To go or not to go, that is the question? (WS).

Saturday, March 14, 2020
Childer Thornton, England, United Kingdom
We booked this tour to Japan last August when corona was either a beer or a type of “pop” you had when a kid. 

We had originally booked to fly from Heathrow as there was a reasonably priced business class upgrade, albeit on Air China, but the reviews looked ok so we went with it. Those flights involved changing in Beijing which didn’t really concern us, neither of us have a tendency to lick handrails or windows (some of our grandchildren on the other hand have to be told periodically to desist) and neither of us is in poor health. That option went about 3 weeks ago after Air China cancelled a lot of their flights both from London to China and from China to Japan. Our travel agent got in touch with the tour company (Wendy Wu) and they said we could go on KLM economy or pay extra to fly business on Lufthansa, as a counter I said we could and in fact would actually prefer to fly from Manchester so they said it would be Swiss Air economy via Zurich and we would get the money we paid for the business upgrade back or we could pay a further supplement and go business on Swiss. So I paid the extra knowing it would be money well spent on keeping a certain person happy. Lo and behold 3 days later Wendy Wu returned the supplement saying they would cover the extra! I was pretty gob smacked to be honest.
Then just over a week ago the ever reliable Swiss Air only go and cancel their Saturday morning flights from Manchester to Zurich because of reduced booking numbers! Our agent said the probable solution would be to fly KLM Manchester to Amsterdam and then Zurich but it would mean a very early start as the flight goes at 05.55. it wouldn’t be my first choice as it would mean leaving the house at silly o’clock. Then they came back and said we could go on Finnair from Manchester to Helsinki and then on to Osaka leaving at 10.15. A much more acceptable time of day, still business class and no extra cost. 
If we had been given the option to cancel at no cost to us then I think we would have but obviously they don’t want to cancel unless either the FCO puts Japan on an advisory or the Japanese situation gets much worse and they ban incoming flights like the Kiwis have just done. Our insurance like everyone’s doesn’t cover us for disinclination to travel but as things stand we are probably at less risk over there than here.
Personally I think the media are making more of this than it truly warrants. The majority who get it seem to have only mild symptoms and there is a suspicion that many are actually asymptomatic and so the incidence of the virus is possibly far higher than the measured numbers. It would also seem that children are less impacted, as ever it is the elderly and those in poor health which is also true for the impact of “normal” seasonal flu which has killed more people this year than Covid-19 has. The impact in India and Africa though could be horrendous given the state of health services and widespread malnourishment. Hunger kills 25,000 a day across the world. See https://www.worldometers.info/

But as of now we haven’t been given the option to cancel so as things stand we are going! Japan has roughly half the incidence of Covid-19 than the UK presently with about half of the cases coming from cruise ship. According to our tour operator although some tourist things are shut they plan to re-open on March 15th, so hopefully if as currently expected we travel next Saturday we will still do most if not all of what is on our itinerary, otherwise it’s going to be a expensive way to eat sushi and drink sake. If we are given the option to cancel then I think we would. 

Photos & Videos

Comments

Debbie Saunders
2020-03-14

Was on the phone to Richard (son who is an ICU doctor in New Hampshire) when this email popped up. Right now we should be on a plane to go skiing in Telluride, CO but cancelled the trip per Richard's advice on Thursday night. Since then, schools have closed in northern NJ, there is no toilet paper, soap, cleaning products and so on in the grocery stores and more travel restrictions have been put in place. So, if we had ignored his advice and gone on our vacation as planned, I would now be very concerned about being able to return home! So, good luck with your decision making!

2025-02-13

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank