i’d like walking only if i check my luggage, otherwise it’s annoying to lug all your stuff with you.
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nah, she always did a train ride for part of her trip where you put your car on the train. not the entire trip though. not sure what the entire trip on a train entails and if you have to transfer trains or what not, but she opted against this.
The club lounge at Tokyo Narita airport had an automatic beer pouring machine, which was excellent.
Just double checked my tickets for an upcoming business trip. Looks like I did ok.
I can’t imagine book a huge vacation for my entire family and NOT getting insurance. Maybe bc I’m an actuary?
Would you shop around for insurance, or take the quote from the 1 company on the airline website? It seems there would still be a price too high to accept.
I usually have not purchased travel insurance even for big trips. I don’t book many completely non-cancellable non-refundable trips, although most have a cancellation penalty if done so without sufficient advance notice. I can afford to eat a cancellation penalty if needed, and it’s often cheaper than the travel insurance.
I did purchase insurance for a more expensive family trip last year, as COVID presented a much greater possibility than usual of a last minute cancellation after I couldn’t get a refund. It was also during hurricane season in an exposed area, and I have purchased travel insurance for that reason before.
I’ve never taken a vacation expensive enough to feel I needed insurance.
I did buy travel insurance when my daughter took a 5 month international trip. It was $ and covered a lot of stuff over the 5 month period. We didn’t have to use it, thankfully. We used a company recommended to us by her contacts.
Some friends of mine had to cancel a major trip to New Zealand when her father passed away. They were insured and did not lose much if anything. It sucked that she lost her dad. She did eventually get to take her trip.
what is the purpose of getting travel insurance instead of a refundable flight?
i do neither, but just wondering.
Like I said, I typically don’t. The last time I did I rented a very expensive 8BR house on the beach that was non-refundable if cancelled within the last week or so before the trip. Between COVID and hurricane risk that would be a lot of $ lost.
I wouldn’t bother for most airplane flights, as cancellation penalties aren’t that bad. Like you said, you can always go refundable instead of buying the insurance.
It probably depends on the insurance. And the trip.
I’d guess for 2 people flying to a single destination and staying in a hotel, maybe get refundable airfare? And you might be out the first night of your hotel stay.
But for 8 people going on a cruise there are going to be a lot of costs involved. Refundable airfare isn’t going to cover them all.
I tend to only get insurance to cover risks I can’t afford to self insure. Otherwise a good chunk of my payment is just going to those greedy actuaries .
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I think travel insurance covers stuff that refundable tickets doesn’t. Like lost luggage and trip delays and emergency medical stuff.
Like if the airline loses your luggage as you’re about to embark on a two week cruise… now you gotta buy all new stuff and you can’t shop around, you just gotta grab what you can at the airport.
Or you miss your connection to catch your cruise out of Rome so now you need to catch up to the cruise in Venice instead.
Or you get sick and need to be airlifted from some Caribbean hole in the wall to a hospital in Miami.
I think the trip insurance covers that stuff whereas a refundable ticket only helps if you have to cancel the trip before you leave.
Used to work in travel insurance. Medical is a huge part of it. Travel will air lift you in case of emergency, there are some places you don’t want to be stuck getting treatment in.
Couple years ago there was a big travel medical emergency that made the news (I don’t remember the specifics, only the IBNR). My company covered a few of the people involved, and I recall it was incredibly expensive.
Oh! I think it was those two planes that collided in Alaska doing site seeing tours. The people on board were from a cruise ship. We sell a lot of cruise travel insurance.
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If you’re referencing NYC-area airports… considering that you’d be talking about American beer and American Cadbury, you might want to revise your assessment. 
Upcoming is now past layover. First flight was 35 minutes late boarding, 30 minutes late taking off, and 19 minutes late landing. And I’d turned down a Comfort Plus upgrade to a middle seat in favor of an exit row window seat in coach, which meant I was about 10 rows further back which may have been a bad decision.
But I was seeing lots of baseball caps & t-shirts and such for the local sports team of my final destination, so it seemed like probably a bunch of us were making the same connection and I was hopeful they’d hold the plane for us.
Flight attendant announced the wrong gate over the PA while we were taxiing in. 
BUT, they had changed our arrival flight’s gate to be almost right next to the next flight’s gate, so it was an easy transfer. No time for the bathroom until after we took off, but I made it!!!
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Lucky! Last summer, I boarded a flight late taking off due to thunderstorms, going to Dallas. Arriving for the last flight out of Dallas, yup, had to take the airport tram from Terminal B to Terminal C, so we ran like hell to the tram, waited, got on, got off, ran to the gate, got on the plane, then THAT flight was still taking passengers a half hour later! Because it was the last flight to LAX. Turns out we didn’t need to run.
About 40 years ago, heading to an SOA Annual Meeting, we were late getting to our layover airport and the next flight was already almost fully boarded. We ran over and got on, our seats were still open. Nice. Then guy gets on and says we are in his seat. Turns out we were on the wrong plane as ours had been delayed. Ended up moving gates multiple times and the 2:30 flight finally left around midnight.
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Since we are sharing old travel stories, I would mention that changing connections can sometimes be beneficial. I was originally booked to connect through Chicago on May 25, 1979 on AA191 but changed to a different day shortly before I travelled.
I flew on a DC10 shortly after the groundings were lifted. Yes, we all clapped when we landed.
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I remember an insensitive newspaper reporter shortly after the crash asking me at the O’Hare check-in counter how I felt about flying on a DC-10. Also remember looking down at the wreckage of AA191 after taking off from O’Hare and wondering why I was flying in a DC10.