What shall I do about this holiday?

[1981m]

Not AIBU but need speedy reply with advice.

Ds (5) was sick on Monday in the night (now Wednesday here in Uk), lots of sick. Kept him off school yesterday and had a sofa day. He was fine in himself mostly. Up and down. Lying down sometimes but also jumping around. Saying his heart was hurting. No other symptoms except being sick.

Wasn't sure what to give him food wise. He had toast with butter for b fast and no lunch. Bacon sandwich for dinner with bread and butter. Dh thinks silly to give this. Was a bacon sandwich wrong?

Anyway, ds sick again last night, tiny amount of sick. Then a further three times with just water and bile. Again no other symptoms.

The problem is we are going on a long haul holiday tomorrow morning. We are meant to get up at 5 am, drive for two hours to the airport, then do 7 hour flight! We don't know if we should cancel holiday or still go. We would loose the total price of the holiday to cancel £6,500. Or £200 per person to try and change dates on it with hotel provider. The flights look like they are non- transferable and we would loose the cost automatically. We don't have travel insurance.

Dh wants to go and reckons its just a stomach bug. He reckons if we stave ds today and on the flight it will be ok. Reckons its a 24 hour bug.

I am reluctant as worried he will be sick again in the night. Worried about having strange food in a hot place will just make him sick again and he will just want to rest all holiday. Think the holiday will be ruined with moany ds. Don't want to risk taking him on long flight if he's ill, could be a nightmare. But we stand to loose £6,500 if we don't.

Poor kid - seven hours on a plane sounds like the Middle East to me, Dubai? It will then be hot and uncomfortable when you get there, never mind the actual journey.

OP, you say you want to do the right thing, but I suspect the small print on your new insurance would not cover pre existing conditions I.e. your son's illness. To try and claim would be fraud. Also I think you'd need medical proof he couldn't travel so you would have to go to the GP.

You may wish to bear in mind a false claim will also impact your ability to get future insurance for your home, car and health. And yes, of course they could find out he was off school.

I'd be so annoyed at someone bringing a pukey child onto a plane. It's so selfish. Feel sorry for the people sat around you on the plane.

I agree...it is selfish and I'd be furious if I caught a stomach bug off someone on the plane there. In reality though, hardly anybody would throw away £6.5k and just not go...I wouldn't. I'd go and keep my fingers crossed
Sums it up, realistically...

*And no one was talking about re pat due to this how ridiculous

But if course broken backs and serious illness abroad only happen to people with insurance*

Of course. I never ever see any crowd funding pages begging for 20k to bring someone's body home because they thought they'd save a couple of hundred pounds on travel insurance and now the family can't find the money to do so. Accidents and serious illness can and do happen when you are anywhere in the world.

You MUST get travel insurance before you go. The main reason you need it is because if the costs of repatriation should one of you get very unwell/have an accident or die while abroad. This can be extremely expensive.

It can also come very the costs of medical care outside if EU which can also be very costly.

As you have discovered the other main reason is in case you have to cancel due to ill health.

You MUST get some travel insurance before you go. It is not very expensive usually. And next time you book you should buy travel insurance as soon as you book the holiday.

Most of us would never put ourselves in this situation because we would’ve bothered to get travel insurance

And if I was sat next to a puking child (or adult) on a plane I would be absolutely fuming and would complain to the flight attendants to move me somewhere else. Fucking selfish parents potentially ruining hundreds of other people’s holidays.

Sorry but I wouldn't take him on holiday because

• if he is ill it's going to be a terrible 7 hour journey for him
• he won't enjoy the holiday if he's ill
• what if it's something like appendicitis / serious infection?
• the risk of infecting others and ruing their holidays

I'd contact the airline and hotel and reschedule. Better to have a fab holiday later than risk a terrible one now. If it's going to cost too much to do this then you're going away in July anyway, so you'll still have a holiday!
Sorry, but in my opinion you should just suck it up and cancel / reschedule. I wouldn't be able to live with the mum guilt of making a bad decision which affects so many people if he's infectious / really ill.

I'd definitely fly if he's not sick again. I doubt any travel insurance would cover a holiday for four people because one member was sick a three times.

She ain't going to tell them that he's been sick though is she

You are aware that vomiting bugs can kill a severely immunocomprimised person?

You are aware that many many virus's are air bourne and do not require direct contact?

You are aware that plane air is recycled meaning virus's and bacteria spread much easier than in normal situations?

I am just speechless at the selfishness of all this.

My friend's son vomited on a plane and the entire plane had to be quarantined for several hours after they landed while my friend was questioned about where they'd been/what they'd been exposed to

There must have been more to it than that. E.g. they had been to a part of the world where there was a health scare or it was in the middle of a panic about some pandemic or other. If they quarantined every flight where someone was sick it would be no end of a faff.

