For the past few months, I’ve been planning an incredible round-the-world trip with my best friend Mike. We both recently turned the big 5-0, so we decided to do something we don’t normally do and splurge on ourselves. We purchased business class tickets with a mix of cash and miles. Here’s the breakdown of my itinerary:
Los Angeles to Toronto on American Airlines (via Dallas)
Since AA doesn’t fly nonstop between LAX-YYZ anymore, I’m going via Dallas. I was going to buy a non-stop flight on Air Canada but the ticket was $353, and that was without paying for a seat towards the front of the plane or in an exit row and without paying the baggage fee. Since I’m in bed with American’s frequent flier program, I figured I might as well stay with them to earn the miles and start putting spend towards retaining my Executive Platinum (EP) status for next year. I could have flown economy for $230 but since I wanted to start my birthday trip off right, I splurged and purchased business class for $503 since the LAX-DFW portion is on a 787 in a lie-flat seat.
Toronto to Singapore (via London and Helsinki)
I’m going to Toronto (YYZ) because that’s where my ridiculously low business class fare ($1,582) to Singapore (and Hong Kong) originates. Besides, my wife grew up in Toronto so I have a place to stay and can spend the day doing errands for my mother-in-law. From Toronto I’m flying YYZ to London (LHR) on a British Airways A350. Then it’s LHR to Helsinki (HEL) and finally on to Singapore, both on Finnair’s new A350.
I have a three-hour layover in London, which is just enough time to take a shower, hang out in the first class lounge and get some good food. In HEL, the layover is eight hours so Mike and I are planning to take the train into the city (30 minutes), tour around and go to dinner before returning to the airport. In Singapore, we’re going to spend a couple of nights at the swanky Marina Bay Sands Hotel, which was featured in the movie Crazy Rich Asians. I’ve been to the hotel but never swam in its surreal rooftop infinity pool so I’m really looking forward to it.
Singapore to Bangkok to Hong Kong (and then home to Los Angeles)
We decided we could squeeze Thailand in for 24 hours so we could get our Thai food fix and flights from Singapore to Bangkok to Hong Kong (HKG) on Cathay Pacific were just 22,500 American Airline miles total for both business class tickets.
The plan is to spend three nights. I really only wanted two but American Airlines’ HKG-to-LAX flight had confirmed upgrade space on the Monday night so I decided to spend an extra day. The coach ticket was $534 but I had confirmed space for my system-wide upgrade (American EP members receive four system-wide upgrades a year to use on any flight as long as space is available).
Coronavirus: Should I cancel my trip to Asia?
Then in early January the news about the coronavirus started trickling in. Obviously, we’ve been monitoring the situation, and it just keeps getting worse. Both Mike and I have two little kids at home, we’re not traveling for work, and we don’t want to cause our families anxiety. So now we’re asking ourselves: Should we cancel our trip?
We both have travel insurance through Allianz (I’m one of their brand ambassadors) but I don’t imagine insurance will cover all the tickets since they don’t all involve China. However, before I go down the road of filing an insurance claim, I’m going to call the airlines to see if they will refund the tickets. My buddy Mike called Delta Air Lines about his New York-to-Budapest ticket and the agent surprisingly told him they would refund him in full since they understand the concern. I was shocked because his ticket was a one-way just to Europe and his Asia portions weren’t on a Sky Team partner. Good on Delta! Now let’s see what American, Finnair and Cathay Pacific have to say (I will update the post once I contact them).
Obviously, I’ll be really bummed if I have to cancel this incredible trip. Southeast Asia is my favorite destination to travel to and I haven’t been in four years. But when I asked friends and family on Facebook what they would do and the overwhelming response was to cancel and stay home (even from a lot of seasoned travelers).
Maybe the media is making this a bigger deal than it really is, but many sources say that the numbers of cases are being underreported. As of this writing, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China is more than 8,200. The death toll has risen to 171. To put that in perspective: In the U.S., the CDC estimates that there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and more than 8,000 deaths so far this flu season.
What scares me most about traveling to Asia (besides getting the virus and infecting others) is that right now, if you do go and you come down with a fever, you could be quarantined for up to two weeks. I recently read about a flight from Singapore to Shanghai (I think, as I can’t find the story) that had two people with fevers so they quarantined all the passengers. Then in Italy just yesterday, a Chinese cruise passenger showed signs of coronavirus and they quarantined the whole ship of 6,000 passengers!
What would you do?
As much as I love travel and the Asian continent, I just don’t think it’s worth the risk right now because I have a wife and two little kids. If I were single, I would wait until the day before to decide to go. What do you think? Should I cancel my trip to Asia? If you were in my position, what would you do? Please leave a comment with your thoughts in the comments below!
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It’s hard to say
What is more important your life or some trip? Even if one does not care about infecting other persons then you should care about your own life. No brainer, why risk it? Wait until the virus has been contained or when it becomes safe again.
