[Travel] Covid/Holiday 2021 Mumsnet Question #56576574

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Book a holiday now and you're basically just helping replenish a travel company's bottom line, in exchange for a voucher that you may or may not be able to redeem at some unspecified point in the future. Not best use of anyone's family funds in the current climate I'd humbly suggest

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

What do you mean by "opening up" though?

I think it's going to be a real patchwork of different measures for different places, possibly changing at short notice too.

The UK "opening up", ie essentially saying "you can hop on a plane and go on holiday" is not much good if, for example:

- the place you want to go to will not permit non-nationals to travel directly there
- you can travel to your destination but need to spend 14 days isolated before you can start your holiday proper
- you need to spend £100+ per person for a test in each direction and money is tight for your family of four
- you would need to quarantine upon return, you can't work from home and you can't have any more time off work

We're relatively lucky in that we could stump up the cash for tests if needed, and we could quarantine upon return - I work from home, and we have booked dates such that the rest of the family have sufficient time before return to work/school - but a lot of people may not be so fortunate.

As mentioned above Florida is open and the Parks are planning on European guests from the end of May at the moment and are ramping up preparations for it as are airlines such as Delta - Virgin are bringing back 1000 crew who had been furlough/made redundant.

The 14 day quarantine on arrival is nothing more than PR to say we’ve done something - look at the places that have been blocked, the majority of the destinations havent had direct flights for months, it won’t be in place for long.

Dubai was done out of spite given what was happening.

A PCR test maybe needed, but I’m not even sure by July that will be needed for USA.

Maybe I’m being overly optimistic.

 

[swd40]

Just spied that on their website regarding the new dates.

Them being them, asked via the live chat, and they couldn't confirm it will get automagically extend.

So have had to raise a complaint case against the eVoucher number just to bloody ask.

Would rather have it in writing/email from them, before believing they will get round to updating all the existing ones due to expire.

Their technical failure in the first place, that they issued the voucher.

 

[Napper]

Keep the faith

Reckon be ok for a getaway come July

 

[Chicken Run]

25k with a lot of health workers who have already been vaccinated given free tickets

Sent from my SM-G977N using Tapatalk

That’s brilliant, [emoji106] The Goat loves a Super Bowl


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[nicko31]

We have flights booked for Florida for July into August, but I'd put the chance of being on them at something like 20/80 right now.

Essentially for most people to be able to holiday, including travelling direct from A to B (ie not "quarantining" in a safe country for 7, 10 or 14 days en route), then you're going to want:

- No need to provide negative test (yes, yes - some can and will do this, but for a typical working family of four, that's quite an expense) on the way out.
- No need to quarantine upon arrival (going for two weeks in the sun doesn't really work if you have to spend 7, 10 or 14 nights in a hotel room first)
- No need to provide negative test on the way back (see above)
- No need to quarantine upon return (many people need to get back to work, or, hopefully kids to school etc)

Yes, there will be people who could easily deal with some of those inconveniences, but plenty couldn't.

This is a reminder for me to book a contingency house or cottage in this country before they all go!

Express Test at Gatwick were charging £240 for a family for 4 for PCR tests, if you had to do it on the return its £500 ish then.

Seems workable for a mid/long haul trip which is gonna be circa £5k anyway, not so great for quick week in the Med

 

[dsr-burnley]

Express Test at Gatwick were charging £240 for a family for 4 for PCR tests, if you had to do it on the return its £500 ish then.

Seems workable for a mid/long haul trip which is gonna be circa £5k anyway, not so great for quick week in the Med

My US flight was about £300 return cheaper than normal, so that would cover the cost of a test with room to spare.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

See you in the Crab Inn

Could do, or we could meet up in Parkhurst.

 

[Balders]

Why not? I'd have thought that countries that rely on tourism will want to welcome visitors from a country where 80-90% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated.

The "Silver Bullet" here is whether the Virus does suppress transmission and very early signs are encouraging. If it does, then I would expect Outbound Travel to open up quicker than currently expected.

However, I believe the Government aren't going to do anything rash that may compromise their Vaccination Programme and estimates of 70%-80% of full vaccinations may be needed before we are allowed to leave the Country to holiday.

Even if we get to the magic %, if the vaccine doesn't suppress transmission, Countries who are behind our programme will probably also protect their own Vaccination Programme by still restricting their borders for tourism. IF the vaccine does suppress transmission, I suspect these Countries will open up sooner.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

On the other hand, if I visit when I have been vacccinated it becomes less relevant whether the americans know which of their people have been vaccinated - as long as a lot of them have.

I've got Aer Lingus flights to Milwaukee (Chicago actually, going on by train) a

.

I did that trip - before going on up to Green Bay - I really enjoyed Milwaukee - would love to go back there.

 

[dazzer6666]

What do you mean by "opening up" though?

I think it's going to be a real patchwork of different measures for different places, possibly changing at short notice too.

The UK "opening up", ie essentially saying "you can hop on a plane and go on holiday" is not much good if, for example:

- the place you want to go to will not permit non-nationals to travel directly there
- you can travel to your destination but need to spend 14 days isolated before you can start your holiday proper
- you need to spend £100+ per person for a test in each direction and money is tight for your family of four
- you would need to quarantine upon return, you can't work from home and you can't have any more time off work

We're relatively lucky in that we could stump up the cash for tests if needed, and we could quarantine upon return - I work from home, and we have booked dates such that the rest of the family have sufficient time before return to work/school - but a lot of people may not be so fortunate.

Exactly this (hence my thinking on smallish ‘island nations’ for anything I’m booking at the moment, slanting towards those that are already pretty much fully open, are already welcoming Brits and don’t have inbound quarantine requirements). Like you I’d be happy to take a test before travelling, on arrival and to isolate on return if I had to as it wouldn’t impact me that much being retired, so with everything changeable or refundable in addition it’s a couple of punts worth taking.