Originally Posted by
db1234db1234
Wow, booking non-refundable rates months in advance is ballsy. I’m too skittish to book a non-refundable rate more than 1-2 weeks out. Guess I’ve been burned before. Only chosen that rate maybe 5 times and been burnt at least twice due to bad weather - not foreseeable stuff like going to Montana in the winter. Recent California wildfires last month and a snowstorm at the Grand Canyon when it was 90 degrees in Vegas in April, who knew?
So have you ever tried to cancel one of those bookings before they took payment? What happens if you need or want to cancel?
Being now semi-retired, I can usually predict my travel needs quite a few months out, particularly for leisure stays. Even for business related trips, I know where I need to be about a month ahead.
Yes, there is a small risk that I cannot get to a particular hotel I have booked and paid for months in advance, but the UK is rather smaller than the US and there are a variety of ways to travel, should the weather go awry – train, fly or drive etc. I have never had to try to cancel a booking as I have always got there one way or another, particularly going to London where I travel to most often.
I just think the savings of pre-paid over cancellable make the economics swing in favour of pre-paid. I do have access to a cheap(ish) cancellable rate, but I rarely use it, or I could use my growing stash of ihg points which are again cancellable, but I tend to use these on self paid overseas trips, particularly as the UK Pound is somewhat low at the moment.
Ultimately though, should things go really wrong, my annual travel insurance policy covers against most reasons I would not be able to travel, plus it covers pre-paid hotel accommodation.
BM