Anyone altering travel plans in USA due to Corona?

[JoJo]

I had a really long day yesterday, day tripping to Yellowstone.  Least people I've ever seen by far - imagine a parking lot for 50 cars but only 2 or 3 there.  Lots of pictures, including some wildlife shots...

https://thehotflashpacker.com/yellowstone-national-park-the-day-it-opened-post-covid/

[mm1970]

I had a really long day yesterday, day tripping to Yellowstone.  Least people I've ever seen by far - imagine a parking lot for 50 cars but only 2 or 3 there.  Lots of pictures, including some wildlife shots...

https://thehotflashpacker.com/yellowstone-national-park-the-day-it-opened-post-covid/

I just posted about your trip on your journal. I'm still undecided about going anywhere yet - at least somewhere far like Yellowstone - but I'd sure love to go now when so few people are around. In Calif only Joshua Tree and Redwoods Nat Parks are open, and only Joshua Tree allows camping.

And it's quickly becoming too hot for Joshua Tree.  I've camped there in Feb, March, April, May (twice), November and September maybe?  May was hot both times.  April was the best, Feb was freezing.  March is hit or miss.  It was hot and windy once and on the cold side once.

[JoJo]

If anyone is hoping to camp closer to Yellowstone... the WY state parks are open.  There's a really great campground near a reservior off the east entrance, only had a few campers when we drove by a few nights ago.

On sunday I'm relocating to my parent's house for a few weeks, and will drive by the Badlands on the way, thinking of doing a little detour there to break up the drive. 

[Arbitrage]

We're wondering about renting a cabin somewhere in July or August, but I just don't know...

We still have an AirBnB reservation in early-mid August (no cancellation fee), but haven't booked anything else yet for that trip.  I'm hopeful that we'll be able to do it, but it would require taking the family on planes.  The destination is our planned early retirement area, so I'd really like to spend more time there (even if early retirement received a COVID-crash delay). 

Definitely not willing to spring for plane tickets yet.

Well, I sprung for the plane tickets a couple of weeks ago.  Price was dirt cheap and, as others have experienced, could be delayed without charge for at least a year.  Unfortunately, yesterday my AirBnB cancelled on us due to their own COVID-19 concerns (at least they indicated their intention to cancel; they haven't officially done so through the site, so we haven't been refunded).  So far, the available listings are much worse than that one. 

[T-Money$]

I would really like to find travel options to get overseas without flying, for the long-term future.  I won't be able to avoid it entirely (I assume), but I'd like to be confident and have easy ways to look up options, the same way we do for flying.  Even as a FIREd person, I'm not sure I'll have the patience and time to get to places like Africa (from CA) without flying, even if there are reasonable options.  But I'm very serious about minimizing flying more in the future.  For so many reasons.

I'm really curious why you'd rather be on a ship than plane, given the horror stories of people trapped on cruise ships. Everything I've read suggests that if the plane is not at maximum capacity and you can maintain social distancing, it's not as much of a germ spreader as we initially assumed due to the way the air circulates and is filtered. Obviously it's not risk free, but once we get to the point where overseas travel seems worthwhile to me again, it seems WAY safer than a ship.

Most of my concerns aren't about health, and as I mentioined this is a long-term goal, not a pandemic-period goal.  I think the airline industry is dangerously monopolistic which is a detriment to our economy and consumers and am not happy about the bailouts they've gotten during this period, followed by layoffs and preceded by stock buybacks, etc.  I'm sick of being treated like shit by most of them and I continue to be concerned about the environmental impact.  I'm hoping things don't just go straight back to normal in air travel after the pandemic.

But yeah, I'm definitely not getting on a boat, in particular a cruise ship, any time soon.

There were a large amount of airlines to choose from before the pandemic.  Ticket prices were very cheap compared to inflation, you could get to almost anywhere for a lower cost than anytime in history of the aviation industry. 

There are yet to be any layoffs in the airline industry, the CARES Act prohibits layoffs until October 1, 2020.  There will probably be tens of thousands after that date.

As far as stock buybacks are concerned.  Airlines have two options, either repurchase shares (this mitigates a hostile takeover from vulture companies that want to use excess cash) or grow.  It was good that airlines didn't grow as they would have even more overcapacity and losses than they do now.  Stock buybacks aren't ideal, but do you have a better suggestion?

Regarding the environmental impact, aircraft have never been more efficient and the entire industry accounts for 4% of the total global carbon emissions.  Theoretically, you can halt all aviation and it won't do anything to mitigate climate change. 

I would assume air travel will get worse after the pandemic.  Tickets will be more expensive and there will be much less flights to choose from.   I doubt the employees that are left will care much for the fickle and hypochondriacal flying public.

You said in another post you like Southwest.  For the few years leading up to COVID-19 they had highest cancellation rate of any major airline.  Why did you like them so much?

[sui generis]

I am not buying that line on stock buybacks.  They are a mechanism for executives to artificially inflate stock prices and extract value for themselves at the expense of the long-term health of the corporation, forcing them to count on the US taxpayer yet again the minute they stub a toe. To imagine the executives are motivated by preventing a theoretical hostile takeover and not lining their own pocket is naive. Regardless of the motivation, this cycle privatizes the benefits and socializes the inevitable losses, just like we are seeing now.  Perhaps they should return the money to the US taxpayers for always covering their asses the next time they are suffering the distressing circumstance of excess cash.  I'm sure we could figure out something better to do with it than enrich a handful of already very rich people.

