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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Not feeling sorry for people who chose to go on holiday during the coronavirus crisus..

78 replies

HistoryHeroes · 02/04/2020 14:38

The amount of money the government is pouring out to rescue people who chose to go on holiday only a few weeks ago. Lockdown was over a week ago now!

I'm not talking about people who have been away for months (although really they should have thought about coming back early) or working abroad or saying goodbye to terminally ill family. Im talking about those who still thought they'd go on skiing trips or a family trip to India, despite the clear path that was coming. Hmm And then them grumbling about how slow the government has been to bail them out! The government has enough to spend money on right now.

We had to cancel a very expensive holiday as did a few people I knew. Why did they think they were special?

YABU they weren't to know and had a right to go away.

YANBU

OP posts:
Garden5Guru6 · 02/04/2020 14:53

Surely it depends what date people flew out on holiday

A few weeks ago, the Government did not advise people NOT to travel

Obviously, things have changed

It is easy to criisize with hindsight

EmAndes · 02/04/2020 14:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Garden5Guru6 · 02/04/2020 14:55

Secondly, not all countries have locked down or have taken longer to implement lockdown than Europe

Places like India, don't have a benefit system or an NHS
So if they are not earning...

Garden5Guru6 · 02/04/2020 14:56

I believe Sweden has not locked down

bitchonthepitch · 02/04/2020 14:57

It depends why they went. One of my friends is stuck overseas after flying out to go to a funeral just over three weeks ago.

clareOclareO · 02/04/2020 14:58

YANBU. It was clear how things were going to go back in January. Anyone who flew out in February or March doesn't deserve much sympathy.

SpillTheTea · 02/04/2020 15:01

Surely it was obvious to most people that travelling was a bad idea, even weeks before this lockdown?

Sometimeswinning · 02/04/2020 15:04

I agree. Just stupid. Now look at the costs. This was being talked about before lockdown so yanbu!

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/04/2020 15:05

First, empathy isn't pie and you can feel sorry for people in all sorts of situations.

Second, we have fucking terrible media, which gives people useless information. We don't teach critical thinking. We don't believe experts any more and value stupidity over facts. And then people make thick as mince decisions. Hardly a surprise. It's been a deliberate choice to discredit science and fact-based analysis while making people stupid enough to vote against their own self interests. Now we need basic science, maths, reading and thinking skills, we're stunned they are lacking.

HarrietThePi · 02/04/2020 15:08

I agree, regular holiday goers should have used some initiative.

Garden5Guru6 · 02/04/2020 15:09

It's a bit more complicated

The majority of people would have had a return flight booked.
Some countries like stopped flights stopping like Dubai, which is a transfer hub

Some airlines cancelled flights

Some airlines were offering flights, but at vastly increased prices, which people could not afford

This situation has not occurred before

mumto2teenagers · 02/04/2020 15:14

Assuming these people went on holiday when there was no advice not to travel then YABU.

This was a rapidly changing situation so things changed very quickly over the course of a two week holiday.

Snaga · 02/04/2020 15:17

I see these holiday makers the same as the ones who travel with no insurance then shit happens that they can't pay for.

Anyone going on holiday/traveling for pleasure in late Feb or early March will have known that they were taking a risk by going. Anyone later than mid-March was being a fuckwit. As with non-insuring people, they took the risk now they're expecting to someone else to bail them out.

I do though feel for people effectively trapped because of work/family commitments.

Quarantina · 02/04/2020 15:24

Assuming these people went on holiday when there was no advice not to travel then YABU.

I don't get this. Even without official government advice, it's been quite obvious for at least a month now that (international) travel is a bad idea. Anyone who hasn't been living under a rock will have known that this was an extremely risky time to go gallivanting around the globe.

WanderingMilly · 02/04/2020 15:31

I agree with the poster who said it was clear how things were going in January.
I was in another country but decided to come back, and arrived back early February, I just escaped lockdown in the foreign country and it was obvious we would go the same way at some point in the UK.
Anyone who was still going on holiday in February and then expecting to get rescued has behaved very irresponsibly in my opinion, and should expect problems.

JustMySize · 02/04/2020 15:32

I think they should stay where they are.

They chose to go to another country probably thinking nothing bad would come of the virus but they were wrong and now expect to be rescued.

No, they are making work for others, they could be sick and need to be hospitalised, they will cost this country money when that money should be going on the health of those actually in this country.

notalwaysalondoner · 02/04/2020 15:43

@Quarantina the reason you would still go if government advice was still that it’s ok to travel is because you wouldn’t have been able to claim on insurance at that point. So I can’t blame people who continued to travel as they didn’t want thousands of pounds to go down the drain.

I do agree about the people who still travelled after the advice was issued, but I think there are very few of those.

We went to Canada in early March and although it’s easy to say with hindsight how things would turn out, at that point it really really wasn’t - only China, South Korea, Italy and Iran had any significant cases and both China and South Korea had successfully contained them. It all changed so fast between early March and March 20th.

MrsTerryPratchett · 02/04/2020 15:45

I agree with the poster who said it was clear how things were going in January.

Bullshit. Theres a thread from January on here and it's very clear most people didn't see it the same way.

Wannabangbang · 02/04/2020 15:46

They should stay where they are. They made their bed now they must lie in it. Why must the government help them out, more people with suspected coronavirus entering the country wonderful, just wonderful.

JustInCaseCakeHappens · 02/04/2020 15:50

Theres a thread from January on here and it's very clear most people didn't see it the same way.

true, but 2 days before the schools officially closed, there were some idiots claiming it would never happen and it wasn't remotely possible. You can't argue with stupid.

Spied · 02/04/2020 15:50

I'd not be rescuing them.

BertieDrapper · 02/04/2020 15:53

My parents flew out to Spain in March for a
Weeks holiday. It was literally the day before Jet2 stopped flights.

At the time I did wonder if it was a good idea but we had no idea things would change so rapidly. Personally i think YABU as this is a situation that no one could predict. At the beginning of March a lot of people wouldn't believe we would be in lockdown like we are.

My parent ended up being locked down in their hotel rooms for a week!! They couldn't change their flights to come home earlier.

So really you could say the travel
Companies were being unreasonable for continuing to fly and take people abroad.
If people suddenly decided not to travel
With no FCO ban in place they would
Lose thousands of pounds that wouldn't be covered by insurance. So of course people were still gonna fly!

AlternativePerspective · 02/04/2020 15:54

I agree with the poster who said it was clear how things were going in January. no, it wasn’t. At that point the only countries affected were in the Far East. Italy didn’t happen until February,. Added to which people who already had booked holidays wouldn’t have been able to claim on insurance, it’s just not that simple to say that people should just calmly throw away thousands of pounds when they have potentially been saving that money for years.

If people booked holidays hoping for a bargain then I do agree that they were stupid to do so. But you really can’t judge people who already had holidays booked and paid for with no way of recouping that money and genuinely no idea how things were going to go anyway.

Aragog · 02/04/2020 15:57

I agree with the poster who said it was clear how things were going in January.

At that point it really wasn't. Hindsight is a very good thing.

School trips were still happening in February half term. Many people were travelling across the world at February half term with no concerns. That's only 5-6 weeks away.

If the Government didn't think it was safe for people to travel they'd have changed the FCO rues for all countries sooner. Because they didn't ,people travelled - to avoid losing their money as no insurance will pay out unless the FCO rules say otherwise, and because the Government at that point were still downplaying it.

LastTrainEast · 02/04/2020 16:02

We're still struggling to convince people that it is serious now. Just read the threads with people saying "why would you do what the government tell you?"