I will be the guinea pig - I used an AC for Hawaii

[CalGalTraveler]

Thank you for clarifying. So if you cannot use the AC is the money gone?

 

[Tamaradarann]

Okay, I threw in the towel yesterday and cancelled all airline reservations and II exchanges for our planned trip for 9 weeks from Jan 9 to Mar 14. I just could not personally deal with all the HI drama and figured at my ripe old age, I shouldn't be hoping on an airplane for a very long flight and certainly didn't want to contract Covid in Kauai and Big Island where medical facilities are limited. We can skip this trip for a year!

AA re-deposited all our frequent flyer miles into our accounts for the tixs with no fees - thank you AA. I booked an alternative timeshare 6 week trip to Sedona, Palm Springs, and Lake Havasu for Jan thru Feb instead. I ended up booking the 4 RCI weeks as extra vacations given the rentals were only $350 for Sedona and $270 for Havasu - what a deal given the extra fees are about $240 per week now. Re-traded my Marriott weeks for their Palm Springs Resorts - which are very nice. Will lose all the $$ for the 7 RCI exchange fees which is about $1600 - ouch!

So another cross country road trip for us from the East Coast with a stop over in Milwaukee to visit our daughter and SIL for Xmas. Hope we don't encounter much snow like we did last time we did this same trip a few years ago. But should be fairly safe given it will mostly be an outdoor vacation with hiking the main focus!

I totally concur with your decision to cancel your 9 weeks from Jan-Mar in Hawaii. We have also given up going to Hawaii vacation this year and are looking forward to a possible Fall 2021 Hawaii trip. We are very temperature sensitive so being in warm weather is important to us. However, while I love being in Hawaii during the winter on the East Coast since it is summer there, why are you going during the same time frame to Arizona and California. While the temperatures will surely be better than VA the nightime temperature could be as low as 30 F, and the day temperatures while comfortable will be in the 60's most or the time. I would think that an Late March thru May would be a better time to go in early 2021.

 

[kckaren21]

Thank you for clarifying. So if you cannot use the AC is the money gone?

Correct. You may be able to purchase a Guest Certificate and let someone else use it, though.

 

[kckaren21]

I'm disappointed and ready to throw in the towel on this one, too. I wonder how my cancellations will work...hopefully at least get credit on our accounts for future use,because I don't think II, TP, or the airlines will refund...

Okay, I threw in the towel yesterday and cancelled all airline reservations and II exchanges for our planned trip

I did get credits on airline and TP trade cancellations, and retrade on II etrade with no hassle.
After 2 calls and ~2 hours on the phone (including holds) with II, they did give me a replacement prepaid AC for the AC booked for the Big Island...if at first you don't succeed, beg, beg again!

I am grateful to II (because they did not have to do that for me), but sorry I spent so much time planning/booking/cancelling this trip. (At least the planning part was fun) Am now just planning driveable trips.

 

[NOLA47]

Is AC an account credit?
I enjoy most of the posts but I am so often stuck with all the abbreviations. Thanks.

 

[capjak]

Is AC an account credit?
I enjoy most of the posts but I am so often stuck with all the abbreviations. Thanks.

When you have a timeshare that is in interval international and you belong they time to time provide "free" certificates you can use to book vacations called Accomodation Certificates (AC). You use them to exchange for whatever limited inventory they have available and are willing to allow an AC to exchange, there is a fee ( not sure the exact amount but around $300 for a week).

 

[NOLA47]

thanks for the explanation. sounds like a great benefit.

 

[Jwerking]

I totally concur with your decision to cancel your 9 weeks from Jan-Mar in Hawaii. We have also given up going to Hawaii vacation this year and are looking forward to a possible Fall 2021 Hawaii trip. We are very temperature sensitive so being in warm weather is important to us. However, while I love being in Hawaii during the winter on the East Coast since it is summer there, why are you going during the same time frame to Arizona and California. While the temperatures will surely be better than VA the nightime temperature could be as low as 30 F, and the day temperatures while comfortable will be in the 60's most or the time. I would think that an Late March thru May would be a better time to go in early 2021.

