“This is a disaster”

If you’re nervous about the recent swine flu outbreak and want to cancel an upcoming vacation to Mexico, you might want to read this before calling your travel agent.

In the last 24 hours, I’ve received several e-mails like the following one from reader Aaron Kyle.

I have booked a vacation package to Cancun from Phoenix through Travelocity and now need to cancel my trip due to the swine flu outbreak. I contacted Travelocity’s customer service department and they said that they needed to contact the hotel in order to see if a refund is available.

When I tried to contact the hotel myself, the Fiesta Americana Condesa said that I will need to get a refund through Travelocity! I am going around in circles trying to get a straight answer.

They didn’t allow the $100 shuttle fee to be refunded by Olympus Tours, and they said I will have to contact the airlines on my own to make changes.

This is a disaster….can you help?

Here’s the problem: As of now, the US government isn’t advising citizens to avoid Mexico. The US embassy in Mexico has limited hours, but there are no calls as of yet to avoid the entire country.

The United States has imposed no additional constraints or limitations on travel between the United States and Mexico. Travelers are encouraged to comply with suggestions by Mexican public health officials and to be alert to good health and sanitation practices.

Personally, I think it’s too soon to cancel a Mexico vacation unless you’re visiting an area that’s directly affected by swine flu. If the outbreak is contained, a trip to Cancun will probably be infection-free.

Travelocity is listing the airlines with flexible change policies on its site, but it isn’t saying what it would do to help a customer cancel a vacation. In fact, it would be impractical to allow customers to call off their vacations now, because travel agencies would then have to allow customers cancel trips to California, Kansas, New York, Ohio and Texas, where the swine flu has made an appearance.

The next 24 to 48 hours will be interesting. If swine flu is contained, we can all get on with our lives and continue traveling.

If it isn’t, then all bets are off. Everything will come unraveled, and even if you booked your vacation through an online travel agency, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where you won’t be forced to deal directly with each airline, hotel and car rental agency to negotiate a refund or a re-do.

  • Gayle

    We are having the same kind of trouble with Expedia. Our trip to Cancun is scheduled for 5/19. I didn’t ask for a refund at first, but instead a credit to travel somewhere else. They would not do it with out charging us extra money. A vacation spot that is “probably” infection free is not good enough for me sorry. It only took one phone call to book the trip, so this run around is insidious. There are two active travel alerts for Mexico at this time. One for increased violence and now the swine flu, so this is just bad business period.

  • Kevin

    I’m not trying to sound mean or unconcerned, but does anyone else think that the word Epedemic or Pandemic being used for a hundred or so cases of THE FLU is a little over-kill? I’m not a biologist, or doctor, but there are treatments for this flu bug and it’s been around for a while. The only difference is now it can spread from human to human. At the end of the day, this is still the FLU and if you are healthy when you get it, should act like the NORMAL flu.

    Does the world we live in today just love doom and gloom? I mean seriously, everything you read now is that the world is dying. If it’s not the economy, it’s a new strain of the Flu. If not that, then some scientists in Switzerland/France are going to create a blackhole.
    Last time I went out to dinner, the place was packed – Economy can’t be suffering THAT much.
    Last time I got the flu, I sleep for a couple of days and got better – Sucked for a few days but otherwise I’m doing fine now.
    Blackholes are created by MASSIVE STARS – not a couple if submicroscopic particles.

    Don’t get me wrong, if I had a vacation scheduled for somewhere where a lot of people were getting sick from a flu bug, I’d probably want to switch my destination. But Mexico is a big place, just like the US, and there are many place to go. Why get itchy fingers and cancel a trip when then affected area is hundreds of miles away?

  • Yoga Gal

    Personally, I don’t see why Obama isn’t closing the border right now! Yesterday I watched CNN and a cabinet member (still don’t know them well enough yet to know who she was) said there was no point to sealing off the boarder because there are people who have already crossed and appear healthy but who are carrying the flu and will eventually show symptoms. Huh? Her logic is screwy. It was basically since we can’t determine who has it we might as well just go with the flow. It gave me chills. This administration doesn’t have the balls to tell Mexico to stay home until it has this thing contained. Anyone who has ever been to Mexico knows their idea of sanitation and ours is not the same! I’m terrified this is going to get really bad. There’s no way I’d fly into that country right now and as far as letting them just stroll into ours – well we need a reality check.

