No sympathy for people who booked a recent holiday

[fairparie]

Headlines this morning have got me cross. People who are 'devastated' that their holiday to Spain that they booked last week won't go ahead as they can't quarantine on return and lost all their money.
How stupid to book a holiday when you know it is a risk. We were going to go away and had not booked anything as was leaving it till the last minute. . We still could but I would not expect my work to pay for me in quarantine on top of two weeks away. It is understandable if I had booked before the pandemic but why should a firm pay for quarantine for those who knowingly knew it may be a risk.
I have full sympathy for those that booked before the pandemic and at least they will be insured. But c'mon how can you be upset that you have lost your money for a holiday you booked last week and now can't go on due to quarantine?

It's a bit bonkers for people to be angry, the reinstated quarantine is hardly a surprise, it had only just been lifted and the virus obviously never went away. Holidays are a luxury not a necessity so I would have assumed that only folks who could afford the consequences would take the risk.

UK breaks are wet, cold and massively pricey.

July hasn't been great but from end of March to end of June it was largely really nice

Well yeah it was... but from the end of March until the end of June DH was working 15 hour days and I was homeschooling two older DC, looking after a toddler and trying to work (freelance) myself too. Looked nice out of the window though.

UK breaks are wet, cold and massive my expensive. And in Scotland there’s nothing open to do

Massively

it was a risky booking that unfortunately didn’t pay off or has a cost to it

It's like losing a bet, ultimately.

Not knowing their personal circumstances or reasons for travelling I don't feel qualified to comment.

It's a bit bonkers for people to be angry, the reinstated quarantine is hardly a surprise, it had only just been lifted and the virus obviously never went away. Holidays are a luxury not a necessity so I would have assumed that only folks who could afford the consequences would take the risk.
Exactly.
Had the re-lockdown not happened in sure some of them would be like those saying 'see Covid wasn't really so bad after all, lockdown was a waste of time' after the government finally got their act together to do something. Some of those holidaying will be in the back to normal camp and would have delighted in feeling like they got a cheap holiday deal, Covid wasn't that bad, look at all the sheep staying home scared etc.
They took a gamble buying an overseas holiday during a pandemic, knowing lockdowns were still partially in force and could change at any time. It might have worked out. For some it didn't. That's a shame but it's silly to gamble with money you can't afford to lose in this situation.

All that said, @LolaSmiles, there is no obvious need suddenly to require people holidaying on the Spanish islands to quarantine when they get home, as there have not been outbreaks there. A blanket, knee jerk quarantine rule can still, therefore, legitimately be criticised by holidaymakers (and the Spanish government) - especially if there is no automatic testing of people when they come home and little to nothing in the way of checking whether or not they are respecting quarantine.

It was crazy of all countries to allow travel. All should have followed NZ lead. The economy may get a short term boost but if we all have to lockdown again it will kill some industries.

[quote Walkaround]@esvee - if they lock down the Lake District and English people can’t go on their holidays there, come back and be sanctimonious about that too, won’t you? It’s not like there isn’t fair warning if you look at local infection rates.[/quote]
Most travel sites I’ve seen seem to be offering a Covid guarantee. So you get your money back or rebook for free in situations like that. More importantly you avoid the whole not being able to fly back or having to quarantine for 2 weeks problem.

It made me cross too. Normal life as we knew it has gone. You cannot plan anything anymore and expect it to continue as you planned.
We live now in a stop start society.
If you booked ages ago then yep, Corona wasn't an issue so that's different. If you booked last week and are genuinely surprised there's an alteration or cancellation of your holiday then get your head out if your ass, where the fuck have you been the past 4 months.

Sadly as much as we all want Covid to fuck off quickly it isn't. Covid is going to keep reading it's ugly fucking head and fucking up our lives for some time to come.

Desperately wanting and trying to live a pre Covid lifestyle isn't going to change the fact that this fucking virus is here to stay.

People need to get real. Go ahead and book holidays if you're happy to but be real. If it gets cancelled, the conditions surrounding it change or you get stuck at your destination, you surely cannot be totally shocked when thst happens. If getting lock down in a foreign land isn't going yo cause you issues go ahead. If so, think a bit harder about your plans.

The problem with those booking recently is a lot of people were acting like Covid was all over. It took the announcement on masks in shops to wake people up again that it's still here.

@RhianFuckingMorris

It made me cross too. Normal life as we knew it has gone. You cannot plan anything anymore and expect it to continue as you planned. We live now in a stop start society. If you booked ages ago then yep, Corona wasn't an issue so that's different. If you booked last week and are genuinely surprised there's an alteration or cancellation of your holiday then get your head out if your ass, where the fuck have you been the past 4 months.

