Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[Ronstar]

We are in day 8 of what was supposed to be a 21 day road trip. While driving from Las Vegas to Phoenix today, we decided to head home instead. Trying to do 1850 miles in 2 days to be home tomorrow night.

Las Vegas pretty much shut down this morning. We didn’t want to go through more closings and possibly being exposed to coronavirus for the remaining 2 weeks of a road trip.

I have a tax meeting and pre-op appt on April 1&2. Going on a 2 week self imposed home quarantine when I get home so that I’m safe to go out 4/1.

 

[gwraigty]

This makes it clear to me we need to lockdown the restaurants and such in the whole country right now.

In Ohio the restaurants are closed for dining. Take out/drive thru is still allowed. The governor feels that they're still an important food source, especially since the grocery shelves have been emptied in so many places.

 

[NW-Bound]

While searching the BBC Web site for coronavirus news, I ran across this story about 3 British young women being quarantined in Vietnam. They wrote a blog to tell their story.

What happened was that a passenger on the same flight as these women from London to VN developed the illness, and tested positive. The government of VN tracked down the whole passenger load (200+), tested them and quarantined them even though the results were negative.

Talk about preemptive measures. There's more. The Vietnamese burned the mattresses and other things at the hostel that the British women contacted.

Read the following account for more details: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-51872736.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

Not exactly earth shaking, but the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green KY had a big bash planned for Apr 23-25, now postponed to May 28-30.
I give that only a 50-50 chance.

 

[fh2000]

While searching the BBC Web site for coronavirus news, I ran across this story about 3 British young women being quarantined in Vietnam. They wrote a blog to tell their story.

What happened was that a passenger on the same flight as these women from London to VN developed the illness, and tested positive. The government of VN tracked down the whole passenger load (200+), tested them and quarantined them even though the results were negative.

Talk about preemptive measures. There's more. The Vietnamese burned the mattresses and other things at the hostel that the British women contacted.

Read the following account for more details: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-51872736.

Good luck to those girls. Vietnam is right next to China but they only have 61 cases to date and no deaths. So, no wonder they are serious about that. At least the accommodation is free. In Singapore and Taiwan, a quarantined foreigner has to pay for the 14 day accommodation.

 

[Freedom56]

Rick Steves just canceled my 7 days in Paris tour. Scheduled for April 20. Last week he cancelled tours in France up to April 19th. Full refund in 2 weeks. Now to see what Virgin Atlantic does. I saw something about them cancelling 75% of their flights. Which should generate a refund too. This was all on my "To Do" list this week. I love it when stuff gets done without me lifting a finger

edit: Virgin Atlantic cancelled a bunch of flights....but not my flight! May have to play chicken as the date gets closer & see if they hold on. I'm flying out of SFO so may be enough high rollers there to keep the flight active. Upper Class was about 40% full. I want them to cancel my flight so i can get a refund. Make it easier to rebook

Right now Virgin is reducing 80% of their flights and grounding up to 85% of their planes. Effective midnight tonight, all transatlantic routes are part of the travel ban. Unless someone waves a magic wand and makes this pandemic disappear, the ban will be in place until June.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/virgin-atlantic-capacity-cut-coronavirus/

Many European airlines are shutting down for the next two months. The European Commission revealed that it had temporarily lifted the “use it or lose it” slot rules until June 30, 2020 so they no longer have to fly empty planes. The UK government is expected to follow.

 

[NW-Bound]

Good luck to those girls. Vietnam is right next to China but they only have 61 cases to date and no deaths. So, no wonder they are serious about that. At least the accommodation is free. In Singapore and Taiwan, a quarantined foreigner has to pay for the 14 day accommodation.

Reading about this quarantine of an entire plane load makes me search for more info. I happened to see the news of Vietnam banning travel from Europe including the UK a couple of days ago. This plane was the reason. And I found out that that flight was on March 2, and 13 passengers were tested positive after they already spent a few days in the country. They immediately tracked down passengers to test and quarantine them, and instituted the travel ban on March 10.

It makes sense that Vietnam takes this very seriously. With their crowded cities, it would be a lot worse than what's happening in Italy now.

