On March 24, 2020, IOC President and Prime Minister Abe agreed on postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.
At this point I don’t know exactly when it will be postponed. They only said the event will be held “by” the summer of 2021. For now I personally look for answers to these three questions:
- Where do my purchased tickets go?
- How do I deal with my booked flight tickets?
- Can I really go to Japan for the Olympics?
My Tickets
So far I have purchased Olympics tickets for 25 sessions of 13 events of 11 competitions.
I already spent more than a few thousand bucks, so that it would be most painful scenario that I lose all tickets without any refund.
I checked the Terms and Conditions that we need to agree to in CoSport ticket purchase process:
“Tickets for Events that have been rescheduled or postponed are valid for the Event with the same Session code at the rescheduled day and/or time“
It sounds like the tickets we have purchased will remain valid without being canceled or released .
CoSport sent an email to ticket holders on the day after the postponement announcement.
“CoSport Tokyo 2020 purchases will be honored at the Games in 2021‘
I need to figure out what “Will be honored” exactly mean, but it seems unlikely that the tickets we bought will be canceled.
Competition Schedule
Competition schedule may change within the two week range of the event. I may end up with having unexpected conflicts of sessions. I’m still not sure if it’s possible to cancel or change.
The schedule change may get rid of conflicts. In my case, baseball final and men’s soccer final are conflicting. The same goes to basketball preliminary and weightlifting. I hope I won’t need to give up on some of the tickets I already have.
Flight Tickets
This is what I care most about. I have purchased non-refundable round-trip air tickets between Seattle and Tokyo for my family, so I have no choice but to cancel and re-book ones to accommodate with the date changes.
Checking website of the airline company, the status looks quite interesting due to travel restrictions because of the current Covid-19 situation:
What is the “Subject to government approval“? 🙂
In any case, I won’t be able to take any action until the IOC announces a new competition schedule, given the current situation of the Covid-19.
Can I really go to Japan?
“Can my family really go to Japan next year?” The answer would be different depending on whether the event is postponed to spring or summer.
- If postponed to spring of 2021
There’s a rumor where the Olympics get postponed to next spring. It’s one of the best seasons in Tokyo from weather perspective. However, because kids still have schools to go to in the United States, we have a risk that kids may not be accompanied. Adults are also drawn to it. Inevitably, that makes us difficult to travel to Japan. Kids in the States have one week spring break in first half of April, so I have a slight expectation that I’ll have to tie it up, but that’s not enough.
But, is it realistic to postpone the entire event to Spring?
That is when Basketball NBA is at a full swing. They won’t be able to form the America dream team.
Boxing will be difficult to rent at the Kokugikan hall if it coincides with Grand Sumo competition in May.
Golf has the Masters tournament in early April and PGA Championship in May. If they conflict with the Olympics, top players will not prioritize the event.
- If postponed to summer of 2021
In the United States, when you say “executing by“, it means “executing in” at least in my company. In other words, “held by summer” is usually taken as “held in summer,” and it is often what happens.
Kids summer vacation starts in late June, so it’s best to move the dates to summer.
However, it’s super hot and humid in summer in Tokyo. It’s when you get a lot of mosquitoes to bite. I haven’t seen any mosquitoes or cockroaches for the last few years as Seattle does not have them. I will be super depressed just because I have to deal with mosquitoes that I hate the most in the world.
I wish I could go to Tokyo in a kid-friendly season when there are no mosquitoes, but I know this is the “summer” Olympic games…
What if the Olympics gets canceled?
Possibly, except for the case where the Covid-19 situation lasts longer than expected and next year’s events are also jeopardized, the “Olympic cancellation” scenario will unlikely happen, but I originally started to work on this entry based on the assumption/rumor that the Olympics will be canceled.
So what if the Olympic Games get canceled due to Covid-19?
According to CoSport and the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (… long! TOCOG for short), honestly, I didn’t quite get what would happen to my tickets.
I revisited the Terms & Conditions, which was asked to read and give consent when purchasing tickets on CoSport website,
“If an event (= Tokyo Olympics) is canceled, the (ticket) purchaser may apply for a refund to THE COMPANY (= CoSport) under the parameters outlined in the TOCOG Terms and Conditions.“
Then I read the TOCOG Terms and Conditions:
“If our corporation (= TOCOG) fails to fulfill the obligations set forth in the Tokyo 2020 Ticket Rules, and if the cause is force majeure, we will not be liable for the failure.“
Therefore, there will be no refund if the Olympic cancellation caused by Covid-19 is considered as “force majeure”, meaning that neither TOCOG nor CoSport is liable.
I am just crossing my fingers not to get the Olympics to be canceled.
