Wekiva

I'm not expecting any strong advice at this point...since we're still 4 months away. Just commiserating with fellow travelers whose trips are far enough out that you're not sure what to do yet.

Our plans are to visit Budapest, Helsinki, the Norwegian fjords and Copenhagen for about 3 weeks mid July. Currently we've got US/Europe flights booked with frequent flyer miles and then flights between the 4 destinations booked on Euro budget airlines. All hotels are held by booking or hotel.com and all have less than a week cancellation policies. That basically means we don't really need to make a decision until first of July. So I'm thinking that if travel is still problematic as we get closer we'll hopefully be able to rebook flights and won't actually have any financial loss. My one concern about flights is we booked them several months ago, so if they give us one year from purchase to reuse tickets then that would put us out of our kids summer vacation window next summer. Guess those are first world problems at this point.

One of my thoughts is if we can actually pull this trip off I'm thinking that crowds would be greatly diminished, which would be great.

Seems there's nothing else to do but wait. I'm certainly feeling for all of you with trips much closer as you try and make wise decisions.

neckervd

Do you expect any serious answer?
Here in Europe, noboy knows what will happen this summer.

Wekiva

Clearly I said "I'm not expecting any strong advice at this point...Just commiserating " Sorry that was too much for you to comprehend. You like taking a negative slant often...don't you?

janisj

I have a trip to the UK planned for early July. About 3-4 weeks ago I booked two B&Bs and a hotel totally un-pre-paid and cancelable and one event that is not refundable but not a huge loss if I have to cancel (less than $200). If the situation is the same or worse by July that $200 will be a teensy issue in the scheme of things. Didn't book flights back then when things were more 'normal' but did look at possibility of award tickets. Was planning on booking about now but of course with everything in flux - and especially the airlines situation, I won't be booking flights any time soon. I plan on self-isolating for the time being to avoid infection, and hopefully in maybe 8-ish weeks we'll have a better idea whether this is a long term crisis/disaster or heading towards improvement.

janisj

We were posting at the same time -- I TOTALLY got what you were talking about. More musing about what we can hope for and 'commiserating'

KarenWoo

Wekiva, I understand how you are feeling and what you are saying. If it were me, and because you don't need to make a decision until the first of July, I would NOT cancel flights now. Just wait and see. That is what we have been doing for the past month for our trip to France in April. Of course, we now will cancel our trip in April and maybe re-book for October. Hopefully, things will be better by July. There are fewer and fewer cases now in China, so maybe that is a sign of improvement.

Last year at this time I had to cancel an April trip to Croatia for medical reasons, and I was so upset and disappointed. So I know from firsthand experience how you are feeling. Luckily, we were able to visit Croatia last September, and we had a great time.

Hopefully, you can take your trip in July. I know you must have spent a lot of time planning a 3-week trip.

KTtravel

Yes, these are first world problems but though provoking for those of us who love to travel. No advice here. I hope you do get to take your trip.

Trophywife007

We have a couple of trips coming up. The one we're most concerned over is for the last 2 weeks of May for the south of France with quite a bit of it prepaid. We took out travel insurance in case one of us got sick and was unable to travel but of course that won't cover not traveling due to a pandemic. We're really hoping that this starts to clear up by then. Fewer crowds would be a nice side-benefit but we'd feel fortunate to be able to go ahead with our plans as they are.

Dukey1

We have cancelled out first trip to Europe which was to begin on June 21 and included Passion Play tickets and was for a total of three+ weeks.. Fortunately, our flights were award tickets so I was able to cancel and re-bank the miles for a basically nominal fee. I am hoping our second trip over in late August will go as planned.

starrs

We've made the decision to cancel our Norway trip in June. We are waiting for the cruise line to extend the cancellation policy past May 31, but they just announced today they are shutting down for 30 days so it's just a waiting game.

France just announced they are shutting down all restaurants, cafe, and non-essential shops today. All of this is unbelievable.

I'm hoping to take a winter trip to Paris and Germany's Christmas markets but I really want to hop on a plane for Paris as soon as things get back to "normal" to celebrate the end of this...whenever that may be.

