I just booked/am in the middle of booking our family for out east. Rentals are sky high, turo isn’t as cheap as it typically is, and all of the hotels/private rentals are nuts. To stay in a dump (super 8, econo, random place) is $300/night.
I got a good deal on airfare, but that’s about it.
We’re going to Nashville again in a couple of weeks…same story. In general things are high.
Jealous of anchorage. Flying in and what’s the plan? Alaska has been on my list forever, but I feel it will be a two week trip…and the kids aren’t old enough to keep up on the hikes yet.
I’m surprised about Nashville being high. First time for Anchorage for us. Little over a week, splitting it up into two areas, first stay in Denali National Park area (Tundra Tours, hiking). The second part of the trip will be Seward area. Boat Tours, white water rafting, hiking. Kids are now teenagers so they can keep up.
This is getting sooooo offftopic but spent a week in Alaska with wife before kids - road trip was insaine:)
I want to go back there agian with kids but my yougest is 4 so doubt he is ready:)
We did 1,500 miles in 1 week:)
Landed in Fairbanks, drove to Denali. Spent two days there (one day bus tour, close up with bears) second day flight over Mt. McKinley.
Drove down to Anchorate - that’s like 5 hours drive but in summer sun never sets so… at 11pm still up and you don realize how late that is.
Then drove to Seward and did ocean tour and saw dolphins, killer whalers, regular whales, and so much more.
Next day drove to Homer (the other side of Kenai peninsula) - soooooo many bold eagels were there almost like walking around you. That bird is huge! Definitly differnt feeling than in zoo.
Then drove to Whittier through that one lane tunnel and took a ferry to Valdez.
From there drove back up to Fairbanks - road less traveled for sure.
Last adventure was taking a tour to fly up to Coldfoot (that ice road trucker show) with the most northen US postal office and drive back in a 10 person van crossing Yukon river in the process…
In other news, got my auto policy renewal last week. Rates are increasing yet again. I’m so tired of this BS. Both records are spotless clean and I’ve never filed an insurance claim in my entire life.
Also got an “oh $hit” moment, when I opened my renewal letter from Grange… House + 2 old cars ('08 LS460 & '18 Buick Regal Tourx) - almost $5500. That doesn’t include my old '11 Mazda CX9 driven by my 16yo daughter. That POS is worth maybe ~$3K on a good day, and the insurance premium (comprehensive) is ~$2400 through Travelers. F me… Of course, I’m shopping like crazy and if all goes well, should be able to save almost $2K (Progressive for cars & AAA for house). Geico also appears to be pretty competitive for us. Once my Travelers is up for renewal, I might just add the Mazda to Progressive, since Flo appears to be quite competitive for young drivers. Surprisingly, Progressive won’t touch my house - roof just over 10 years old and dwelling approaching $1M (apparently they want to stay under $500K).
All 3 cars are under my auto insurance policy, including the one my son used. Putting his car on his own policy will cost me a lot more. I changed to statefarm due to how they calculate their insurance rate per car. Other insurance jack up all 3 of my cars rate when I add my son (progressive, geico, amica, safeco, etc) eventhough I assigned the car that he drives. Statefarm only jacks up the car that he assigned to. Maybe something you want to look into. I dont carry collision on his car - its value is only $2k, not worth the additional $500 collision cost.
My Travelers policy renews May 1st, first full year since I swapped Outback for the Volvo - 26% increase. No change in address (CA) or. demographics. A+ credit, clean LN and CLUE (minus one big accident that was 100% their fault), clean driving record.
In the past, bumping the comp/coll deductible 500/1000/1500/2000 was negligible and not worth it imho (56+ month break even) but this time I noticed a bigger spread in collision.
VCSF max deductibles are $1000/$1000. My premium sweet spot seemed to be
500/1000 deductibles
50 ded glass
max coverages/umi/rental/medpay/property
decline roadside/mbi
Over the years I have oscillated between GEICO and Travelers.
Compared to GEICO, with the BH shareholder discount that was mentioned previously, with their advertised “max” coverages (less than my current) at new deductibles was almost 30% more than Travelers. Their quote against my current renewal was a bit over 30% higher.
i’m curious when others look at costs within car insurance how they make cost tradeoffs when you know you want some of that coverage, but least/most isn’t obvious?
For us, I prioritize the bigger dollar stuff like liability and un/underinsured coverage. $1k deductibles was the sweet spot (around 2.5 yr break even vs. our usual $500). We opted to drop medical payments since it was fairly costly compared to benefit (was something like $120/6 months for like $5k of coverage for us).
That being said, the month after I bumped our deductibles for $1k from $500, the headlight on our XC90 mysteriously cracked, which is ~$4k. Doesn’t seem to effect anything, but will probably just pay out of pocket when/if it starts having more issues.
Both records are spotless clean and I’ve never filed an insurance claim in my entire life.
