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  • How has coronavirus affected your travel?

    After staying on the ground for 6 weeks,I’m starting to feel restless and raring to resume travelling again. However due to the decrease in business, there is no travel need. Anybody in the same situation as I do? The next trip is in early April and it looks increasing likely that it may be cancelled too!

  • #2
    Hi Tonitan, trust you are well! In a word, yes, there has been impact! My planned trips were cancelled, and no new ones arranged. I have not travelled for some time now, with no business trips planned for the forseeable future, until the Covid-19 situation improves...

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    • #3
      Other than flying back to Singapore from Australia to visit family, I have no other trips planned.

      I do have plans still happily posting Instagram shots of their holidays in the region (South East Asia).

      Wonder whether a particular SQ Talker who likes to on short weekend trips would still continue to do so. Greta Thunberg would probably frown at this person.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Tonitan View Post
        After staying on the ground for 6 weeks,I’m starting to feel restless and raring to resume travelling again. However due to the decrease in business, there is no travel need. Anybody in the same situation as I do? The next trip is in early April and it looks increasing likely that it may be cancelled too!
        I know what you mean. For the first time in as long as I can remember I currently do not have a single flight booked for anywhere at any time. We have cancelled all business trips for the foreseeable, which includes my trip to Asia next week and a job some of our guys were due to go on for a Navy in the APAC region that's had to be cancelled. I went to London last week, by train, and am due to go again next week but that's under review. A number of staff have cancelled upcoming holidays to Thailand, Spain and (unsurprisingly) Italy.

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        • #5
          I am in Bangkok now and wow is it quiet. I did think about cancelling but in the end I think I am just as likely to catch it at home as I am here.

          I did have to cancel a trip to Hong Kong, I probably would have gone but my flight home was cancelled.

          Comment


          • #6
            Hi Yflyer,good to hear from you! Looks like the situation will get worst before we see any improvement! This is the largest travel disruption I have ever experienced so far, the fear of spread of infection, the fear of being held in quarantine, the fear of an invisible enemy that is locking down the planet. I'm still quietly hopeful I can still travel and I have booked myself a Mercedes Plant visit in Bremen, something that I have never managed to book successfully as these tours are wildly popular and by the time my travel dates are firm, these tours are usually zeroed out.

            Hi Zilchster, I wish you a safe trip from Australia! And i'm silently curious on our regional TR writer too, he's been quiet on the TR front but I hope he will take advantage of the low fares and continue his food adventures!

            Hi Man flyer, my connections in the Dorset says life goes on, the level of panic is probably not as severe as Asia and exercising personal caution and hygiene , i don't see a problem travelling to London! Enjoy London without the hoard of tourists, i'm pretty sure many hard to book restaurants would have availability! Wishing you safe travels, wherever you are!

            Hi Lobster, I know what you mean about the eeriness on the streets, my counter parts in Tokyo, Osaka, HK all mentioned that they have never seen the streets and malls so emptied out everyday, basically many companies are conducting continuity plans and many staff are rotated to work from home (which is totally new especially to Japanese!), I can only pray the economic impact will not be too severe and everybody can pull out of this a better person!

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Tonitan View Post
              Hi Yflyer,good to hear from you! Looks like the situation will get worst before we see any improvement! This is the largest travel disruption I have ever experienced so far, the fear of spread of infection, the fear of being held in quarantine, the fear of an invisible enemy that is locking down the planet. I'm still quietly hopeful I can still travel and I have booked myself a Mercedes Plant visit in Bremen, something that I have never managed to book successfully as these tours are wildly popular and by the time my travel dates are firm, these tours are usually zeroed out.

              Hi Zilchster, I wish you a safe trip from Australia! And i'm silently curious on our regional TR writer too, he's been quiet on the TR front but I hope he will take advantage of the low fares and continue his food adventures!

              Hi Man flyer, my connections in the Dorset says life goes on, the level of panic is probably not as severe as Asia and exercising personal caution and hygiene , i don't see a problem travelling to London! Enjoy London without the hoard of tourists, i'm pretty sure many hard to book restaurants would have availability! Wishing you safe travels, wherever you are!

