Parents: UT students with positive COVID-19 results couldn’t get refunds for spring break trip
kxan.com/news/parents-ut-students-with-positi...
kxan.comPosted Apr 2, 2020, 1:56 AM UTC
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kxan.comSunk cost fallacy.
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Yes. The money is already spent so you can’t say you’re going to lose money by not going. Only thing you lose is partying and wet t shirts. Hard choice I know but can’t use refunds as a factor.
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wet t shirts eventually dry anyway
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This is extremely poetic. They'll quote you in the history books.
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Let's see I can lose out on the trip, or I can take the trip and then spend thousands treating my COVID19 on top of the money I spent on the trip...
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Don’t care, you shouldn’t do something stupid just because you can’t get a refund. Also these are not children they’re adults. And if they are still being treated like children the parents should have told them to come home.
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For the record, I think everyone here is a jerk. The kids are selfish jerks because they went anyway. The company's run by jerks because they put profit over the safety of the kids and the community.
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The company had probably already paid vendors in Mexico. Agree they could have refunded any profit, but the bulk was sunk cost. That’s what trip insurance is for.
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To be fair, I've been reading that most trip insurance doesn't cover pandemics and has proven to be worthless under the scenario we are currently living in. I'm not defending those that still went on these trips, it was irresponsible. Just pointing out that I've heard trip insurance has proved to be pretty pointless.
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I don’t think it’s right that the company made it seem like it would be better if they went on the trip. But I also get where it would have been hard to offer refunds which I’m sure this is one of their most profitable times of the year they may not have been able to afford it.
... these also are not kids. They’re over 18
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Brain doesn't fully develop til 25. They are kids.
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The law says otherwise
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This. I had a trip planned for overseas in January with no insurance for a refund. What I didn't spend in accommodation, food, drinks...etc was a savings of funds that proved useful towards having a tiny security fund now. Oh, and I didn't go out and bring a fucking virus back home to share, either. The idiots that went ahead with their plans because "that would suck to not..." are among the many reasons we aren't over this; thinking we were above it.
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Fuck them. They have endangered hundreds, if not thousands, of people all for being young and dumb. The cost will be not only in dollars, but lives.
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This is the case with a ton of people who went to Padre for spring break.
Source - I know a bunch of people who went to Padre for spring break this year
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Did these people you know test positive after returning?
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I know someone that went to London over Spring Break, and now they're stuck there and can't get out.
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Same thing happened to Cillian Murphy back in ‘02
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someone that went to London
What are the rules these days? I thought US citizens were allowed back in.
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This is what will do us all in; people more worried about losing a few hundred dollars than everyone's safety.
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“I knew it was a bad idea but I had spent hundreds of dollars, and I had a really cute dress picked out so, you know…”
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I have a co-worker who traveled to Southeast Asia for the second half of February because he had already paid about $800 (super cheap plane ticket plus cheap accommodations). Fucking idiot. He had symptoms about a week after he got back. Got tested 2 weeks after that and was negative, but we still think he had it.
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They are getting obliterated on social media. I hope they go bankrupt because of this.
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Huh? Those moron students are still responsible for knowingly putting themselves and others at risk because they were too stupid to read agreements ahead of time and to recognize a sink cost.
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Both parties are at fault. Regardless of the fact that some were sent this letter when trying to inquire about a refund so they could cancel their trip - they still cared more about losing money than their health and that of the general public. Same for JusCollege. They're literally still allowing you to book trips to Mexico as we speak.
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They were trying to see about offering partial refunds. My guess is they couldn’t afford full refunds and it’s up to the person who purchased the trips if they had travel insurance. The college students were well aware of what was going on. They picked partying over people’s health.
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That one mom who didnt let her kid go must have had the most satisfactory "I told you so".
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I would have made a youtube video saying "I told you so" and sent to each parent. Yes, petty but oh wells.
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Parents pay for their kid’s spring break to go to Mexico with other kids? WTF? Lol
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Sorority girls yo. Parents pay for their children to have friends.
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There are no refunds on life, and y'all probably cashed in a few people's, so gg.
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"Well, we had the option of spending money and NOT getting COVID, but we decided so long as we had spent the money, we might as well get COVID."
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One parent whose son was supposed to go on the trip shared email correspondence between the student’s family and JusCollege. Her son did not end up going on the trip and still hasn’t received any kind of a refund.
At least there were some responsible residents that decided to cancel their trip.
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Went through this dude's last 4 pages of comments and his first page of posts. 0 indication he's a radical Islamist, he's literally just an Arab dude, probably Lebanese, maybe Muslim (or maybe atheist, you don't know the guy!).
Quit your xenophobic bullshit.
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Not surprised at his rant considering his post history.
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Must have hit a nerve there. You do realize there’s a large number of Christians and Druze from Lebanon living in Austin, right?
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Dumbest excuse I have ever heard, like I am supposed to understand now why you would send someone. Oh sure, they went and had their fun, absolutely NO way to get their money back now, and infected tons of people in the process. Thanks mom and dad!
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The company e-mail was sent May 13. Mexico had 12 confirmed COVID cases at the time. The USA had 1200 cases. Except for the little detail of stuffing everyone in an airplane and breathing the same air, Mexico might sound like a good place to hide. Heck, right now, the USA has 160,000 cases and Mexico has about 1100. Might still be a good idea, at least until the Mexicans decide to kill the disease-ridden gringos.
(Yeah, I suspect Mexico might not be doing a lot of testing, or be hiding results, but we did that quite a bit here in the USA.)
On 3/13, the City of Austin had barely admitted that canceling SXSW was a good idea. President Spanky was still downplaying the virus. They were downplaying the risk for young people.
Yeah, still dumb for going, but that wasn't as clear then as it is now.
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By March 13, class was canceled and Spring Break extended. It was very clear that a global pandemic was beginning. Also, the US had 1,800 cases.
Mexico had already announced a desire to tighten the border and recommended canceling non-essential activities by that date as well due to Covid-19. Hell, the US had already banned travel to Europe.
You’re cutting them undue slack for no reason. They aren’t kids and it didn’t take a genius to conclude not to take the trip. They endangered lives with their negligence and foolhardy behavior. Shame on all of them.
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Doesn’t take a scientist to realize when all these reports started that going to go to Mexico to party was a stupid idea. They should all just be thankful they were able to get back here unlike some still stuck overseas.
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A friend of mine was still planning to go on a cruise until the cruise line cancelled it. Even after the first plague ship was stuck in limbo off of Japan with everyone still quarantined on board.
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Your friend doesn’t sound to smart
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That's rather ironic.
To great health and long life
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“Too.”
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There were plans we had that we couldn't get our money back on either. You know what we did? Canceled them anyway. Because that's what people who aren't assholes do.
There was enough evidence that this was going to be bad by then. The week before spring break, we'd already pulled our kids out of all of their activities and school and were already staying home because we knew it was coming and it was going to be bad.
Was made fun of for buying a bunch (literally like $30 worth) of instant ramen. The creativity that comes with isolation and product development tasks at home has led to a few more than interesting dishes utilizing not very many ingredients. Maruchan Tuscany is a new fave.
ramen plus instant mashed potatoes. Form a loaf, slice, and fry.
There's no way this is real. If I try it and like it we may open a food trailer in the next world.
Get some eggs and make a ramlette
You’re getting into spread territory here.
Can of tuna and some cheese. Tuna casserole!
Try kipper and ramen if you're a canned fish kind of person :)