Spain trip Covid 19 (Coronavirus)

About to head to Spain next week. Seems like everyone is in a panic about Covid 19. Anyone else in the same boat? Keeping their trip, cancelling there trip, reroute their trip ect. Let’s keep this civilized.

Yup, in the same boat (leaving 3/26)

Going to look at rescheduling flights to stay longer in order to come back after the ban (assuming it's not extended, who knows) or get refunds.

yer rly gonna die

I think we are cancelling our Spring Break trip (domestic) next week, totally bummed!

My kid was signed up for a summer trip to Europe and it hasn't been cancelled yet, but I'm anticipating that it will be.

Wash your hands and don't touch your face everyone!

I personally wouldn’t go. I was considering a trip to Europe for May, but have now postponed it.

My reasons:
—My employer issued a warning strongly discouraging people from taking non-essential trips. 
—if I do go, I would have to report the trip and make self-quarantine arrangements for at least two weeks after the trip, and that is not practical for me right now.
—things are moving really fast, and changing daily. I don’t know what (stricter) measures might be in place 3 weeks from now.

All in all, the airlines have made it easier to cancel/reschedule normally non-refundable fares, so, while it’s a bummer, it is not that big a deal, in the grand scheme of things. Hopefully you, me, and everyone else taking these measures voluntarily will slow down the spread of the virus, and things would normalize in couple months. 

As someone who's company is based in Spain and talking to colleagues there... Stay home.  I'm absolutely not a fear monger and tend to be pretty easy going with these media created disasters but Spain, Italy and a lot of Europe seem like a really bad idea at the moment.  You definitely don't want to get stuck there.

We have made the sort of painful, but sensible decision to cancel our spring break trip. A week ago I was of the opinion that people were overreacting; I've done a lot of reading since then and I now believe that the best thing is to postpone travel for now.

Perspective from an Italian doctor.  newsweek.com/young-unafraid…

Spain has or will soon declare a state of emergency. Probably no options right now, even if you wanted to 'brave' the conditions.
joe

Societal infrastructure, such as money, communications and travel could become very problematic in the coming days and weeks. Your time is better soent getting prepared to hunker down.

Here’s an article everyone should read about where we are and what we need to do with the corona pandemic.  
 
https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca 

Spain just declared a state of emergency
​Spain​​​

Lisa Madden wrote: Spain just declared a state of emergency
Spain

Since the Spain entry is getting pushed down on that constantly updating page, here's a copy/paste:

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain said on Friday that the country would be placed under a state of emergency for 15 days, which could allow his government to restrict the movement of citizens, ration goods and impose other measures to fight the spread of the new coronavirus. The decision came as Spain reported about 4,200 confirmed infections, the most in Europe after Italy. The Spanish death toll reached 120 on Friday.

Earlier Friday, Spain ordered its first mandatory lockdowns, of four towns in Catalonia, with about 70,000 people. In a brief televised address, Mr. Sánchez said that the state of emergency would come into force on Saturday, after a ministerial meeting, and that it was designed to use “all the resources of the state to protect better the citizens, especially those who are most vulnerable to the virus.” Mr. Sánchez said that Spain and other European countries were “only in the first phase of the fight against the virus.” He warned that Spain could reach 10,000 cases in coming weeks.

But Mr. Sánchez did not specify what kinds of measure would be imposed under a state of emergency. “We will take weeks,” he said. “It will be very hard and difficult, but we will overcome the virus, that’s certain.” The government has already closed museums and sports centers, and students nationwide were sent home from school this week.
The coronavirus has spread at an alarming rate in Spain over the past week, with the Madrid region becoming the center of the health crisis and two of Mr. Sánchez’s ministers testing positive for the virus.

Under the Spanish Constitution, the government can maintain a nationwide state of emergency for 15 days. The law also allows the government to requisition factories and other infrastructure. Parliament must approve an extension. The only other time that Spain declared a state of emergency was in 2010, when the government ordered the military to break up a wildcat strike by air traffic controllers that brought to air traffic to a standstill.

From CNN:

Americans flee Spain as country declares state of emergency
From CNN's Laura Perez Maestro in Madrid

After three days of quarantine measures, Madrid's public transport was deserted, main roads were traffic-free and department stores in the city center were almost empty.
Schools, libraries and theaters were closed, with even outdoor playgrounds sealed off. Sarah Nagy and Graham Owen, from Montana, told CNN they were "thinking of leaving while we still can." “Our parents back home think it will be the same there soon, they would like us around,” they added.