              Hi Lobster, I know what you mean about the eeriness on the streets, my counter parts in Tokyo, Osaka, HK all mentioned that they have never seen the streets and malls so emptied out everyday, basically many companies are conducting continuity plans and many staff are rotated to work from home (which is totally new especially to Japanese!), I can only pray the economic impact will not be too severe and everybody can pull out of this a better person!
              Thanks for the well wishes. I am keeping my fingers crossed here in Sydney and hoping the situation doesn't spiral out of control.

              Comment


              • #8
                I’m living in Minneapolis for 1 year now due to work and bimonthly I travel to SFO to visit my family and the situation is worse there and in MSP it’s getting just as bad too.

                If remote work is completely forced, I will probably ask to travel back and return when the situation improves

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                • #9
                  We've had to cancel our train ride on the Indian Pacific (transcontinental train cruise from Sydney to Perth) which we'd booked for Easter, as several Australian states have imposed border restrictions for interstate travellers. It's a bucket list item but we could always do it another time. Got a full refund as the rail operator had suspended its operations.

                  We booked a trip to Japan in September for one big whisky & cocktail bar hop around the country. We booked it back in Jan (using Points thankfully so we'd only be up for nominal charges if cancelled) before it all really kicked off globally, and at the time were thinking it'd all be sorted by September.

                  Booked for a little over 2 weeks in Kyoto, Fukuoka, Chichibu and Tokyo, with whisky distillery visits planned for Yamazaki, Kanosuke outside Kagoshima, and Chichibu itself which we're lucky enough to score an industry invite to... big established distillery, small start up distillery + cult mini distillery. Also managed to redeem on JL F for HND-SYD which I've been waiting to tick off the list.

                  Still hoping to make the trip, though as the weeks go by that seems increasingly unlikely.

                  Japan is meant to be our one last big trip before I start my master's degree part time this November (whilst working full time - he thought he could, so he did! ) - the OH is also studying and unfortunately our semester vacations do not overlap! Subsequent years will see us squeezing in the odd trip here and there (probably Luxury Escapes style beach resort breaks) over long weekends or mid-semester study breaks.
                  Last edited by KeithMEL; 28 March 2020, 05:41 PM.
                  All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by KeithMEL View Post
                    We've had to cancel our train ride on the Indian Pacific (transcontinental train cruise from Sydney to Perth) which we'd booked for Easter, as several Australian states have imposed border restrictions for interstate travellers. It's a bucket list item but we could always do it another time. Got a full refund as the rail operator had suspended its operations.

                    We booked a trip to Japan in September for one big whisky & cocktail bar hop around the country. We booked it back in Jan (using Points thankfully so we'd only be up for nominal charges if cancelled) before it all really kicked off globally, and at the time were thinking it'd all be sorted by September.

                    Booked for a little over 2 weeks in Kyoto, Fukuoka, Chichibu and Tokyo, with whisky distillery visits planned for Yamazaki, Kanosuke outside Kagoshima, and Chichibu itself which we're lucky enough to score an industry invite to... big established distillery, small start up distillery + cult mini distillery. Also managed to redeem on JL F for HND-SYD which I've been waiting to tick off the list.

                    Still hoping to make the trip, though as the weeks go by that seems increasingly unlikely.

                    Japan is meant to be our one last big trip before I start my master's degree part time this November (whilst working full time - he thought he could, so he did! ) - the OH is also studying and unfortunately our semester vacations do not overlap! Subsequent years will see us squeezing in the odd trip here and there (probably Luxury Escapes style beach resort breaks) over long weekends or mid-semester study breaks.
                    Fingers cross that things would return to normal by then.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Coronavirus has ruined my travel plans in June and July, where I am planning to go back to Hong Kong via Singapore and it seems that this will not be materialised.
                      I am planning to see if I can come back in September or October so that I will be able vote in the upcoming legislative council election.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I know what I posted was a few months back but I did end up traveling back to my hometown (SFO) in late March, given there was no improvement to the situation anywhere.

