and stains on bedsheets. I’m well aware that we will be spending minimal time in our room but it needs to be ok-ish. Surprisingly, Universal’s Endless Summer Resort was coming up quite cheap. I had originally budgeted £450 for the second hotel, and this was coming up at £574 for the week. I booked it. Probably the most impulsive decision of this booking process so far but I blame the dream, it got me excited. The resort looks great, it’s close to the Universal parks and it looks clean. It only stretched the budget a little, and because we are staying there I decided that a car was literally pointless, so that saved us money too! What could go wrong? Well, a lot. A few hours later, news hit that Thomas Cook might be going bust. Yup, Thomas Cook who were meant to be flying us to Orlando. Thomas Cook who gave me amazing value flights and I was so insanely happy. I quickly checked what would the consequences be should the worst happen. We had only booked flights and thanks to my smart Mother, we booked on a credit card so we should be entitled to a refund. I quickly checked Virgin’s prices and they were averaging around £400 per person, much cheaper than when I booked with Thomas Cook so I figured it will all be fine! Monday morning I woke up to a text from my smart Mother telling me that Thomas Cook have gone bust. I checked Virgin again. Flights were now £1500 each. Crap. What followed is days of stressing, panicking, obsessively checking flights, and tweeting Watchdog about the sheer greed of Virgin. Direct flights just went up and up and at one point, Virgin wanted over £4000 to take us to my Happy Place. I tried everything, I tried flying from any UK airport but all direct flights were coming up so expensive. This holiday is a huge stretch for us financially, and as much as I wanted to I couldn’t materialise money to re-book fights at this amount and I was getting so upset that we would have to cancel all together. To make things worse, HSBC told us they basically “dunno” when we will get our refund on Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act and it could be “any time at all”. Really helpful, thanks. Today I finally rebooked flights after many different proposed routes and lists of pros and cons. We are flying indirect with Virgin and Delta (booked via KLM) at a total cost of £895. The journey out is going to take almost 14 hours and I’m not looking forward to it, but what matters is that we are still going. We are going to see it as an adventure. A long and uncomfortable adventure. I’ve been able to book our seats for the short Delta flights, but I’ve not worked out how to do it for Virgin yet. Apparently it’s not possible to pay for an extra suitcase coming home, so I’m basically going to take one outfit with me and wear what I buy! It’s not ideal and it’s really messed with my plans and the control freak inside my brain is having a meltdown, but I know that there are lots of people worse off than us. Had we booked on a debit card, our holiday would be cancelled now as we simply couldn’t have afforded to pay for flights twice. But, we are still going to Florida. Just!