  • Matthew

    I don’t have vacation reservations to cancel, but I am holding off on our plans to visit Jamaica this fall until I get a better idea of what’s going on here. No reason spending the money now, just to fight to get it back.

    To Kevin, the concern is that this isn’t just a normal flu, but is a special kind of flu that has the potential to kill thousands if not millions. Do a google search for 1918 flu pandemic and you’ll get an appreciation for why peopole are concerned. Over 100 million people are estimated to have died from that outbreak.

  • Ian

    Almost 40,000 people die of the flu in the US every year. So far swine flu has not killed a single person in the US.

    If I were travelling to Mexico City I may reconsider a trip (since everything has been closed anyway), but the beach resorts and Yucatan still seem ok.

    To Yoga Gal- the swine flu has a gestation of up to 48 hours. So for closing the border to have been of any use, they would’ve had to close it on Saturday. Should we also isolate the state of New York? You can’t be too careful!

    Out of curiousity, if one did decide to cancel a trip because of a pandemic, is this the kind of thing covered by travel insurance?

  • Susan

    Yoga Gal – your reaction is an over reaction – it’s the FLU. Yes it’s strain that vaccinations don’t work against, but it’s the FLU. And it is already hear, in Spain and the UK. So are you suggesting that we shouldn’t allow ANYONE in or out of the US in order to contain the flu? Canadians should shut their borders to us? The EU? The Caribbean countries?

    Gayle – the violence travel alert is for border cities, the swine flu for Mexico City – neither affects any of the areas heavily populated by tourists. That would be like telling people to stiop traveling to New York because there’s a violence outbreak in Los Angeles, or a flu outbreak in Kansas.

    Anyone that thinks that anywhere they travel to is free of violence or any potential of illness is deluding themselves. You should go on vacation and enjoy yourself, but be prepared (for the flu, norovirus, stumbling and breaking your leg, or there being a criminal element – because there are criminals everywhere, even in the supposedly perfect USA).

  • http://www.flightsimacademy.com/ Andre K.

    An update on your story, the US is issuing a travel warning to Mexico.

    http://uk.reuters.com/article/UKNews1/idUKTRE53Q3QV20090427

    As quoted from the article, “The U.S. government plans to issue a travel warning later on Monday urging Americans to avoid all “nonessential” trips to Mexico because of an outbreak of swine flu, a U.S. official said.”

  • Lianne

    @ Ian & Kevin

    From what I’ve read, the thing that makes this flu strain unusual is that a normal, healthy person between the ages of 20-60 shouldn’t die of the flu unless it leads to other complications.

    That said, based on the cases that had showed up in the US, there does seem to be a bit of an overreation. It seems as though people who obtain proper medical care in a timely fashion just have a crappy case of the flu. The problem in Mexico is that people don’t have access to the appropriate care. As I’m writing this I don’t think a single US case has died.

    I wouldn’t be surprised that if one of the reasons the media on the CDC jumped all over this is because it smelled vaugely of an engineered virus or bioterror weapon. Unfortunately it seems as though it may just be the result of factory farming which are already cesspools.

    Back on subject…I don’t blame anyone for trying to avoid it just to be on the safe side. Cancelling a trip to Mexico seems like a wise course of action. Who wants to have the flu on vacation anyway?

  • Roberto

    For those of you who are saying, “It’s just the FLU”, please realize that in Mexico, the Swine Flu mortality rate has been 7%, compared with a mortality rate of less than 1% for ordinary flu.

  • http://www.thesmokingtuna.com Becky

    This was posted on http://www.thesmokingtuna.com by David Jones with The Fishermen’s Fleet in La Paz.
    Very well written if you ask me!

