NBC News – As people around the world canceled their trips because of fears of the new coronavirus, Ashley Henkel booked three.
Henkel, 20, is taking advantage of cheap flights to see North America. She lives in California’s Central Valley, but this summer she’ll be in Vancouver, New York City and Portland, Oregon.
A college student itching to travel, she’s one of many people staring the deadly virus in the face and saying, “Whatever.”
As flight schedules are scaled down and airline stocks plunge, carriers are offering deals that have put air travel within reach for people who usually can’t fly.
It’s a high-risk, high-reward trip, people say.
“As much of a joke my tweet may have seemed, I was being deadly serious,” Mulligan told NBC News.
Mulligan, 29, says he saved £300 to £400 on his trip in May to the Dominican Republic.
“I think the coronavirus is clearly something people need to be wary of, but I don’t plan on putting my life on hold because something is going around,” Mulligan said. He had planned to go on vacation anyway, and because cheap flights are now available, he said, booking on Tuesday made sense.
For Capri Nicole, 27, the discount flights offered something more meaningful than a getaway: a chance to see her grandma, who is sick with cancer, next week on her 71st birthday.
Next week, Nicole will travel from Atlanta to Connecticut, and she said she saved about $200, which put once unaffordable flights within reach.
“There’s sicknesses everywhere,” Nicole said. “I could get a disease today unrelated from the virus.”
Nicole says she isn’t worried about getting sick. “If I die, I die. I miss my family.”