AIBU to be sickened by the attitude towards stranded Brits

[millerjane]

"They saw this coming so they should've planned accordingly"
"well I cancelled my holiday..."
"They should stay put we have enough on our plates"

My relative had a hellish journey home from NZ (over 56 hours to get home). She would have been stranded had she not bought a ticket and defied the orders of her company to hold station and wait for Head Office to make a decision. She's a young girl straight out of university. Have some empathy.

She is now helping elderly neighbours with food and medication if that makes a difference (it shouldn't).

I have sympathy for:

People who were already on holiday AND had been for a long time eg. gappers, months long holiday of a lifetime, round the world cruises BUT my sympathy only extends to them if they did not make every available effort to get home as soon as the situation became clearer.

People who were working abroad and were financially or morally “handcuffed” to their employers until such a decision was made to close etc.

I have no sympathy for:

People that departed on holiday after the virus made it to Europe.

I feel sorry for people stuck abroad, but I do struggle to understand those who chose to continue with cruises.

When did the foreign office start advising against all but essential travel to anywhere? Was it mid March?

The foreign office did advise early the week before last to get home, and that it could get difficult to return if people didn't. I think it was the 17th March that that announcement was made - haven't checked. (Though some people would not have been aware if they were off the beaten track with no internet of course. ) Things did change very quickly indeed last weekend - eg countries giving 48 or 72 hrs notice that they were closing to transit.

"Sitting out CV in Australia or here makes no difference. " I think for the year long visa holders it does - I was reading that some have now lost jobs as Aus closes down bars etc, and have little money. Not sure if the hostels are closing as well. At home they could live with parents - much cheaper. Some are only 18-19 yrs old. I had no idea airlines don't have to refund the money if the flight is cancelled but can offer a voucher - am I naive, is that absolutely standard?

The airlines have no money to refund. Most airline industry employees are on reduced or no pay at the moment.

So she's had the virus already then? Because that's the only thing the unreliable test can tell her

The socially responsible thing to do would be to self isolate. Properly. And stay away from vulnerable and elderly people. And you should be telling her that if she can't work it out for herself.

She wouldn't have been anywhere near them in NZ so why on earth would they need her now?

It's a really hard call to make.

I was due to go skiing to France for a long weekend with friends on 12th March. Two friends dropped out leaving two of us still pretty convinced we were going. It was only when we sat there about to organise the taxi to the airport that we realised that we definitely didn't want to get sick in France or worse stuck there in lockdown. I'm afraid to say that spreading the virus didn't appear as a high consideration- probably because it hadn't been mentioned much on the government announcements at that time.

We turned out to be right - France went into lockdown two days later and the ski slopes closed - but it was pretty galling to have to lose everything that we had paid. Travel company refused to refund anything - even the unused ski passes.

I think non essential flights should have been closed down a lot earlier- the fact they weren't was - I believe - a very poor decision to try to protect the travel industry. Perhaps these situations wouldn't have arisen if tour operators had let people move their holidays to different dates a bit earlier.

I still have limited sympathy for those stuck abroad if they chose to go on holiday in the last two weeks, particularly if they have access to food and are in reasonable accommodation.

I think the FCO hadn't helped with its wishy washy on-the-fence advice.

It’s 100 percent horrible of people

My parents are stuck in New Zealand, they went for 6 weeks for a once in a life time style holiday. They’re now renting, not earning, both high risk stuck indoors. I miss them so much :( I still live at home with my dd, they were also my help so I could work ect, so haven’t been able to start although doubt I would of been able to anyway under these circumstances.

People should not judge at all! My parents and me had no idea what would happen when they left!

One problem was no airline or insurance could afford to cover the cost. And people flew because they had paid.

stcharlotte I do think the foreign office made it clear on 17th March that anyone not coming back straight away was taking a risk of not being able to get back. But I don't know how easy it would have been to switch your flight to an earlier one then, or whether you could have got a refund to pay for a different flight if short of funds.

Then places announcing over last weekend that they would be closing to transit shortly really changed the position for people travelling east to west (not sure about the other direction).

Breastfeeding worries - why didn't they change flights to come back earlier? It wasn't hard to rearrange flights three weeks ago and everything locking down was obviously going to happen three weeks ago. As I highlighted, Italy locked down three years ago. I predicted my country locking down about a week before Italy locked down.

As I said, I do have sympathy for individuals but I struggle to see why the government should be bailing them out when they decided to continue a holiday against advice!

Because other countries started cancelling the flights. The world didn't sync and say from X date flights will stop.

Nobody really communicated. People were turning up at the airport to find out the one half of their journey was cancelled.
And that the lay over airport now wanted a hospital deflation saying that travellers were Corona free. Which only lasted 3 days. But the soonest appointment was 5 days away.

What also seems to have happened is that prices for some flights then went up - there were stories on the twitta that they went up dramatically - which some people just could not afford. (presumably even less so if cancelled flights weren't refunded in full, as people were reporting)

Some people deserve no sympathy whatsoever.
This hasn’t happened overnight, so should hardly be a surprise to some.

I feel sorry for all those trapped abroad. Because of work, because of holiday. Whether they are there through absolutely no fault of their own or made the wrong decision on a last minute holiday for whatever reason.

I know someone trapped in Europe who cant get back to her children half a world away because her employer wouldn't let her fly. Being trapped away from your family, your friends and your home at a time like this is dreadful for anyone, no matter their level of culpability.

I started a thread 3 weeks ago asking if people still planned to travel over Easter. Quite a few people had absolutely no intention of changing their plans despite already alarming signs of this spreading rapidly. I suspect if many airlines and countries had not stopped travel many more people would be stranded abroad right now. The idea that anyone would have gone ahead with their travel plans knowing what was happening, particularly older people going on cruises knowing what the risks might be is just staggering.

I think the FCO hadn't helped with its wishy washy on-the-fence advice.

I agree but at some point people need to use common sense and take some personal responsibility instead of blindly trusting those in authority to look out for them. Those in authority look after those at the top like them in big business first (travel companies, airlines, insurers) and ordinarily folk like us are way down the list.

I've been an expat too long to have any trust in the UK government helping. I've seen them refuse to help too often. I was shocked they got people out if Wuhan. I suspect they only did because all other countries did and they were shamed into it.

why didn't they change flights to come back earlier? It wasn't hard to rearrange flights three weeks ago and everything locking down was obviously going to happen three weeks ago.

With the best will in the world if e.g. every Brit on holiday in Australia had had perfect foresight and had tried to rearrange flights plans three weeks ago it would still be a mess and many would still have ended up stranded...there simply isn't the spare capacity or flex on some routes to cater for thousands suddenly trying to return "off schedule" so to speak.

..and some places actually have shut borders overnight.

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