Coronavirus - Travel impacts II

[NW-Bound]

My DIL’s family lives in Europe and countries are discussing quarantining tourists upon arrival for 2 weeks if things get worse. It would be horrible to spend all that money and have your vacation ruined.

On the other hand, the food and lodging during the quarantine would be free. Right? To charge tourists for that would be adding insult to injury. There will be WiFi and TV available to stay entertained.

 

[camfused]

Which carrier and how much was the premium?

did you insure just for the trip or was it an annual policy?

How much coverage did you purchase?

Got from insuremytrip.com. The carrier is C&F Travel Insured International. Premium was $207 to cover $2,832 of flights. It was just for this trip, not annual.

 

[iloveyoga]

I don’t believe you can buy masks domestically anymore. That certainly limits seeing folks wearing masks in public!

I just saw a display of masks at our Lowe's store yesterday.

 

[explanade]

Got from insuremytrip.com. The carrier is C&F Travel Insured International. Premium was $207 to cover $2,832 of flights. It was just for this trip, not annual.

Thanks.

I checked some trips for later this year and the only policies which came up were for Nationwide Cruise policies.

Maybe it's too late to get CFAR coverage since I made the first payments months ago or in one case, late January.

So surprised that you got this other carrier on insuremytrip.com.

Edit: I just tried some sample searches. Yes it's definitely dependent on when you first made payments such as buying airfare or a hotel booking.

You pretty much have to enroll for CFAR coverage right at or around the time you make that first payment/booking.

 

[PatrickW]

Cruise

We just got back from a cruise. Pacific coast of Mexico, out of Los Angeles.

Lots of Chinese people on the ship, and speaking Chinese so likely that at least some of them were not people of Chinese heritage who simply live in California.

Some of those people were coughing and sneezing. Others too. Probably nothing to worry about...

But it makes you wonder.

Had some out-of-state friends cancel their visit to us today. They didn't say why, but I certainly can't blame them for being careful.

Next couple of weeks will be interesting. Nothing we can do at this point but watch.

- Pat

 

[Teacher Terry]

NW, the TV will be in a language you don’t understand). Hopefully it would be free.

 

[sengsational]

I made a point of wiping down airplane seats, trays and armrests on every flight. On two flights people asked if I had extra wipes they could use. Don't know if it helps... but I felt a little better

View attachment 33980

Thanks for that report. Good info. Concerning the wipes, the local Walmart shelf holding the disinfecting wipes had a lot of open spots, but was not completely cleaned-out. The Sam's Club had plenty of stock. I didn't buy either, instead, I decided to make my own, reason being, I couldn't find lab tests on how effective the ingredients of those wipes was against hCoV. The active ingredients are "Dihexadecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride 0.184%" and "Dimethylbenzyl Ammonium Chloride 0.184%". They say it's effective against human coronavirus, but what is the contact time compared to, say, 70% isopropyl alcohol.

My plan for the plane is to fill the little 100ml spray bottles with alcohol and also make my own wipes by pouring alcohol in a zip lock with paper towels. Sam's had bottles of 90% alcohol, so even shorter effective contact time. TSA might take this stuff away from me, but maybe not.

 

[gattara]

Italy - CDC notice issued

CDC update - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-italy
CDC recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Italy.

Our Sicily tour with Rick Steves starts April 3rd. Rick Steves posted they are cancelling Italy tours March 1 through March 15th, so we will continue to sit tight and see what happens. If they cancel we will get 100% refund.

 

[camfused]

...You pretty much have to enroll for CFAR coverage right at or around the time you make that first payment/booking.

Yes, which is why only my airfare was insured. It took me weeks afterwards to get everything else set up. I seem to remember you have to get the insurance within something like 1 or 2 days of buying the tickets.

 

[NW-Bound]

We just got back from a cruise. Pacific coast of Mexico, out of Los Angeles.

Lots of Chinese people on the ship, and speaking Chinese so likely that at least some of them were not people of Chinese heritage who simply live in California...

I thought the US still has a travel ban from China.

California, particularly LA area, has lots of people of Asian ethnicity, such as Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Cambodian, etc... They may speak their language between themselves, despite being bilingual American citizens or residents.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Normally we have 1 or more trips planned months in advance (in part since we're still working) but for whatever reason, this year we don't have much planned other than a couple of short trips in Feb we recently returned from.

With the state of things, I don't think it will hurt us, in terms of pricing and options/selection, to book more last minute. It'll also give us a chance to assess how things are in the place(s) we're looking to travel to instead of somewhat being committed.

 

[audreyh1]

I just saw a display of masks at our Lowe's store yesterday.

All locally bought out where I am and where my husband is.

 

[explanade]

Yes, which is why only my airfare was insured. It took me weeks afterwards to get everything else set up. I seem to remember you have to get the insurance within something like 1 or 2 days of buying the tickets.

