2 week Quarantine re-introduced when returning from Spain

[Motheroftwofeline]

Just heard this on breaking news.

From midnight tonight? Bad news for anyone who is there now and due to travel home. We were supposed to be going at the end of August and now I’m limbo about what to do!!!

For the last time for the hard of reading, travel insurance would not have covered this anyway. It is the travel operators who should refund : this is very clear in insurance/ABTA etc policies. . I have never travelled without full insurance.

You are always better than everyone else and always show zero empathy. Plenty of oxygen up on that high horse?

Not everyone books insurance at the exact moment of booking a holiday, especially if they use a specialist provider : the have it at the time of booking has always been viewed as a commission scam

Don't be daft. Once you have booked your holiday, you are at risk of losing money if anything goes wrong that would stop you travelling, eg injury, disability, diagnosis of a serious illness of a relative who's death would cause you to not go/return home early.

You don't have to take the holiday company's insurance, especially if it's not suitable for your needs. But what you should do is buy the insurance as soon as possible after booking the holiday, and certainly don't leave it until just before you travel.

Many people who've got holidays in Spain coming up are between a rock and a hard place. Many have booked in good faith months ago. Obviously the Spanish government have been keen to not lose the entire summer tourism business and maybe have opened up too early. But that's not the fault of people who've been asked to forfeit their holiday that they've paid thousands of pounds for.

I read that not one single person has been fined for breaking quarantine.

There are no "knocks at the door" who do you think would be doing that? All that happens is that you might get a text or phone call asking you to confirm you are at home.

It's a totally empty threat that a lot of people will completely disregard.

yes, I am included in that final paragraph!

As I said, we have always had travel insurance as we need specialised insurance. No one could foresee a pandemic. Regardless of all this most insurance policies taken out at time of booking, or shortly afterwards will tell the passenger to get money back from travel operator. Obviously in future we will get our TI at the exact point of booking (which was 9 months before travel) but hindsight is a marvellous thing. Most people are thinking about illness abroad, and lost luggage for TA, not pandemics shutting everything down. No insurance was covering this away at any point. We didn't buy our insurance because , at the point when we would, our travel operator was assuring people if they paid full balance and the holidays were cancelled we would get full refunds via them. Therefore, we did not buy insurance for a holiday that Matt Hancock, Grant Shapps , and our instincts, told us would never happen.

Most people buy insurance to cover what happens while they are away and as they travel. I am not going to get into a travel insurance argument because it is a red herring which the travel companies are more than happy to deploy.

If a package holiday is ATOL protected they should issue refunds,and they are trying not to. Insurers only have the same conditions about 'disinclination' if flights choose not to cancel.

The FCO advisory should protect people and get them proper refunds . It is highly unlikely that comes from insurance.

Completely agree Piggy.

We DID buy travel insurance at the time of booking (in September) but it doesn't cover pandemics. So even with travel insurance in place we will lose the cost of the holiday. The only way we will get out back is if flights are cancelled by BA or if the FCO ban all non-essential travel to the Spanish islands in addition to the mainland.

I have just submitted my complaint to the CMA, thanks for the advice Piggy. Worth a try.

The only way we will get out back is if flights are cancelled by BA or if the FCO ban all non-essential travel to the Spanish islands in addition to the mainland.
But if your flights aren't cancelled then you can still go. If you've just decided not to, then of course insurance doesn't pay. You can still go and ask your employer for unpaid leave for quarantine. Why should the travel company take the hit?

lifeafter50 Many posters are saying how irresponsible it is to be travelling at the moment. I know it's irresponsible and we don't want to go. We booked the holiday before Covid. We took out insurance. We did everything we should. We are not one of the families who decided on the middle of the pandemic to book a holiday. Other holiday companies have cancelled holidays and refunded customers. Our company hasn't. There should be something in place to protect families who booked pre covid who don't feel comfortable taking such a big risk, especially with the new quarantine rule that was brought in last night.

There should be something in place to protect families who booked pre covid who don't feel comfortable taking such a big risk, especially with the new quarantine rule that was brought in last night.

100% agree with this.

@lifeafter50

The only way we will get out back is if flights are cancelled by BA or if the FCO ban all non-essential travel to the Spanish islands in addition to the mainland. But if your flights aren't cancelled then you can still go. If you've just decided not to, then of course insurance doesn't pay. You can still go and ask your employer for unpaid leave for quarantine. Why should the travel company take the hit?

