To think if you chose to go abroad during a pandemic it serves you right?

[FunnysInLaJardin]

I get that folk feel they deserve a holiday, but if you travel during the current pandemic you shouldn't complain if rules suddenly change before you get home.

Anyone with half a wit could see that it was a risky thing to do to take a holiday at this time.

If you move abroad to make your life there permanently, surely you accept that there is a realistic risk that you will never see relatives from your home country in person ever again

you don't. There are planes, trains, ferries, cars. Pre covid, nobody could imagine today's situation and knowing that you can see your family after a 2h flight is something which I (and a lot of other people I know of who moved country) took into consideration when making the move.

Even now, there isn't really an issue getting to lots of countries. I am also one of the egoistic assholes who visited elderly parents in Europe earlier this Summer so my judgement might be clouded.

@Friendsoftheearth: "I will save my sympathy and compassion for those that have died from covid, those that are dealing with long standing health implications from being ill and those thousands that are about to lose their jobs."

Do you really possess such a limited supply of those human qualities that you can't stretch to both?

My sister is currently in a villa in the South of France (loaned to her by a relative of her son-in-law). At the start of lock down we lost our mum to covid. After taking a week off work, my sister went back and worked throughout lock down 6 days a week (apart from the day of Mum's funeral). Her job at the time? Making body bags...5000 of them to be exact, imagine doing that knowing your own mother was in one. So she needed and bloody well deserved her holiday so you can take your "serves them right" and shove it.

Me and DH would love to go to France on holiday. It's one of our favourite places.

We used our brains though and decided it wasn't really a good idea. If some people thought differently they really should not complain when it turns out they were wrong

I don't exactly think it serves you right. That sounds like smug twattery to me.

I do think it's somewhat naive if you booked to go and believed it would all go swimmingly.

I wouldn't plan to go abroad right now but if I didn't have young dc I might have decided I'll take my chances.

Serves you right ??!! Oh go do one

@Fletchings I hope you had a lovely time with your parents. Must have been such a relief to get the chance to see them.

Whilst we chose to give flying abroad a miss this year (for obvious reasons) and were fortunate not to have already got a trip booked and paid for, I understand why some people chose to go ahead with their plans.
What I DO have an issue with, is those people who will inevitably be ignoring the subsequent quarantine rules when they return. For instance, apparently, seven holidaymakers allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 after returning from Spain and piling straight into Milton Keynes pubs.
I would bet my mortgage that many families will send their kids straight back to school when the time comes, too.

Everyone who goes abroad is aware of the risk that they may need to quarantine when they get home if rates rise in their destination. If they can't manage to quarantine presumably they won't travel.

My friend's DD just came back from a scandinavian country with a bad cough and they have now had to cancel their trip to see friends in Devon. She may have corona so obviously they all need to quarantine. The quarantine rules are not a nuisance - they are there to protect public health so there's nothing to be annoyed about if thats what you have to do after a holiday you chose to take.

@Pacif1cDogwood

A pandemic might not have occurred to you perhaps, but did you genuinely not consider the possibility of never being able to see them again? Sudden death on either side? Financial issues? Regime change? Even war? Given everything that happens across the globe on a daily basis over the decades?

I lost both my parents as a teenager so have have a longer and perhaps more dispassionate perspective on not seeing people. I can't imagine not discussing the possibility if I moved abroad.

@EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling I think your tragic loss is colouring your view somewhat.

I know lots of people with foreign spouses and none of them think "what if we never see our families again?"

"serves you right"

What an awful way to talk to people.
People booked holidays after the air bridges were announced or others had booked holidays before Corona. Once travel was allowed those people would not get a refund on their holiday if they decided to cancel. If the government announced that it was safe to travel to France then people have simply followed the guidance. I don't think most people, the government included, would have realized just how fast things can change - it's been a matter of a few weeks!

