(WSVN) – A South Florida couple saved hotel rewards points for decades so they could one day get to Paris, but right after they booked, the husband was diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n
They had to cancel their trip and lost all their points. It\u2019s tonight\u2019s Help Me Howard with Brandon Beyer.<\/p>\n
Paris was their dream.<\/p>\n
Cancer survivor Michael Neaves booked the trip for he and his wife of 44 years.<\/p>\n
But just a few weeks before they were set to leave for the \u201ccity of love,\u201d Michael\u2019s cancer came back.<\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201cNoticed blood in my urine, went for a test, and so they said the cancer has now spread to the kidney.\u201d<\/p>\n
He needed surgery, and his doctor said travel was out of the question.<\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201c\u2018You don\u2019t want to put that off because it\u2019s an aggressive form of the cancer that you have; it spreads very quickly.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael used hotel points to arrange for lodging in Paris \u2014 585,000 of them \u2014 and when he had to cancel, he was hoping for a refund.<\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201cYou know, we understand the situation if you can provide us some information, and that\u2019s when we got the letter from the doctor. We provided that to the hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
But then they told him the points would not be returned. <\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201cThey just said, \u2018Look, we\u2019ve looked at this; there isn\u2019t anything that we can do and, you know, we\u2019re sorry.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard, it took them decades to save those points. Can they just disappear?<\/p>\n
Howard Finkelstein: \u201cThe hotel\u2019s cancellation policy says you can\u2019t cancel within 30 days of your reservation. And Michael was inside that time period. So, the hotel is entitled to keep the points. However, they can consider the circumstances and make an exception, if they choose to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
We emailed the hotel about Michael\u2019s cancer diagnosis, and that\u2019s exactly what they did.<\/p>\n
Telling us, \u201cAfter careful review, we are making a one-time exception.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201cThe surgery went well.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we saw Michael again, he was on the mend, and since then, all of his points have been returned. <\/p>\n
Michael and his dream of taking his wife to Paris are both alive and well.<\/p>\n
A trip he says he\u2019s determined to make happen.<\/p>\n
Michael Neaves: \u201cYou\u2019re darn right about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard says remember to check cancellation policies, and also consider travel insurance that can help with reimbursements in case of sudden illness.<\/p>\n
Got a problem? Need a hand? Here is how to find us. It\u2019s Help Me Howard, I\u2019m Brandon Beyer, 7News.<\/p>\n
CONTACT HELP ME HOWARD Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<\/p>\n \tJoin our Newsletter for the latest news right to your inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WSVN) – A South Florida couple saved hotel rewards points for decades so they could one day get…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-327248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Email: helpmehoward@wsvn.com<\/a>
Reporter: Brandon Beyer at bbeyer@wsvn.com<\/a>
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