    As someone in the travel industry, especially the fact that most of our business is travel to Mexico, this couldn’t have been said more perfect! Well now that NO ONE died during the most dangerous and feared spring break of all time, we’ll move on to the swine flu. Pardon my sardonic approach but I watch everyone move from scare to scare almost looking for the next one with anticipation. Relax, educate yourself. There have been no, 0, cases reported in the Baja as of yet. I’m sure that there will be, but keep your shirts on. O deaths in the U.S. More folks died yesterday from drivin’ cars than the dreaded swine flu. Calm down America, you’re in control.

    A note from Cass Tours: So far there are 40 reported cases in the U.S. There are ZERO cases in all of Baja California Mexico!

    Travel note: Going through an online site, you will not be getting the customer service and knowledge that is necessary when we have a crises of any kind. Here at Cass Tours, we take pride in keeping our clients up to date with the most current and accurate information. Our clients come first and our customer service is second to none. We will personally work with the airlines and hotels on your behalf unlike these internet companies, and we don’t charge a service fee!

  • George the Rational

    People, would you all settle down, please? This is all bull. Somewhere out there are vaccine manufacturers about to go under, who have to scare up a fake problem just to survive. They are behind this. It’s like … we voted out Bush, but he and his cronies never stop trying to make a buck off of us via fear-mongering. They control FOX News, sure, but they also control CNN, which they set up as the “bad” or “drive-by” media, whatever. None of the US Media isn’t 100% corporate-controlled. You know what’s coming, right? Massive swine-flu inoculations, for an overhyped disease. Same thing happened during the Ford Administration. Will we ever learn? Are we that stupid?

  • Lisa

    The people struggling with Expedia and Travelocity would have been better off to book through a travel agent – for the advocacy and customer service.

  • http://qbubbles.wordpress.com/ Q.Bubbles

    US people are dying, now. 2 in LA as of right now.

  • Pingback: Intelligent Travel Blog

  • Carol

    We have a trip scheduled with Grand Circle Travel to Northern Mexico & the Copper Canyon, departing May 2nd. To date, we’ve had no communication from the company regarding our travel status. We called THEM on Sunday (4/26), and our representative said she “hadn’t heard anything about it” when I mentioned the swine flu issue. Hmm..mmmm.
    With the State Department advising citizens to cancel non-essential travel (like a ‘vacation’), valid until July 27th, we’re wondering how Grand Circle will handle this going forward. Any other Grand Circlers out there with this same problem?

  • http://feistync.wordpress.com feisty tourist

    Chris – thanks for sharing your thoughts!

  • Joe Casciola

    Why don’t people work with their LOCAL travel consultants … they would have personal attention and someone working on their behalf in this type situation. In addition they would be supporting their local economy instead of a behemoth internet site that could care less about anything other than the number$.

  • Steven

    this is horrible. this video i saw explains alot of whats going on and how some people such as myself view the situation

  • David Z

    Why don’t people work with their LOCAL travel consultants

    Maybe because they need to find them first?

    In our travel agency (which sadly I can’t reveal as I’m not really authorized to talk on behalf of them) itself, we’re able to refund hotel, car and certain reservation-type (e.g. tours) cancellations. But that’s because the vendors we work with agree not to bill us for cancelling before travel.

    The tough part is the airfare because it depends on each carrier’s policies. Good thing most agreed to waive their ticket-reissue fees for changing dates and/or routes, though some still charge a fare difference.

    It’s nice if the travel agency can absorb any and all costs for cancelling the trip, on the (risky?) premise that customers will rebook with them if/when this thing’s settled down. But…that’s for each one to decide on their own depending how costly it is doing so, and they’ll deal with the results anyway.