Our re-scheduled trip from HI to CA and AZ for Jan-Feb is primarily for hiking - so 50- 60 deg is perfect IMHO so I don't sweat on those uphill routes - LOL! Just hope there not a freak snowstorm in Sedona like the time we did this same trip a few yrs ago. Typically, Sedona will get a few inches and then it easily melts. However, they were predicting like 20 inches during our last day in the timeshare - with checkout the next morning. The timeshare offered NO rentals to extend our stay by one or two days and we could not find any last minute timeshare weeks and hotels were like $250-300 per night - ouch! So we left 2 days early, after staying 12 nights, and headed to Albuquerque for a few days to allow the snow to be cleared off the roads to Arches and Canyonlands NPs - where we were visiting next. Winter travel is great since last minute AirBnBs are no problem to find.

I agree that late March thru May may be a better time with less snow - but we have another trip planned to Oregon for a family wedding celebration on May 8th - hope it goes as it has been postponed twice already. Plan to spend a week before and a few weeks after on another trip to Oregon coast, Redwood State and NPs, Yosemite, and Kings Canyon/Sequoia.

 

[Tamaradarann]

Our re-scheduled trip from HI to CA and AZ for Jan-Feb is primarily for hiking - so 50- 60 deg is perfect IMHO so I don't sweat on those uphill routes - LOL! Just hope there not a freak snowstorm in Sedona like the time we did this same trip a few yrs ago. Typically, Sedona will get a few inches and then it easily melts. However, they were predicting like 20 inches during our last day in the timeshare - with checkout the next morning. The timeshare offered NO rentals to extend our stay by one or two days and we could not find any last minute timeshare weeks and hotels were like $250-300 per night - ouch! So we left 2 days early, after staying 12 nights, and headed to Albuquerque for a few days to allow the snow to be cleared off the roads to Arches and Canyonlands NPs - where we were visiting next. Winter travel is great since last minute AirBnBs are no problem to find.

I agree that late March thru May may be a better time with less snow - but we have another trip planned to Oregon for a family wedding celebration on May 8th - hope it goes as it has been postponed twice already. Plan to spend a week before and a few weeks after on another trip to Oregon coast, Redwood State and NPs, Yosemite, and Kings Canyon/Sequoia.

I can see you are travelling people like we were last year before the virus. In August we had 8 nights in NYC, September-October we had 3 nights in Zion National Park followed by 16 nights in Las Vegas, in December we had 15 nights on the Island of Hawaii before 4 months in Honolulu which we cut down to 3 months due to the virus. We had planned on 12 nights in Kauai after Honolulu that we of course cancelled.

 

[kckaren21]

When you have a timeshare that is in interval international and you belong they time to time provide "free" certificates you can use to book vacations called Accomodation Certificates (AC). You use them to exchange for whatever limited inventory they have available and are willing to allow an AC to exchange, there is a fee ( not sure the exact amount but around $300 for a week).

I paid $312 for my most recent AC reservation. One thing to note is that while you do have 24 hours to change your mind, after that you are stuck: no refund, no ability to re-use or change it (unless you call and ask if they will allow you re-use it BUT you will have to pay the fee again)

 

[klpca]

We are still on. We are supposed to leave this week. It's been a real nail biter.

 

[presley]

We are still on. We are supposed to leave this week. It's been a real nail biter.

I hope it works out for you! I am needing to live vicariously through your vacation, lol. I hope that whatever happens, that you feel peaceful about it.

 

[kckaren21]

We are still on. We are supposed to leave this week. It's been a real nail biter.

Good luck! We threw in the towel. It could have been good, but the quarantine for inter Island travel ruined it for us. We didn't want to go to Oahu. I hope you have an amazing trip! Let us know!

