If you’re young and healthy, go on that vacation, says travel expert

If you’ve got plane tickets in your hand for this month — or you were right about to hit “confirm booking” on a vacation for May — you might be wondering, in light of the worldwide coronavirus outbreak, whether you should reverse your travel plans.

And indeed, travel analyst Steve Danishek, who is president of TMA Travel, said the travel industry has seen a sharp drop-off in people booking flights.

While he noted it is up to everyone to make the best decision for themselves, Danishek, said if you’re young and healthy, go ahead and enjoy your vacation.

“They’re referring to this as a pandemic. That’s fine — guess what? The common flu is a pandemic every year,” he said. “It’s much more widespread than the coronavirus.”

Is it time to reconsider travel plans due to coronavirus?

While two cruise ships off the coasts of Japan and California have been quarantined for the virus, Danishek pointed out that those are just two out of thousands of cruise ships in operation around the world.

“Overall, we’re encouraging folks to go ahead and book their normal cruises — we don’t see those as a problem,” he said.

If you do decide to go on a trip, he suggested, as much as you can, to stay away from the elderly or those with compromised immune systems for a week or two after you get back, as the virus can take up to 14 days to show symptoms.

“If you go on your trip, that’s just fine, but when you come back, maybe you don’t hug Granny,” he said.

Besides China, the source of the outbreak, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Iran have all been hit particularly hard by the virus.

However, the Seattle area has also been the site of most of America’s coronavirus deaths.

“You have the same risk of getting sick anywhere you go,” Danishek said. “Do you stay home and get sick here, or do you go somewhere else and maybe get sick?”

If you do have underlying health conditions that make you nervous about travel, many airlines are giving waiver windows for people who have recently booked trips. Danishek said with the news about coronavirus changing every day, these free cancellation windows are getting extended further back into the past to accommodate more travelers.

“Right now, the best bet is to simply wait and see if you have a waiver window,” Danishek said.

He has not heard of an airline offering a refund to someone with underlying health concerns who booked before that waiver window, but he recommended that if you are in that situation, you call your airline to ask about an exception. He warned, however, that phone waits with airlines can last hours due to the high demand.

Financial travel risks in the time of coronavirus

While you may personally not worry about the health risks of travel, Danishek said there are still financial risks to consider. Under certain circumstances, you may find yourself shelling out more money than if you had just eaten the cost of the plane ticket in the first place.

If the city you traveled to is put into quarantine while you are there, you may face extra costs by virtue of having to extend your stay by weeks.

And on the opposite end, if you have to be emergency evacuated from a location, that is devastating. Danishek recommends travel insurance to help cover some of these unforeseen costs.

“The biggest claims are generally not the cost of the airline ticket or the cost of your tour package or cruise — it’s the emergency medical evacuation that’s a killer,” he said. “That can be 10s of thousands of dollars.”

Follow @NicoleKIROFM