Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[Gumby]

This is the thread to discuss the travel impacts of the coronavirus COVID-19. There are two other threads - one for the health and preparedness aspects of the coronavirus and one for the financial impact. Please choose the appropriate thread for your comments and do not repeat the same post in multiple threads (see the Community Rules regarding multi-posting).

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[explanade]

Well I have a lot of trips planned this year, the next one being Portugal in the latter half of April.

Who knows what the state of the outbreak will be then.

 

[erkevin]

Quite a bit of travel for us also; all in Central/Latin America. Portions of March, April, May, June, September, October. No plans to cancel, that is for sure.

 

[Freedom56]

We have no plans to cancel our trips unless this becomes season one episode one of the "Fear of the Walking Dead" which is not going to happen . We were planning on a short trip to Las Vegas for NAB 2020 and are assuming that the conference will not be cancelled. The organizers are keeping registered attendees informed on a weekly basis. In May we are headed to Switzerland again. We have nonrefundable business class seats which would result in a $5000 loss if we cancelled. Plus sitting in business class in your own pod by the window, I feel less concerned.

 

[MichaelB]

I did see a notice by Jet Blue, any ticket purchased now for travel before June can be cancelled for future credit with no penalty. Hopefully other airlines take notice.

 

[Pellice]

I'm guessing that tour companies themselves take out insurance against such events? I'm a customer of birding tour companies, and they aren't large organizations. If they have to cancel and refund their clients, do they have insurance to cover? Do other tour groups like Road Scholars? Or alumni cultural tours?

 

[Scratchy]

Airports and airplanes are among the most germ ridden places people regularly encounter. Below are a couple of articles on this. There are numerous others. Some of the big culprits: the trays for your personals at the security checkpoint. Any screen at the airport or in the airplane. (The screen at the checkin having a CFU (pathogen) count 9000x worse than the average toilet handle). The entire airplane bathroom can be considered a landing site for aerosilized fecal material from pressurized flushes.

So under normal circumstances, they are prone to spreading diseases. In the face of a pandemic, I'd think it prudent to limit air travel to essential travel and to wear a mask and use sanitizer liberally. And have contingency plans for the possibility your flight home may not be possible due to quarantine or lockdown.

https://www.insurancequotes.com/health/germs-at-the-airport

https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s12879-018-3150-5

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Just a prediction: Just about every carrier will eventually allow cancellations for a bunch of places around the world (e.g. Italy, Japan, South Korea), and will add to the list as the outbreak grows.

So if I had a reservation for an upcoming trip, I would wait it out (assuming it currently didn't allow cancellations).

 

[LRDave]

I did see a notice by Jet Blue, any ticket purchased now for travel before June can be cancelled for future credit with no penalty. Hopefully other airlines take notice.

Wow. That is interesting. How will all their reservations not fill up nearly immediately with people making no-risk bets?

 

[davebarnes]

No cancellation

We are supposed to land in Milano on Saturday afternoon.
We are looking forward to our trip.

 

[audreyh1]

I'm guessing that tour companies themselves take out insurance against such events? I'm a customer of birding tour companies, and they aren't large organizations. If they have to cancel and refund their clients, do they have insurance to cover? Do other tour groups like Road Scholars? Or alumni cultural tours?

Most tour companies I have dealt with, the trip was non-refundable after you paid your final payment several months in advance.

 

[Sunset]

Wow. That is interesting. How will all their reservations not fill up nearly immediately with people making no-risk bets?

I think it's a smart play on Jet Blue.
A person will be more inclined to reserve, then go and make other plans, basically committing to the travel.
JetBlue has made a sale.
OR
If the person is really scared, they get a credit, but that means they are leaving the $$ with JetBlue, and the credit like most probably expires.
So JetBlue has made a sale.

 

[Pellice]

Most tour companies I have dealt with, the trip was non-refundable after you paid your final payment several months in advance.

Is that the case if the company cancels the trip?

 

[LRDave]

I think it's a smart play on Jet Blue.
A person will be more inclined to reserve, then go and make other plans, basically committing to the travel.
JetBlue has made a sale.
OR
If the person is really scared, they get a credit, but that means they are leaving the $$ with JetBlue, and the credit like most probably expires.
So JetBlue has made a sale.

Good point. The credit will put a liability on the books for a few quarters.

 

[OldConch]

Purchased non-refundable tickets to Venice last July for travel in May 2020. I fully expect that if the situation worsens Delta/KLM will cancel the flight and offer a refund or travel credit. Don't think there's any point in me canceling the flights now.