                        One thing I will mention is that I did fly from MSP to SFO on 3/26 evening and my flight was very light, lots of rows of seats to ourselves, good for sleeping and social distancing on DL. They also offered some snacks, but didn't have much since I knew I was going to have dinner once I reached home with most of my essential belongings (some clothes, all work related items, etc). I wore a mask throughout, which helped me.

                        I'm still at my home in SFO (past the San Mateo Bridge and in the suburbs) and still working from home. There is no indication of when I'll go back, but it doesn't look like anytime soon.

                        If this was a normal time, I would have traveled back for visits in late March, late May, and now for Independence Day (ask for a WFH) and travel to India.

                        The coronavirus ruined mine and my parents' travel plans to travel to India. We were going there for religious purposes, and because I work with my offshore team regularly as well as onsite people at my company, I had planned my last 2 days in Chennai to visit and work from the offshore location meeting all my colleagues I work with and celebrate, which before that the 2 weeks I would have been on full leave.

                        We had to cancel our tickets and applied and waiting for the refund. Never thought in our life this would happen, but I'm certainly hoping things get better once a vaccine for COVID19 comes and we hear improvements from there.

                        Moreover, India is also in a worse situation. They are also WFH like us, but the lockdown there has stopped both international and domestic travel, especially international as well as rail and bus service. Domestic travel did resume, so luckily I had some relatives who were able to fly back home last month.

                        We don't know how long covid-19 will go on for, but I hope the US finds a better way to handle the situation since our cases are going up daily and we are worse than the rest of the world.

                        Stay safe everyone.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Cancelled Japan.

                          QFF travel waiver meant I was able to cancel most of our redemption bookings without penalty. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking clearly and cancelled our KrisFlyer bookings at the same time rather than wait for SQ to cancel the flights or extend the date ranges covered by their waiver, copping the redeposit fee in the process - at least it's a relatively small fee but still a bit annoyed at myself.

                          Booked a week in Lord Howe Island for October as domestic travel here in Australia resumes. Looking at somewhere in the Whitsundays or FNQ for our Christmas shutdown. One of the positive things about coronavirus is we're finally getting to check out more of our own country; numerous places here on the bucket list like LDH that we'd been putting off for "some other day" as it's usually way cheaper going overseas! Just hope we don't get hit by the dreaded 'second wave' like folks over in Victoria.

                          Originally posted by KeithMEL View Post

                          We booked a trip to Japan in September for one big whisky & cocktail bar hop around the country. We booked it back in Jan (using Points thankfully so we'd only be up for nominal charges if cancelled) before it all really kicked off globally, and at the time were thinking it'd all be sorted by September.

                          Booked for a little over 2 weeks in Kyoto, Fukuoka, Chichibu and Tokyo, with whisky distillery visits planned for Yamazaki, Kanosuke outside Kagoshima, and Chichibu itself which we're lucky enough to score an industry invite to... big established distillery, small start up distillery + cult mini distillery. Also managed to redeem on JL F for HND-SYD which I've been waiting to tick off the list.

                          Still hoping to make the trip, though as the weeks go by that seems increasingly unlikely.

                          Japan is meant to be our one last big trip before I start my master's degree part time this November (whilst working full time - he thought he could, so he did! ) - the OH is also studying and unfortunately our semester vacations do not overlap! Subsequent years will see us squeezing in the odd trip here and there (probably Luxury Escapes style beach resort breaks) over long weekends or mid-semester study breaks.
                          Last edited by KeithMEL; 6 July 2020, 04:58 PM.
                          All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Goodness, even booking a hotel for a simple overnight trip to Canberra - 3-4h drive from where we are depending on traffic - for a truffle hunt feels like locking in the Trip of a Lifetime... We're not even getting on a plane...
                            All opinions shared are my own, and are not necessarily those of my employer or any other organisation of which I'm affiliated to.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by KeithMEL View Post
                              Goodness, even booking a hotel for a simple overnight trip to Canberra - 3-4h drive from where we are depending on traffic - for a truffle hunt feels like locking in the Trip of a Lifetime... We're not even getting on a plane...
                              I know how you feel. I went with a group of Singaporeans from Sydney to Canberra to vote 2 weeks ago. It was so good just to get out for a while.

                              Comment

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