Should I travel to Mexico City or lose out in £1500?
Michelle asked:
I am due to travel to mexico (starting in mexico city and finishing in cancun) at the beginning of June, should I go ahead because the flights (american airlines) and the tour (contiki) have not yet been cancelled therefore I would not be able to get a refund. I also have not yet got travel insurance, if the flights and tour cancels will I get a refund? I booked through STA travel and they are ATOL protected. I have contacted STA and they are giving me very little info!
I am due to travel to mexico (starting in mexico city and finishing in cancun) at the beginning of June, should I go ahead because the flights (american airlines) and the tour (contiki) have not yet been cancelled therefore I would not be able to get a refund. I also have not yet got travel insurance, if the flights and tour cancels will I get a refund? I booked through STA travel and they are ATOL protected. I have contacted STA and they are giving me very little info!
PLease please help as I am really worried!
Also do you think doctors would prescribe me tamiflu as a preventative medication or is there anywere I could buy it?
And I spoke to a doctor and a pharmacist who both advised AGAINST travelling to mexico
Thanks everyone for your answers! I really REALLY want to go to Mexico! As for the tamiflu I was thinking of taking it while I was over there eg. start the course when I leave Mexico City, so that if I am infected that I have the best possible chances as the meds are most effective within 48 hours of contamination. I know that it would be silly to take them a week or 2 before because its not a vacinne..
Audrey
July 21st, 2009 at 10:45 am
Carl
Swine Flu… shouldn’t go regardless of your refund. I’m from Texas and schools are being shut down.
The 28 original cases in New York were because of a school trip to Mexico.
Not a good idea
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 am
Tamara
hmm, I don’t think that you might wan’t to go to mexico right now…
July 25th, 2009 at 2:05 am
Joann
That is a month away. the incidence of new cases is dwindling…this whole thing is likely to be over before then. I live in Mexico, and believe me, the international press is blowing this way out of proportion. There are about 2500 people sick with suspected swine flu in Mexico (not confirmed)…out of a population of over 130,000,000…a tiny percentage. Mexico City is taking all kinds of precautions right now…the rest of Mexico is just life as normal.
July 27th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Lydia
Well the beginning of june is pretty far away still, and it’s pretty much under control down here. I live in mexico city, and although I wouldn’t recommend coming to the city for vacation (everything is closed right now, museums, theaters, schools, malls etc.) I would still go to the beach. If you wash your hands and take the proper precautions as in any case of any sickness you lower your chances of getting it greatly. Everyone is wearing masks down here, and I would say the situation is pretty under control. By june I would suspect that everything will be cleared up. So my advice as someone living here in mexico, would be to absolutely not cancel your vacation, just wait and see that everything will be fine by then. They are giving you very little info because june is a kind of far away and no one can predict the future. Good Luck
July 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Martin
There is NO Health RISK in the Cancun area at all. There are NO Travel Alerts are issued for this area at all. Cancun is open and doing business as usual. The strong swine type of flu is all over the world now, not just Mexico City. The W.H.O. says, “To restrict travel would be useless and not helpful”. E-mail me directly in Cancun at I have lived here 8 years. Anyone that says Mexico is not safe is an uninformed fear-monger and not a very smart person. They are only out to spread fear without knowing the facts, plain and simple.
August 1st, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Philip
Hola. You’d be silly to cancel your plans. If things get worse, ALL tour companies will have to offer refunds, so you won’t lose out on any money. I would just wait and see what happens. Its still a month away!
Really, its not as bad as the media has made it!
And if I could just say — if you do start taking tamiflu now, and another virus of more serious nature breaks out, your body will not be able to resist the new strain. Doctors and medical professional always err on the side of caution - if they told you to go and you got sick, they’d have some s’plaining to do!
August 2nd, 2009 at 6:13 am
Stephanie
see if you can change your flight to arrive in cancun. just don’t go to mexico city - even if you won’t die or get sick, everything’s closed there anyways.
and yes, you can get tamiflu in advance and bring it with you. i have heard some insurance companies don’t cover this and it can cost about $150 to $200, but it’s well worth it, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
even if you got sick, you wouldn’t die. if you have health insurance and you have tamiflu, and a good number to reach your doctor at, and even maybe know where the local hospitals are where you’ll be staying, you’ll be absolutely fine.
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Nicole
If you go get travel insurance!
August 4th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Loretta
Neither the doctor nor the pharmacist are the ones who will be coming here and/or losing their money. It’s YOUR decision to make. I agree with everyone that this will be most probably forgotten by the time you come here. Everyone is making such a big fuss about it and things aren’t nearly as bad as they make them seem. If you take basic precautions you’ll be ok. The only bad thing is that everything’s closed right now, so you wouldn’t be able to see much of the attractions of the city which would be a pity, but I’m sure everything will be open again by then.
Taking tamiflu as a prophylactic wouldn’t be an intelligent thing to do, this will only make your body to create resistence against this medicine and it WILL NOT heal you should you catch the virus later on.
August 5th, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Gladys
As usual you should listen to my old friend Charlie, she’s not a “Top Contributor” for nothing. I live right here in the city. The number of new cases has leveled off and is beginning to decline significantly at this moment. The government is planning to re-open the restaurants by the end of the weekend and the schools and universities by Tuesday.
The media originally have reported that there have been 1500 cases and 200 deaths, that is totally deceiving. Only 120 cases have been positively identified as the “swine flu virus” and of those only 8 people are actually confirmed to have died from the virus, as Charlie said “blown out of all proportion!” (lets not forget that over 35,000 die in the USA, EVERY SINGLE YEAR from ordinary flu!)
So to recap: 1) You have a whole month to check the news and make sure there is going to be no problem, as I said its already receding! 2) There have been no cases reported in Cancun at all! (personally I would visit Cancun even if people were dropping like flies, its that beautiful, but then I’m a little crazy…..) and 3) Mexican doctors are excellent and they have lots of stockpiles of Tamiflu, if you needed it you could probably arrange through any hotel to get a shot in a couple of hours for a very reasonable price.
(of course like your doctor and pharmacist, everybody freaks out and says “oooooh don’t go there! Everybody is dying!” My family writes me everyday from Canada “are you guys OK? Are you dead yet?” Jesus! Eight confirmed deaths from the virus in a city of 23,000,000 - give me a break! More people here have died from lightning strikes or been run over by taxis…………)