Flight to Asia with a long layover at Seoul (ICN) Airport - COVID 19

[DonaldsRump]

Hi All:

I have a flight scheduled to Asia (to a country with minimal COVID-19 at the moment) in about 5 weeks.

The issue is my flight from the US is via Incheon Airport near Seoul. I have a 12 hour layover until my next flight and was planning to stay at the airport hotel. I would not have to exit the airport or even go through immigration/customs since the hotel is in the transit area of ICN. I guess as a legal matter, I would only be transiting via South Korea, but not actually entering the country since I would always be in the transit lounge.

My return flight to the US is via London and just for a few hours.

What would you do? Cancel the trip? I'm about 70% in favor of cancelling the trip, which is not urgent but would be nice to do for business. At some stage, I suspect that events will overtake whatever it is I want to do and the flight will be cancelled anyway. However, for right now, the flights are still on.

My plan is to continue to monitor things and make a decision in the next 3 weeks or so.

All thoughts welcome. I think that the airline (Korean Air) will allow "free" changes, but travel would still have to take place by June 2020. The return flight to the US is on British Airways, and AFAIK, BA will not let me make a change, at least for now.

Thank you!

[frazzled]

1. It's partly an issue of getting stranded

If it's any help, I know three people who have recently altered, canceled, or considered canceling trips

Neighbors had booked a trip to Turkey, and decided this past week to cancel.
Nephew has been in New Zealand working, but returned more than a week early, for fear of being stranded and unable to get home.
Other nephew highly considering canceling regular business trip from Tokyo to London, again fear of not getting home.

I have no real advice, except that I think you are wise to wait a few weeks before deciding. If airlines really start cancelling on a widespread basis, it may cost more to get stranded in Asia for a week or two than to eat the return ticket back.

[zanana1]

2. I say go now while the going is good.

Who knows how much travel will be changing in the future.