iancal

Ambiguity and assumptions are NOT your friends. Get the details in writing. In plain and simple English. No wriggle room for some clever boots at HAL to utter that word ‘but’ when you call to make subsequent arrangements.

We tentatively agreed to our Princess move over offer. We asked for the offer in writing so there would be no misunderstanding at a later date. Rec’d it 15 minutes later and agreed. If you accept the offer my strong advice would be to get the T’s & C’s in writing.

Several years ago this happened to us on a Princess SA cruise. It was a ‘move over’ offer as follows -100 percent fare refund - a free 14 day cruise of our choice. I recall we had to book within 18 months. Our original cruise was 14 days. -an upgrade on that cruise from balcony cabin to mini suite -up to $300 USD reimbursement for any air cancellation charges that we incurred. It took us about 5 seconds to accept. Our online TA arranged the con call with us and with Princess to review the details. This was not a one off. We met 2 other people on our subsequent cruise who were given the identical incentive by Princess to walk from their respective booked cruise. We keep hoping for another offer like this!

Our TAP flight to Lisbon was very good. Lisbon immigration was a zoo. Huge lineup. We were fortunate..we had tight connections and were whisked through in about an hour. Avoid Lisbon flights with 11 AM arrivals or be prepared to wait for hours to get through.

On more that a few occasions we have seen backpacks refused as carry on because of their size and their weight. In those instances they were much longer, wider, and looked much heavier than our 8KG carry on rollers. We have seen many travelers with backpacks that are far larger than outr 20 or 22 inch roller carry -ons. Backpacks come in all sizes. Some are convertible. Seems to me that the Ric Steves store sells a convertible backpack. Carry on (no wheels) w/backpack straps.

We are not checking any bags so hopefully this will speed things up a little for us.

Thanks, good to know. We are flying TAP to Madeira, via Lisbon, in two days. One way fare. Flight home from Faro on Transat. Concerned about the two hour TAP connection in Lisbon. Reports say customs line ups currently can be as much as 2-3 hours!

We have met more than one retired flight crew member during our travels that uses that same carry on bag for their extended retirement trips.