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!
Check out this article here https://www.marketwatch.com/story/for-now-the-flu-is-a-bigger-risk-than-coronavirus-2020-01-30
“For most Americans, the risk of getting sick or dying from influenza is much greater than the risk from coronavirus. Already during this flu season, about 15 million Americans have been infected and more than 8,000 have died. Worldwide, flu kills about 650,000 people every year.”
I feel this article gives an overview to the ‘news’ and the potential of this virus.
If you have a strong immune system, probably be OK………..BUT you do have little ones at home that would be a worry for me should I travel over now with all that’s going on.
Safety First…………and you know another trip later will be just as much fun without having to keep a very careful eye on everyone, and every thing you touch!!
As a parent, there is no way I would knowingly jeopardize the health of my family. As several people have mentioned, this trip can be rescheduled when the danger is over.
Carol M’s comment hit the nail on the head. Plus, think of all the extra hugs you’ll be able to get from those kids of yours if you stay home!
John J
Tough call, but, if it were moi, I’d cancel. Being worried the whole trip about getting infected would definitely put a damper on a trip for me.
As a faculty member on the Spring 2018 Semester at Sea voyage, we were warned about a lot scarier stuff out there than the latest flu variety. it’s like the stock market, go against the mob mentality. China is using this to offset their SARS lack of transparency and to practice their latest population Surveillance technologies under warlike conditions. It could mutate to a Spanish Flu disaster (1919), but staying home won’t help. Go.
DITTO !
Johnny – I totally get why everyone advises cancelling or postponing. I have another suggestion. How about modifying the itinerary to exclude Hong Kong, and fly home from Bangkok or Singapore? There is no massive outbreak anywhere except in China, and the majority of those who have contracted the virus were, at some time, there. The potential is always there for you to catch any disease on any trip to any city. If you take the trip, but bypass any part of China, your odds of coming back healthy will probably skyrocket. I hope this helps.
Super bummer about this impacting what sounds like an amazing trip. What about changing the Asian destinations to somewhere like South Africa or or South America? (even Antarctica!)
I think canceling might be the less stressful way to go.
An unequivocal YES CANCEL. You can always go when this goes away.
I’m already considering canceling my trip to Seoul in April. Personally, I don’t think it’s worth the risk, to you or your family. I’m sure it would be an amazing trip but no trip is worth potentially suffering an illness or even worse. Tough decision- good luck!