Government chartering planes

[percheron67]

Surely I am not being unreasonable to deplore the Government spending 75 million on charter planes to bring back (a) people who are travelling and had plenty of time to return home and (b) foolish people who left the country after the Covid warnings.? The money would have better spent in defences for our NHS staff. I think that anyone who travelled regardless of the warnings we ALL had should shift for themselves.

My sister and her husband went to Tasmania to see family. They checked the Government travel advice and at no point did it say do not travel. They were checking back regularly and three quarters way into their long length break all hell was let lose by the announcement to come home. As soon as the government said come home the airlines started cancelled their flights. Then Australia started to put quarantine measures in place. Then Tazmania followed suit saying that people would be deported off the island and not allowed to stay where they were living after a certain date even if by staying 24 hours longer they could fly from Australia on the same day and not quarantine for another 14 days there (and miss the flights the airline wanted to put them on). If my sister had kept to her rearranged flight she would be stuck over their. It took a week of liaison with our MP and a few £1000 for them to get back. In an email she was sent by the MP they admitted that they hadn’t realised the scale of the problem. They estimate between 500,000 and 700,000 people have been caught up in this world wide.
That’s a lot of stupid people by your thinking.. The government have had to work with other governments to open up set transit hubs to get people home. Information in all this time has been minimal - they don’t appear to have had much to give other than ‘look on the Facebook page our commission has set up’ - probably due to things changing by the hour.
Unless you have been caught up in all this (my niece who has been working to get things sorted at this end has really been through the mill) you are only seeing a very small part of the issue, so yes, YABU.

A lot of the comment here is simply demonstrating hindsight is twenty twenty/ it’s easy to be wise after the event.

Looking specifically at Brits the Australia/New Zealand Many backpackers, retirees, those able to take long breaks who are now caught up in this probably travelled out well over a month ago, quite possibly two or more.

Looking back at where I was just six weeks ago whilst some of the places en-route to the likes of Australia may have had local restrictions but the flights were operating normally and were pretty full. Very little was being said certainly officially, in either Australia or the U.K. about the consequences of the contagion really ramping up outside Asia (even though we are well aware now that it was already starting).

AFAIK It was only about four weeks ago that some european airlines began to change schedules, cut flights..still no major thoughts/announcements about Aus/NZ having major problems as I recall it but capacity had started to be taken out of the networks that serve that part of the world.....ticket prices started to go up..

So the question some people were asking themselves was should they cut short their holiday down under when nobody was shouting “fire” locally or in the U.K. (i.e. the FCO). It was going to cost thousands to get new tickets home and the insurers would not pay out.

I think may people were possibly getting uneasy but assumed since they had paid for travel insurance and the mood music from home was just wash your hands whilst singing happy birthday that all would be OK.

Couple of weeks back, or even less, finally the restrictions kick in, in some places very rapidly with very little warning...the FCO finally wakes up...by which time more airlines have cut back and there’s even less capacity to get people out.

Having been involved in one flight bringing people back from the Far East and having heard some stories many of those stranded weren’t feckless, were not daft, they got caught out by the lack of urgency being displayed by one government and the very fast changing restrictions put in place by others.

If it was so obvious 6 weeks ago, why didn't the official guidance not to travel change then? Oh right, yes, because it wasn't.

I saw it coming, didn't book a last minute holiday I'd been planning. If I'd already booked it, and govt guidance didn't tell me not to travel, I'd probably still have gone.

Hindsight is 20/20.

YANBU. It was clear that this was the way things were headed in January. People have had plenty of time to come back before the flights started getting cancelled.

It feels like the "stranded" people are much like those who go on holiday without insurance, and then expect a quick phonecall to the British Embassy will sort everything out.

@clareOclareO

It was clear that this was the way things were headed in January

Where is the evidence this was clear?

To be fair, my friend was in Australia (dual passport) to assist with parents. He kept his eye on both UK and Australian news.

The warning signs were there in Australia earlier than here in UK but they were telling people not to travel on the Australian news. As soon as Qantas announced they were stopping international flights as at end of March which was about 18th March, that was certainly time to move.

