Mexico Travel Advisory

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has officially recommended all non-essential travel to Mexico be postponed due to the latest outbreak of Swine Flu. If you are scheduled to travel to Mexico in the next week or two, below is some information you may need to know.

If you are cruising, you need not cancel your cruise. The cruise lines are adjusting their itineraries and they will not be stopping at Mexican ports. Some of the cruise lines are substituting the Mexican ports with other comprabable ports.

Flying to Mexico? Contact your travel agent with whom you made your reservation. They will know how to make the changes to your travel record. If you made your own arrangements directly with the airline, call them to adjust your flights. Here are just a few of the major airline rules for the emergency changes:

• Continental Airlines said it will allow passengers to reschedule or reroute their travel, without penalty, if they are scheduled to fly to Mexico through May 6.
  American Airlines also is allowing customers to change their flights without penalty if they are flying to Mexico through May 6.
  United Airlines is issuing a travel waiver to customers traveling to, from or through Mexico through May 6. The waiver allows travelers to make one change to their travel plans without change fees.
  Delta Air Lines is waiving the change fee for customers traveling to Mexico through May 4. New travel must originate on or before May 12.
  US Airways will waive the standard change fee, advance reservation and ticketing requirements for customers traveling to Mexico through April 30. Customers can move their itinerary up to seven days before or after the scheduled origination date, or apply the full value of the wholly unused tickets toward the purchase of a ticket to an alternate destination (new travel must originate within seven days of scheduled origination date).

Major tour operators such as Travel Impressions, GoGo, Apple and Funjet (just to name a few) are working diligently with their travel partners to accommodate changes. Just be patient though as there are literally hundreds of calls being placed so the hold time can be over an hour. One of our agents experienced a hold time of over 80 minutes to change travel plans for a client.

If you have returned in the last few days from Mexico and are experiencing flu-like symptoms, please call your health care provider immediately.

Do remember, this is a temporary situtation, one which will pass relatively soon we all hope. So if you are not planning to travel with in the next week to 2 weeks, hang in there. You may still be able to keep you travel plans as they are.

Also, we wish our friends in Mexico good health and a speedy recovery.

Adrienne Sasson, DS, CSS
Rubinsohn Travel - Virtuoso
The Pavilion
261 Old York Road - Suite 250
Jenkintown, PA 19046
Office: 215-886-5200, ext. 65
Tollfree: 1-800-501-8519, ext. www.atravelspecialist.com/
Blog: http:adrienne@rubinsohntravel.com>
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