InvictaMoto's Family Travels

At last. Another refund has arrived in my MasterCard account.  This time it's Cartrawler with the refund on the car-hire. All that remains is for Travel-Up to refund the air-tickets and we'll be done and dusted. Who knows when that will happen.  Every few weeks we get the same bullshit email from them telling us how hard they are working.  Not bloody hard enough. The lesson I have learned from this is that when I look for flights, Travel-Up will not get a look in.  Despite being a regular customer with them, you still get treated like shit.

RCI were very quick to reimburse the costs of the exchange and to credit my account with the trading points for 2020. So I have been looking to see if I can use the points before the end of 2020 otherwise we lose them. The credit for the exchange fee is there and can be used whenever. I am looking at the October half-term and the possibly being away at Christmas for the first time in years and years. This is proving difficult at the moment as countries are still coming out of the pandemic lockdowns and many are enforcing a 14-day isolation for foreigners arriving in their countries. Maybe we lose the points we have for 2020 and move on and look at next year?

Given the problems with cruising at the start of the pandemic, I expect a lot of people have decided to take a back seat and let it pass for a while. I have seen a few programmes on the TV where river cruising has been the main subject.  Either the Rhine or the Danube.  Both look attractive if not a little pricey. As with most things it is cheaper to go outside the school holidays.  As I work in Education I have a contract that means I have school holidays off. That is really good as I finish in late July and go back in early September after a long summer.  Of course, I get paid less than I used to when I was on a 52-week contract with paid leave. Claire is already retired and able to go at any time.  I retire on 23rd December 2021.  Unless the Government changes it again I am a wage slave a little longer! So it makes sense to look at cruises and holidays in 2022 when it will be cheaper outside the tie of the school holiday system! Where to go? I like the idea of the Danube.

When my MasterCard statement for 13th May finally arrived it showed that one of the refunds had come through! Although dated 13th, it is always at least the 20th before it arrives on the doormat. This one for the car excess insurance with AXA through Cartrawler.  Still waiting for other refunds.to arrive and hopefully we'll see if either have made it.   I don't hold out much hope for seeing the airfare from Travel-Up as they constantly email every few weeks to say how stressed they are and how they have employed more staff.  I expect that last bit is to cover their arses for the cancellation fee that they have said they will charge. I know they have a lot of clients but it's getting on for three months that all our money has been in their bank account accruing interest.... So we wait.