Strange times.

hetismij2

Well, I am increasingly thinking my April trip to my brothers birthday party won't go ahead. Not cancelling anything yet, but I honestly can't see it going on. Boris is possibly going to tell all over 70s in the UK to stay at home for as long as four months! At least so says the Daily Mail who stole it from Robert Peston of ITN.
Who knows what the Dutch government will say. Not a lot I suspect. Hopefully they will either close things down or at least close the border with Belgium to stop them all pouring over to the Dutch pubs, now theirs are closed.
I am sorry all of you are missing out on such special trips.
Keep safe, keep healthy and hopefully come July things will have improved, but I fear it will be a no travel year.

Adelaidean

Wekiva, like a lot of travellers, we too are biding our time.
Haven’t cancelled our June trip, but did check booking conditions. In our case we recently were offered to rebook within a year by the airline, so that’s reassuring.
But, like you, the timing with annual leave may not work.
And while I’ve paid a deposit on accommodation, I can cancel about a fortnight before I leave without penalty.
Previously I have booked non refundable options, so was lucky there.
I figure if it clears by mid May, then the economy worldwide will be dire, and the more of us that can travel once it’s safe, the better.

Barbara_in_FL

I am supposed to go to England with my aunt in June. I booked an award ticket...I am hoping the airlines will continue to have some flexibility with people who have to re-book, but for the moment we are sitting tight and waiting to see what the rest of March and early April bring.

We have some non-refundable hotel/B&B reservations.

I am going to be hearing about this for the rest of my natural life. My aunt always travels on organized tours where everything is booked for her and canceling would mean one call. This time we made our own plans because that's how I travel - but at her insistence booked a lot of things in advance. I'm feeling like the trip has gone from the best of both worlds to the worst of both worlds.

menachem

Is it so hard to decide not to travel for pleasure at all for the time being? We'll be dealing with the effects all through summer and may be facing a resurgence in the autumn. And in the US you'll have your own boat to row. Good luck.

menachem

No one knows for sure. No one knows if any acquired immune response against COVID19 will last longer than a few weeks. A substantial number of virologists is suggesting we may face a resurgence in the autumn.

shelemm

Until recently, I thought that maybe this could be contained. That if clusters of folks could be identified and isolated, we could all go about our business. We now know for certain this is not true. It is out of control. The only thing we can control now is our movements. I can tell you with absolute certainty right now that the situation will not change anytime in the foreseeable future. Anywhere can become the next Italy. washingtonpost.com has some excellent simulations you can watch based on various models of social distancing. We need to take this deadly seriously. My advice is no optional traveling. It is possible, even if you recover, that the virus will do lifelong damage to your respiratory system. Please be safe, and let's all look forward to the day when we can put this all behind us.

I am giving up on my April trip, and I am hoping that the flights will be canceled so I can get my money back. But I am prepared to totally lose the money if necessary.

Moderator1

An inappropriate political post has been deleted. The topic of this thread is future travel hopes and commiseration about lost travel opportunities. Please reframe from hijacking it.

suze

I cancelled a spring break trip from my home in Seattle to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. But that was for next week.

If I was holding ticket for a July trip, I likely would have waited a bit longer to see how things are going.

twk

I, too, have a July European trip planned and I'm not cancelling it any time soon. My rental accommodations all have 30 day cancellation provisions, so that's probably the trigger point for me. Because of who I'm traveling with, rescheduling for Fall is unlikely, but even if that were an option, I'd be hesitant to do that because of the possibility that we'd have another wave of the virus in the Fall/Winter. Hopefully, by that time, we'll have some treatment options (not likely a vaccine), and possibly some semblance of herd immunity, that would allow something more like business as usual, but I think travel restrictions (particularly international travel) still might be a possibility, even if treatment options improve. Therefore, in my case, it's July or bust.

menachem

I think we'll be dealing with this well into 2021 and there will still be restrictions in place on travel during the summer and the autumn. We'll also see that there are resurgences of the virus after restrictions have been lifted, after which restrictions will be in force again. Locally probably, but one of the restrictions will be to ban elective plane travel. The herd immunity thing not sure that will play out like everyone hopes it will, in my estimation. We don't know enough now about immune response. We may in 2 months' time. That's late May.

Business as usual will not return this year, if ever.