I transited from BKK through HKG yesterday. The Cathay F lounge near gate 64 is closed. There is a roped-off area in the J Lounge for F , and other qualifying passengers; 4 customers in total for the 60 minutes I was there. The airport was very reminiscent of how it was during SARS: 1/10th normal passenger volume, empty shops, everyone ‘ masked up’.
QF 30 to Melbourne ( usually very full ) was running at about 50%, including J.
I’m due to return next week for a BKK-HKG-EWR-SFO-SEA-HND. I’m a bit reluctant to go: mostly because I don’t want to get stuck in Japan in the event other countries decide to quarantine or deny passengers from there. Probably only remote possibility...but one would have to think a few countries are less than impressed with the response to the Diamond Princess fiasco.

I'm glad we've started this thread. Hopefully we can keep the discussion practical for those of us whose daily lives and weekly travel are severely impacted by the restrictions in place around Asia and elsewhere.

I have numerous pre-paid reservations in Bangkok, Singapore, and KL between now and May that I made early January before all this kicked off.

If your Bonvoy account was registered in China, HK, Macau, or Taiwan on Feb 1 then Marriott is letting you cancel reservations with no penalty up to March 15. This is the first extension of this date and I suspect that they will have to keep extending it. (Others can similarly cancel reservations in these destinations with no penalty.)

Marriott Statement on Coronavirus

Given that I have been charged already for three of my reservations, my question for anyone who has taken advantage of this is: how did you cancel? Did you contact the hotel directly or phone Marriott or cancel on the app and trust the process to work? The hotel will need to process a refund for the charge so I'm just wondering how successful anyone has been getting this refund done and what method you used to cancel. Thanks.

For the one that I didn't pre-pay but had a 30 day cancel period (was for a work conference on a special rate, and not sure why it had a long cancel date) I called the Titanium line and they cancelled it for me.

For the one I pre-paid, I called the hotel directly and they did it within 5 minutes. I think I was on the phone 3mins 30 seconds total, which is great as I used my work line to call long distance and I like to keep my international calls to a certain amount. (This was in Korea but for April. They cancelled free and said I'd get a refund 2-4 weeks from now. Due to the virus outbreak there they are making exceptions.)

I can see the March 15th date getting pushed as I don't think most of China will be up and moving before March 15th.

I called today to cancel a reservation in Italy (Gallia) for early March and was told that they were only allowing cancellations up to March 1 but they would allow a free change of date so I rebooked for late May. A bit of a mess but it should work out.

Yes ... reducing those non essential travel and short trips.
Whether I can renew this year Ambassador with Bonvoy is a big question.

I'm going to be on vacation in Japan at the end of March. I'm still planning on going...

Post cancelled due to new situation in Italy

I’m sure the people in Adeje on the Canary Islands all agree with that post...

Trips to Japan and Hong Kong in Spring are all cancelled. The trip to see the Tokyo Olympic Games I am also likely not go given we are reaching pandemic situation. It's a very civilized East Asian way of thinking. Not so much I fear of getting the Wuhan SARS-like Coronavirus on my trips, but the consideration of the disaster I would bring back to my country and to my country's medical staff if I do recklessly go and get infected. That being said, I am also absolutely against our government sending in charter flights to bring infected people home if those infected ignore government travel advisory and entered those countries out of self-interest and lack of consideration of other fellow citizens.

Was to have 5 nights at the Ren St.Petersburg in May after leaving a TATL cruise + 6 nights in Northern Europe sailing. Then 6 nights in Nice and 6 nights in the center of the Italian outbreak region - Lombardy...

Last week Russia announced it temporarily suspend entry of all Chinese citizens incl HKSAR and Macao SAR from Feb 20 onward. There goes our Visa Free entry to Russia. No more St. Petersburg. Princess cruise line is very accommodating, let us do a Deviation of Itinerary to disembark at Tallinn a day early than the original disembarkation at St. Petersburg. Meanwhile our LX flights LED-ZRH-NCE//NCE-ZRH become useless. LX travel waiver is only up to Mar 31st while our travel is first week of May post cruise... Pretty sure the value of these tickets are down the drain... All hotel bookings though, are fully refundable as we do not book nonrefundable hotels unless just a few days before arrival due to our travel plans often are very fluid...

While still trying to preserve the land portions post cruise, out came the Italian outbreak... Canceled all the bookings at Lake Como. So now we are looking at how to fill up the 18 days post cruise on land before flying back to US...

Looking to book a Norwegian Fjords cruise that sails from Amsterdam 3 days after we disembark from our first cruise at Tallinn. Then the workable flights from Tallinn to Amsterdam would be either SK or TK, both require connections (ARN with SK, IST with TK). SK uses a contract airline /small aircraft on the first segment, and a 5 hours layover at ARN, followed by an Airbus 200! TK uses 737-800 and A330 and only 3 hours layover at IST... Then there comes the outbreak at neighboring countries of Turkey... making transit at IST at risk (both for illness and for denied traffic)...

May be we would just not to do anything until Mid March to decide.

Yesterday we canceled 5 nights at Lake Como.

I read that the Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled if the virus isn't on the downside by May 1st. I'd probably wait to cancel if I were you as if they cancel it might be easier to get refunds on flights/hotels.

I am waiting to see how the virus is going to go now. My family had plans to spend 6 weeks in South Korea this summer, but I want to see what the virus situation looks like before booking flights, considering I've had to cancel 2 flights already within Asia due to the virus.

Update: Not everyone knows about the free cancellation policy. I emailed Le Meridien Bangkok directly. It's a hotel I've stayed at easily more than 50 times and I'm on first name terms with beautiful people at the front desk, concierge, F&B, etc. but I don't want to use personal relationships to achieve something that should be a straightforward process. Anyway, I emailed reservations with my request to cancel without penalty and therefore obtain a refund quoting Marriott's policy and linking to the page on the Marriott web site. Here's the reply:

"Regarding for your enquiry, may we have more information of flight detail or the itinerary document for using to discussion with our Management Team for ask an approvement to cancellation and waive for the penalty charge for you."

Sigh. I've replied that my request to cancel is based on a Marriott corporate policy announced on February 19 and sent them the link again. If I don't get any joy then I'll try my personal contacts but I don't like doing that.

I will be lucky if I hit platinum this year, already cancelled a shitload of asian trips. give us a 1 year waiver Marriott!!!

My strong assumption is that if this thing does not die down by May, the major airlines and hotel chains will extend status through 2021.