Sunny Days Travel help centre

Question 1

How does the weather gate actually work?

Accepted Answer

A destination "passes the gate" for a given day when both of these are true in the forecast we hold for that day: • Daytime high ≥ 78 °F (25.5 °C) • Probability of precipitation ≤ 25% That's it — two numbers, no secret index, no marketing "sunshine score" that nobody can reproduce. On every card, the amber-shaded days are the days that clear the gate; the pale days don't. A trip is surfaced as a window when it contains a run of consecutive passing days that covers most of your stay. We deliberately do not gate on cloud cover. Cloud-cover models disagree with each other far more than temperature and precipitation models do, and a bright hazy day is not a ruined trip. Rain is what ruins trips. Forecasts are pulled from Open-Meteo's aggregated model ensemble and refreshed several times a day. The timestamp on the forecast strip on any page tells you exactly how fresh the numbers you are looking at are.

Question 2

What does "verified" vs "predicted" mean?

Accepted Answer

Verified means the day is inside the reliable forecast horizon — roughly the next 0–7 days — where the ensemble models agree closely and the historical hit rate for the two gate conditions is high. Verified days carry the teal check. Predicted means the day is 8–16 days out. It is a real model output, not a guess, but the further out you go the more the ensemble spreads. We show predicted days because you have to book ahead to get a decent fare — we just refuse to dress them up as certainty. Practical consequence: a verified window is a reason to book now. A predicted window is a reason to add it to your watchlist and let us email you the moment it converts to verified. That watchlist email is the single most useful thing this product does. We never retroactively change a badge to make ourselves look better. If a verified window fails on the day, it stays on the record as a verified window that failed.

Question 3

The forecast changed after I booked. What now?

Accepted Answer

Be clear-eyed about this: we sell flights and hotels, we do not sell weather. Nobody can. If the forecast turns after you book, your booking is governed by the airline's fare rules and the hotel's cancellation policy — exactly the same as any other travel site. What we do that other sites don't: • We keep watching your window and email you if it degrades materially — while you can still act, not after. • If your hotel is still inside its free-cancellation window, that email includes a one-tap cancel and a list of destinations whose windows still pass the gate for your dates. • If the hotel is non-refundable but the dates are movable, we show the amendment cost up front before you commit to anything. We do not offer, and will not pretend to offer, a "bad weather refund". Anyone selling you that is either selling insurance or lying.

Question 4

How does the "your window opened" watchlist alert work?

Accepted Answer

Add a destination and a rough date range to your watchlist. Each time we refresh forecasts we re-run the gate over your range. The moment a qualifying run of days appears — or an existing predicted run flips to verified — you get one email with the days, the temperatures, the current fare, and a direct link into checkout with that trip already selected. Rules we hold ourselves to: at most one alert per watchlist item per 24 hours, no alert unless the window genuinely changed state, and one-click unsubscribe in every message. You can preview the exact email on the email previews page.

Question 5

Why did the price change while I was booking?

Accepted Answer

Airline fares are held in fare buckets. When the cheap bucket sells out, the price of the next seat jumps — sometimes by a lot, sometimes within seconds. Hotel rates move for the same reason, plus dynamic pricing on the property's side. Neither is us adjusting the price; we resell what the supplier quotes. To stop that happening mid-checkout, when you reach the payment step we prebook: we ask the supplier to hold that exact fare and rate for you. The supplier returns a real expiration timestamp, and we show it as a live countdown — typically about 14 minutes. Inside that countdown the total you see is the total you pay. If the countdown reaches zero we do not silently fail and we do not silently charge you a new price. We re-price, show you the old total next to the new one, and make you confirm again. If it went down, you pay less.

Question 6

What's included in the total — and what isn't?

Accepted Answer

The big number on checkout is the total you pay us now: base fares, all air taxes and carrier charges, the room for every night, and any bags or extras you added. Shown separately, and never rolled into that number: • Due at the property — resort fees, city/tourist taxes and parking that the hotel collects at check-in. On the Aspen example that's $192.81. We show it as its own line with a "not charged now" note. • Optional extras bought later — seat selection, extra bags added at the airport, room upgrades. There is no Sunny Days booking fee on the price you see. Our margin is supplier commission, which is disclosed in the terms below.

Question 7

Sandbox / beta status — what's real and what isn't?

Accepted Answer

Real right now: the destinations, the forecast data, the hotels and their photos and review scores, the room types and board basis, the cancellation policies, the flight schedules and fare families, and the price structure (base / taxes / fees / total, per-passenger breakdown). Not real right now: the inventory is not sellable. The API key is a LiteAPI sandbox key. A "booking" produces a sandbox record, not a PNR and not a hotel reservation. No payment processor is connected, so no card is charged. Sandbox also returns commission: 0 on every rate, which means our own revenue model is structurally plausible but numerically unvalidated. To take real money we need, at minimum: a production LiteAPI key with signed supplier terms; a payment path (either Stripe with a live account, or LiteAPI's NUITEE_PAY payment type, which would let the supplier take the card and could remove our PCI scope entirely); verified commission figures on live rates; a merchant of record decision; and the consumer-protection disclosures listed in the terms below. The full list is in CHECKOUT_ORDERS_SPEC.md.