 

[klpca]

Good luck! We threw in the towel. It could have been good, but the quarantine for inter Island travel ruined it for us. We didn't want to go to Oahu. I hope you have an amazing trip! Let us know!

Aww, too bad. But I totally get it. It has been a bumpier road than I expected.

 

[klpca]

Getting closer - just made the appointments for our covid tests. This may actually happen guys.

 

[kckaren21]

Getting closer - just made the appointments for our covid tests. This may actually happen guys.

We are rooting for you!

 

[NiteMaire]

Getting closer - just made the appointments for our covid tests. This may actually happen guys.

You'll be able to join the tugger get together hosted by @frank808 and @JanT . As Jan stated in the other tread, she's baking a cake or 2 or 3...and cake is a good reason to travel to Hawaii!

 

[silentg]

Getting closer - just made the appointments for our covid tests. This may actually happen guys.

Hope you can go

 

[klpca]

And the results were negative (of course) so it looks like the trip is on! Btw used CVS - tested at 11:20am on Wednesday and received my results this morning at 7:00am. The results email came from Quest and not CVS.

I can't believe that this is happening, lol.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

And the results were negative (of course) so it looks like the trip is on! Btw used CVS - tested at 11:20am on Wednesday and received my results this morning at 7:00am. The results email came from Quest and not CVS.

I can't believe that this is happening, lol.

Glad you can go. I am traveling through you since I must work. That's rapid turnaround. We got tests from Kaiser Norcal for my son in July and it took almost a week to get a negative result.

 

[klpca]

Glad you can go. I am traveling through you since I must work. That's rapid turnaround. We got tests from Kaiser Norcal for my son in July and it took almost a week to get a negative result.

I suspect that these must be marked for expedited treatment and that is the reason that you can't go to any CVS or Quest but have to go to specific locations. It's just a guess but seems logical to me. Btw we are still waiting on my husband's test results. I am sure that they will be here soon but still in a bit of a holding pattern.

 

[frank808]

And the results were negative (of course) so it looks like the trip is on! Btw used CVS - tested at 11:20am on Wednesday and received my results this morning at 7:00am. The results email came from Quest and not CVS.

I can't believe that this is happening, lol.

I have an appointment for family and I tomorrow at CVS here in Orlando. Hope we get the test back before we leave Orlando on Monday at noon. With your post it seems CVS will get it back in time.

Have a great vacation!

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[klpca]

OMG. I thought that we were going to have to cancel because my husband didn't get his test results. He just got the text, so 11 hours after mine. But finally it looks like we are all set.

To be honest (hate to admit this) this was a lot more stress than I expected. I don't like the variables with the testing and I'm not sure that I would do it again because if things go wrong, like a lost test, the 14 day quarantine is looming. I will reserve judgment after I've spent some time on the beach though. In the meantime I'm going to finish packing. Aloha!

 

[JanT]

OMG! You poor thing!! So glad his results came back and you’re ready to go. I’m sorry you had to go through that!

You’ll feel better when you get here!

OMG. I thought that we were going to have to cancel because my husband didn't get his test results. He just got the text, so 11 hours after mine. But finally it looks like we are all set.

To be honest (hate to admit this) this was a lot more stress than I expected. I don't like the variables with the testing and I'm not sure that I would do it again because if things go wrong, like a lost test, the 14 day quarantine is looming. I will reserve judgment after I've spent some time on the beach though. In the meantime I'm going to finish packing. Aloha!

 

[b2bailey]

OMG. I thought that we were going to have to cancel because my husband didn't get his test results. He just got the text, so 11 hours after mine. But finally it looks like we are all set.

To be honest (hate to admit this) this was a lot more stress than I expected. I don't like the variables with the testing and I'm not sure that I would do it again because if things go wrong, like a lost test, the 14 day quarantine is looming. I will reserve judgment after I've spent some time on the beach though. In the meantime I'm going to finish packing. Aloha!

I would like to suggest that you bring a hard copy of the test results with you. If there is any bump in the road, a paper copy could make the difference.