WEBVTT - Before You Book That Cheap Travel Bargain, Consider This

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<v Speaker 1>It's Monday, ma. I'm Oscar Ramires from the Daily Dive

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<v Speaker 1>podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.

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<v Speaker 1>As travel is restricted across much of the world, there

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<v Speaker 1>are a ton of cheap airfare deals. While you shouldn't

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<v Speaker 1>fly during a pandemic, you might want to consider booking

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<v Speaker 1>a short getaway later in the year once things calmed down.

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<v Speaker 1>Scott McCartney, middle seat columnists for The Wall Street Journal,

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<v Speaker 1>joins us for what to consider before snagging a travel bargain.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for joining us, Scott, Sure, good to be with you.

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<v Speaker 1>We always bring you on, Scott to talk about what's

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<v Speaker 1>going on in the airline industry and right now amid

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<v Speaker 1>this time of coronavirus and all that's going on with

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<v Speaker 1>the social distancing. I know that the airline industry is

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<v Speaker 1>taking a big hit, but for us at home, consumers

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<v Speaker 1>staying home, going on and checking some of these things

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<v Speaker 1>because everybody's always kind of planning ahead for the future,

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<v Speaker 1>we're seeing some very very cheap airfare coming up right now.

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<v Speaker 1>But there's a big question amid kind of this uncertainty.

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<v Speaker 1>We don't know how long this is all gonna last.

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<v Speaker 1>Should you book something if you find a really good deal,

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<v Speaker 1>Scott help us out with that. I think there are

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<v Speaker 1>a few rules to consider, a few ways to go

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<v Speaker 1>about this. But what's interesting is that a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>these really great deals extend into the fall and even

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<v Speaker 1>next year. Airlines have pretty well excluded holiday periods, and

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<v Speaker 1>all the searching I did, you're not gonna find ultra

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<v Speaker 1>cheap tickets for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but you can much

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<v Speaker 1>of the rest of the year. And so I would

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<v Speaker 1>say with domestic trips, for a lot of people, it

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<v Speaker 1>may be worth the gamble. I mean, it is a gamble.

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<v Speaker 1>But if you can find a seventy one dollar fair

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<v Speaker 1>for a trip in September October, or d fourteen dollar

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<v Speaker 1>trip across the country, even a two fourteen dollar trip

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<v Speaker 1>across the country, those are unbelievable prices and you really

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<v Speaker 1>don't have a whole lot tied up. So the gamble

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<v Speaker 1>is you may not get to go on the trip

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<v Speaker 1>right if things are still in flux, And it's kind

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<v Speaker 1>of like, so what if you buy the tickets now?

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<v Speaker 1>Airlines have waivers and way so you can just use

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<v Speaker 1>that as a credit. But if you do get to

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<v Speaker 1>go on the seventy one dollar round trip ticket score

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<v Speaker 1>you win at. I think it's a different proposition for

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<v Speaker 1>international travel, a lot more complexity there with countries shutting

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<v Speaker 1>down borders to visitors and really kind of how far

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<v Speaker 1>do you want to be away from home should there

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<v Speaker 1>be a new flare up and things like that. So

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<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's worth taking the gamble right now

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<v Speaker 1>and international trips, But I think on some of these

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<v Speaker 1>really ultra cheap domestic tickets, if you're comfortable with it,

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<v Speaker 1>it's a good thing to try. What range would you

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<v Speaker 1>say we should be talking about, because I was looking

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<v Speaker 1>through the article. There's some Boston to Orlando in mid

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<v Speaker 1>June for forty one dollars. That's round trip. That's pretty amazing.

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<v Speaker 1>There's one for a hundred and seventy seven bucks from

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<v Speaker 1>New York to Los Angeles that's in early June. New

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<v Speaker 1>York right now is kind of this epicenter of the

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<v Speaker 1>coronavirus in the United States, so that might be a

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<v Speaker 1>little tough. So what kind of time period are we

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<v Speaker 1>looking at maximize our chances of being safe this and

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<v Speaker 1>there are several different parameters to the airlines have put

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<v Speaker 1>out waivers for buying tickets through the end of March.

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<v Speaker 1>American just extended there's today to April fifteen. I think

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<v Speaker 1>those will continue to go out. We just saw the

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<v Speaker 1>Olympics postponed, and that was July. I think June is

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<v Speaker 1>very much in doubt. That's a real gamble. But if

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<v Speaker 1>things do start turning around in April, it could be

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<v Speaker 1>but I would be really careful about June and even July.

