AIBU to cancel holiday?

[Nostrings457]

Booked to go to Malta in May - holiday balance is due tomorrow (over 6k). Travelling with young children and 1 aduly is aged 65+

Malta has no coronavirus cases currently but who knows what will happen between now and May. I dont want to pay the balance and then risk trying to claim off insurance if we dont go.

I suppose its more a what would you do than aibu?

(I know the risk is so low, influenza kills more people etc.. but i dont want to end up in quarantine with 3 young kids somewhere either)

It's a how long is a piece of string question unfortunately but personally I think you'll just be seeing the peak in April/May so I would want to avoid getting stranded in quarantine.

Who ultimately decides on the NHS and travel guidelines? That's a genuine question, not goady, I promise. Do they have the authority to make recommendations, or do they have to go through government bodies first

Public Health England, who monitor the number of cases and track where they have come from advise on health and infection control methods, taking advice from the likes of WHO. Other public bodies and government departments like FCO are involved and the situation is discussed, daily I think at the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) and this leads to decisions like whether travel bans should be put in place, so yes, government departments make decisions based on advice by experts.

Just been on amazon to order some hand gel and it's mostly sold out or over £100!!!!

It's worth bearing in mind, though, that even the very best experts have to base their response on previous pandemics. We don't have that many to go on. Swine Flu ended up being much less deadly than was originally feared - hopefully this one is too. Before that, the last flu epidemic was in 1978. We didn't have such widespread tourism then, certainly not long haul. So their modelling and predictions are just that, and are only theoretical.

I heard on a advise show that if a holiday is abta atol protected that is the best senerio for getting money back.

Independent holidays are unlikely to get a claim though insurance.

This is so frustrating, because it's just not possible for me to book a package holiday, as we don't fly on holidays. I know that's just the way of the world, that's not me shooting the messenger, but it is frustrating that you have less chance of getting your money back when you choose not to fly.

It’s hard to know what the situation will be at the time of travel. If the op had paid in full then fine just wait it out and see but atm I’d be cautious about handing over a big chunk of money.

On a separate note on reducing travel the biggest disincentive is losing money for most people. Over other reasons travel shouldn’t go ahead.

Fully paid up member of team virus here - we're bloody going on holiday, bar airport closures and armed guards in hazmat outfits turning us away

Every cloud has a silver lining. If people are cancelling holidays en masse, there are going to be some amazing bargains around. I suspect I’m going to be travelling a lot more than usual this year. And I’m (just) over 65.

Mine is booked via booking.com and the hotel is fully refundable up to 24hrs before. Many hotels are, just the flights that aren't.

There will be some massive reductions/bargains come the summer. The Tour Operators have seen massive drops in bookings in the last 10 days in particular. What will also happen is flights will be consolidated to avoid half full planes.

Personally, I'd go unless I had family members who had health issues. I would take appropriate precautions. If it was Northern Italy or Tenerife, I would think twice.

I'm trying to take appropriate precautions but can't get hand gel anywhere! Out of stock everywhere I've tried.

Forget hand gel and masks.
Use soap.

Oh I do, I'm not a fan of hand gel but just thinking about my holiday when you're out and about in a city and can't wash hands as often as you'd like.

I was wondering if antibacterial cleaning wipes would be an ok substitute if it's not possible to get handgel ?

Can't get those either! Even the hand soap at my local supermarket has been cleared.

Plus cleaning wipes are not suitable for skin.

I'm not panicking but the government advice seems to be out of step with that being given by some major corporations. A friend is travelling to Singapore next week and his employer(a major bank) has advised him to self isolate for 2 weeks afterwards regardless of the presence of symptoms.

I bet TK Maxx still has those massive bars of lovely Italian soap.

We're supposed to be travelling later this month to south east Asia - booked a year ago and all paid up so no point cancelling unless told to. We won't be in big cities, the air travel and airport is the key risk.

It's a total watch this space situation. I'm not building my hopes up that it will go ahead, nor am I panicking either. I've had a flu jab as while I know that won't help with corona, it will hopefully help me avoid other temperature raising bugs in the meantime.

We're relatively low risk in terms of the virus, but a quarantine situation would be a right pain. I can work remotely but not that remotely.

We bought a big bottle of anti bac hand wash from Poundland this morning and if we do fly, I'll decant that into small bottles for the plane, along with taking anti bac wipes and a mask. What fun that sounds..

Where are you staying that has cost you £6k to stay in Malta? Misses point of thread

You could easily rack that up for four people at The Phoenicia and it seems there are more than four of them going. As it’s AI, I’m guessing The Fortina.

I am due to go to Florida on the 17th march and this morning have seen that florida has 150 cases of the virus,

This is how fear is spread

35 cases in uk now!

OP has already said it’s a large party and all inclusive.