Since CDC raised alert to 2 i’ve called my vendors, Airbnb, Agoda, Justfly etc. Agoda says no refund, justfly says depends on American Airlines. AA customer service person indicated I could go somewhere else with ticket if I change location before I leave. My host for airbnb says it is like the flu. if you take preventive measures you won’t get sick. suggests masks and stay out of crowds. Very few Chinese tourists in Tokyo and Kyoto so you don’t have the crowds. Still monitoring though. Unfortunately I didn’t get the cancel for any reason travel insurance but lesser type. Called APRIL Travel Protection 11900 Biscayne Blvd, Suite 610 Miami, Florida 33181 and was told no cancellation but they would transfer insurance to another trip. Airbnb has some clause about extenuating circumstances in their policy because of the virus that might allow a refund which I need to check out.
Thanks Johnny, will definitely keep you posted
I am flying to Singapore with my husband an joining the Quantum of the Seas for a 5 day cruise on the 3Rd March then fly to Kl & Bali. Am very concerned about the virus & contacted the travel agent & was told they will advise closer to the time if cruise is to be cancelled or postponed by the Shipping Agent as currently they are attending to passengers who are leaving in Feb..
I will be surprised if this cruise goes as scheduled. I’m betting it gets canceled.
Am very concerned about this virus as my Husband & I(we are both over 60) are travelling from Cape Town to Singapore on the 1st March & board the Quantum of the Seas for a 5day cruise on the 3rd March to Klang & Penang & back to Singapore ,then fly from KL for 2 day stay then to Bali for a 6 day stay. I contacted the travel agent & was told they busy with passengers travelling in Feb & will advise me closer to the time ??
Allianz says the coronavirus is considered an epidemic, so they will not accept that as a reason to cancel your trip. I called them to ask and it also says so in the fine print of the policy email. So unless you have a “cancel for any reason policy” they will not refund your money.
I agree you should definitely delay your travel that involves China and Hong Kong for now as you won’t be able to travel to those places anyways! We happen to be headed on a cruise Feb 15th and our ship had to change the Itinerary to avoid Hong Kong entirely or we’d be turned away from all ports and possibly quarantined.
We also were told by the ship, if any of our flights happen to go through Hong Kong 14 days before boarding the ship, we will be turned away. (my partners Singapore Airlines flight DID stop in Hong Kong so we had to rebook going through Tokyo). The cruise line offered a full refund if we chose not to go, but the travel insurance informed us that unless we were ill or this was a “terrorist event” they would NOT refund our flights, or any other costs (tours, transfers, hotels, etc) we would lose associated with this trip. (we were going on to Tokyo for 6 more days after the cruise.) So much for insurance!!
We have decided to go on the cruise (originates in Singapore and stops in Vietnam, Thailand and we’ll go to Angor Wat for a couple days), and our cruise line is giving us what results in a 17k credit towards a future cruise for the inconvenience in addition to other credits.
I am not concerned with traveling to these other countries or on a ship because 1). I am a younger, healthy person with a strong immune system, 2). Am OCD about washing my hands and what I eat and drink, 3). Will be on a ship with access to great medical care and doctors.
The reality is, I was an anchor/report in television news and know how this works…sadly, the virus makes a “great story” and despite the fact one person has died of the virus in Hong Kong (way more people die of a common flu and pneumonia every day), the world is lumping Hong Kong into that category, so they are being shunned. China, on the other hand, has the serious problem, hence why I would never consider going there now or anytime soon even if they were letting foreign tourists into their country, which they’re not right now.
Good luck with your insurance. I hope they come through for you. And have a wonderful trip when you do go!!
I agree you should definitely should delay your travel that involves China and Hong Kong for now as you won’t be able to travel there anyways! We happen to be headed on a cruise Feb 15th and our ship had to change the Itinerary to avoid Hong Kong entirely. We also were told by the ship, if any of our flights happen to go through Hong Kong, we will be turned away from boarding. (my partners Singapore Airlines flight DID stop in Hong Kong). The cruise line offered a full refund if we chose not to go, but the travel insurance informed us that unless we were ill or this was a “terrorist event” they would NOT refund our flights, or any other costs we would lose associated with this trip. So much for insurance!!
We have decided to go on the cruise (originates in Singapore and stops in Vietnam, Thailand and we’ll go to Angor Wat for a couple days), and our cruise line is giving us what results in a 17k credit towards a future cruise for the inconvenience in addition to other credits.
I am not concerned with traveling to these other countries or on a ship because 1). I am a younger, healthy person with a strong immune system, 2). Am OCD about washing my hands and what I eat and drink, 3). Will be on a ship with access to great medical care and doctors.
The reality is, I was an anchor/report in television news and know how this works…sadly, the virus makes a “great story” and despite the fact one person has died of the virus in Hong Kong (way more people die of a common flu and pneumonia every day), the world is lumping Hong Kong into that category, so they are being shunned. China, on the other hand, has the serious problem, hence why I would never consider going there now or anytime soon even if they were letting foreign tourists into their country, which they’re not right now.
Good luck with your insurance. I hope they come through for you.
Have trip to Thailand in 10 days. Will be staying a week. My immunity is ok but not 100 percent from a prior illness. Should I cancel?
I don’t want to tell you what to do. If it was me I would try and postpone by month or (three) to see if things are improving.