Question 8

My booking says "partially confirmed" — what does that mean?

Accepted Answer

A trip is two independent bookings with two independent suppliers. Occasionally one succeeds and the other doesn't — most often the hotel confirms and the airline rejects ticketing because of a schedule change or a fare that vanished between prebook and book. What happens automatically, without you asking: • If the succeeded leg is refundable, we cancel and refund it within 60 seconds, and the whole order becomes failed with a full refund. You are not left holding half a trip. • If the succeeded leg is non-refundable, we hold it — cancelling it would cost you money you'd never get back — and a human is paged within 5 minutes to re-price the missing leg. We call you. You do not chase us. • Either way you get an email inside 2 minutes explaining precisely which leg failed and what we're doing, and the order shows a "needs attention" badge in My trips.

Question 9

Is my card safe? What do you store?

Accepted Answer

Card details are entered into fields hosted by the payment processor, embedded in our page as an iframe. The card number never touches a Sunny Days server — it goes from your browser straight to the processor, which returns us an opaque token. This is the Stripe Payment Element pattern and it puts us in PCI DSS SAQ-A, the lightest scope available to a merchant. We store: the payment token, card brand, last four digits, expiry month/year, the billing postcode/country, and the processor's charge and refund IDs. We never store: the full card number (PAN), the CVC — ever, by anyone, including the processor after authorisation — or the magnetic-stripe/chip data. Apple Pay and Google Pay pass a device-specific token rather than your real card number, so they are, if anything, the safer option. They're also the fastest way through checkout on a phone, which is where most of these trips get booked.

Question 10

I pressed pay twice. Was I charged twice?

Accepted Answer

No. Every payment and every booking call carries an idempotency key generated once when you open checkout. If the same key arrives twice — you double-tapped, your connection dropped and retried, the app resent — the processor and the supplier both return the original result instead of creating a second charge or a second booking. If you see two pending lines on your statement, one is almost always an authorisation hold that hasn't dropped off yet. Holds typically clear in 3–7 days. Send us the booking reference and we'll confirm what actually captured.

Question 11

How do I cancel, and what will I get back?

Accepted Answer

Open the booking in My trips → Cancel booking. Before you confirm anything we show the exact refund arithmetic — per leg, in money, not in percentages. Typical shape of a trip like the Aspen example: • Hotel — free cancellation until a stated date and time (usually 24–72 hours before check-in, shown on the rate). Cancel inside that window and you get 100% back. After it, the property's penalty applies, commonly the first night. • Flights — Economy Light fares are typically non-refundable. Government taxes and some airport charges are still reclaimable even on a non-refundable fare, and we reclaim them for you automatically. That's often $60–$120 you would otherwise never see. You can cancel just the hotel and keep the flights, or the reverse. We warn you clearly if doing so leaves you with a trip that doesn't make sense.

Question 12

How long does a refund take?

Accepted Answer

Three stages, and we show you which one you're in rather than saying "soon": • We issue it — immediately for hotel-only cancellations; up to 24 hours if the airline has to authorise it first. • Processor sends it — same day, once issued. • Your bank posts it — 5–10 business days, entirely outside our control and the slowest part by a wide margin. Debit cards are usually slower than credit cards. Your order page shows the amount, the destination card (last four digits) and an expected-by date. If that date passes, contact us with the booking reference and we'll send you the processor's acquirer reference number, which is what your bank needs to trace it. Refunds always return to the original payment method. Card networks don't allow anything else, and it's the rule that protects you from refund fraud.

Question 13

Can I change my dates, room or name?

Accepted Answer

Dates and room — yes, via Manage booking. We re-price both legs live and show you a diff: what changes, what it costs, what's refunded. Nothing is committed until you confirm. Fare differences are charged to the original card; if the new trip is cheaper the difference comes back (airlines often issue this as a credit rather than cash — we say which before you confirm). Name corrections — small spelling fixes (up to about three characters) are usually free if we make them early. Tell us within 24 hours of booking and we do it at no charge wherever the airline allows. A genuine change of traveller is not a correction; it usually requires cancelling and rebooking. Adding bags — always available, and almost always cheaper through us before travel than at the airport. See the baggage article. Sunny Days charges no amendment fee of its own. You pay the supplier's fee and the fare difference, and we show both.

Question 14

The hotel or airline cancelled on me

Accepted Answer

Then it's our problem, not yours. We refund everything we took, including non-refundable components, because the supplier's failure isn't something you should pay for. We then look for equivalent inventory on your dates and, where the replacement costs more, we cover a reasonable difference. The Albuquerque booking in the demo order list is exactly this case: the property closed for emergency maintenance, we refunded the full $899.59 including the non-refundable fare, and covered the $48 fare difference on the rebooking. If an airline makes a significant schedule change (typically more than 2 hours, or a routing change) you're entitled to a full fare refund even on a non-refundable ticket. We watch for these and email you — you don't have to spot it yourself.