My DD was once sick several times on a plane. Honestly - no previous symptoms she had been absolutely fine when we got on. However, she got up to visit the loo and the next thing I knew she was standing at the front of the plane while a stewardess held a bag for her to throw up in (she was about 9 at the time). Poor love threw up several more times on the plane and in the terminal building but was OK a few hours later so probably just something she ate in the airport. These things happen. Some of the people on the plane with us might have been unhappy but there was no way we could have predicted that or avoid it.

I have thrown up many times on planes (I went through a stage of being very airsick) and indeed still can be on occasion if I have had a night flight that involves a lot of circling before landing and not once has the plane ever been quarantined.

I would go personally just get some anti sickness tabs in the pharmacy.

Honestly who would know what any other passenger has that is contagious. 6.5 grand is a lot of money to throw away for a bit of sickness.

I can hear the pearls being clutched right now!

Or if you prefer, stay at home with DS and let the rest of your party travel, and you two follow in a couple of days.

We were on a flight back from Cyprus a couple of years ago, where 5 people were sick. When we landed, we were told we would need to stay on the plane while Bristol airport decided whether we'd need to be quarantined or not. We sat on the plane for at least another couple of hours (after an already 5 hour flight) at 2am, with the sound of vomiting, and some people understandably getting panicky at not being let off the plane. Eventually, we all had to fill in forms saying where we had stayed and agree to notify them if any of us were taken ill afterwards. Lots of tired, upset small children. There's no doubt that at least one person got on that plane knowing they were ill. Bloody selfish and dangerous.

My mum worked as a repatriation manager, bringing sick, injured or dead people home from abroad. She has seen families ripped apart by failure to buy travel insurance. Family homes remortgaged or sold to afford half a million pound medical bills. Let your experience be a lesson to you OP.

Just been a got bottled water, rehydration sachets, bananas, plain biscuits, calpol.

Will buy anti sickness at airport if he seems ill tomorrow still.

Now have travel insurance. Can't lose the price of this holiday unless absolutely have to so will cross our fingers and see what he's like in the morning. I won't lie and try and claim all our money back if he is. Will try and cancel before being a no show and loose the £200 per person (£800 total) from the flights from what I ve read. Hotel info says lose full amount or £50 per person to change. Could go in May half term.

I think plenty of people will be on that flight who aren't 100% and like people have said someone could get ill and be sick on the flight when they don't know they have a fever. With no other symptoms I don't think it's a bug.

Yes, it's dubai.

Keeping fingers crossed for you OP.
We’re off there in May so let us know how it is! Hope your son is way better 24 hours from now!

FGS it's LOSE not LOOSE. LOOSE is the opposite of TIGHT.which is what you are

We are usually the last minute insurance people, you rarely think something will happen to prior to travel but want cover for illness abroad etc. A couple of years ago my DH and I were going to a far off holiday. I had for some reason bought insurance at least 6 weeks in advance. Unusual but I think our trip was a bit complicated that time (multiple flights etc) so thought I had better get it. 2 weeks before we were due to go an immediate relative was rushed into hospital and received a very unexpected terminal diagnosis. It was touch and go and we obviously couldn't go on the holiday. The relative died less than 2 months later and it was such an awful time. We decided to claim back on the holiday because it was a large amount of money for us. It took months and months, we had to get hospital letters, doctor letters, letters form our work confirming the time off we took to visit the relative. We had long phone calls and forms and they basically said they were not going to give us the money back. Eventually we did. We lost a portion of the flight money. In the end getting the money back was helpful but it didn't change what a horrible horrible summer it was for our family. I have no advice about what you should do, you can read your child the best, just beware the insurance companies will be very thorough.

If you don't feel he is well enough to go tomorrow morning, have you checked the cost of one-way flights over the next few days? Is it possible for your or your DH a to go on ahead with DC2 and you could follow in a day or so once DS1 is feeling better? Then all return on the booked return flight?

If you don’t show up for the outward leg of a return flight, the return is automatically cancelled.

Sounds like you've made your decision, but I would postpone and suck up the cost of the replacement flights. Flights and/or holidays are no fun when you're ill. I also would be concerned in your shoes about this blowing up into something more serious. If he's been sick three times in two days and had no diarrhoea, it isn't noro, that's for sure.

Fingers crossed he will recover by the morning. My dd has had a few bugs like this where she perks up and then vomits again (can last a few days) but then suddenly make a speedy recovery. If he’s not sick for 24 hours I would be tempted to fly. When was the last time he was sick?

Stop feeding him stupid things.

Ugh, never fancied Dubai