I think that everyone is free to choose what they want to do as long as they remain within the guidance issued by the government and governments of other countries they visit.
Personally, I would not go abroad on holiday at the moment (I'm in a country in the EU and I wouldn't go to a neighbouring country). My holiday to Canada was cancelled and I chose not to rebook somewhere else. I have my reasons why I do not want to go abroad at the moment just as others have their reasons why they do.

People were only acting within the rules issued by the government. The rules have changed. This means that people coming back from France will have to quarantine. That's unfortunate for those affected but I don't think it "serves them right".

This Corona pandemic has really polarized society. People are talking in an awful way to and about other people and this really has to stop.

@Pacif1cDogwood I hope you can see them soon.

Anyone who gets in a plane or boat and thinks it's OK is selfish and needs to give their head a wobble

[quote EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling]@Pacif1cDogwood

A pandemic might not have occurred to you perhaps, but did you genuinely not consider the possibility of never being able to see them again? Sudden death on either side? Financial issues? Regime change? Even war? Given everything that happens across the globe on a daily basis over the decades?

I lost both my parents as a teenager so have have a longer and perhaps more dispassionate perspective on not seeing people. I can't imagine not discussing the possibility if I moved abroad.[/quote]
When we moved to France, Spain and Italy at various points over the past 10 years, a regime change or war did seem like such remote possibilities that they weren’t worth discussing, yes.

I haven't got a problem with people going on holiday. However, you should only go if you know that should you need to be quarantined for 14 days afterwards, you are not going to inconvenience anyone else i.e. someone is going to have to work extra to cover for your absence. That is not fair.

@ilovesooty

O should have been travelling on the 24th until the announcement this evening. I booked my flight last year, before Covid-19 was an issue. It hasn't been cancelled so I stand to lose the money I've paid. I could have quarantined but travelling against FCO advice and invalidating my insurance seems foolhardy.

I fail to see how I've got what I deserved.

We were booked for USA at the end of July, (American Airlines) - Booked December 2019

We accepted a voucher in June, but when we got to within about a week the USA was not accepting travellers who had been in the UK for 14 days previously - we got all of our money back

@ilovesooty Do you have this level of cover?
What cover do I have under my travel insurance policy if my flight is due to leave but FCO advice against travelling abroad is still in place?
If you have the optional Travel Disruption cover then you can claim for travel or accommodation costs, for which you can’t recover from elsewhere. You can only claim for these if you booked your trip before the FCO issued advice against all but essential travel abroad to your destination and are in the 31 days before your departure date.

I just don't get it though - there must be hundred or more circumstances where one might not be able to see a relative again, so regardless that some might be extreme and regardless of what might cause an individual circumstance, why would one not consider the overarching issue - that you might not see them again - as a whole? And its not just my 'tragic loss' talking - it's simply a rational logic.

Well our flights to Spain in April were cancelled by the airline. Decided not to rebook and requested a refund. 4 months on we still haven’t seen the money. Wish we’d rebooked for July now, at least we’d have seen the in laws and wouldn’t still be £1000 out of pocket.

I hope everyone moving from England to Scotland in the past forty years took the possibility of civil war and regime change into account.

What a mean and nasty thread OP. I'm very glad that I don't think like you.

@IAintentDead

Ner ner ner I'm right - you're wrong told you so

I hope you feel good OP

I'm going abroad next month - and you know what, I don't give a toss what any jealous little person back home thinks.

Anyone that gives a toss what you think is ...

Are you 12 ?

@EsmereldaMargaretNoteSpelling

I just don't get it though - there must be hundred or more circumstances where one might not be able to see a relative again, so regardless that some might be extreme and regardless of what might cause an individual circumstance, why would one not consider the overarching issue - that you might not see them again - as a whole? And its not just my 'tragic loss' talking - it's simply a rational logic.

But that’s the same wherever you live surely? I never saw my brother again after he died in a car accident. I lived an hour away at the time, same country. The issues that could affect me getting back from France (a mere 22 miles away across the channel) would be so vanishingly rare as to not be worth discussing.

Esmeralda by that logic no-one would ever move out of their parents’ house.