Sensa had to cancel a trip to the States and wants to know if she should rebook, and what protections she will have if she does make a booking.
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Q. Sensa
My husband and I would have been landing in New York this weekend if our trip wasn’t cancelled due to the damn coronavirus. We had planned to spend two months travelling all across the United States. Obviously, overseas travel is still some way off but if we were to book a trip for this time next year what protections would be available to us?
A. Depending on how much you would be willing to pay, you could fork out for travel insurance that would cover you for all of your trip should you be unable to travel. If you choose to book with reputable airlines, you would also most likely get your money back if you were unable to fly.
However, in the current situation, you are much better off waiting to see how things develop before you book a trip to the United Sates.
Travel between Australia and the United States is unlikely to resume any time soon, even by this time next year.
Australia’s outgoing chief medical officer, Professor Brendan Murphy, said just last week that it was unlikely Australia would open its borders until a COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out.
“To fully open the international border without any quarantining or any restrictions probably will require a vaccine to be able to adequately protect vulnerable people in the community,” Prof. Murphy said in an interview with ABC News.
“Until that happens, we’re going to have some sort of border measures.”
Also worth bearing in mind is the fact that few countries are handling the coronavirus situation worse than the United States.
At present, they are presenting with around 40,000 new cases every day and that is still from a lower testing base than many other countries, so the true rate of infection could be much higher.
This will continue to make it one of the least safe places to travel and likely one of the last to have travel restrictions lifted.
As travel restrictions do start lifting, by all means make your own assessment of travelling to the United Sates, but it is difficult to put a time frame on when it will be safe to travel there and you should definitely avoid booking any travel until the picture is a lot clearer.
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Related articles:
https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/travel/destinations/time-to-book-your-new-zealand-trip
https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/travel/destinations/international-destinations-reopening
https://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/travel/destinations/sicily-tempts-tourists
