jsmirand

Watching events quickly unfold globally, what are flyers' thoughts on non essential travel (e.g. vacation) across large international airports? I have plans to visit Paris in two weeks, with a nice business cabin on AA 787-9 aircraft, but am now observing events in Italy, and the rate at which this is affecting borders, and crossing into Spain, Austria, etc, and am having second thoughts.

I've travelled internationally quite a bit over the years and am very comfortable doing so, but this seems to be shaping in ways that in recent times are unprecedented in global impact, from potentially getting infected (I know the odds are still low) to getting trapped through a large scale border closing action and having difficulty returning back to the US..

Are others sharing similar concern?

cpdc1030

I am a US green card holder (PR), citizen of Canada, UK, NZ. Currently I wouldn't consider travelling outside of the US except to the countries I am a citizen of. There's too much that can potentially go wrong and I'd rather wait and see how things go.

Luckily I have three options but even then I'm probably not going anywhere soon.

Personally, I believe this will become a pandemic and the travel restrictions will become pointless. However maybe I will be wrong. I'm more afraid of getting stuck outside of the US than the virus itself.
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fwfdan

So are people changing personal travel plans because of the coronavirus? We have a Europe trip planned in April and what is going on with Italy I am starting to rethink our plans...

Anyone else getting nervous?

Yahillwe

I've been thinking of going to Sicily with my daughter, I think I will still go.

milepig

Geez. It’s SARS all over again. Chill a little.

fwfdan

and SARS caused all sorts of disruptions.... I started this while watching the news and it mentioning the Duomo in Milan closed due to the virus... so it is not just health concerns (low) but also disruption concerns.

Annalisa12

My husband has cancelled our plans and pooh poohed every suggestion. Every place he still considers 'safe' he won't go as it is too far away or he wants longer there than we have available. Fiji is acceptable to him but we area already going there in October/November for a family holiday. I want some relaxation in May. I'm still happy to go a lot of places.

beachfan

+1.

The likelihood of quarantine seems higher than the health risk.

Antarius

Meh. I'm not worrying.

I'm far more likely to die due to an idiot on the freeway while getting to the airport than anything else.

Beltway2A

I just booked a trip to Germany for this summer. My first time in that particular part of the country, and I'm looking forward to it.

On the off chance I get sick or quarantined, so be it. The guy ultimately responsible for the US coronavirus response is simultaneously bungling so many other things it ultimately isn't going to matter what does me in.

jridge

It's a pretty good question and the answer might depend on the specific destination and timing - today's answer might not be tomorrow's answer. We've got people going back and forth between the US and Australia as if nothing has happened, but both these countries have quite few cases other than evacuees in quarantine, and it is relatively unlikely that someone would travel to Australia from a virus hotspot via the USA.

A country typically does not refuse entry to its own citizens, so if you're worried about going to Europe and not being allowed back, that's unlikely. If things deteriorate and you're healthy, more likely you'd be placed in quarantine upon arrival. A bigger issue (imho) is if airlines start shutting down routes, e.g. for commercial reasons. Or secondly, if there's a localized issue (e.g. you're going to a hotel in the Canary Islands which is currently in lockdown) and there's no AA travel advisory, then you're up for change/cancel fees unless you took out travel insurance a while ago.

living

I dropped half a million AA miles on an awesome 3 week with the misses, around the world trip to South Korea / Japan / France starting April 1st.
We aren't really concerned about the virus itself, but more concerned about potentially getting stuck in quarantine during our trip!

boerne

Agree with the risks of driving, and I would add the flu. Also agree the risks of quarantine are crazy. 14 days is likely not enough.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infecti...sdisease/84963

The standard flu vaccine did not work very well this year so lots of disease and death in the US due to "flu". So far, 16,000 people have died and 280,000 people have been hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to preliminary estimates from the CDC, in the US alone. Thats a 5.7% mortality rate of hospitalized patients. COVID-19 has a maybe 2% mortality rate.
Study of 72,000 COVID-19 patients finds 2.3% death rate | CIDRAP

I think its a great time to travel, since crowds will be down. Asia looks particularly good, except maybe S. Korea and Japan. Italy not so much. The cats out of the bag there and I would suggest avoiding Italian travel for the next few months. We are heading to Oz, then Thailand to Singapore. Also spending minimal time in the big cities. Just had a business meeting get pushed out a few months because of the politics of the show of closing borders.

BRITINJAPAN4

Cam I ask your logic on this ? Do you feel Switzerland or Sweden for example have poor medical facilities ? Just asking

Admiral Ackbar

Going to Paris this Thursday with the wife, doesn't really affect us. Taking a little more precautions (wipes for plane, wash hands more frequently, etc.) but nothing crazy. Tourism down 40% there and we are looking forward to it.

This can change depending on events but we are comfortable with the risks.