Cancelled Forever – Our Kick-Ass 10-Year Anniversary Vacation

2020 marked our 10th wedding anniversary, and was supposed to be a year of dream vacations. In particular, an amazing summer trip to Thailand and Japan had been in the works since May 2019, and gradually refined to what I’d like to think as a perfect itinerary.

When COVID-19 hit the world, everything changed. March 12th was the first sign of grief for me as my office announced a temporary closure. I mentally prepared to cope with not seeing my coworkers for 2-3 weeks. The following three days escalated the magnitude of the headache unforgivingly – not only did I have to work from home, I had to do so with one… actually, both, of the children… and I could not even take them out to lunch because the restaurants were also ordered to close. As I thought having to be a full-time babysitter for 3 weeks was the end of the world, the horror continued to unfold to an extent nobody had ever imagined – and kept getting worse. International borders were closed, flights were suspended, businesses got shut down, and everyday citizens were ordered to shelter in place. Two weeks became two months, then three… until nobody expected a return to normalcy any more. To this day, the American passport remains useless for international travel, and Thailand still prohibits any commercial flight into its country.

I tried writing down my feelings at the onset of this mess, but it was too difficult. I was upset about the inconveniences but remained hopeful that it’d be all over in time for us to still take our dream trip. The denial was strong, and I didn’t even fully come to terms with the reality when I finally sat down, in tears, to cancel our itinerary one segment at a time. I held a ceremonial moment of silence on the day we were supposed to leave for vacation, and again on the day we were supposed to return. The logical side of me realized that our personal disappointment was very minor among the billions of people affected by this pandemic, but it didn’t help lessen the grief.

Another few months have passed, and I decided to write down the details of this trip that I’ve held so close to my heart. Much of the fun in a vacation is the preparation, anyway, so this is a way to relive the glorious time we spent planning and booking the trip. Most importantly, I want to document several reasons why the cancelled trip cannot be replicated at a future date. Despite the refunds we were able to secure, the loss was permanent. Unlike the typical vacation that “simply” has to be pushed back a year or two, much of ours was gone… forever…

Ten Year Anniversary

The tenth wedding anniversary only happens once in a lifetime, so that’s that.

To be honest, the anniversary was just an excuse because “second honeymoon” and “third honeymoon” got old. What really mattered was that Hong’s parents very generously offered to babysit again… and this time not just for the duration of the trip. We were to drop the kids off in New Jersey for them to learn swimming and go on road trips with the grandparents. Not only would Hong and I go on a luxurious vacation by ourselves, we’d also spend the following month without kids and therefore free to go on dates and weekend getaways whenever we might feel like it.

Korean Air First Class on A380

For years, I had obsessed with the idea of spending time on the “second floor” of an airplane because the only thing cooler than a flying metal cube was a multi-level flying metal cube. This meant flying premium cabin on an Airbus A380, unless we also considered the very few upper-level seats on the very few Boeing 747s remaining in service.

Making this happen on Korean Air was awesome for a couple of reasons: (1) aesthetically, it’s our favorite airline in the world; and (2) its A380 has the world’s snazziest onboard bar on the upper deck. We booked ourselves in first class from JFK to BKK with a long layover in ICN, with the first leg on an A380 and second leg on a B777.

The first class on the A380 was ironically on the lower deck, but that’d give us an opportunity to use the staircase (something I also have an obsession for) and walk the entire length of the plane to get ourselves some cocktail. We hadn’t decided what to do with the long layover yet, between making a quick breakfast run to Incheon and exploring the fancy airport. As first-class passengers, we’d also make sure to get a couple personalized luggage tags in the Korean Air lounge.

For this trip, we paid 285,000 Korean Air miles plus $256, the peak/summer pricing. It seemed high at the time, but soon after our booking the award chart was devalued and the same itinerary would now cost 350,000 miles. Even though we received a “full refund”, our mileage balance was now 19% short of booking the same flights again.

The trip cancellation also meant a severe reduction in opportunity to fly the same plane, which was serviced out of JFK but not our home airport SFO. On top of that, the pandemic pushed airlines around the world to ground or retire entire fleets of this jumbo aircraft, all while Airbus permanently ended the A380’s production. All this means that airlines and routes flying the plane of my dreams will drop sharply even after the pandemic is over. Is it possible that we just missed the first and last opportunity to fly on the “second floor” of an airplane? It hurts me to think about it.

Japan Airlines Business Class

Every aspect of the JAL business class on a B777 is less exciting than the Korean Air first class on an A380. Yet, it’s still darn cool to try a lie-flat seat on a new Asian airline. More importantly, what we really looked forward to was the stopover in Tokyo.