Southwest: 1. Makes it far easier to use their rewards/points/miles than any other airline. 2. They have a generous cancellation policy - up to 10 minutes before the flight leaves, you can cancel your ticket and you lose not a single dollar.  3. There are no change fees. 4.  They have the fastest turnover of airplanes in the business.  5.  They have no bag fees.  6.  They make seating easy.  Their seating used to be the worst when they just had A, B and C, but now that each person has a place in line, there's no stress and no herd of people pushing up to be near the front the moment their boarding group is called as happens with other airlines now (even though those other airlines have assigned seats; this is now a function of the fact that people have to elbow their way in early to avoid their bags being checked due to lack of overhead space).  7. Not for nuthin', the culture of front line employees having genuine fun just feels better.

[mm1970]

I had a really long day yesterday, day tripping to Yellowstone.  Least people I've ever seen by far - imagine a parking lot for 50 cars but only 2 or 3 there.  Lots of pictures, including some wildlife shots...

https://thehotflashpacker.com/yellowstone-national-park-the-day-it-opened-post-covid/

I just posted about your trip on your journal. I'm still undecided about going anywhere yet - at least somewhere far like Yellowstone - but I'd sure love to go now when so few people are around. In Calif only Joshua Tree and Redwoods Nat Parks are open, and only Joshua Tree allows camping.

And it's quickly becoming too hot for Joshua Tree.  I've camped there in Feb, March, April, May (twice), November and September maybe?  May was hot both times.  April was the best, Feb was freezing.  March is hit or miss.  It was hot and windy once and on the cold side once.

Yeah no way I'm going there now. Well over 100 this coming week. I'm more a cool weather coastal fog person or cold mountain person so the desert is done until the winter for me. Looks like lots of people renting RVs and vans now so it may be crowded everywhere anyways for road trips in the US.

Interesting.  Are we crazy?

We are kind of sort of considering a trip.  Here's the thing: we aren't planning on going anywhere, but maybe?
I was telling dh that it would be super nice if things calmed down enough to go somewhere by August.  It would be really nice to go to upstate NY to visit family.

However, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense because his parents and their SOs are all in their 70s and 80s.  Getting on a plane and visiting elderly folk seems like a bad idea.

So, husband says "well, my office has told us all that we are working from home as long as possible.  I can work from anywhere.  We could go for the whole summer, and just quarantine ourselves for 2 weeks when we get there."  Still, we have the dog.  Then we talked about driving (5 loooong days, ugh).  But we could take the dog.  This relies on the family (1) wanting us and (2) being willing to let us quarantine in the lakeside camp for 2 weeks.  Right when they usually go there and use it.

There are other issues - obviously, we both still have to work full time while there.  Would delay big kid getting braces off.  I'd need temp health insurance because HMO.  I mean, it seems crazy, right?  Driving an old Matrix cross country with 4 people and a dog, twice?  Plus, I'm not sure the kids would dig it at all.  Nobody likes long car trips. And we'd have to be home 2 weeks before school starts so we can re-quarantine.

This is something I've thought about doing for years...maybe we should postpone it and do it in a summer or two, after COVID.

[By the River]

I'll put in a good AirBnB host comment.  We had serious cabin fever when we heard that the Alabama governor was holding a press conference on April 28 about opening the beaches beginning of May.  Checked AirBnB cancellation policy which said that all reservations could be cancelled within 48 hours with full refunds.  So we booked a condo about 30 hours before the press conference assuming that we would cancel if the opening didn't happen.  The owner of the condo immediately called us after we booked to let us know the beaches were closed and she would refund us what we paid.  She hadn't heard about the upcoming press conference.   Said she had refunded all fees from the previous two months because of the pandemic. 

It was a great short vacation.   The condo hadn't been used in 60 days so no fear of any lingering germs, the beaches were not yet full, and we had a kitchen to cook all meals as many restaurants were still not open. 

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

I was bewildered to hear from elderly relatives (early 70s) that they are planning a week long hotel stay in Vermont in early summer.  What is going on? Are hotels really starting to open back up that soon?

Many hotels and B and B's never closed. I'm not sure what the directive was/is in Vermont, but in my state, lodging outside of State Parks never shut down.

Vermont shut down hotels and other lodging options as of March 13, except in specific circumstances (like serving as a homeless shelter, lodging for health care workers working on COVID-related stuff, or as a quarantine site). Online reservations suspended. Places are allowed to start taking reservations for lodging starting June 15 but the quarantine restrictions are still pretty tight.

[charis]

I was bewildered to hear from elderly relatives (early 70s) that they are planning a week long hotel stay in Vermont in early summer.  What is going on? Are hotels really starting to open back up that soon?

Many hotels and B and B's never closed. I'm not sure what the directive was/is in Vermont, but in my state, lodging outside of State Parks never shut down.

Vermont shut down hotels and other lodging options as of March 13, except in specific circumstances (like serving as a homeless shelter, lodging for health care workers working on COVID-related stuff, or as a quarantine site). Online reservations suspended. Places are allowed to start taking reservations for lodging starting June 15 but the quarantine restrictions are still pretty tight.

Yep, apparently many places are already booked up for July due to reduced capacity requirements.

[Cassie]

Upstate New York is beautiful! I would definitely spend the summer there.

[Cassie]

My in-laws lived in upstate New York and twice a year we drove 1600 miles with 3 kids in a small car. I realize you are coming twice the distance. We only stayed a week or two but you are staying much longer. Plus now there’s electronic devices and A/C.