Because, in the case of our travel company, they had a guarantee that they wouldn't fly you to destinations where quarantine was required on arrival at resort or upon return to the UK.

They are now not honouring that pledge which is pretty shit of them.

Freeekedout, are you booked with Jet2?

We booked with Lastminute.com, Pertella

I can't find anything on their website about what happens in the event of quarantine rules being introduced.

That is really shitty that they've gone back on what they said. Who is that with?

When did you book @Freeekedout?

When everything started back in March I was meant to fly to Milan. EasyJet at the beginning was refusing to refund me the money. I did check my policy with my insurance. It said If fco goes against travelling somewhere then theyd refund you the cost var some admin fees. Check your policy in case it’s covered.

We booked in September. They haven't advised against travel to Majorca unfortunately.

Aw sorry ! Didn’t realise it was to Baleares.

Tui will fly at the end to the islands
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.mirror.co.uk/travel/news/breaking-tui-restart-flights-spains-22418250.amp

Tui are now flying belaerics but they are still letting you cancel if you can’t accommodate isolation pertella

@sophiestew

Where that falls down is that your employer will know you have been to Spain. They know you shouldn’t be working and on health and safety grounds, they would be taking a huge risk allowing you to work.

I have flights booked to Lisbon with Ryanair. The flights have been going and no cancellations . To change the flight costs about 460.
FCO advice is not to go but Ryanair will bot help. I will try travel insurance but don't hold out much hope. £900 down the drain.

[quote Silkroad]@sophiestew

Where that falls down is that your employer will know you have been to Spain. They know you shouldn’t be working and on health and safety grounds, they would be taking a huge risk allowing you to work.[/quote]
How? How would they know?

Assuming you are in UK, your employer absolutely does not get to know what you plan to do during a period of annual leave. Bearing in mind how many posters are complaining that they never get to chat to colleagues any more, I think it's very likely many people would have either chosen not to tell anyone they are going abroad, or just not bothered/had the opportunity.

And what about the millions of self employed Brits? The person who comes to fix your boiler or lay your carpet will be at absolute liberty to not bother with quarantine.

I cannot see this working at all.

sophiestew

And that's exactly why we need a much better track and trace system, because people can't be trusted to do the right thing.

Maybe we need a system like they have in I believe northern Cyprus. Apparently people arriving there are taken to hotels and quarantined for two weeks. No opportunity to disappear and ignore quarantine. Seems far more sensible.

@sophiestew

I read that not one single person has been fined for breaking quarantine.

There are no "knocks at the door" who do you think would be doing that? All that happens is that you might get a text or phone call asking you to confirm you are at home.

It's a totally empty threat that a lot of people will completely disregard.

Hungary is not the best place in the world, but at least they do one thing almost right. When entering and needing a quarantine they issue a red piece of paper that you have to put in the window/door/fence. And someone from the council/police stops by EVERY DAY at a random time at least once, but sometimes more and sees the people on the list to be quarantined. If one is not there, huge fine is given on the spot. (and, yes, they wait for someone to come out of the bathtub/toilet). This is quarantine. Saying "well, you should stay home if you want to but we won't check anyway so you can bugger off anywhere" is no quarantine. It's rhetoric.

The UK gov and the british people (most, not all of course) are utterly stupid.

This is an island. Close borders, no one in-out for 12 weeks and then very strictly enforced quarantine for those who need to come + ttr. Simple.

@sophiestew my employer requires written confirmation at least 7 days prior to travel - failure to do this may be considered as gross misconduct. Is a holiday really worth losing your job over?

Employers could easily find out - given that they have to approve time off. They could quite easily just ask employees if they are travelling abroad. How many are daft enough to put it on social media and have work colleagues on social media?

@Freeekedout

That is really shitty that they've gone back on what they said. Who is that with?

jet2. They removed it from their website last night and have updated the travel information to include the need to quarantine. They haven't, as yet issued any statement to let passengers know what options they have and are still telling people that they are still operating flights to Spain - islands and mainland!

Tigger

Why does your employer need to know what you’re doing on your annual leave it’s nothing to do with them?

@daisymay133

Tigger

Why does your employer need to know what you’re doing on your annual leave it’s nothing to do with them?

Quite. It's not a legally enforceable contractual clause.