PS. Upon closer reading, I saw that Vietnam suspended "visa on arrival" for European countries. Direct flights still operate. So, perhaps some travel restrictions are in place, but not a complete ban.

 

[Scrapr]

Right now Virgin is reducing 80% of their flights and grounding up to 85% of their planes. Effective midnight tonight, all transatlantic routes are part of the travel ban. Unless someone waves a magic wand and makes this pandemic disappear, the ban will be in place until June.

https://thepointsguy.com/news/virgin-atlantic-capacity-cut-coronavirus/

Many European airlines are shutting down for the next two months. The European Commission revealed that it had temporarily lifted the “use it or lose it” slot rules until June 30, 2020 so they no longer have to fly empty planes. The UK government is expected to follow.

Thanks. I was a bit fast in checking. I'll look on the 'morrow. I saw TPG story but didn't read it.

 

[DrRoy]

A week and a half ago, we left home for a trip of about a week in Page, AZ, and then about two weeks in Moab, UT. Yesterday we decided to leave Page and head straight home. I will really miss the plans we had for the Moab area, but even though most of our activities are isolated, like hiking and photography, we had done a tour here and had been in a sizeable group. I was inclined to try going to Moab anyway, since we could keep ourselves pretty isolated, but yesterday I saw a post that locals and some authorities in town had asked tourists to stay away because their medical resources are rather limited if they had an outbreak.

We also have had a Viking Danube river cruise scheduled for May, with an extra week in the Italian Alps. Viking has cancelled cruises in April, and we fully expect May to be cancelled too. The cruise would be refunded, and we can cancel the Italian plans. We are not sure about the airfare yet.

 

[Sunset]

....

We also have had a Viking Danube river cruise scheduled for May, with an extra week in the Italian Alps. Viking has cancelled cruises in April, and we fully expect May to be cancelled too. The cruise would be refunded, and we can cancel the Italian plans. We are not sure about the airfare yet.

Usually Viking bundles the airfare into the cruise price, in which case how could it not be refunded ?

Or did you buy airfare separate ?

 

[JoeWras]

I was inclined to try going to Moab anyway, since we could keep ourselves pretty isolated, but yesterday I saw a post that locals and some authorities in town had asked tourists to stay away because their medical resources are rather limited if they had an outbreak.

Oh yeah, that's a good point. Moab is remote from any regional health center.

Similar thing here on the east coast on some of the islands, and presume on the west coast in places like Catalina. It sounds good to get away, but if the island gets infected, they have only limited resources to deal with people going into respiratory distress.

 

[Chuckanut]

Has anybody heard anythingabout the NPS closing the various services in the national parks such as hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, gift shops, etc.? Not the parks themselves, but the services most visitors depend on when they visit the parks.

I know that certain NPS sites near metropolitan areas have been closed. The Washington Monument and Alcatraz come to mind. Muir Woods is also closed, IIRC. But so far the actual parks remain open.

 

[Sunset]

I just cancelled our $5,xxx Princess cruise from the UK which was end of May.

I had to cancel via Costco travel , as that was my travel agency, I had first called Princess, who confirmed the cancellation (temp) policy as I read it.
But they said I had to cancel via my TA.
I ignored the TA phone message that says to wait a few weeks ... etc , as my cancellation policy would be less beneficial if I waited weeks. I did think if people follow that suggestion they will later be more disappointed.

I phoned and waited on hold for 1 hour, (it was projected 3 hrs) and got a lovely person who didn't seem stressed, and was super clear in the steps.

Result:
$200 Future Cruise credit , must be used by end of 2021.
Rest refunded to CC. in about 7 days.

Everything else, I expect less success, but it was the big expense, and for the rest I can wait more weeks to let the virus grow in Scotland and UK, which might help in cancellations, especially the flights.

 

[sengsational]

If your flight is cancelled by the airline, you are entitled to a full refund per the NTSB regulations. You normally have to wait 72 hours prior to the flight to claim a refund. They airlines or third party agents should reach out to you about a week before your flight date.

