To think we might not be going on holiday next April after all?

[Hoardernomore]

We stupidly booked a holiday to France for about a fortnight after Brexit. I didn’t even consider brexit at the time, I just considered ds’s Easter holidays. It’s to Disneyland Paris and we’ve been waiting to take the children for ages. We’ve only paid the deposit on the hotel (stopping in Disneyland hotel so expensive if we end up not being able to go) but have paid for the flights.

We are idiots.

Would we be best to cut our losses and not pay the balance on the hotel and book for another time?

Dear Peregrina I have no more faith in the politicians than the next person. I have lived in 3 european countries and I have travelled to about 30 countries around the world and 99% of the time getting a visa is no big deal.
The original question was whether someone should cancel their holiday.
I would say on the balance of probability no.
There may be some short term chaos but ultimately it will be no biggie.

I'm hoping it'll be like the much publicised 1999/2000 computer bug. Nothing happened and we all carried on as before.

Have you read the thread? If it was like the Y2K Millenium bug, in the main, nothing would happen because people had already spent about 4 years working on the problem. So where were the people working on the Brexit options prior to May triggering A50? Where are these people now? Customs infrastructure, aviation agreements? Do tell, I think we would all like to know.

99% of the time getting a visa is no big deal
Where do you get a visa from to travel to an EU country?

Well, I thought getting Turkish and Indian visas a hassle in both cases, which is why I mentioned them.

I didn't want to take time off work to go to London and still risk not getting to the head of the queue for the Indian visa, hence what amounted to paying double for one.

DIL has also had times when she has had to send off her passport to get visas. Fortunately she has dual nationality, so can afford to have one passport stuck in some Embassy somewhere, while they process the application.

Yes, anecdote is not data but those are the examples which spring to my mind immediately. Maybe we were just unlucky and fall into the 1%.

Has anyone who believes there will be no problem addressed the issue of flights being grounded other than to say "of course it won't be a problem"?

Has anyone who says it won't be a problem got any facts, i.e. seen something in print which is legally binding?

We have seen Thomas Cooks terms and conditions which don't tell us it will all be OK, but makes provision for it not to be OK.

Getting a visa can be a major hassle. I tried to get one for Australia. I had lots of forms to fill in, had to print my bank statements off to prove I had enough money, had to travel to another city for a private doctor's appointment (huge expense), get signatures etc. Sent my passport off with the forms and fees and heard nothing back, only to hear weeks later that the Australian Embassy had lost my passport. So then I had to get a new passport and never even went to Australia in the end.

None of my expenses were ever refunded. The embassy just denied losing it all.

I think the answer is: Disney/Cyprus/Italy/Spain don't want that to happen so it won't.

(I don't think they understand that we are stepping out of hundreds of agreements governing aviation, trade, insurance etc, and unless we replace them very quickly and very thoroughly - which hopefully we will - everything will ground to a halt whatever Disney/Cyprus/Italy/Spain want.)

I used to have 2 passports because having stamps from some countries prevented me from traveling to some other countries and having to send a passport for visas could take weeks.
There are currently talks about a 'bare bones' situation for flights which may or may not be geared towards holidays but more to essential business travel and essentials like medicines. These are only talks and could fail.
The UK needs to understand that the rest of the world does not need the UK more than the UK needs the rest of the world. The UK is a small island, roughly the same GDP as France and about half of the GDP of Germany. This is not 'doing the UK down', it is simply fact.
You could ask the UK government, since it had a vast empire 150 years ago, why is it struggling now to even hold the 4 countries of the UK and NI together. How incompetent is that?

The other thing people don’t seem to get is that say as a very basic example the aviation issues cost us £27 billion each to sort out.
That will cost each EU nation £1 billion and The UK £27 billion
Who would be more desperate then?
AND as for saying w each still travel to non EU countries well first we would have to cross EU airspace and even if that were possible it’s THE EU that has flight/travel agreements with The USA, we don’t have any as an individual country
It has just taken 3 countries (USA, Canada,Mexico) a whole year to agree milk exports . How the hell are 28 countries supposed to come to an agreement on the hundreds or even thousands of agreements that need to be negotiated by next March?
We have NO IDEA what Brexit will look like and this is why I can’t understand people who voted leave and jumped into the abyss. Surely now we are getting some sort of idea what leaving the EU will mean even they must see we need to re-evaluate?
Or maybe they would rather just sit there and say “ They won’t let it happen” without any evidence or even clarifying who “they” are.
Some of the comments on this thread which show the blind and totally unjustified faith people have in our ability to come out if the EU without massive damage to our country has brought us to this point
We will actually be ok even in the worst case scenario for a variety of reasons but I do fear for many groups in our society if this happens

Before I got my UK passport I was unable to travel to France without a Visa (2 day trip to London) so I did not go.

Brits have NO IDEA how privileged they are to have access to all of the EU's customs deals with the rest of the world.

And thus what they risk throwing away.

@fadingfast I agree! I love the way they say no one knows what will hapoen, er yes we do that's why they want a deal?!

@ hoppinggreen Totallu agree, there's a blind send of entitlement in many of these responses.

Peregrina, yes I posted earlier what the government have written “in print” to say what will happen after Brexit in the event of no deal.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/travelling-to-the-eu-with-a-uk-passport-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/travelling-to-the-eu-with-a-uk-passport-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

@IamPickleRick

Peregrina, yes I posted earlier what the government have written “in print” to say what will happen after Brexit in the event of no deal.

This is about passports and it mentions visas in passing.
Do you have anything to say planes will not be grounded? Because it doesn't matter if you have a visa or when your passport expires if there are no planes, trains or ferries.

And what have our Gov't, our air regulator the CAA, and the EU written 'in print' Pickle about UK aviation operations on 29 March 2019 23.01 and thereafter?

Maybe these published documents are tactical moves in our negotiations? I am sure eu will not want to stop British tourism for their economies sake.

Here it is (govt advice) for anyone who wants it:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/flights-to-and-from-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal/flights-to-and-from-the-uk-if-theres-no-brexit-deal

Yeah right, tactical moves? FFS.

I am sure eu will not want to stop British tourism for their economies sake.
FFS when will Brits get it into their heads that the EU market is MUCH BIGGER than the UK
and the EU WILL NOT drop the Four Freedoms to suit internal Tory Party bickering.

I am sure that a lot of Spaniards would be delighted to no longer have to cover the EHIC medical costs of drunken Brits on their beaches
let alone the cost of looking after thousands of British Pensioners who live in the sunny climes.

German Car makers already export more to China (at lower cost because left hand drive) than they do to the UK
The four freedoms are more important to them than pandering to selfish Brits

Why not? Business is like a game of poker.

Oh Jesus. You're not on the bloody Apprentice!

Sb74
In the words of Boris Johnston Fuck Business

If the business leaders had been listened to,
Article 50 would never have been triggered
in fact the Referendum would never have been run
and the omnishambles of the Brexit Bickering would have been stamped on long ago

The Tourism and freight and all other industries have been warning of the risks for many months
but its all project fear

bellacaledonia.org.uk/2018/06/27/the-us-embassy-on-brexit/

Worth watching for people that believe these incredibly complex negotiations are 'like a game of poker'

It's attitudes like that that have got us into this ridiculous mess.