It's nice that they are actually "Taking it seriously"

To anyone who has ever looked at strange or terrible circumstances where the airlines did not allow a rebook and asked "Well, what WOULD it take?", here you go.
It takes a global pandemic of swine flu to convince airlines to allow you to rebook flights. Anything beneath this and your total starts going up like a pinball score.

@Crystal Wojcinski: And on what basis do you claim this is already a pandemic?

Finally, airlines in the news and its not a new fee!!

@dako81: Of course they are. They don't want travelers to be enticed by "suuuueeee-meeee!" pig calls.

Yes, that's a pig of a pun but I've only had one cup of coffee today. So sue me. :)

The swine flu tracker they had on Gizmodo terrified me just a little bit. I'm awfully close to the Mexican border, and there have already been reported cases in San Diego. My immune system is less than stellar since I moved to the drier climate...kind of makes me want to wear one of those dopey masks and never leave the house. I'm not usually a germ freak, but this is a little alarming.

@Crystal Wojcinski: Or snow. Or hurricanes. Or acts of terrorism. Or flooding.

@Shappie: You want to book a return flight from Mexico? We're going to have to charge you the quarantine fee for that.

@Cafezinha: To me, this is more disconcerting in terms of cruise liners that go to Mexico. Think about it this way: If you have to fly to a port to board a ship, if you're carrying the flu with you, you not only get back on a ship with 1,000+ people, you're going to then go to an airport where you'll encounter a lot more people, then get on a plane to go home.

Not a good thing.

@Cafezinha: I'm sure it'll be as big as the Bird Flu.

@Crystal Wojcinski: I'm with dragonfire in thinking this not much of a pandemic to date. Then there's the fact that influenzas are likely to be less lethal than perceived (and this one hasn't been hugely lethal to start with), because people with milder cases don't get documented.

That being said, I suspect the airlines are trying to protect themselves from epidemiological lawsuits more than anything else. You knew about the flu and you knew you had a choice to fly; can't be the airline's fault if you got flu on the flight.

A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic of infectious disease that spreads through human populations across a large region (for example a continent), or even worldwide

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic can start when three conditions have been met:

the emergence of a disease new to the population.
the agent infects humans, causing serious illness.
the agent spreads easily and sustainably among humans.
A disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For example cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is not infectious or contagious (although certain causes of some types of cancer might be).

I think that is a pretty good basis. As it has been seen over a large albeit scattered area of the United States and a more concentrated area of Mexico.

It's a good thing the GOP took out money from stimulus. It really would of sucked if there was something like a "Swine Flu".

Congrats Airlines on not sucking for 1 day.

It's wryly amusing that the US is considering issuing an advisory to not travel to/from Mexico, yet they're protesting Europe from their issuing an advisory not to travel to/from the United States...

F those airlines. Don't they know this pandemic is outside of our control. How dare they try and force us to take the flight or lose or ticket....

wait....what? I'm just so quick to blame the airlines I didn't even think my response through.

Bravo Airlines!!!

@pecan 3.14159265:

Back when sea travel was de rigueur, at each port of call, a doctor would go out to the ship and inspect the passengers for signs of infectious disease, e.g. tuberculosis, diphtheria, yellow fever, etc. If even a couple passengers were infected, the entire ship was ordered to anchor offshore and was quarantined for some time, up to a few WEEKS. Can you imagine doing that today?!

@Crystal Wojcinski: Ah, okay. WHO definition doesn't depend on mortality or numbers outside of source country. However, this is a pretty low-key one so far, in WHO terms, and they're not actually recommending travel restrictions. It's got the SARS novelty factor, so people are paying it a lot of attention.

Somewhere, Gerald Ford is laughing.

@dragonfire81: According to the WHO, there are 3 criteria that must be met to be a pandemic: 1. New strain of a virus (in this case flu), 2. Easily transmittable by human-to-human contact, 3. Confirmed cases located on more than 1 continent. So, according to the WHO's definition, it is a pandemic. According to the media's definition, no.

@Crystal Wojcinski: Those all form the basis for the start of a pandemic, but just because you meet the starting conditions doesn't mean that a pandemic is occuring, just that it has the potential to do so. We haven't actually hit a pandemic yet. The actual disease needs to be more widespread than it is now for it to qualify.

@floraposte: They are. It's not official yet, but the State Department is going to announce an advisory against going to Mexico. Or do you mean physical restrictions, like the State Department telling people they will not be allowed to go to Mexico?

@Anathema
Sorry, facebook reg doesn't let me use reply so I'll have to make a new threaad to reply to you.
However, if you read up the current swine flu also fulfills the definition of a pandemic. Pandemic is a scary word but in truth, we have them all the time. It's just a classification for the spread of an infectious disease. Someone mentioned it did not fit the media definition which is true. The media and most of the American public think pandemic and their mind goes to the flu of 1918. Yes, this was a pandemic but you don't have to kill thousands of people to have one occur.

Now, by 'change travel plans', do they mean cancel or do you have to re-book for a later date?

