roberino

Hi All,

I am due to travel MAN-CPH-NRT on 14/3 in P, then the reverse trip in H. There's currently no travel warnings for Tokyo but the outbreak on Hokkaido seems like it is spiralling. I am considering cancelling, but how likely are SK to allow me to cancel? How about giving me credit instead of a refund? Just want to know what to expect before I call.

highupinthesky

There are no special cancellation policy for Japan at the moment, so it all depend on the cancellation rules on your ticket. The booking class now a days unfortunately only tell you how many EB points you will earn. You can't read the cancellation rules of your ticket by just looking at the booking class.

Hokkaido is pretty far from Tokyo, so I wouldn't worries too much. I'm flying to Tokyo later this month myself and I have no plans of canceling that trip.

highupinthesky

I just found this statistic https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries. According to it, it's more risky traveling to most countries in EU than traveling to Japan.

CPH-Flyer

As someone who lives in Tokyo.

Tokyo is more or less itself at the moment. You will see that the commuting hours are more stretched out, the trains are far less crowded due to this and due to far more people working from home. You will see pictures of a lot of people wearing masks, but this is a season where people in Japan generally wear masks a lot. Cold season, flu season, and the early allergy season. More people are wearing masks, but it is not a dramatically high increase. A lot of hotels have suspended buffets for breakfast and only have portioned sets arranged in the kitchen, the airline lounges don't have self serve items any longer, they only have individually wrapped items.

Some events are cancelled, some museums and locations closed. But it should still be possible to have a very nice trip and experience in Tokyo. Based on today's status that is. You would need to keep your eyes on the status and how things develop. It could get better from now, but it could also get worse. Personally, I am OK to travel anywhere but China, Korea and certain parts of Italy. But every trip would need to be evaluated shortly before departure.

highupinthesky

I also found this travel advice for Japan https://www.japan.travel/en/news/coronavirus/. In the bottom there is a list of closed attractions. Most of them seems to reopen in 1-2 weeks time, but that can of course change later.

romans

sorry for a bit off-topic but on the other side considering to book flights to Tokyo (VIE-CPH-HND) for Aug or Sept or Oct this year. probably I am a big optimist but some good deals are online + I know about current EU ban

the810

There is no EU ban that would prevent EU citizens from leaving - you will be fine on the EU side of things. However, Japan currently doesn't admit EU citizens and chances of this changing are not particularly high - certainly not high enough for me to be willing to book a non-refundable ticket.

SAS currently waves the change fee on newly issued tickets, however this only applies to SK and SQ operated flights. Since SK does not fly to Vienna, I presume the VIE-CPH sector would be on OS codeshare, which means you can't benefit from this waiver.

I would not book this at the moment. Personally, I'm focusing my attention on intra-EU destinations, which announced they will welcome tourists this summer.

CPH-Flyer

Japan does not restrict based on an EU passport, or an EU citizenship, Japan restricts foreigners based on where you have been the past 14 days prior to arriving. Where all Schengen countries are included as countries that you can't have been to for the last 14 days. Which of course currently makes a CPH HND flight impossible. Japanese citizens arriving from a Schengen country would have to await the result of a Covid test at the airport, and then either head for home quarantine, or hospital depeding on the outcome.

It is an open question when those restrictions will be lifted. I do hope that we see some easing before October, but it is impossible to know.

romans

you both are right, especially with OS operated flight to CPH. anyway I will wait until Sept/Oct, we will see ...