Tokyo in October - continue to plan/book?

[NatashaAudrey]

Hey,

Just looking for advice/opinions on what you would do in our situation. We have a flight booked to Tokyo with Swiss Air in October. We were originally going to start looking at hotels etc from April onwards as we want to go to Kyoto, Nagano, Nara, Osaka etc..

Now because of the Coronavirus situation we feel unsure of what to do - no one knows how long this will go on for and because it’s now a global situation it could take a long time to resolve.

Technically as it stands we still have a flight - because it’s a few months away it’s not been cancelled yet. So we feel like we should continue to plan/book as we wouldn’t want to have nothing sorted if it does go ahead.

On the other hand it seems ridiculous to be booking hotels etc when this is going on!

Anybody else booked for October?

[BevS97]

We are just talking about booking something for October. I need something to look forward too. And I thought if we booked now we might get a bargain.

[Tetrarch]

As of yesterday, Japan has banned visitors from 70+ countries indefinitely and that list includes the UK. I personally wouldn't be booking anything that wasn't 100% refundable right now, but maybe spend time just doing your research if you haven't already, so that if the situation changes, you are ready to book.

Debra

[Jaybeez]

We were supposed to be flying to Tokyo next week, luckily we had only booked flights with BA who will hopefully give us our money back eventually.

You could carry on planning for October and if you do book any hotels do it through somewhere like booking.com where you pay on arrival.

We will have to rebook at some stage as my daughter is meant to doing an internship out there, but we’ve written off this year and hope that she we get to go out there next year.

[Gunna]

I’m booked for October for China. We’ve got flights with VA , a tour through a company called Odynovo round China and then we head to Hong Kong. Odynovo has sorted all our mainland China bookings so we haven’t booked any hotels, transfers or tours there luckily.

I contacted Odynovo and also VA. I can move/delay the tour and have only paid a deposit, they’ve confirmed if I cancel I can get a refund. I’ve also spoken to VA as I used air miles.

We decided not to book anything else (hotels, theme park tickets, shows etc... ) until nearer the time. My head is telling me we won’t go in 2020 but as I know at the minute there are move options on the tour and I would hope refund for the flights I’m just seeing what goes. If it settles and we can then we’ll go. As a back up I’m booking the same time off work for 2021. If it doesn’t pan out for 2020 I’ll move to next year when I would sincerely hope this is all resolved.

If you do decide to book anything I would make sure you can cancel if need be. It’s hard to predict but for me I’ve still planned and got an idea of things we would like to do and see when we are there. For me I feel it’s important to have things to look forward to when the situation improves whether this be holidays, seeing family or just enjoying things we can’t currently do. Fingers crossed it does start to resolve in the coming months and you get to enjoy your trip in October.

[Gill H]

We have flights to Tokyo booked for November. Not booking anything else at the moment. If/when we do, we will book through a Travel Counsellor. We have used Cinders Mum on here before (was Val, now Helen) and she is going to pass our details on to their Japan specialist.