Interesting reporting by NPR - Japan is asking schools to close starting next week and not to re-open until after spring break ends in April.

 

[explanade]

Shopped for travel insurance with CFAR.

Well Squaremouth.com and insuremytrip.com only returned Nationwide Cruise insurance. Only for cruises.

I'm on hold with Travel Guard. Their policies have an optional CFAR coverage so trying to find out how much they cost. Been on hold for almost 20 minutes now.

Generali insurance shows one policy with a $110 rider for CFAR but you must enroll within a day of making the first payment or earlier.

 

[Sunset]

Purchased non-refundable tickets to Venice last July for travel in May 2020. I fully expect that if the situation worsens Delta/KLM will cancel the flight and offer a refund or travel credit. Don't think there's any point in me canceling the flights now.

Interesting reporting by NPR - Japan is asking schools to close starting next week and not to re-open until after spring break ends in April.

This brings up an interesting problem.

We have a trip planned to the UK for days and then a cruise.
Should the airline cancel our flight, it will possibly cause the missing of the cruise and losing $$.

I'm sure lots of others have similar issues with airlines cancelling a flight, it would throw a monkey wrench into whatever was planned/paid for at the destination.

 

[Dtail]

We are supposed to land in Milano on Saturday afternoon.
We are looking forward to our trip.

Good luck and let us know your first hand view of the current situation in Italy.

 

[Winemaker]

They haven't cancelled the Olympics yet, so travel on. When they do, we may want to consider cancelling.

 

[LRDave]

They haven't cancelled the Olympics yet, so travel on. When they do, we may want to consider cancelling.

There was some headline about the PGA looking at the PGA Championship in May in SF. Maybe they will move it back to August where it should be in the first place!

 

[audreyh1]

Is that the case if the company cancels the trip?

I don’t know how that would work.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have a month trip planned to Europe in August. We would lose 1200 if we don’t go. Our hotels are not paid for and we aren’t booking any more flights until we see what happens.

 

[Andy R]

We were supposed to fly down to Brazil for a 3 week spring break to see my wife's family today. We decided it wasn't worth the risk. I was less concerned about catching the virus and more concerned that an outbreak could prompt a travel ban and we would get stuck down there.

For us it was more of a disappointment to not see our family who we really miss. I guess we'll have to fire up more Facetime and hang digitally. Gotta adapt!

 

[sengsational]

I've got about $4K invested in a solo April trip (in just over 5 weeks). I've been flip-flopping on what I want to do about it.

• Go anyway: everyone will be getting this thing sooner or later anyway.
  • But might get "stuck" away from home, not sick (not too bad)
  • Might get stuck away from home, sick. Bad.
  • Might get less than adequate or non-existent care (could happen at home too)
• Stay home - high precautions taken
  • Probably would still get it (high precautions are not enough)
  • At least I'd be sick (or worse) in my own town/house
  • Might get less than adequate care (if hospitals are full)
• Stay home - ludicrous precautions taken
  • Might actually not get the virus (this wave)
  • Probably impossible to keep a lid on the precautions long enough (either DW or I will get cabin fever or need supplies and then "containment would be lost")

The decision could be made for me if the airlines quit flying the routes I'm on. But I've got three airlines (three separate tickets). I'm not sure if one of them cancels, if the other ones would refund. Then a good bit of money is with a travel company that might also not cancel.

My position, up to this point, has been unless there's a cancellation, or my destinations are reporting outbreaks, I'm going to travel. But then I flip-flop and say, if there's even a small chance of picking-up the virus on the plane, I shouldn't go. I'm torn.

In the mean time, I'm trying to figure out what kind of sanitizer to bring. Hydrogen peroxide looks promising. Not so much to sanitize stuff while on the plane, but afterward, to sanitize anything that I touch or someone else touches while I'm in the airport/airplane setting. IOW, keeping track of anything used while traveling (passport, wallet, water bottle, suitcase handle & exterior, bags of food, packet of tissues, smart phone, etc, etc). The virus has eluded people who were very diligent, so it seems pretty much impossible to clean all that stuff completely enough. I'd be wearing an N95 mask and goggles with the goal of not taking them off in the airport/airplane settings.

If $4K evaporated from my accounts, it wouldn't be a big deal, so although I don't like waste, I could live with just flushing that cash. Probably the biggest thing is that I still really want to go. But I don't need to go NOW! I could just walk away from this, and book again when the dust settles. I just don't know what to do. 5 weeks.

 

[explanade]

What brand makes hydrogen peroxide sanitizers?