I have been a travel adviser since 1994 and we have been through Sept 11, a ton of mega disease outbreaks, hurricanes, monsoons, tsumanis and terrorism but My Vacation Lady has always bounced back from the disaster of the year.

Let us try to tell you that in terms of the Coronavirus

How can the Coronavirus effect your travel plans?

News of the Coronavirus is all over every media source with some very frightening reports and these reports are causing some travelers to re-think their travel plans.

First, I am not a doctor, chemist or anything other than a travel professional so the information that I’m going to share with you is information that you can get from the CDC or World Health Organization‘s websites.

This link is to a John Hopkins map showing where cases are and is updated multiple times daily.

  • Should you travel?
  • Should you change or cancel your plans?

The following answers are the only ones that I, as a travel professional, can give you. 

  • Cancelling your vacation for the FEAR of the coronavirus is not covered under any travel insurance plan unless you purchased Cancel for Any Reason travel protection within the time frame set by the travel insurance provider
  • Airlines, cruise lines and tour companies are changing their cancellation penalties and fees on a daily basis.  This means, if you cancel your vacation today, and the travel supplier eases up on their change and cancellation penalties later on, you may not be able to get the new policy retro-actively.
  • The ONLY destinations that Americans should avoid travel to at this point (March 7, 2020) is China, Iran, South Korea and two regions in northern Italy: Lombardy, home to Milan, and Veneto, which includes Venice

We will and have advised clients to wait a bit longer before making any decisions on cancelling, so if you are traveling over the summer or fall, give this some time.   This advise has paid off already with the change in cancellation penalties and with helping out clients get refunds for future travel.

We, the team at My Vacation Lady, are here to help our clients but we can’t answer travel insurance claims questions.  If you have specific questions on what your travel insurance will cover, PLEASE call the travel insurance provider directly.

If you want to cancel your current vacation, we will assist with the process.  If you want to change your current vacation, we will assist with that process.

We will be here for you when the scare of the coronavirus has subsided and you are ready to travel again.  In the meantime, if you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, we’ll be posting some wonderful photos to help inspire you to get back into the mood to travel.

As always, we appreciate your past, present and future business!

Mindy Gilbert and the team at My Vacation Lady