Culture

While Boomers Hoard Toilet Paper, Millennials Are Making Memes About Taking “Corona Holidays”

"$200 international flight AND I could die? Sign me up."

by Michelle Rennex  11 March 2020
coronavirus holiday memes

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As the number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases continue to grow across the globe, some countries have shut off their borders to help prevent the spread of the disease.

But many airlines are flinging flight deals left, right and centre to make up for the decline of bums on airplane seats. As companies begin to cancel work-related travel, festivals start to postpone or totally scrap events, and weary holidayers ready to drop their trips, airlines are scrambling to make up for the lost coin.

Despite travel insurance generally not covering pandemics and epidemics as reasons for cancellations, people continue to buy up travel insurance for their upcoming vacations. As it stands, most trips will only be refunded if countries are declared totally off-limits by government bodies, if travel insurance was bought before the announcement.

However this information hasn’t stopped deal-hungry millennials. As the toilet paper crisis and the rush to stockpile takes over multiple countries, younger generations are taking it all in their stride. Unconcerned with preparing for the doomsday-type event that boomers seem so hard-pressed by, millennials and Gen-Z are only focused on one thing — dirt cheap flights.

Fortune reports that coronavirus could cost airlines up to $113 billion in lost revenue thanks to a decrease in demand and increase in cancellations. So, it’s unsurprising that in response to the growing COVID-19 coronavirus fears, airlines are offering some of the cheapest flights they’ve ever advertised.

Aussie airlines like Virgin are offering direct return flights from Sydney to Los Angeles for a measly $766 — only a month out from the date of travel. This is a route that often goes for more than double this price during most times of the year.

But it’s not only Australian flights that have been slashed, airfares from the US to Europe are almost the cheapest they’ve ever been. Large airlines like American, United, Delta and Air France are currently offering round-trip fares from New York to Paris for the cheap price of $285.

As a result, younger generations have begun poking fun at the idea of taking up these super cheap flights for “coronovacations” and “corona holidays”. For a lot of young people battling the increasing cost of living and general life responsibilities like student loans and car debts, these low coronavirus airfares may be one of the rare chances they have at a proper holiday.

Plus the grim running joke of “wanting to die” plays on the boomer fears of the “deadly” coronavirus, despite the illness only having a 3.4% fatality rate.

So when you combine young adults wanting to travel with having no money, hating boomers, the enticing concept of being quarantined from human interaction for 14 whole days, and wanting to die… well, you get a whole heap of highly-relatable coronavirus holiday memes.