mrwunrfl

>> I am going to wait to see how it develops,

That is a good idea. Abe, the prime minister, called for public venues to shut down through the 15th. He would likely have newer advice on or before the 15th, to open up because things are better or stay closed down if things are the same or worse.

You are leaving on the 15th but that is EST (assuming you are actually departing from Ohio) .If Abe made an announcement by, say, 10AM March 15 Japan Time then that would be at 8PM on the 14th in Ohio, the night before your departure

So, you could wait until the last day if your consideration was about Japan government action/advice about opening public venues. But your decision is not just about that, I realize, but also about the safety of your family and yourself.

But you are departing a bit too close to that (I am guessing is a) decision date for the Japanese to have it turn around into flight cancellations by AA. That is, AA might not react soon enough to negative news on the 15th. Hopefully, the the Japanese could get it under control by then and you would be comfortable to go.

Mara

I am in Kyoto now - just about every museum is closed. Many cultural events like Bunraku are cancelled. And Osaka Sumo starting on Sunday for which I had a ticket is now being held with no audience.....
If the virus had been more widespread when I traveled to Japan the end of January I might very well have cancelled as well. I have toyed with the idea of going home early - still have over three weeks - but right now am waiting to see if things reopen after the 15th or 16th.
I have friends here so I have been seeing them - it's not that bad for me.
One plus is I have been able to get a much less expensive hotel in Tokyo for my last week.

OhioRob

Thank you Mara for your reply. It is interesting to hear what things are like from someone who is there. I'm sorry you are not getting the experience and opportunity to see the sites and cultural experiences that you hoped when you planned the trip. Hopefully after this initial shut down period they will begin to open up the venues. I have lost my discussion and a fair amount of money ($450) with Airbnb with my Tokyo lodging. Airbnb is holding rock hard on the listing that Japan is a level 2 travel warning. My host/owner did publish that his refund policy was "strict". That means that he only has to refund 50% of the cost of my lodging. Airbnb gets to keep their entire service fee. Ouch---I will continue to push this issue since I think it is unfair that essentially the country has closed it's doors and it is not able to host travelers. Any tips from other folks reading this to get a more fair settlement with Airbnb would be appreciated.

tt7

The country has not closed its doors. Although some places (museums, galleries etc.) are temporarily closed and unfortunately the Osaka sumo tournament starting on Sunday will be no-spectators (we already returned our tickets for Monday), everything else is open. We’ve just spent 6 days in Kyushu (Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Fukuoka) and are now in Kyoto, having stopped in Kurashiki yesterday on the way here. Kurashiki was very much ‘open’ and we even got to see a few foreign tourists! In Kyushu, you could count the number of foreign tourists (at least the ones that looked like us ...) on one hand.

As for AirBnB, you have to remember you’re renting from your host and not AirBnB, which is just the platform. It’s up to the host as to whether or not to allow an otherwise-not-permitted (without penalty) cancellation and I don’t think there’s anything AirBnB can do to force them (even if they wanted to). Unforeseen cancellations are presumably what travel insurance is (at least in part) intended for. We’re in an AirBnB apartment in Kyoto that we’ve stayed at before - if we had decided not to honour our commitment, I’m not sure I could feel to aggrieved if our host declined to give us our money back.

Mara

OhioRob, according to some posts on the TA Japan forum airbnb is allowing cancellations - do a search there....

I copied this from one of the threads:
"Airbnb has a coronavirus policy up stating they will refund all money if you need to cancel in an area where infection has been reported"

Hope that helps as I don't think the usual trip insurance will cover this type of issue unless you have cancel for any reason or whatever that is called.....

mrwunrfl

Good tip Mara. I hope you are doing well.

Here is the current AirBnb policy: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/...stances-policy

Japan is not yet on the list of "severely impacted areas". Those areas are Mainland China, South Korea, and Italy..

There are other extenuating circumstances besides the area of the world that the guest comes from.

OhioRob

Thought I would give an update as of March 10. American Airlines contacted me after I sent an email and has been fair with the situation. They have refunded non refundable ticket as a credit on my charge card. This was better than getting a "store credit" from them that I would have trouble using to duplicate the trip next year. An airline credit has to be flown a maximum of one year from granting. I did not have any positive response from Airbnb. My advice to all travelers would be to be more careful to review the cancellation policy that the owners list on their property. I have never cancelled a trip and was too casual about the policy. Airbnb said they would be reviewing refunding my service fee but I am not optimistic it will happen. I will probably avoid doing business with them in the future. Good luck to all of you still planning to travel. I sincerely hope the scientists and health professions can get this virus under control, learn to prevent the next one, and we can resume enjoying the beautiful world that we all love to explore.

kja

I'm glad you got a refund for your airfare, OhioRob. Reminding us all to give a bit of thought to our cancellation clauses is good advice.

Adastra2200

Always know the ticket rules. I hope this virus goes away soon.