When we looked for ways to use our Cathay Pacific miles for this trip, we learned that we could get a free stopover. There was no direct flight home from Bangkok anyway, so why not stop somewhere fun? We found an overnight flight from BKK to HND, and then HND to SFO three days later. We contemplated touristy activities like sunrise hike up Mount Fuji, but we primarily just planned to pig out at our favorite places like Ichiran, Nana’s Green Tea, and conveyor belt sushi joints.

For this, we paid 180,000 Cathay Pacific miles plus $452. Like Korean Air, Cathay also devalued its program shortly after our booking. This time around, no more stopover was allowed. Should we use the “fully refunded” miles to book the exact same flights in the future, we won’t be able to do anything in Tokyo except spend a few boring hours at the airport.

What made the whole situation more devastating is that Cathay miles have hard expiration dates. These fully refunded miles will simply disappear if they aren’t used within the next year, and who knows if international travel will resume by then? Our two business class seats on 16 hours of JAL plane ride have a real chance of completely being flushed down the toilet.

First Class Overnight Train Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Hong and I got to know each other on a series of overnight trains in China. While it wasn’t the most comfortable mode of transportation, it was a romantic experience and a memory we’ve treasured for 16 years. Thus, when we learned about the overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we knew we had to take it. We were in a different life stage now and could do better than tiny bunks packed like a sardine can. How about first class with a private cabin and a private bathroom? Sure!

Cancelling this itinerary was less dramatic than cancelling the flights, except the travel agency was a huge pain in the ass. I had to get Chase involved after waiting 4 months for the refund. What’s “lost forever” in this case, then? Well, the train was to originate from Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong Station, within a short walking distance from our hotel in Yaowarat. This historic station is scheduled to close permanently in 2021, moving all train traffic north to the Bang Sue Grand Station. Thus, even if we were able to visit Thailand again in the near future, it won’t be possible to as easily string together the things we want to see, eat, and do.

Elephant Sanctuary

The #1 destination on this trip was to spend a day at an elephant sanctuary. We hadn’t decided on the exact site to visit, but narrowed our choices down to Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, Elephant Nature Park, and Chai Lai Orchid. We were actively assessing the pros and cons just before the pandemic hit, and were pretty close to pick a date and pay to book. In hindsight, thankfully we hadn’t pulled the trigger yet because getting a refund may not be an easy process.

Elephant parks in Thailand are kind of like cat cafes in Japan, where animal lovers get to interact with the giant mammal for a fee. There are a variety of options, from downright cruel shows and rides to nonprofit sanctuaries for rescued elephants. It is highly recommended to choose a destination with high ratings on the humane scale.

As huge fans of zoos and aquariums all around the world, Hong and I had been yearning for an opportunity to visit one of these since before our first trip to Thailand. Being able to feed, pet, bathe, and walk alongside elephants large and small was a dream… one of many bubbles that 2020 burst.

Hotels

We booked and had to cancel the following hotels:

• Shanghai Mansion Bangkok
• Le Meridien Chiang Mai
• Wangcome Hotel Chiang Rai
• Grand Hyatt Ewaran Bangkok
• Conrad Tokyo

Most of these hotels will likely survive the pandemic and we can re-book them. The main headache was the lost opportunity to use free night certificates (Marriott, Hyatt, and Hilton) during this visit to get good value. Skipping out on Conrad Tokyo was especially depressing because it’s nearly impossible to find better value anywhere in the world for those free Hilton weekend nights.

The Rest of the Trip

The most important part of the trip, of course, was the time to actually spend on the ground at the destinations. We looked forward to temples, monuments, historic fortifications, local markets, and glitzy malls. All those, while great, would have just been fillers between awesome meals of street food and Thai massages. We spent countless hours looking up specific stalls like Raan Jay Fai, Ung Jia Huad, Fikeaw, Kuang Heng Pratunam Chicken Rice, Doy Kuay Teow Reua, Khao Soi Islam, etc., and meticulously arranged an itinerary that would maximize the efficiency going from one place to the next.

Most of these we know we can visit at a later date. COVID is not going to make the White Temple or Victory Monument disappear. Thailand’s good track record of handling the pandemic will hopefully keep most small businesses afloat, too. A couple of the legendary street food vendors are pretty old, though, and presumably more prone to make an exit as a result of the disease or the business downturn.

Thanks to 2020, our 10-year wedding anniversary vacation is gone forever. Quite a few elements of our dream trip simply cannot be rebooked any more, and I admittedly will be in mourning for a long time.