To have no sympathy?

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www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-cornwall-52089487

Do you feel sorry for these people trapped abroad due to the Coronavirus? I keep reading articles about people trapped who say they are running out of money and that the Uk government should be paying for them to get home.

I don't think they should, depending on when they left that is. These people left for a month at the beginning of March, another young man left for Morocco on March 15th! Surely it was stupidity to fly at that time? It was obvious we would go into lockdown imminently, lots of other European countries were going into lockdown by then. Now they are moaning that they are stranded and want to be bailed out. Surely it's totally there own fault. They must have been told not to fly especially by March 15th.

I feel more sorry for those trapped because they were away for business or travelling around the world. But not those who decided to go on holiday in the middle of a pandemic.

The thing is though, that insurance doesn't usually cover pandemic, so regardless of government advice, surely you would know when travelling anywhere that you won't be insured? (have I understood that right?)

@WelcomeToShootingStars The government's official advice was it was fine to travel. So you are saying people are morons to believe our government?

And I do wonder which government advice then we wound be "morons" to ignore?
Should we all have stockpiled and ignored that the government said there was no need?
Should we all have worn masks even though the government told us not to?
Should we all have taken our kids out of school before the government told us to? I did this and got heavily criticised for it.

I don't trust a bloody thing Boris says. Not one thing. So I do check every bit of government advice. But unlike a lot of you I don't blame people for believing what they are told.

Should we all have stockpiled and ignored that the government said there was no need?

The people I know that have had least problems had already stockpiled for Brexit (again, in the face of government advice).

Yes it may have been sensible to stockpile, I didn't.
But you can't decide people are idiots to listen to some government advice and ignore others. Well you can of course, but it makes no sense.
I know lots of people who wish they had stockpiled.

But you can't decide people are idiots to listen to some government advice and ignore others.

Oh, I can, believe me

I don't mind people who blindly follow every piece of government advice. After all, what else can you do ?

I also don't mind people who ignore every piece of government advice. Although they generally tend to be behind bars, or dead.

I also don't mind people who use their own judgement on what to follow and what to ignore. They are "taking responsibility" as some posters seem so keen to see.

What really gets my goat is people who's decision on what advice to follow is based on shit they have heard from a friend of mates cousin who once stood next to somebody in a queue who said they saw a thing somewhere that said that it's absolutely definitely OK to travel because a social media influencer they used to follow said so.

the best thing to do would be to camp out at the airport until they can arrange a flight.
In New Zealand, all domestic flights were cancelled a week ago, meaning that many people weren't even able to get to the international airport. There are now 12,000 Germans in New Zealand about to be put on repatriation flights.

It's easy to say with retrospect that it was all obvious ages ago, but for example, my (German) daughter was on an Erasmus term in Ireland, and wasn't sure what to do at all, as she was afraid that if she came back too early she'd have to pay back her Erasmus money, which she'd already had to use for renting a room and wouldn't get back. The uni (the technical uni not the big one) was very disorganised, maybe as it had just undergone major restructuring, and the international students were quite distraught and offered no help.

My dd's dad was against her getting a flight back as he thought she should "wait and see" (what, I don't know), but fortunately I persuaded her to get a flight, and Ryanair had made rebooking very, very easy and cheap. Just in the few days from her booking it on 17 March and her flying on 20 March, the situation changed extremely rapidly and we weren't even sure the flight would go after all. In the end, she got back the night before the lockdown began in Germany. A week before that, mid-March, things were really not that obvious.

when my friend travelled it WASNT a global pandemic.
He followed the NZ government advice but AFTER he checked in, AS he was waiting in departures for a plane he could see outside, they cancelled it from under him - he had already transferred his flight for an earlier one and was at the airport about to come home.

Since then pretty much nothing from embassy, insurance, the original flight company - who want to offer a flight credit to some travellers, but so far he has been offered nothing. Other nations have been taken home. Until yesterday they were not even allowed to travel, but now they are allowed to try to get to the airport. But ONLY if they have a ticket. Some people have borrowed money to buy several tickets only to have successive flights cancelled and looking like no chance of getting the money back.

these flights are thousands. if they even guaranteed you a seat and trip home it would be something

Yeah I'd find it hard to have sympathy with them too, if they travelled after the shit hit the fan in Spain and Italy.

