FYI on SkyAuction Certificates

[A Mickeyfan]

I just called to book a unit for Sept 27th with one of my certificates from SkyAuction and I always knew that once you booked there was no cancelation of it. Something made me ask the rep what happens in the even of a hurricane and I was unable to get there or the hurricane hit there when I was to arrive. The answer was, I forfit my unit Well, since I do live in SW Fl and have been hit (and lots of damage) by Charley I am going to wait until the begining of Sept to book my end of Sept trip. This way I have a better feel of what is brewing in the waters before my trip.

I wanted to post this for anyone that may be interested in knowing this. While many do book and plan their trips way a head of time, most places in the event of a hurricane will work with you for a refund or postpone your trip. I have done it many times due to where I live. Heck, I have had Disney giving me refunds the weekend of my trip due to hurricanes coming on that weekend. RCI or who ever it is that we book with for these certificates will not work with us on this.
Where I live, I cannot take this chance for a Sept trip. I can & will still get my HHN tickets since it would be for a one night deal (or FFP), and if I have to evacuate my home, I can take my pets and go to my moms with them.. then to HHN but I cannot book a unit and feel comfortable doing so not knowing if a hurricane will be heading in my direction.. or the Orlando direction..
True hurricane season runs June to Nov, however the only months to really worry are the most active & they are mid Aug to mid Oct. That is when the most activity is.. One can never tell what type of year we will have, not even NOAA. All it takes is one big one

 

[madge]

that's good to know! we're early October travelers, so the same holds true for us.

what about trip insurance? is it possible to buy that? (not you, specifically ... generally speaking)

 

[A Mickeyfan]

No trip insurance, not for these certificates. I think you can when you purchase a regular auction on SkyAuction but not with the BlowOut deals. I got my BlowOut deals during December's sale. I still have two left to use. I had wanted to purchase more during this sale. I still haven't done so yet. It would be nice if they had some sort of special exception for weather related cancelations. I live less than 3 hours from Orlando & drive there, but what would happen in the event you were flying in and all flights were canceled due to the approaching storm I know that has happened with Charley, Francis, Jeannie in 2004. So many flights were cancelled comming (and leaving) onto Orlando. I know the hotels worked with the guests too.. seems RCI doesn't want to. They have you booked and they don't care

I know my sister owns a timeshare that was damaged from one of the hurricanes. They were unable to use it for a long time. They still had to pay their monthy fees on it and since they were unable to us it, they had to trade to go away, the fee to trade wasn't waved! You would think if your timeshare was destroyed and being rebuilt, they would wave your fee to trade and go elsewhere.. nope, they didn't .. I can't remember the name of her timeshare but it is on Daytona Beach.. If you can't go where you "own", why should they charge you to go else where

Priceline allowed my friend to cancel due to either Francis or Jeannie (can't remember which one, they came right after each other). She did not have trip insurance either.. but since it was a named storm, they gave her a full refund on her hotel room. Like I said before, many of the hotels work with you, seems odd that RCI (or who ever this 800 # is) just will not..

I am not sure how many people stop to think of this during hurricane season. Last year was a pretty slow year, not many really bad storms. While there were many storms, not lots of damage. All it takes is one with a lot of damage and then everyone's memory will come back. There were people that were at the CampGrounds on Disney's property that had to be moved!! I should start a thread to jog everyone's memory...

 

[happymommy]

Not sure what you mean by "no trip insurance". You can insure any trip. We did that for our trip to Peter Island when we were using Amex points for it.

We used Travelguard. You just enter the amount you'd be out if something happens. It's better to do this as soon as booking the trip. For a couple of hundred dollars (we bought a good policy) it is worth is. So take into consideration airfare and stuff as well as the cost of the trip.

I checked out insuremytrip.com initially and chose that way, then booked directly through travelguard.

Never bought insurance through anyone else.