In less then 48 hours my family is supposed to be heading on a week long warm weather vacation to Mexico. This trip was booked back in July and my daughter has been anxiously awaiting some beach, pool, and most importantly pina coladas! My 18 month son, on the other hand, has some different plans for us – he has an awful virus and is just so sick. Northeast weather right now is not a pretty sight – in just one week we’ve had a massive blizzard, below freezing temps, 60’s days, and crazy rain storms – the ideal weather for everyone to get sick. Whether or not we are getting on that plane in 2 days is still TBD.
In case we need to postpone our trip a few days, I am looking into a back up plan. We really do not want to cancel altogether and our schedule will allow us to push back our trip 2 days. We our currently booked on JetBlue and booking another backup flight on JetBlue could possibly result in a large credit if we end up not needing it. While we are Mosaic, we will receive the points back to our account, but the taxes/fees paid will be returned in a JetBlue credit with a 1 year expiration date. While we’d most likely use the credit, the JetBlue flights have gone up significantly in price and are ridiculously expensive right now. Although I will try to see if JetBlue will change our flights without a fare increase – having Mosatic status and a doctors note in hand will help, but no guarantee.
When needing to book back up/speculative flights, Southwest is by far the best option when using points. With Southwest you can book as many flights you’d like and if you need to cancel, there are no fees at all. The points go straight back to your account and the taxes/fees paid go back to the credit card used to pay. If you pay your taxes/fees with a Southwest gift card you will end up with a voucher, the amount will not go back onto the gift card used. So right now I have two different Southwest flights booked in preparation. One a day after our original flight and another two days after. While Southwest no longer allows you to book flights that overlap with one another, having two flights on separate days is not a problem. And fortunately, the Southwest flights are actually reasonably priced.
While I’d love our original flights to work out, especially since I snagged some really inexpensive JetBlue flights, I am glad I can count on Southwest to make some alternative plans in advance if needed. If you are ever in this dilemma, make sure to put together a back up plan! An old manager of mine once told me “You don’t have a plan if you don’t have a backup plan”, or something like that. Fingers crossed my son gets better soon and we are off to the beach!
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not trying to be “that guy”…but…the more this is publicized and employed, the more likely it is to disappear.