His flight out was cancelled so he called late at night and had to wait for an hour. He had a choice of flights to replace the cancelled one. He came back with seats around him empty.

It is a confusing time and there will be genuine cases where people could not get
out sooner. But there are others who just did not do the right thing too. He has another friend who did not try to get out.

Sorry. Last week when he got back (3 or 4 days ahead of qantas’ last flight) there were Some empty seats around him on the A380.

In this case, the foreign office is simply doing its job. This is why we pay taxes. Take heart in knowing that if it was yourself stuck in this situation that things would get done to help you.

The warnings were not there weeks and weeks prior.

Helping these people is no different to the government helping out businesses. Be proud to be British with everything that has been put in place in such a small amount of time.

Just to emphasise the time scale again:

Very late in Feb it was possible to transit or enter a popular Far East
state enroute to/from Aus with few restrictions, but restaurants etc had closed.

Four weeks later only residents allowed to enter, non-residents not allowed to leave flights on transits, slipping crew confined to hotel rooms...that change has occurred in a timescale shorter than some people holidays.

With regard to Oz, ATM if you can get yourself to SYD or one of the other major cities you'll probably now get a shot at a seat back to the UK for as long as those flights keep running..OTOH I know from conversations I have had in the last week that it has been hellish difficult for some time for some people to extract themselves from elsewhere, as in Australia and beyond, because of lack of capacity on flights, not because of a lack of effort.

If anyone is genuinely claiming they thought all this was blindingly obvious they should get a job in the City when all this is over or at least let us all know the next round of winning lottery numbers.

Also remember that not every flight goes via Singapore.

They don't, but of course flights through the other transit/interchange options from Australia such as KUL, BKK and others have also thinned out and of course Emirates pulled over a week ago (I think) so AFAIK a Gulf transit is no longer an option.

I hope all those claiming "it serves them right", many probably sat comfortably in the UK at the moment, are fully equipped with torches, generators, and heaven knows what because unlike many they seem to claim perfect foresight, so they'll have no excuse when the power cuts start...

Emergency hub at Doha - that was my sister’s route after her via Abu flights were cancelled

My friend’s flight (not his original flight which was cancelled) was Darwin-Heathrow direct after bouncing around the east coast of Australia to refuel at Darwin. 36 hours but he got home.

I think that people are saying that there are people who are genuinely stuck, there are people to did not try in there as well. No one is saying there isn't any genuine cases of being ‘stuck’.

Australia also reported people booking for last minute holiday flights because otherwise they would miss their holiday ‘window’.

I got an early flight out of Australia 10 days ago. Took me days of trying to get through to Emirates and finally got one of the last seats on my flight. This was a big Airbus 380 with 500+ passengers on board and not a single free seat.

It was (and to some extent still is) all just one big sh*t show: countries (Oz, Singapore) closing borders with 24hrs notice, airlines stopping all flights with 2-3 days notice. There are travelers who booked new flights home only to find those flights cancelled 2 days later. I gather tourists on the south island of NZ are stuck because there is no domestic travel and the only flights still going are departing from Auckland.

I think it's 100% right that the government is helping to bring people home. But I do think it's acceptable to request a financial contribution. I think some European countries are asking a contribution from travelers of €300 for European flights and €800(?) for intercontinental flights. That seems reasonable to cover the costs.

I can see both sides. In New Zealand we had 48 hours between things being relatively normal to total lockdown. It can take almost that long to get back to the UK under normal circumstances, and when Australia starting denying transit passengers and turning them back around to NZ that’s when things got complicated very quickly.

However, it was about a week prior to that the NZ government were advising Kiwi’s abroad to ‘come home now’... so surely that must have been a pretty blatant warning sign to any travellers that shit was about to get real. I feel this way about the Kiwi’s stuck abroad too and struggling to get back.