@Crystal Wojcinski: WHO has several levels of pandemic warnings. We're still at level 3, though they're likely to raise us to level 4 or 5 (source: [www.reuters.com])

However, WHO's own website explains what the phases mean here: [www.who.int]

Phase 4, which we are almost at still doesn't mean that we're in a pandemic: "Phase 4 indicates a significant increase in risk of a pandemic but does not necessarily mean that a pandemic is a forgone conclusion."

Phase 5 means pandemic is almost certainly imminent, but phase 6 is the actual pandemic phase.

@Crystal Wojcinski: Pandemic? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I remember two things from Gerald Ford's presidency (yes, I'm old). WIN buttons* and swine flu shots.

*'cause just handing out "Whip Inflation Now" buttons was all it was going to take!

@Crystal Wojcinski: Except that the swine flu is still officially an "outbreak" (sudden upswing in infections in isolated areas) and is not yet even an "epidemic," let alone a "pandemic," according to the CDC and WHO. NPR had a good piece on how to define the three this morning; if you're going to go to the trouble of digging up the definition from the WHO, you should also look at what the WHO is calling it.

So this will make my wedding a tad more interesting... Should I still get married in Mexico next month and take 25 guests and family members with me?

@Cafezinha: "I'm not usually a germ freak, but this is a little alarming."

I'll confess I too am a little alarmed ... mostly because Eyebrows Jr. arrives in about a month and even if Swine Flu isn't a big scary death-causing epidemic, I'm going to have a tiny person with not much of an immune system and I keeping lying awake at night worrying about it. (Well, worrying and trying to decide if I have to pee badly enough to get out of bed. And the answer is always yes.)

Normally I don't buy into hype or hysteria about outbreaks/epidemics, but this time I'm having a very hard time not freaking out. :) So you're not alone!

@Anathema777:
Ah it does let me reply directly now, yay!
Yes, I acnowledge it fulfills the indentifiers of a potential pandemic by WHO but by the general definition of pandemic it is. that is the definition I listed first.
It is, of course, less of an accurate definition than WHO but is there to allow for a term to call this swine flu.
Or in Israel, Mexican flu because apparently even saying swine is a no no.
[www.google.com]

@quagmire0: The news reports "no refunds". It wasn't clear if you need to rebook now or could hold off till the future.

@Cafezinha: Here's a link to the Google Maps mashup, for those interested. Or interested in wetting their pants.

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): You keep using that meme. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Let's remember as of now peanut butter has killed more people. I survived Y2K, the Bird flu, and SARS so I will wait this one out. Now get off my lawn.

@youaredumb: I bet you could cancel and get all of your money back, considering the circumstances. Of course, rebooking somewhere else might be tricky...but maybe some places will start offering a "Not infected!" discount.

@TEW: I read today that bird flu has killed about 230 people in the last six years. I was really surprised by that, because you hear about it practically all the time in the news, and it really makes it seem like somewhere in China, hundreds are dying every week.

@Trai_Dep: *pees pants*

That's it.

I'm moving to Guam.

F this place.

@pecan 3.14159265: "...like the State Department telling people they will not be allowed to go to Mexico?"

The State Department will probably let you go to Mexico if you insist. But they will likely close the border for people coming into the US from any infected country if this goes full-on pandemic. Personally, I wouldn't risk leaving the country right now for fear I couldn't come back.

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle):

Oh man, your mom-hormones are kicking in big time! (Not making fun; just BDTD in terms of the worries.)

@Eyebrows McGee (on Twitter: LPetelle): Everything I'm hearing (both in the news and from a friend who worked for the CDC) is pointing to the WHO declaring it a pandemic within the next 24-48 hours. They are just going through due diligence in reviewing all the available info first.

Of course "pandemic" doesn't automatically mean "Oh noes!! We're all gonna die!" - there is such a thing as a mild pandemic. We'll just have to see how this all plays out in the coming months.

I personally have a good friend who went on a cruise to Mexico this past weekend. I wonder how many of her friends are going to be "unavailable" to hang out with her for the next week or so.

@youaredumb: The ones you do not like I would...tell them its in "their honor".

@pecan 3.14159265: I mean WHO, and I mean they aren't. 'Cause they aren't. They might later, of course.

@pecan 3.14159265: On average, car accidents will have killed more people in the U.S. in the last two days than either. And possibly both together.

@utensil42: Thank you.

@Shappie: Give them time. The outbreak's only been on the radar for one-half of one working day.

@floraposte: It won't be real to me until the lead guitarist smashes his axe on the floor of the press conference.

@LegoMan322: Err, much of the "earmarks" they were decrying the loudest were "pork-barrel" projects such as basic science research, WHO grants, fruit fly projects, etc.

@youaredumb: Depends on how many of them are in-laws.

Are they allowing people to CANCEL completely and get a refund?

What if there is no opportunity to travel again. For example, someone was booked to travel to Mexico this week for an engagement that is being rescheduled to 2 months later now, but that new schedule conflicts with existing plans.

The article just isn't clear. It only says "allowing customers to change travel plans". You know these companies will fight tooth and nail to keep the money you've already paid them.

@Trai_Dep:

Whew, the Kansas case (closest to me) is being described as "mild." That's a relief.