Hi all, I'm not sure if this is the correct forum (but I couldn't find a more appropriate one), or if this has already been discussed in a single thread here or elsewhere, but I was looking to hear what other people have learned from their experiences over the past few months and what they'll do differently going forward. Below are mine, for travel that's entirely personal and international -- curious to hear yours! Thanks (btw: cross-posted on TripAdvisor & FT)

- I'll only book directly with airlines, definitely no more OTAs (I've previously used Orbitz/Expedia and never had issues, but I've also never had to deal with cancelling/changing flights with them). I've only had to deal with AA & Qantas for my upcoming flight cancellations/changes and it's been very easy with both.

- I'll think twice before automatically choosing the cheapest/non-refundable fare.

- Not sure I would use a travel agent anymore, given the risk if they go bust. I've only used one once, flight-only, for an upcoming flight in July which will probably get cancelled, but I'm not sure the agent will survive through July (please correct me if my thinking on this is wrong, but I'm reading so many reports on TripAdvisor of people's agents shutting down shop and the airlines won't deal with them b/c it was booked through a 3rd party).

- I pretty much fly OneWorld and I'll make sure my flights are booked with the AA or QF airline code so that if I have to cancel/change, it'll be easier to deal with (ex: I had 2 flights booked from SYD > South America in March and in June, both had a SYD > SCL Santiago Chile leg on the same QF plane, but one was booked with the QF flight # and the other booked with the Latam flight # -- Qantas was easy to deal with for cancellations/credits as we have status, Latam not so much).

- I always use Hotels.com to book hotels and they have been great, even at refunding the non-refundable rooms, so I might still book non-refundable rooms through them but will be way more cautious (I just got my $7k refund, but it took the full 30 days). If I were booking direct or through anyone else, I'd probably only book a refundable room. I'll probably no longer consider AirBnb as an option.

- Travel insurance: I'm not sure I'll actually pay for this anymore, given the difficulties people seem to have with getting paid on claims. I have the CSR card so I'll probably just rely on that & also make sure I have some form of medical/evacuation-related insurance, just in case.

- I'll book everything related to the same trip on just 1 credit card (in the past, I've put initial & final deposits on different cards, or flight and hotels on different ones -- but this may not matter as much).

- I probably won't book things SO far in advance anymore; I'm usually a type A planner and due to other trips earlier this year, I still hadn't booked anything other than flight & hotel (by mid-March) for trips in April and in May -- and I was very stressed for not having done it months ago, but it turned out to be a blessing because there was so much less to cancel/follow-up on.