From March onwards it had started escalating massively. I had travelled mid Feb abroad for a family wedding- came back towards the end of Feb and was massively relieved we got back ok (in time) /didn't catch anything. I would never have travelled out even the week after that. It was already global by then and started to escalate massively, we got our temp taken at airport we landed at even mid Feb and on the plane back to London we were concerned enough about the spread of it by then- a woman was sweating/ill/kept calling the crew for assistance and we were all convinced we had caught it from her (we hadn't).

Anyone who took a stupid risk in travelling out of UK from March onwards should 100% face costs to get back.

Although even a week probably wouldn’t have been long enough to secure a flight when so many people were trying to get in and out.

It’s the people who went on cruise ships AFTER the Diamond Princess thing that really have absolutely zero sympathy from me 🙄 stupid and selfish

Waste of money. I understand many of them could have got flights but found they cost more than they wanted to pay. Also don't understand why travel insurance would not sort this out (and if they do not have travel insurance then I would say they need to sort it out themselves).
I heard on the radio a young woman (not from UK but living in UK) in Peru, complaining bitterly about how they had to stay in a hotel room, with meals being brought to the door. Another one complained that the sheets hadn't been changed for 10 days. Oh, the trauma! How on earth will they ever recover? Some people need to grow up and have a word with themselves. Think how many CV tests that £75 million could pay for.

Weren't some people sent out by their employers ? They didn't really get a choice if there was no FCO advice not to travel and they found themselves stranded after ?

Lockeddownliving. This is partly my take too. As soon as either the country you are visiting starts warning travellers to come home or your own country is a warning that you need to leave. And Australia issued that warning around the 13th and last QANTAS flight to Heathrow that was scheduled was 30 or 31st.

I am a recently moved Australian and the week before the schools shut, they warned and prepared the students. I took it as a warning, I immediately checked flights back as I had a moment of panic and thought I should go to look after family. That was my first reaction at the start of March. My friend arrived home on the 28th March. So, I guess I look at it from that perspective.

I understand though that travel insurance companies were not as helpful as they should have been. Pressure perhaps should have been applied if that was the case to allow people to make claims more quickly.

But, if people/travel insurance are paying something towards the government's costs, that is good.

I have to admit to wondering why so many people set off on their exotic holiday when it was clear what was coming

They all have to promise to repay the cost of their flight if they cannot pay upfront. So costs to the tax payer will be minimal.

The first role of government is to protect its citizens ( even the ones who have made poor judgement calls) where that can be done in a reasonable way.

That is why British citizens who make poor choices about drug, alcohol, tobacco use etc get health care paid for. That is why those who make poor choices about drink driving etc get looked after.

I know an elderly couple who are stranded in Fuertaventura at the moment. They travelled on 6th March - before any of this was an issue. She has COPD and he is diabetic with onset dementia.

They received a message from Easyjet that their return flight was cancelled so immediately made their way to the airport to book an alternative flight. They found THOUSANDS in the same situation and no flights.

They have been unable to get seats on any of the 3 other flights that were laid on after then.

Spanish rules meant they had to be out of their rental apartment and into lockdown. They slept in the airport - but that closed on 24th March.

They have now managed to return to the rental flat but Civil Guards patrol to check who's living there - it should only be Spanish.

FCO advice is to stay put.....Not that they have any other option.

This situation was NOT of their making.

I know an elderly couple who are stranded in Fuertaventura at the moment. They travelled on 6th March - before any of this was an issue. She has COPD and he is diabetic with onset dementia.

Redwoodmaz The situation was escalating fast when they travelled. They shouldn’t have flown anyway, and particularly even more so considering their health conditions and their age.

Unfortunately they chose to fly despite the the rapid escalation and so have found themselves in a situation of their own making.

As someone whose best friend is stuck overseas, they haven’t had time to get back. First her boss demanded she go back overseas or her and her husband wouldn’t be paid at work, this meant taking her baby back overseas, her husband isn’t English so was also on a travel visa, now they are stuck in a country neither are from or they won’t get paid. The embassy and visa offices have been closed for three weeks. Both are teachers stuckaway from families.

So please tell me how they had plenty of time to get home?