Good to know. I'm going to leave the disputes open, in case the airline tries to pull a fast one (I wouldn't be surprised). I doubt they'll make it easy or clear how to get a refund. Hopefully someone will post the exact steps for each airline. I'll post for mine, but the flight is still a couple weeks out.

 

[Ronstar]

A week and a half ago, we left home for a trip of about a week in Page, AZ, and then about two weeks in Moab, UT. Yesterday we decided to leave Page and head straight home. I will really miss the plans we had for the Moab area, but even though most of our activities are isolated, like hiking and photography, we had done a tour here and had been in a sizeable group. I was inclined to try going to Moab anyway, since we could keep ourselves pretty isolated, but yesterday I saw a post that locals and some authorities in town had asked tourists to stay away because their medical resources are rather limited if they had an outbreak.

We just went through Moab last week. Rained one day ok the next. Did a little hiking in Arches and Canyonlands and left town. No indication then that they were ready to shut the town down. These shut downs came up in a hurry.

We have since cut our trip short and are on our way home.

 

[JoeWras]

I mentioned earlier that Moab reminded me of the remoteness of some of our island communities.

Well, what do you know, right after that, NC's biggest island based county decided to set up road blocks and shut down all traffic except residents and essentials. No visitors.

Beginning at 2:00 p.m., checkpoints will be established at entry points to Dare County and no visitors will be allowed access. Permanent residents, non-resident property owners and non-resident employees of Dare County businesses may review entry guidelines at www.darenc.com/entry.

https://islandfreepress.org/outer-b...orkers-delivery-trucks-will-be-allowed-entry/

 

[BeachOrCity]

I mentioned earlier that Moab reminded me of the remoteness of some of our island communities.

Well, what do you know, right after that, NC's biggest island based county decided to set up road blocks and shut down all traffic except residents and essentials. No visitors.


https://islandfreepress.org/outer-b...orkers-delivery-trucks-will-be-allowed-entry/

As a property owner and fan of obx I have very mixed feelings about this. It’s not as much about the economic factors as it is about saying if you aren’t from here you aren’t welcome. What if every city did this?

 

[JoeWras]

As a property owner and fan of obx I have very mixed feelings about this. It’s not as much about the economic factors as it is about saying if you aren’t from here you aren’t welcome. What if every city did this?

I don't own anything there, I'm a visitor, so yeah, I'm now not welcome.

However, they have no medical facilities of significance from Manteo down to Ocracoke. Any acute respiratory issue would be an extreme emergency, potentially requiring a $15k ride. Worse yet would be if this happened en masse. There's just no easy way to get a group of people falling like dominoes to proper critical help. They can handle the random heart attack, but not a wave of critical emergencies.

 

[Surfdaddy]

We were in Australia until Thursday the 12th. We were on the Ruby Princess sailing to New Zealand from late Feb through 08 March. Our cruise went well and was uneventful except for some delay disemabarking in Sydney for extra checking of any symptomatic passengers.


We spent four more nights in Sydney. Things were pretty normal at that time in Australia; a few masks here and there but not many. Lots of people in tourist areas. We were careful and kept our hands washed. There were not many cases in Aus at that time.


Our flight on an A380 SYD-LAX on Thursday was delayed for mechanical issues. Then cancelled after 3 hours. We had to go back "into" Australia via passport control, retrieve our checked bags and then proceed to a very long, slow rebooking line. After 2 hours waiting, our choices were fly SYD-SFO and then to LAX, or fly SYD-MEL and then MEL-LAX. We chose Melbourne as we didn't want to get near SFO. After about 12 hours of delay we finally arrived home in SoCal on Thursday evening.


Friday trip to Costco was another story; now we are stocked up and self-quarantining at least 14 days just to be safe. Even DW and I are keeping some distance from each other in case one of us got infected but not the other. We actually think the odds are pretty low that we are infected but you never know.


I retired in December and this was my big first year of travel. Very disappointed as we have a Mexico AI trip scheduled to leave April 12. I can cancel the two resorts with no cost but have already purchased LAX-CUN airfare with Delta. Have not yet worked to try and cancel/credit or reschedule with Delta but I'm sure that will be a pain. Anybody else have experience with Delta in last week or so with flight cancellations?