I was due to be flying to the UK tomorrow - I applied for the vouchers 3 weeks ago because I knew it wasn't going to happen. The vouchers had been on offer at least a week by then - the hint was there!!

So no, I don't have a lot of sympathy because most people, especially after the first couple of weeks of March, should have seen what was coming.

@callmeadoctor - to be fair, that was my first really big hint that travelling was going to be a really dodgy prospect, that the insurance companies were all saying that their insurance wouldn't cover anything to do with CoViD 19, initally if they were taken out after Jan 24th, but then backdated to include policies taken out before then too.

No travel insurance to cover cancellations, sickness overseas if CoViD related, no insurance for fees incurred if unable to fly etc etc - BIG fucking hint.

Nettletea- then I have lots of sympathy and that's a rubbish situation. He sent before it all started. I am talking about people who went away in March when we had begun social distancing, flights were beginning to be grounded, cases were rising and other countries were shutting down.

No travel insurance to cover cancellations, sickness overseas if CoViD related, no insurance for fees incurred if unable to fly etc etc - BIG fucking hint.

When this has settled down, I suspect a lot of people will be asking what the fucking point of having insurance was ? Seems a lot of companies were specialising the the "never pay" policy as first proposed by Monty Python ....

www.dailymotion.com/video/x3075fg

Lots of people really didn't want to travel, but were unable to rearrange/postpone as no travel insurance would pay out until the FCO changed its advice.

I'm not usually one to say this, but the FCO is almost entirely responsible for this mess, so yes, they should be the ones to sort it out.

Travel should have been restricted to ban 'all but essential travel' far, far earlier than it was.

Anyone who travelled abroad in March was irresponsible.I had a trip booked in March. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to be stuck abroad.
I am sorry., but the entitlement of some of the British passengers irritates the hell out of me

Btw- I am talking about anyone who travelled in March

I am talking about people who went away in March when we had begun social distancing, flights were beginning to be grounded, cases were rising and other countries were shutting down

By the time these measures were put in place, anybody travelling in March would have already been fully financially committed to their trip, with final payments usually due 12 weeks before travel.

Without the 'nod' from the FCO, all these people were stuck.

My DBro was in exactly that position and (sensibly) reasoned that it couldn't be that bad, otherwise the FCO would have changed their advice.

DC- yes I understand that but they put financial reasons before their own and others safety. Now they are moaning they can't get back, can't afford to stay there so they are in a financially worse situation I imagine. They shouldn't expect to be bailed out just because financially they didn't want to cancel the holiday.

The government advice on travel is based on the threat here and now, today. What it doesn't do is say that travel today should be alright, but mind out for a couple of weeks time.

However, if you've decided to travel in March, when the gravity of the situation was really quite clear - we all knew it was taking hold in other countries, and there were cases here, then yes you're a moron.

If you're a supposedly capable adult, but you need someone to direct every element of your life in order to make a decision then you're a moron.

The FCO should have changed their advice sooner and are wholly to blame here.

Nobody is going to just set fire to upwards of £25k (as it was in my brother's case).

Is this another one of those 'I self-flagellate and wear a hair shirt therefore I am BETTER THAN YOU' kind of posts?

There are a lot of them about on MN at the moment, each more hysterical in its virtue signalling than the last IMO.

What it doesn't do is say that travel today should be alright, but mind out for a couple of weeks time

That's not correct I'm afraid, the FCO looks at short/med and long term forecasting in its advice modelling.

They came under significant pressure from Insurers who (unsurprisingly) weren't keen on the idea of paying out for all the cancelled trips.

They came under significant pressure from Insurers who (unsurprisingly) weren't keen on the idea of paying out for all the cancelled trips

Well, they can now look forward to loss of sales as people decide it's not worth it in future. Unless they can get to work on the government and make it compulsory to purchase travel insurance when leaving the UK. Which might be the case anyway, depending on how other countries feel about the future.

anyone who booked anything after the first week in March was an idiot

@WelcomeToShootingStars That is simply not true. I have travelled to some potentially dodgy places. The FCO have said x is okay currently, but it is a highly unstable political situation and this could quickly change.
The government knew this was coming. There was zero reason for the FCO not to say don't travel, or at the minimum that things could change quickly.

It does not matter if travel insurance is compulsory, it is not paying out anyway.

So if my gran was still alive she would have went on a booked holiday because she totally trusted what the government said and would have dismissed my warnings as scaremongering.