Sadly as much as we all want Covid to fuck off quickly it isn't. Covid is going to keep reading it's ugly fucking head and fucking up our lives for some time to come.

Desperately wanting and trying to live a pre Covid lifestyle isn't going to change the fact that this fucking virus is here to stay.

People need to get real. Go ahead and book holidays if you're happy to but be real. If it gets cancelled, the conditions surrounding it change or you get stuck at your destination, you surely cannot be totally shocked when thst happens. If getting lock down in a foreign land isn't going yo cause you issues go ahead. If so, think a bit harder about your plans.

Whilst I get you are trying to be realistic, doom and gloom posts like this are pointless. Normal life is not 'gone', and we don't live in a 'stop start society'.

It's not going to keep Fing up our lives for some time.
I think posts like this are just going to make people feel miserable even though I understand your intentions.

Whilst I get you are trying to be realistic, doom and gloom posts like this are pointless. Normal life is not 'gone', and we don't live in a 'stop start society'.

It's not going to keep Fing up our lives for some time.
I think posts like this are just going to make people feel miserable even though I understand your intentions.

I disagree.
The whole reason this thread exists is because people have gone away or have booked to go away thinking everything is back to normal when it isn’t.
They opened up travel to Spain and now they’ve cancelled future flights and holidays again.
If that’s not stop start I don’t know what is!

Those I feel most sorry for are the people now having to cover for colleagues who decided to take the risk. They'll be sat at home relaxing after a nice break whilst it's quite likely other people will have their annual leave cancelled due to colleagues being off for a whole month rather than a couple of weeks.

I don't think they need YOUR sympathy.

@WhattheHhashappened

Whilst I get you are trying to be realistic, doom and gloom posts like this are pointless. Normal life is not 'gone', and we don't live in a 'stop start society'.

It's not going to keep Fing up our lives for some time.
I think posts like this are just going to make people feel miserable even though I understand your intentions.

I disagree.
The whole reason this thread exists is because people have gone away or have booked to go away thinking everything is back to normal when it isn’t.
They opened up travel to Spain and now they’ve cancelled future flights and holidays again.
If that’s not stop start I don’t know what is!

I agree, we are facing stop start issues. Due to our government's failure to react and our population's collective reluctance to pause our lives while we get control.

Countries that blocked international travel appear to have more domestic freedom.

I would prefer to be like NZ with closed borders but freedom at home, than like us with open borders but higher risks and longer impacts at home.

I think that anyone booking a holiday recently and not taking into account that quarantine rules could change are being naive at best but I do feel sympathy for anyone in this situation. When you’ve got a PM telling people that things will be “back to normal by Christmas” it’s understandable that people think that we’re on a straight line to constant improvements in our freedom rather than the more likely scenario of quarantine rules and localised restrictions being turned off and on again to manage spikes in infections.

At least what’s happened with Spain may help people understand the risk they’re taking when they book to go abroad and hopefully force the Spanish government to get things under control. I have close family who live in Catalonia who say that they could see this coming as once restrictions were lifted a bit people weren’t social distancing and lots of families/friends meeting in large groups thinking they were now ‘safe’ to do so.

People reported the thread because they didn’t like that the OP was pointing out the bleeding obvious? How pathetic can you get?

Unnecessary international travel during this pandemic is fucking idiotic. Globally the pandemic is getting worse, not better. All the virus requires is people moving and congregating.

That is the situation, and everything else is bullshit. “I deserve a holiday!” - bullshit. “I need to get away!” - bullshit.

People choosing to have foreign holidays this year are 100 percent part of the problem, and like the original poster I have precisely zero sympathy.

@labyrinthloafer - I think wanting to be like New Zealand shows a lack of understanding of our geographic, demographic, social, economic and political position, tbh.

Can someone explain why UK holidays are so risk-free ? Do you think people in the UK aren't going to congregate and mix too on holiday and just exist in their little bubbles for the forseeable future ?

The government lifted the ban on non-essential international travel and the air bridges opened. So, people are going to go abroad. Stop calling people idiotic for doing something that they were allowed to do.

@Weirdwonders - why is it bleeding obvious that the OP should be angry and sanctimonious? I doubt people were complaining about her post because they disagree it was obvious a quarantine of people coming back from at least parts of Spain was obvious, but I’m damn certain they were complaining about her ridiculous crowing about how clever she was not to have booked her holiday, yet, and her anger at people less clever at timing things than she was.