Courtney Seeley, a 21-year-old student from Boston, Massachusetts, who had been doing an internship in Madrid, told CNN at the airport: “I was calm until the school told us we had to go home, they even bought the flights for us, they were very expensive. My parents are very worried, I hope to be able to come back soon and finish my internship."

James Donoghue, 21, was studying in London and in Madrid visiting Seeley. “My school wrote to me saying we had to go back home and leave Europe so here we are trying to leave Spain," he said. David and Lucenda Presnall, both 71, told CNN their son had helped them change their tickets before the ban was announced, but they had heard others spending $1,400 to get out before Friday's deadline. “We had a whole month planned in Spain, we had nine wonderful days," said Lucenda, from St. Louis, Missouri. "Then we saw what is happening to Italy and thought the same would happen here. My son really wanted us to come back. In Granada, where we were, people weren’t taking precautions, that worried us."

There have been more than 4,000 cases and 120 deaths in Spain. More than 62 countries have placed restrictions on flights from Spain, and Morocco suspended all air and sea travel to the country.

Originally planning 4/3-4/15. Most likely cancelling, but am going to reassess in a 1-2 weeks

My wife and I had a trip to Norway and Scotland planned leaving on March 25th. While the US travel ban doesn't impact us directly from moving around the globe, we ran in to some other problems. First (and the reason we are cancelling) is that yesterday Norway implemented a mandatory 14 day quarantine for all travelers coming in to the country. That pretty well screws our 18 day trip unless we want to sit in a room for the whole trip and say we've been to Norway. Obviously this isn't Spain, but be sure to check if they implement a similar policy.
The 2nd reason we cancelled was that even though US citizens can fly to and from Europe, flights are going to be dramatically reduced since Europeans are being forced to cancel. Our concern was being stuck over there with no flights to get back. Again, we would've dealt with it until Norway implemented their mandatory quarantine. Even our Airbnb's recommended not coming at this point and that's saying something because they're losing money.

I was in Spain two years ago and it was beautiful. Wish you the best of luck if you do end up going. 

Had a trip to Norway planned for 3/22-4/6. Like Nathan, the mandatory quarantine is having us try to get refunds.

Read your travel insurance carefully. AFAIK, worldnomads is only covering trip cancellations if you're too sick to travel (with doc's note) or if you physically get quarantined.

The Norway thing popped up 2 days ago so things are changing day to day.

I would suggest anyone who has a planned international trip seriously consider cancelling it or be aware that the country you are planning to enter may change policies that will force the cancellation.  I was going to travel next week on a long planned international trip to an African country that has not been so far affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The country just announced that they will impose a 14 day quarantine on all travelers coming from any country that has cases of COVID-19 virus, which make the travel impractical.  My contact in that country asked me to cancel the trip, which I am glad they did since I represent more threat to them than vice versa.  This is similar to the issue that Nathan mentioned above.  Please remember that you present risks as a vector.

ollieon wrote: Had a trip to Norway planned for 3/22-4/6. Like Nathan, the mandatory quarantine is having us try to get refunds.

Read your travel insurance carefully. AFAIK, worldnomads is only covering trip cancellations if you're too sick to travel (with doc's note) or if you physically get quarantined.

The Norway thing popped up 2 days ago so things are changing day to day.

We had Worldnomads too... lot of good that did. Thankfully Delta and Airbnb are being very reasonable by adjusting their refund policies. 

Given some of the more significant measures North America has taken in the past few days.... flying overseas to a country that has declared a state of emergency to go ROCK CLIMBING sounds totally ridiculous to me.

Nathan G wrote: The 2nd reason we cancelled was that even though US citizens can fly to and from Europe, flights are going to be dramatically reduced since Europeans are being forced to cancel. Our concern was being stuck over there with no flights to get back.

Delta Air Lines announced major cuts to its capacity today:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/13/business/delta-air-lines-cuts/index.html

The company will make an "overall capacity reduction in the next few months of 40% -- the largest capacity reduction in Delta's history, including 2001," Bastian wrote.  "The situation is fluid and likely to be getting worse."
The cuts include parking up to 300 of its aircraft.  

Just cancelled my trip to Seattle yesterday. Looks like Leavenworth will have to wait. Better safe than sorry. I’ll risk losing a trip over being part of the problem.
Edit: airline refunded all air miles and taxes without question. 

Currently in Span, training to get the fuck outta Spain. Was here for some travel time before heading to Chamonix, but decided to cancel Cham portion and get home asap. Now, the GF and I are prepping for a 2 week quarantine when we get home.... not cool.