  • an

    @ lisa, and all. we booked through a travel agent to go close to ixtapa next week, the problem is that NO travel policy covers pandemics and epidemics, just like wars and other big stuff you will always find small print stating that. meaning you are handed over to the goodwill of you agent and air carier. we got to rebook without change fees and with a price guarantee on the land part, the tickets to our new destination costed much more, a cost we had to take. if things gets worse, we might be in for the whole amount….
    Problem is indeed that you can still go if you want to. as to travel warning, we were not bothered with the regional warnings towards violence and even not too scared of being killed by the flu but we are scared of bumping onto close borders when coming back ( and utter misery being screened to death by gov…)

  • Paul

    I looked up 2008 deaths due to the common flu. it was way more than the deaths by this thing. Maybe it is a little overblown but scary. I read that heat kills the virus and only need to worry for the winter months. They’ll have a vaccine by then. I read that patient 0′s mom was blaming the US for the outbreak in Mexico. That is silly and I’m glad her kid did not die from it.

  • noah

    George the Rational says, “Somewhere out there are vaccine manufacturers about to go under, who have to scare up a fake problem just to survive.” Not a very rational position, given that there is no vaccine for swine flu.

  • Bill

    Joe and Lisa – I don’t know where you find these “local” travel agents who know and do everything.
    I am not picking on you specifically, but each and every time there is a problem on a travel website, there is one, or two – or three voices popping up saying the same thing about using a professional travel agent – and the reality is that I’ve never had one that would be held accountable for their mistakes and never had one that gave me a good reason I should have used them.

    The last two “local” travel agencies I went to were staffed by (a) A person (manager) who couldn’t be bothered to find me a non smoking hotel room in London, and (b) A woman who is a “professional” travel agent that had never heard of the “London Pass” and took a lot longer to figure out/find it than a non travel agent on the web. I did write to the head office of the “manager’s” travel agency because she was highly unprofessional. A good case of someone who should have retired many years and wrinkles ago.

    These are the recent occurances, but I can recount numerous episodes over the course of my life where going to a “professional” travel agent has either cost me time or money (usually money).

    Yet every time anything at all comes up, there are these voices that pop up talking about using a professional travel agent.

    Maybe I should tell you about the one who couldn’t understand simple telephone company announcements and didn’t know how to leave voicemal – that one cost me a few hundred dollars, and a few hours. Or the one who “couldn’t be expected to know about sales” when there were few airlines in the country and they took out full page ads….not to mention she had a computer reservation system.

    I’ll give a little bit of advice to those who want people to use professional travel agencies a little more: Make sure there are a lot fewer people like me who have countless stories of travel agent incompetence. I have not a single story of a travel agent saving the day – not a one!

    This is one industry where there is a great need to cull the bad ones from the herd.

    I’m sure there are competent professional travel agents out there somewhere. The only problem is, they are just about as rare as a considerate smoker.

  • sue

    bill – thank you! well said. I really get annoyed at all of the smug travel agents who post all the time “oh that wouldn’t have happened if you booked through someone like me!” when in reality, I too have never found any advantage when using a travel agent. Recently my sister used a travel agent to book her destination wedding and found that the person she was paying to take care of everything so she wouldn’t have to worry about it was causing her more stress than if her wedding party had just taken care of their own arrangements – this travel agent could not seem to grasp that just because I live in Pennsylvania, that doesn’t mean that Philly International airport is better for me than Newark. Despite me trying to explain it to her in small words.

  • Carver

    I’ll weight in a little. Like any service provider, a travel agent needs to justify why someone should pay them for services that can be done elsewhere cheaper (e.g. internet).

    Many travel agents have seen their ranks decimated and their incomes plummet. So today, the gospel is, if you don’t book with a travel agent, then you are stupid and if anything bad happens on your trip, its because you were too stupid or cheap to book with us, because we could have protected you.

    The reality is like any other service provider there are times when their fees are justified and times when the fees are not. For example, I own my own business. As such I use an accountant for my taxes. My friend is a regular employee in his firm. TurboTax works fine for him.

    Unforunately, because of many stories questioning the future viability of the travel agent position, travel agents have responded with the silly, dubious, positions which approach the absurd. My favorite was an article posted on Tripso.com, a travel agent hangout, the blatently stated that the advice of a travel agent is as important as medical advice. Clearly the author has gone off the reservation for a while.