Hmm, they ask the date of the "first payment" so that would make the policies pretty useless if it only covered that first thing you pay for.

Nobody is going to put down the total trip expenses at once and book everything at once. They may not even be able to pay for every hotel before they start on their trip.

I guess I'll have to get clarification if I ever want to get a CFAR policy.

There is language that you have to tell them the full trip cost. But when you book your flight or your first hotel, you may not know what that will be.

 

[Ronstar]

All locally bought out where I am and where my husband is.

All locally bought out here as well. Thought I’d go get some today for sanding some woodworking projects. Maybe I can get some from Amazon.

 

[audreyh1]

All locally bought out here as well. Thought I’d go get some today for sanding some woodworking projects. Maybe I can get some from Amazon.

Uh, Amazon is where it’s really out, major shipping delays, some extreme prices, etc.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, it looks like the scalpers bought them early, and are now reselling them on eBay for large profits.

I never thought of looking for the masks. I figured I would just stay home if things got so bad. I am not in a crowded city, and have never taken a local bus or taking the train here. And if I need to go buy something, I would go to Walmart late at night, and use the self-checkout.

Still, I would buy a few masks just in case.

 

[camfused]

The US State Department has issued a travel advisory for Italy, recommending to reconsider going there: https://travel.state.gov/content/tr...s/traveladvisories/italy-travel-advisory.html. The CDC also recommends not going, unless necessary: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/warning/coronavirus-italy

Looks like I made the right decision to cancel.

I suspect the next step is to quarantine (voluntarily or not) for 14 days those that have been to Italy (and some other places). I would not be surprised to see this implemented in the coming days.

 

[Sunset]

We have a trip planned to the UK. in a few months.

One concern I've had amongst many, is by then there will be outbreaks in the USA, and other countries won't want us to visit. So the choice to take the trip or not might be taken out of my hands.

Not sure how a foreign gov't not allowing tourists would affect my CC cancellation, but I don't think it's covered.

 

[iloveyoga]

All locally bought out where I am and where my husband is.

We were buying paint and they were in a display in the aisle. I did not thing to grab any!

 

[TromboneAl]

I realize this is wild speculation, but what are your thoughts on timing? When will the virus be widespread in most communities?

An estimate of that is important for travel planning.

 

[erkevin]

I realize this is wild speculation, but what are your thoughts on timing? When will the virus be widespread in most communities?

An estimate of that is important for travel planning.

I think the real question is "Will the virus be widespread in most communities?"

 

[georgemoe]

DW and I have a short four day RCI cruise out of Port Everglades early May. Payed in full as is the Southwest flight. Itinerary is mostly at sea with port calls in Nassua and CocoCay (Berry Islands). No plans to cancel anything at this point but will be putting together a travel sanitation kit as posted previously. Will be keeping an eye on things.

 

[camfused]

Well, the virus will likely be more "catchable" in denser areas, such as aluminum cans (airplanes), and tourist spots. National parks etc are probably a better bet, due to less density of people.

We are assuming the peak to be in the coming couple of months in the US. We have cancelled all air travel until late summer. And we will see then, wether to extended that ban. We are, however, planning a drive trip in July (just to visit family).

 

[Gumby]

I realize this is wild speculation, but what are your thoughts on timing? When will the virus be widespread in most communities?

An estimate of that is important for travel planning.

It depends on the natural infectiousness of the disease and the efficacy of measures taken to control it. This study of the early period in Wuhan https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316 claimed that the number of cases doubled every 7.4 days. In the early days in Wuhan, they really didn't know what they were dealing with and control measures were not in-place, but for the sake of argument, let's use that rate

So, for the entire US, starting with 1 non-isolated patient, you can easily do the math Y=2 ^N, where Y is the cumulative number of cases and N is the number of 7.4 day periods. So log2Y=N. Assume that Y =1% of the US population (~3.3 million), then log23,300,000 = 21.654 periods or 160 days. So if you consider a 1% infection percentage to be widespread, you would get there by about mid August. And you could get to 100% in another 40-50 days after that.

HOWEVER, this assumes free spread of the disease with no social isolation/disinfection measures. To the extent these measures are at all effective, they will extend the doubling time. This also assumes, of course, that a vaccine will not be developed. Additionally, the doubling rate will naturally decrease as there become fewer uninfected people to become newly infected.

That's as close as I can estimate right now.

Edit to add: As far as I can see, the newest case data from China is not showing a doubling every 7.4 days. In fact, this Johns Hopkins chart suggests that is has taken 20 days for the latest doubling in China and the rate is slowing further every day. https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

As newer, more accurate data arrives, you can just use a longer period to multiply by N in the equation above. The math works the same.

 

[audreyh1]

We were buying paint and they were in a display in the aisle. I did not thing to grab any!

DH specifically checked the paint department.