Epilogue I

We have been home for five days, and today, Stephanie tested positive for COVID.  She had a slight cold when we got home, and tested several times per day since then, all negative, but today at work, boom, a positive test.  She does not feel bad, it just felt like it was a cold that was actually getting better.  Who knows where it came from, I guess that flying is the most risky part of travel.  We even wore masks on the flights home for almost the entire time.  And, we wiped down our seats with disinfecting wipes.  It is quite possible she was exposed somewhere before we flew home, who can tell. 

There was the one person she sat next to on the flight from Iceland to Detroit, he and his wife, who sat in separate areas of the plane, were wearing masks, but then so were we.  However, he seemed to stay bundled up in his cat the entire time, but we did not hear any coughing or sneezing from him.

The only place she went that I wasn’t with her during the trip was in two grocery stores, and one was the last day of the “Golden Circle” stops, which were much more crowded.  We did go into a couple of stores at those stops and we were not always together inside, and they were crowded, and we did not wear masks. Most of the rest of the time, we were not around people, or we were outside.   I guess it does not really matter, it is what it is, but just trying to figure it out for next time is the only objective of giving it some thought.

I have been working on the photos and have posted several Photo Albums.  I will be combining about three days of the trip into each photo album, but the photos themselves in each album will be named by the day of the trip.

I also have been trying to pull together some statistical data, mainly on the distances we drove.  After about Day 4, we started keeping both the overall and daily trip readings from the odometer.  It is hard not to use the term “mileage” since everything is in kilometers, and I don’t know a similar term to use.

We also reviewed the expenses from the time we were in Iceland, mostly for groceries, fuel, food and beverages, not including the CamperVan rental costs or the flights.  

Here are the Total Trip Costs

ITEM	COST
Airfare	$ 1,990.00
Camper Van Rental	$ 6,519.00
Airport Parking	$ 116.00
Travel Insurance	$ 480.00
Hotel In Keflavik	$ 242.00
Camping	$ 479.42
Fuel	$ 666.24
Parking	$ 52.37
Museums	$ 49.01
Store Purchases	$ 116.37
Wine	$ 472.06
Spas	$ 94.78
Grocery	$ 505.86
Restaurants	$ 126.88
Campground Beers	$ 26.00
ATM Withdrawals	$ 221.60
VISA Debit Fees	$ 6.67
Camper Van Extras Charges	$ (25.04)
TRIP TOTAL COST	$12,139.22
Average Total Cost Per Day	$674.40
Total Expenses In Iceland	$2,792.22
Average Expenses Per Day	$155.12
Camper Rental Cost Per Day	$362.17
Camper Rental Cost + Expenses Per Day	$517.29

For clarification, the Total Expenses In Iceland are what we spent on anything we purchased while we were there.  All of those expenses are shown in the Total Trip Cost List

It was easy to calculate the overall driving distance, we had a starting odometer reading on the rental agreement, and Stephanie wrote down the final odometer reading when we got back to CampEasy.  In total, we drove 3,605 kilometers or about 2,240 miles.  We averaged 212 km and 133 miles per day for the 17 driving days of the trip.  The maximum driving distance for one day was 314 Km, and the minimum we drove after the first and last day’s short drive to and from the same campground near Reykjavik, was 88 Km.

Of course, we spent the first several days doing laundry and other house chores like mowing the overgrown lawn.  

On a more frustrating note, I spent a few hours yesterday trying to get information from Delta Airlines on documenting why our flight from ATL to JFK was delayed.  This was a supplemental piece of information that our Travel Insurance provider, Nationwide, needed as part of our submitted trip delay claim.

I initially called Delta Customer Service, and the lady was helpful but had to ask another colleague to help her with my request.  I had already looked on the Delta Website but found nothing.  However, while I was waiting on hold with the customer service rep, I found another online post with a link to the Delta Website for submitting a request for flight delay reasons.  About the time I found it, she came back on the phone with the same information.

I submitted the request with all of our flight details and ticket numbers and waited for a response.

Two hours later, I received an email from Delts, and I thought I was set to go.  Wrong.  The email included all of the flights but listed the reason for the delay as “Crew Scheduling Error”, not the bad weather ground stop that was the real reason.  I did not want to submit that to the travel insurance company because I was afraid they would deny the claim and say it was Delta’s responsibility to reimburse us since that type of delay was “in their control”, unlike the weather.

I called back in but the wait time was terrible.  I was given the choice to use “text” for communication, and that was awful, there were times I thought there was no one there, It was long periods of time between text responses.  In the end, that “person” suggested I file a complaint, but that did not help.

I then tried the “Chat” option on Delta’s website under Stephanie’s account since I had already filed one request for information.  That was more helpful. the chat person sent me information that he could see it was a delay caused by the weather.  Unfortunately, he could not send me anything, all I had was what he wrote in the chat.  He said to file the claim again, but I asked how that was going to make a difference in what I was sent the first time.  He then suggested I reply to the original email and state what the issue was.  I had not thought of doing that I presumed the email was not one that I could reply to, but it apparently was.  When I selected reply, it listed the customer service department as the recipient.  I stated my case and even put in the information from the chat that I was able to copy and paste into a document in case I needed it for back-up.

I sent it in and waited.  A couple of hours later I received a response, and it now said the delay was caused by Air Traffic Control Flight Restrictions, that was better than Crew Scheduling Error.  In the meantime, I found two different online news articles about the ground stops in New York that day, so I printed them into PDF files.  I also found some information on the Delta Website about what they would cover or not cover for reimbursement.  It listed things for delays in their control, like equipment failures and also for things like weather delays, that are not in their control.  

The travel insurance company also requested that I provide some type of proof that Delta had not reimbursed us for anything.  My plan for that was to submit the Delta Reimbursement Policy because the items we claimed were not covered by Dekta under any circumstance.  One was pre-paid travel expenses, in our case, one day of camper rental lost, which are not ever covered by Delta no matter the reason for the delay.  Our other claim was also on the list of non-covered items, the cost of additional transportation, in our case the Uber ride to Newark.  

I pulled everything together and sent an email explaining everything I was including, and said, I was not claiming anything that Delta would cover anyway, so there was no reason to prove I had not gotten any type of reimbursement from Delta.  The travel insurance companies have to know these rules, they are all posted on the UD DOT website for all airlines. They just make things difficult, hoping you won’t bother trying to get all of the useless information they want.

We will see what happens with the claim.