Question 15

Baggage — what's included and what costs extra?

Accepted Answer

Read the fare family, not the airline. On the Aspen example both legs are Economy Light, which includes only a personal item — one bag up to 40×30×20 cm and about 5 kg, under the seat in front of you. No carry-on and no checked bag are included. We state that on the flight card, in the checkout summary, and in your confirmation email, because an unexpected $65 at the gate ruins a cheap trip. Typical add-on pricing on these fares: • Cabin bag (55×40×23 cm, ~10 kg) — around $34 per direction • Checked bag (23 kg) — around $45 per direction • Second checked bag and overweight items cost more, and at the airport everything costs substantially more Add bags during checkout or later from Manage booking — the price is the same either way, and both are cheaper than the airport counter. Ski and snowboard bags on Aspen routes are handled as sports equipment; contact us and we'll add them at the airline's rate.

Question 16

Check-in — flights and hotel

Accepted Answer

Flights. Online check-in opens 24 hours before departure and closes 1–2 hours before. We email you a reminder when it opens with a direct link. Check in online — some carriers charge for airport check-in. Then get to the airport 2 hours before a domestic departure and 3 hours before an international one. You check in with the airline, not with us. Your airline reference (PNR) is on your e-ticket email and your order page; that plus your surname is all their site needs. Hotel. Standard check-in is 3:00 pm and check-out 11:00 am unless your booking says otherwise. Bring the card you paid with and photo ID. If you're arriving late — and on the Aspen itinerary you land after midnight — tell us and we'll flag the booking as a late arrival so the property holds the room. Do this. Rooms have been released at 6 pm for want of a two-line message.

Question 17

My name doesn't exactly match my ID

Accepted Answer

The name on the ticket must match the ID you travel on — that's the airline's rule and it is enforced at the gate. Use your first and last name exactly as printed on your passport or driving licence. Middle names are optional on domestic US routes and should be included for international travel if your passport shows one. Spotted a mistake? Tell us within 24 hours of booking and we'll correct it free where the airline allows. After that, minor corrections usually carry an airline fee, and we'll quote it before doing anything. Nicknames are the usual culprit: "Mike" on the booking, "Michael" on the licence. Fix it now, not at 5 am at the airport.

Question 18

Something's gone wrong and I'm travelling now

Accepted Answer

Call the urgent line below — it's staffed 24/7 for travellers within 48 hours of, or during, a trip. Don't use the contact form; it's monitored in business hours. If the property says it has no reservation, ask them to search by the supplier reference on your confirmation (not the Sunny Days reference — hotels rarely see ours). Both are printed on your e-ticket email and order page. That resolves it about nine times out of ten. If a flight is cancelled or badly delayed at the airport, the airline is the fastest route to a re-route — you're standing in front of them and they hold the seats. Keep every receipt and tell us afterwards; we'll help with the compensation claim.

Question 19

How does magic-link sign-in work, and is it secure?

Accepted Answer

You book as a guest — no account, no password. To see or manage a booking later you enter your email and we send a single-use link. The security properties, stated plainly: • Signed and scoped — the token is signed server-side and bound to that email address and that set of bookings. It cannot be edited to reach anyone else's trip. • Short-lived — valid 15 minutes. • Single use — it burns the first time it's opened. A forwarded email is a dead link. • Bound session — opening it grants a 30-minute session tied to that browser. • Re-challenged for destructive actions — cancelling or amending requires a fresh link, so an old email in someone else's inbox can't cancel your holiday. • No enumeration — we return the same "check your email" message whether or not the address has bookings, so nobody can use the form to test who's a customer. Compared with a password, there is no credential to reuse, phish, breach or forget. The trade-off is that access depends on your email account — so secure that with two-factor authentication.

Question 20

I never got my confirmation email

Accepted Answer

Check spam and any Promotions tab first — that's where most of them are. Search for {bookings_email}. Still nothing? Go to My trips, enter the email you booked with and request a fresh link. If that email really has no bookings, the likeliest cause is a typo at checkout. Contact us with the last four digits of the card and the travel dates and we'll find it and correct the address. If a booking succeeded but the email bounced, the order page shows a delivery failed flag and we've already tried to reach you another way. Bounces are monitored; they don't just disappear into a log.

Question 21

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

No, and we won't ask before you've paid. Forcing account creation ahead of purchase is the single biggest source of abandoned checkouts in travel, and it earns you nothing you couldn't get from an email address. After you've booked we offer — once, dismissibly — to keep your traveller details for next time. That's the whole benefit: faster forms. Everything else (viewing, changing, cancelling, documents) works fine via magic link forever.

How can we help?

Weather & the sun gate

Booking & payment

Changes, cancellation & refunds

Travel day

Access & account

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