Unless you passed out from exhaustion yesterday afternoon and just woke up you are aware that the country / world has been turned on its side a little bit in the last day. I wrote a post on Monday that said what I fear most with the coronavirus is fear itself. Man does that seem so long ago and so outdated. Don't get me wrong I still think fear will be bigger than the virus itself but I think everyone has a little bit of fear or doubt these days. So much has changed from then to now. As COVID-19 spreads adjustments have been made and some are pretty drastic so let's take a look.
Even though it feels like everything has changed that isn't really the case, most people still went to work today and most kids still went to school. For some reason it still feels different today though. Here is what has been implemented in the last day or so:
I am sure there are more changes to come over the next few days/weeks.
I canceled my March Madness trip to Vegas earlier in the day yesterday, before all of this broke. The writing seemed to be on the wall and I wanted to get my calls in before it escalated too much further. I expect today's phone lines to be extremely busy so I am glad I did. Now I have a pretty decent sized Frontier credit I need to use within 90 days, which seems pretty archaic at this point, but we shall see how that goes. I plan on booking it as far out as possible when things should be settled down.
What does this mean for travel as a whole? My personal belief is that any travel that is not essential should be canceled. It isn't because I think people that travel will almost certainly get sick or anything like that. But it does put people in a close proximity to one another which isn't the best thing right now. And it makes tracking movements of people and who they came in contact with, should they get sick, that much more difficult.
I am not naive enough to think that these changes will stop the spread of COVID-19 and that isn't what this is about. The goal of these changes is to slow the spread of it so that the medical system can handle the influx of patients. If we went on as normal the spread would grow exponentially and hospital beds would be overfilled like they are in Italy and Asia. Hopefully these changes keep the spread to levels that our hospitals, doctors and nurses can handle. Most people will recover from the disease without issue but if the hospitals are over capacity then people that need medical attention to pull through could slip through the cracks. That is something we can all help with by being responsible.
I don't have a crystal ball but I will take some educated guesses. Share your thoughts / predictions in the comments below.
It appears a recession is upon us. How long it will last is anyone's guess but you can not shut down this many things and restrict travel and not have one. I assume there will be government assistance programs to help businesses that are affected, especially the over-leveraged airline industry.
Travel will crawl to a standstill over the next few weeks / months. I think most people will cancel travel that is non essential in the near future. My Europe trip in May is looking like a pipe dream at this point. I am still holding out hope for our Hawaii trip at the end of July though.
Hanging out with friends and family will be somewhat restricted for the next few weeks, especially visiting anyone who is elderly. These are decisions we will likely make not out of fear for ourselves but out of respect for others.
Since the main topic of this site is miles & points I figured I should have a section based on it. In the past recessions have led to increased welcome offers and easy points. Will that happen once again or are banks too wise to our game these days? Only time will tell but I think it will fall somewhere in the middle. My guess is that the annoying application rules will stay the same but offers will be elevated to entice new card holders.
It is a pretty safe bet that our accounts will get a healthy boost over the next few months if not simply from cancellations themselves. That is one of the perks of using points, the lenient cancellation policies. I of course booked a non refundable stay in Prague since the points options were too expensive. That looks like a $300 error on my part.
Even though our balances will likely grow from cancellations and refunds I think earning will take a hit. We won't be spending as much for a little while. With the lack of travel, dining out and activities happening over the next few weeks / months our natural spending patterns will dip. Earning points through gift cards and other avenues will likely slow down for many as well as they want to make less frequent trips to stores etc. The fact that many good points earning options online have dried up hits a little harder now too.
Having said that, this too shall pass and things will be back to normal before we know it.
I went to Walmart last night at 10 PM because they showed stock of some hand sanitizer and wipes etc. that have been near impossible to find. There were some other things we needed as well and to be honest I was curious to check the pulse of the place. The streets where mostly a ghost town on the way to the store and the store itself was pretty empty. Both the shelves and in terms of customers. Most anything dealing with paper or cleaning was gone. There was a somber feel in the store overall, I can't really explain it but it was unlike anything I have experienced before. They did end up having a new shipment of hand sanitizer and people swarmed the workers like junkies looking for a fix, it was quite the sight to see.
Like my Walmart shopping trip this is a weird place we find ourselves in right now. This is unlike anything I have experienced in my lifetime. I would say 9/11 is the closest thing to it because of the uncertainty and doubt we feel right now in the recent aftermath of these changes. This is different though because it involves the whole world and it is unlikely to go away anytime soon. There will be vaccines made and treatments developed that will reduce the numbers greatly but that is a year or two off. Until that time we are left wondering how do we handle this and what does the future look like? The truth is no one knows at this point but if we work together we will figure it out, that is something (the only thing?) I can guarantee.
Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author's alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred is an MtM favorite for racking up huge points. From the start, earn a welcome offer of 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points (after $5K spend in first 3 months) with a $95 annual fee.
Additional Card Benefits:
All Rights Reserved © 2024
