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!!!

giraffes . I am supposed to be going to mainland Spain where the FCO says 'no nonessential travel'. My airline is still running flights and laughs in the face of FCO advice. My holiday is a package so I should be OK but they are blaming Ryanair : my holiday company have switched off social media, switched off their phone lines, deal with people's trips TWO days before departure, don't answer emails. My insurance does not cover me if I choose to travel. I have contacted Simon Calder. MSE and the CMA. I have sent 16 emails to my tour operator (14 of which were not replied to) . We have tried notes from GP as DH is CV but the GP is not supportive because its 'the individual's choice' . I have spoken once to the travel company and, after an hour , got nowhere. Others have written to MPs.

What else do you propose I do, in case I am missing something?

My airline is still running flights and laughs in the face of FCO advice.

I don't understand that comment..the FCO is providing advice to travellers, it is not a Flight Ban.

Some people do actually need/choose to travel to or from Spain.

Yes, but the airline should agree to refund travellers who are not flying for essential reasons. This is industry advice. Have you heard the way O'Leary speaks about FCO advice? The trouble is the word advice. the companies slaver over it. Since the ban was lifted, the companies have obviously increased flights forma very very low base and will not now return to virtually no flights. Thus they have the consumer trapped. Only someone who REALLY needs to travel would generally do so against a FCO advisory.

I don't need to travel (unless anyone other than O'Leary really thinks a holiday is essential travel) but Ryanair are blocking people rebooking , altering or cancelling. Jet2 have been forced to change their stance on this.

Ryanair let you change free of charge. Or did last week- I changed one. Obviously that may have changed since then.

Not last I heard!

But, anyway, I am not booked direct with them so in my package I am tied in to a villa and flight on the same dates. As far as villa company are concerned (as of yesterday) of both thins are available, we travel.

Hopefully, they will conceded this is against FCO advice and refund but gloaters on the thread do need to realise that many travel operators are playing games with consumers.

Piggywaspushed - you mentioned that your holiday company deals with people's holidays two days before departure. We were in a similar situation with our travel company (only they dealt with them a week before, not two days). Said they wouldn't deal with emails or phone calls before then, they would contact us. We were due to fly to the Canary Islands last week for a two week villa holiday. Our flight was cancelled, but there were still two other flights with availability, and they still sent us a cancellation email. Hopefully, the same thing will happen to you. When are you due to fly?

We've 'lost' 2 holidays to Spain and got refunds from Ryanair through PayPal. We rebooked one for the end of August as a gamble and took the risk we wouldn't be going so will now lose our money. Our accommodation can be cancelled but I can't see Ryanair cancelling! We're OK with it (we new it was a risk) but I feel dreadfully sorry for those of you who are battling health issues and may now lose such an important trip. I also feel sorry for all the small bars and restaurants over there that depend on the Brits and our euros many of whom won't survive the loss of a whole season. Definitely bad times

Yes, but the airline should agree to refund travellers who are not flying for essential reasons. This is industry advice.

OK, I see what you're driving at..I do agree customers should get their money back PDQ...

However I suspect Mr O'Leary, like most other airline bosses ATM won't be laughing, he is looking at cash flow/income and going WTF...how is the UK arm of this airline going to get through this winter, especially if HMG start playing whack a mole with quarantine.

There's a lot of talk in the MSM about the effect of the weekends events will have on the Spanish economy but those events will have a massive effect the UK travel industry.

I can promise you it's a very worrying industry to be in at the moment.

So many airlines and tour operators have gone under in the past few years its no surprising really that they are trying to keep hold of people's money if people now choose not to travel especially if the flight and accommodation is available.
It will get to a point where there's only 1 tour operator that will be able to charge what they want because there's no other competitors because the rest have gone bust.
People choosing not to travel now due to the quarantine on return (especially from the canaries or balerics where travel has not been advised against) need to consider that at any point we could be contacted from track and trace and be told to self isolate anyway. If we are resuming our lives and going about our usual business it's something that we all have to consider is a possibility at any point.

my holiday company have switched off social media, switched off their phone lines, deal with people's trips TWO days before departure, don't answer emails. My insurance does not cover me if I choose to travel.
This (surely shouldn't need saying, but clearly does) is an unprecedented situation and the travel company is probably just not resourced but to respond in the usual way. Companies do not have unlimited resources and magic powers and a pump is reserved of cash /they are run on a shoestring because people demand the cheapest holidays. Maybe its staff are wfh around childcare etc! They will not be well paid fat cats. I am not by the way suggesting that you are, but surely you can have some sympathy with their situation!
Seems like you have contacted the whole world about your own situation maybe time to just let it go and move on.

