David Oliver and Dawn Gilbertson | USA TODAY

USA TODAY

Major airlines have taken several steps to help travelers affected by or concerned about the coronavirus outbreak, but one lawmaker doesn't think they've done enough.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, on Tuesday sent a letter to the CEOs of American, United, Delta and other carriers urging them to immediately waive change and cancellation fees for all travelers.

Blumenthal's comments came a day before airline CEOs are scheduled to meet with Vice President Mike Pence in Washington to talk about the outbreak.

Blumenthal said the fee waivers issued by American, JetBlue, and Delta in the past few days are "welcome steps'' but too limited because they only cover travelers buying new plane tickets.

"Airlines should enable consumers to adjust their travel plans – regardless of when those decisions are made or when a passenger’s ticket was purchased,'' he said in the letter to American CEO Doug Parker.

Travelers should not have to weigh their health and safety against high fees during a public health crisis, Blumenthal said.

Ticket change fees are hefty, starting at $200 a person, and make changing a nonrefundable ticket prohibitive for many travelers.

"As the virus spreads, federal and state agencies continue to develop response standards, travel restrictions and warnings, and preventive measures,'' Blumenthal said in the letter. "In considering the dangers and risks of travel, Americans should not have to face the additional burden of flight cancellation or change fees."

American Airlines passenger Marcos Forgash wishes a broader change fee waiver was already in place. He was scheduled to fly from Dallas to Japan Tuesday on for a two-week vacation in the works since last year but canceled over the weekend after learning about the cancellation of museums, other attractions and festivals.

American does not have a waiver in place for Japan flights and has not canceled any Japan flying, so he wasn't eligible for a free change or refund.

American issued a credit for the flights after Forgash called but told him he will still need to pay a $250 change fee when he eventually rebooks the trip.

Forgash said he mentioned the new waiver American announced on Sunday to a customer service representative but was told it only applies to tickets purchased in the first half of March. He bought his in May 2019.

"This didn't make a lot of sense to me, as to why would anyone want to be planning a trip now versus before all this stuff started happening?'' he said.

American spokeswoman Shannon Gilson said Parker received Blumenthal's letter and will "continue to to closely monitor the situation and make adjustments to our operation, as we did in recently issuing travel waivers for Italy and South Korea."

Delta spokeswoman Lisa Hanna said the airline is aware of the letter and noted the airline's fee waiver for new tickets purchased for international flights, which was announced Monday.

"Internationally is where people are wanting to change/cancel their flights given COVID-19,'' she said in a statement. "In the meantime we will continue to monitor the situation closely and may make additional adjustments as the situation continues to evolve.''

And they are a big money maker for airlines. U.S. airlines collected $4.3 billion in change fees in the first nine months of 2019, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics. And that's with one of the industry's biggest players, Southwest Airlines, not charging change fees.

Blumenthal said questions from constituents worried about changing student trips to Italy prompted his please to airlines to temporarily change their policies.

"I am definitely hopeful, but we're talking about the airlines,'' he said. "Their practices are far from uniformly consumer friendly.''

Amtrak waives change fees due to coronavirus concerns

Amtrak is waiving change fees on all current or new reservations made before April 30 due to the new coronavirus, which has infected more than 92,200 people globally and killed more than 3,100.

There are 106 cases in the U.S., and six have died. The train service is not currently restricting any routes, unlike major U.S. airlines. But Amtrak's waiver comes on the heels of Jet Blue and American Airlines waiving domestic travel change fees.

If you'd like to change your reservation, log in to your account, visit "modify trip" on Amtrak's website, or find your reservation on your home screen in Amtrak's app. You may need to pay the difference if your new itinerary is more expensive than the original ticket you bought.

"We will continue to monitor the coronavirus situation closely and adjust this policy as necessary," Amtrak's waiver notice reads.

US hotels seeing lower occupancy; too soon to say if because of coronavirus

U.S. hotel occupancy rates were down the week of Feb. 16 to 22 year-over-year, ahead of the coronavirus outbreak beginning to surge in the U.S., according to data intelligence company STR.

Airport hotels in particular saw a 4.8% dip in occupancy

It's unclear if the coronavirus is the direct cause of the downturn at this juncture.

"One week of data is not sufficient for STR to make that correlation, especially considering last week was rather weak around the country in general — possibly due to extended vacations after Presidents Day," Jan Freitag, STR’s senior VP of lodging insights, said in a statement. Freitag added that STR does expect to see a coronavirus impact on U.S. hotel data and that the firm will be monitoring the data weekly.

U.S. hoteliers, including Hilton and Marriott, have offered waivers for travelers who may be affected by the novel coronavirus across the world.

Universal Orlando training employees amid Florida public health emergency

Amid the public health emergency declaration by Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida,

Universal Orlando is on high alert and is "ready to act if needed."

"The health and safety of our guests and team members is our top priority," Alyson Lundell, senior director of public relations at Universal Orlando Resort told USA TODAY. "We are in contact with health officials and others in our industry, and we are closely monitoring the situation. We are communicating with our team members and reinforcing our best-practice health and hygiene procedures. We are also educating them on basic preventive measures."

USA TODAY has reached out to Disney for more information on its plans for both Disney World and Disneyland.

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Coronavirus is changing everyday life across the US