The day I was waiting for came last week. British Airways sent me an email that my flight has been canceled. This started the process of cancelling my many, many bookings for the 2020 Sabbatical. I went through most of the bookings on Booking.com yesterday, and sent emails out for a few more. This afternoon I'll tackle the hostels, which is most of my bookings.
So far, so good. British Airways, though it took a while to get through to them, was very straightforward about issuing a refund. Two of the "non cancelable" hotels in Israel very quickly promised a refund (none of these has hit my credit card yet, so I still have to watch for that.)
And I reworked my itinerary spreadsheets with a "canceled" column, so I can track what I've gotten accomplished and what I have not. I still have to contact my travel insurance company about the cancellation.
This has all made me very, very sad. The level of anticipation of this wonderful journey, means that watching all that work, and all that planning go away feels like a loss. I keep trying to remind myself that this will all happen, albeit later, and that I am at first very fortunate to do this, and that the Lilly Endowment will let me reschedule (though at this point I am not sure when for: since probably international travel will not return in full until we have a vaccine.) I am deeply grateful for the Lilly Endowment's promise to let me delay this until next year, and I suspect next year is what will happen, either in late April (a better month for hiking in Israel) or in July/August.
But I'll have to do all the rebooking (a LOT of work) and wait a full other year. And I think I need to let myself feel sad about that, even as I am grateful that it is only a delay, not a full cancellation.
Blessings on you all!