Meanwhile in France:

www.fr24news.com/a/2020/07/france-could-be-placed-under-second-lockdown-if-cases-continue-to-rise-pm-warns.html

@lifeafter50

my holiday company have switched off social media, switched off their phone lines, deal with people's trips TWO days before departure, don't answer emails. My insurance does not cover me if I choose to travel. This (surely shouldn't need saying, but clearly does) is an unprecedented situation and the travel company is probably just not resourced but to respond in the usual way. Companies do not have unlimited resources and magic powers and a pump is reserved of cash /they are run on a shoestring because people demand the cheapest holidays. Maybe its staff are wfh around childcare etc! They will not be well paid fat cats. I am not by the way suggesting that you are, but surely you can have some sympathy with their situation! Seems like you have contacted the whole world about your own situation maybe time to just let it go and move on.

Would you let it go at losing 3k? I think not.

let it go and move on . Right -o.

I was responding to a poster previously who said maybe people hadn't tried hard enough to get their refund by outlining what trying hard enough is and where it gets you.

The fat cats are the owners of various airlines and travel companies, not me.

I have sympathy for the office staff who get the brunt of it, of course I do, but not all travel companies have made the decision to shut down every single line of communication and refuse to negotiate postponements.

I wonder if you would feel the same if you stood to lose 3k for a holiday booked last December?

Piggy shutting down is extreme. Who is it with?

I get all that not but public sympathy for O'Leary is, as ever, limited! It's his persona as much as anything. I feel sorry for anyone who works for him.

There is a guarantee if these airlines go under or tour operators , if everything is ATOL bonded that travellers get money back and that vouchers convert to cash.

I don't want a company to go under but nor do I want to wait until this happens to get my money.

TUI are playing a much better game and will win on gained customers for the future.

Villa Plus marsha. They have been terrible throughout. Whole Facebook communities about it!

I bet. Closing down comms is pretty much talk to the hand. Must be so frustrating.

Meanwhile in France......

The warnings fair enough but the "Could be a second general national lockdown" story has been running in various iterations in the French Press for some time, probably to encourage people to continue to respect social distancing..

www.francebleu.fr/infos/sante-sciences/coronavirus-faut-il-craindre-un-nouveau-confinement-1594212088

The preferred declared tactic ATM seems to be on imposing stricter measures on a local basis if cases are rising in the area for example in some towns/resorts masks have to be worn at all times when out in public, even out in the open air.

I don't 'get' the argument about having booked the holiday 'long before covid'.

I wasn't able to go on holiday after 911 as all flights were cancelled. I had booked that way before the date. same with the ash cloud. same when dc got d&v on the day we were supposed to travel.

btw 911 and ash cloud were not covered by travel insurance and we lost a lot of money. and when dc got ill only dc and one adult were covered by the insurance, not the whole party.

that's just the risk you take when booking a holiday.

I think people are saying 'long before covid' because people keep speaking to us like we booked recently.

You should have got money back for the ash cloud. I know lots of people who were affected by this and they all got refunds or rebookings. A whole school trip was stuck in Iceland.
9/11 a bit different because many insurers don't cover acts of terror : however, airlines were largely unaffected and packages were not affected at all. Obviously, some people were buggered by the 'disinclination to travel bit' but, again, the FCO at the time had a short do not travel advisory which package companies dealt with.

The D and V again should have been covered by insurance policies. But , yes, we all know shit happens. This does not mean package holidays for FCO do not travels should be sunk money.

Not being all that clear then but, essentially, with things like that in mind, we book packages, since they may be overpriced but they are supposed to afford greater protection against the unknown. Hmmm.

And shit happens wasn't a deliberate pun!!

piggy ah you're booked with Villa plus too! Wondering how long before we'll get our Portugal refund!!

I genuinely don't mind waiting months if I know I might get one. But I am not convinced they won't try not to!

piggy same here. According to ABTA you're due a full refund in 14 days. If we don't get ours dh will be straight onto the bank and credit card company. Irony is, unlike others, our flight and villa are both running and available!