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<v Speaker 1>So I think the smart booking really comes to August, September, October,

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<v Speaker 1>even November, um and you know, I think I think

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<v Speaker 1>by that time we are all gonna be so tired

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<v Speaker 1>of being cooped up that there's gonna be a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of interest in travel. On the other hand, I think

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<v Speaker 1>the other thing to consider is that there are gonna

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<v Speaker 1>be cheap prices for a long time to come, and

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<v Speaker 1>so you don't have to do this now. You can wait,

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<v Speaker 1>and there are gonna be bargains to Orlando in late

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<v Speaker 1>summer early fall for a while. I think airlines are

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<v Speaker 1>gonna have sales to get people traveling again. There's gonna

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<v Speaker 1>be a lot of reluctance to start traveling again, and

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<v Speaker 1>so they'll try and sort of prime the pump that way.

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<v Speaker 1>But also What you have to remember is they're pulling

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<v Speaker 1>out all kinds of capacity from their schedules. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>of international flying, we're seeing the potential of even for

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<v Speaker 1>a temporary period, grounding virtually all domestic flying. So as

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<v Speaker 1>that capacity comes back into the schedule, it's like new

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<v Speaker 1>flights to everywhere. There are no bookings for those flights.

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<v Speaker 1>To get the bookings back into those aircraft cabins, they're

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<v Speaker 1>gonna have to offer really deep discounts in order to

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<v Speaker 1>fill seats. And one of these suggestions that you made

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<v Speaker 1>in your piece, which I thought was pretty good, is

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<v Speaker 1>consider multiple short trips. You know, nobody's gonna go for

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<v Speaker 1>this big three week global adventure, especially with the uncertainty

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<v Speaker 1>and kind of other countries, you know, you know how

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<v Speaker 1>they're treating their travel restrictions and whatnot. So maybe some

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<v Speaker 1>of these shorter trips we can get aways, the tiny

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<v Speaker 1>things that you can handle easily can still be close

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<v Speaker 1>and if they do get canceled or something, you haven't

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<v Speaker 1>put so much into it. I think that's right. And

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<v Speaker 1>even when you're on the trip, you have a ticket

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<v Speaker 1>home in in a relatively short period of time, right,

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<v Speaker 1>So go to an island for a couple of days

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<v Speaker 1>and if all of a sudden things turned and you've

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<v Speaker 1>got to get home, well you've got a ticket to

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<v Speaker 1>get home pretty quickly, and then just turn around and

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<v Speaker 1>repack and go off to a mountain somewhere or something

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<v Speaker 1>like that. That I think you could have a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of fun with multiple short trips where you're never really

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<v Speaker 1>in danger of getting stranded somewhere. You also mentioned don't

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<v Speaker 1>buy anything that has cancelation penalties right now. I know

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of them are waving that, so hopefully you

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<v Speaker 1>can get in on that. But one thing I wanted

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<v Speaker 1>to ask is a travel insurance what do we make

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<v Speaker 1>of that during this time right now? Don't make anything

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<v Speaker 1>of it because it's no good. Almost all standard policies

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<v Speaker 1>have an exclusion in it for pandemic. Travel insurance companies

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<v Speaker 1>have very clearly said the danger of coronavirus is own,

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<v Speaker 1>so they're not covering it. It's the same philosophy that

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<v Speaker 1>if if your house is on fire, you can't run

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<v Speaker 1>out and get homeowners insurance right because you know the

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<v Speaker 1>house is on fire, so now you know what the

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<v Speaker 1>danger is. Just like the hurricane is bearing down on

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<v Speaker 1>the island, you can't run out and get insurance. You've

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<v Speaker 1>got to do it before, so standard insurance offers no

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<v Speaker 1>coverage in these situations. The only travel insurance you could

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<v Speaker 1>consider at this point is what's called cancel for any reason.

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<v Speaker 1>That's more expensive. The coverage of your losses is less.

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<v Speaker 1>But the reality is that you're really not gonna have

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<v Speaker 1>a whole lot of losses. If you're careful about protecting yourselves.

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<v Speaker 1>Airlines will at worst give you a voucher for the

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<v Speaker 1>value and in many cases give you a refund. If

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<v Speaker 1>you make sure that your hotel is refundable, your tour,

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<v Speaker 1>your whatever you've got packed in there, even expensive Safari's

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<v Speaker 1>or whatever. You protect yourself that way, you don't need

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<v Speaker 1>travel insurance. Scott McCartney, Middle seat columnists at The Wall

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<v Speaker 1>Street Journal, thank you very much for joining us. Sure

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<v Speaker 1>great to be with you. Oscar. I'm Oscar Emiris and

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<v Speaker 1>this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.

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<v Speaker 1>For more top news stories, you can catch me on

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<v Speaker 1>the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow

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