 

[NW-Bound]

I don't own anything there, I'm a visitor, so yeah, I'm now not welcome...

Christine of Norway said in a recent post that city people who had vacation cabins in the countryside were not welcome. The rural areas do not have sufficient medical care to take care of part-timers, so the Norwegian National Guard chased them away back into the city.

Darn, I have not thought of going up to my high-country boondocks home. The unincorporated town has no medical facility anyway, and the nearest county hospital is 40 miles away.

Whenever I go up there, I usually have no interaction with the locals, other than when I need to go to the local building hardware stores. I often invite to dinner an old couple neighbors who live there fulltime, so that we can keep up-to-date. I suspect they may be a bit wary to see us.

 

[foxfirev5]

I don't own anything there, I'm a visitor, so yeah, I'm now not welcome.

However, they have no medical facilities of significance from Manteo down to Ocracoke. Any acute respiratory issue would be an extreme emergency, potentially requiring a $15k ride. Worse yet would be if this happened en masse. There's just no easy way to get a group of people falling like dominoes to proper critical help. They can handle the random heart attack, but not a wave of critical emergencies.

Same in Florida. The Keys are severely limited with medical facilities. We left last week and the locals were happy. Even the condo owner up in Cocoa Beach gave me a full refund of a weeks rental to get me out of there for 4/5. In the past that would have been impossible. Now if I can somehow get a refund rather than a voucher out of Delta I'll be whole. Since we're going to somehow bail them out I guess I'll spend my energy harassing them or playing chicken at the 72 hour mark,hoping for a cancellation.

 

[Golden sunsets]

We were in Australia until Thursday the 12th. We were on the Ruby Princess sailing to New Zealand from late Feb through 08 March. Our cruise went well and was uneventful except for some delay disemabarking in Sydney for extra checking of any symptomatic passengers.


We spent four more nights in Sydney. Things were pretty normal at that time in Australia; a few masks here and there but not many. Lots of people in tourist areas. We were careful and kept our hands washed. There were not many cases in Aus at that time.


Our flight on an A380 SYD-LAX on Thursday was delayed for mechanical issues. Then cancelled after 3 hours. We had to go back "into" Australia via passport control, retrieve our checked bags and then proceed to a very long, slow rebooking line. After 2 hours waiting, our choices were fly SYD-SFO and then to LAX, or fly SYD-MEL and then MEL-LAX. We chose Melbourne as we didn't want to get near SFO. After about 12 hours of delay we finally arrived home in SoCal on Thursday evening.


Friday trip to Costco was another story; now we are stocked up and self-quarantining at least 14 days just to be safe. Even DW and I are keeping some distance from each other in case one of us got infected but not the other. We actually think the odds are pretty low that we are infected but you never know.


I retired in December and this was my big first year of travel. Very disappointed as we have a Mexico AI trip scheduled to leave April 12. I can cancel the two resorts with no cost but have already purchased LAX-CUN airfare with Delta. Have not yet worked to try and cancel/credit or reschedule with Delta but I'm sure that will be a pain. Anybody else have experience with Delta in last week or so with flight cancellations?

Delta's policy on cancellation is very liberal if the flight is international. Just call.

 

[DrRoy]

Usually Viking bundles the airfare into the cruise price, in which case how could it not be refunded ?

Or did you buy airfare separate ?

We wanted to fly eastbound in business class so we could sleep. I think that was separate. If (when) the cruise gets cancelled the travel agent will work on the airfare.

 

[DrRoy]

Oh yeah, that's a good point. Moab is remote from any regional health center.

Similar thing here on the east coast on some of the islands, and presume on the west coast in places like Catalina. It sounds good to get away, but if the island gets infected, they have only limited resources to deal with people going into respiratory distress.

Today we heard that Moab has shut down all lodging in town, so we wouldn't have been able to go anyway.

 

[Chuckanut]

Yosemite has closed all visitor services inside the park including the vistor center, hotels and restaurants. The park is still open.