Our Trip to Egypt and Jordan - 2020

We were looking forward to a 16 day visit to Egypt and Jordan. However, watching recent travel news, we became concerned about the possibility of being quarantined for 14 days somewhere to be determined, being denied entry to a planned tour stop or unable to depart an airport due to one of us or someone in the traveling group becoming ill. This isn't too far from what is currently happening to some travelers where Coronavirus has landed. And, this virus is spreading throughout the world.

Our tour organizer, Viking River Cruises, generously allowed us to cancel our tour, without financial penalty, and have the trip rescheduled within the next two years. Our hotel, car service and air tickets have now been cancelled. While we were reimbursed all ticket airline fees and taxes, we had to pay a fee to reinstate our frequent flier miles to our account ($175 per outbound and inbound flight).

More challenging was requesting our travel insurer to transfer "Cancel for Any Reason" trip coverage from the cancelled March 2020 date to a yet undetermined future date. This is a somewhat unusual request and we're hoping the insurance transfer is approved as an exception to typical insurer practices.

We already have trips to Hawaii and to Finland and Russia scheduled in 2021, so an Egypt trip will likely be delayed until 2022. We're still looking forward to this trip, but during a less stressful time.

We should have a relaxing Spring 2020 trying to stay healthy like many other people but at home.