AIBU to ask whether you have cancelled or postponed travel/holiday due to Coronavirus

[croon979]

Up until this weekend I was relatively relaxed about Coronavirus. However, I was due to go to Dublin with work this week for a conference and my organization (global business) has temporarily banned attendance at conferences and all non- essential business travel due to Coronavirus.

It has caused me to read up a bit more about it and I am feeling a bit more anxious about it all. I am a chronic asthmatic very prone to chest infections which usually result in one hospital visit a year.

I am meant to be going to Lanzarote with my family including mum, brother, my husband and children for holiday in early April, a little over a month away. I see there is now a confirmed case in Tenerife!

I mentioned to my family that we may need to keep an eye on it and could need to cancel postpone if things escalate. Most thought this was an overreaction. Maybe it is. I wasn’t saying we definitely should but just wanted to put on their radar that we may need to.

Has anyone else postponed travel or holiday plans in light of this virus?

Have just checked the cancellation cover under my insurance. We are covered if the UK FCO advises against all travel or all but essential travel. However short of this, disinclination to travel is not covered. Think will sit tight for the moment, we do have the ability to cancel our accommodation and get a refund (villa not hotel).

Hoping it's all resolved by July when we are going to Majorca.
I'm also looking at my travel cancellation policy to see how much money I will get back if I cancel X days before holiday. I'll be keeping an eye and if there is still coronavirus issues I'll cancel.

We are currently booked to go to Thailand and Malaysia in August, if not improved or we may need to cancel and will most likely lose the money on anything non-refundable so around £2.4k for us. Am worried about one of us having a temperature in the checks and being stranded or quarantined somewhere, not too worried about getting it though I have pre-existing conditions.

My brother lives in Hong Kong and has postponed his trip home to Ireland until July. He was a bit worried that if he picked up a cold or something while in Ireland, that he'd be put into quarantine when he returned back to HK. He was able to change his flights for about 150 USD.
I'm going to Ireland myself in March from Switzerland. I've no plans at the moment to cancel but am a bit worried about the cases in Italy, as it's just a four hour direct train trip from where I live to Milan. And I work with quite a few people from the area. I think it's a wait and see situation ...

I’m due to go to Tenerife on Wednesday, next week
Watching with interest to see what happens
I’m more bothered by the sandstorm . When there’s a calima when we’ve been there I often notice how we can get a cough or I get a bit of a tummy bug
I’ll pack as usual and see what happens.

My DSis is getting married in Cyprus in June and I ummed and ahhhed about whether to go. Managed to book it with a free cancellation clause (cost a bit extra) just in case. I also have an underlying health condition. So does the groom but she’s not even thought about this!

Is AnyFucker home yet?

I’m also waiting and monitoring the situation. I have a cruise booked in May, and city breaks to Rome and Barcelona in May and June. I don’t fancy even being quarantined in a cabin for a fortnight with no fresh air, let alone the risk of severe illness or death.

Am slightly asthmatic and also am taking immune-suppressants for auto-immune disease. Cancelled a trip to Taiwan and replaced it with a trip to Venice area.

News of the Italian clusters broke while we were in the air. So we are wearing masks and rarely venturing out -- there are cases in a town 10km away from us (albeit the bulk of the cases are much further away).

Lesson for next time is for those with vulnerabilities just don't travel at all until things have calmed down.

We have a cruise booked around Italy with my 80 year old Dm. If it was now I don’t think I’d go but it’s booked for July so hoping all will be ok then!

We've not paid for an April holiday to the Greek Islands in full yet and this morning were discussing checking what the cancellation policy is and whether we should just take the hit now before paying any more towards it (partner has asthma).

We have a big trip to the US in September, all booked independently, and we started making choices about where to stay based on the cancellation policy they offered. That isn't a holiday that I want to cancel, and hopefully any mass outbreaks that are appearing now might have peaked by then - more so than April.

It does seem over the top to be actively having such discussions with real intent but the idea of being quarantined or ill at home is bad enough - whilst you are on holiday would be horrendous.

We usually go abroad every year but i feel so thankful that the 2 holiday's we've booked (one easter, one August) are both in the UK. I know we have cases on the UK to but the thought of getting ill abroad scares me to be honest.

We are just waiting and seeing to, under our insurance FCO advice against travel has to be in place 48 hours before for them to refund if we fail to get refunds.

DD also has school Sorrento trip in June, currently fine but quite fast moving atm. DDs friends school had half term ski trip to Italy and some kids ill on trip, most likely nothing but only announcement to self-isolate 8am today.

I'm going to Australia early April and have a stop over at Singapore to change flights. Will be going unless the airline cancel the flight. Have bought hand sanitiser today though. It's all about keeping your hands clean and not touching your face.

Am I being too blasé? I’m booked to go away to Finland next week and it hasn’t even crossed my mind to cancel. I commute in and around London every day and my thoughts are I’m far more likely to pick it up on the tube than in a country with no confirmed cases. And even airport travel etc is surely no more risky than my daily tubes and buses.

I have a holiday booked for next week, going to the Netherlands with two short stops in southern Germany and in Zurich.

Accommodation and train tickets all pre-paid in full (expensive hotels in Amsterdam and Heidelberg), insurance won't cover if I cancel, so unless the situation changes dramatically in the coming days, I'm still going as I'm not inclined to lose all my money.

@Doobigetta why were your flights to Italy incredibly expensive? I'd go anyway too but just interested as it seems to be one of the cheapest places to fly to from the uk

@Dowser friends in three of the canaries including Tenerife are reporting that the Calima is over now and the sun is shining

I can see why people are having more fears based on a specific country but for me it would be the airport that is the issue. Huge hubs, all that criss crossing all over the world meeting up in that one place.

@whitesoxx I think probably because they were booked at relatively short notice. About 6 weeks in advance, Manchester to Rome, £350 each. Ouch.

Currently in Rome - flew in yesterday! Not particularly worried - I mean I live in London and there was a case there and nothings come of it since!

I'm off to Japan in 4 weeks time and again cancelling never even entered my head to be honest - in fact I can only hope people are too afraid to go and as a result the flight is empty and we have more space and maybe Tokyo is not quite as full of tourists as it usually is hahaha

My worry wouldn’t be so much the risk of catching it, but the risk of having to cancel everything and potentially lose money if wherever I was going became a high risk area. I was lucky, visited DS in Japan over Christmas/new year and was home just before all this kicked off! So not planning on going anywhere in the next few months anyway now.

@KaptenKrusty

Just be aware that the panic level in Japan is currently set to maximum!
If you cough on the train and you’re not wearing a mask, prepare for a million dirty looks! Lots of things are being cancelled there. Some attractions are closed. My DS works in a small school, in a smaller city, and even they are cancelling school events due to the virus.

@Meruem but you wouldn't loose money if the trip can't happen as travel to the destination is no longer allowed - then travel insurance would pay out

The only way you are losing money is if you decide yourself to not go even though plane is still going - which seems to be what a lot of people are thinking about doing I guess

I'm getting married in Malta in May with 90 guests booked from Ireland.

I was so blasé about it all til it hit Italy and now beginning to worry.

We already had to cancel and reschedule our wedding last year at considerable cost due to DDs unexpected arrival (while on IVF waitlist, would had been less surprised if I'd had kittens!) so just hoping the virus will burn itself out with the natural end of the flu season.

DC have a school trip to France in a few weeks, then in Easter holidays we're going to the Netherlands, and then in the summer we're going to SE Asia. The first two have already been paid in full a long time ago, the summer trip we've paid half.

We won't be cancelling any of them unless it's by FCO advice because otherwise we wouldn't get a penny back.