Travel to Australia at Christmas

[Twinkie84]

Hi;

We have plans to travel to Australia at Christmas for 3 weeks to visit family and friends who live over there. It's been planned for about a year.

How realistic do you think this is that we still will be able to go ahead in the current environment?

I'm in the UK and we are traveling via San Francisco USA.

I understand it's a long way off still but I'm now have doubts that we will be able to travel

Thank you

Are you Australian? If not, I’m afraid I don’t think you have much chance

Highly unlikely to be problem free. So many possible issues. From full cancellation to 14day quarenteen on arrival in australia. Also possible to have to quarenteen on return.
can move flights to the following year ?

I dont think it is going to happen without issues, sorry.

Definitely not , Australia is currently not planning on opening borders to Europe until September 2021.

Following with interest as I also have a flight booked for early next year. @AldiAisleOfCrap Where did you get that information from? Thanks

@BoomShacks from my Australian relative.

Sorry my mistake, I just checked her message and it’s July not September.

I've seen that Australia isn't opening its borders till next year. I would be very surprised if you would be able to go this year.

My friends' Christmas trip to Australia has already been cancelled by the tour operator

I think it’s quite unlikely. I have also been told borders are closed to foreigners until January.

I would like to go home for a visit at Christmas but I suspect Australia will keep up the 2 week quarantine (at $3,000 pp) until the New Year unless coronavirus resolves quite quickly across the world.

I'd start requesting the refund now. Sorry op.

Australia isn’t opening its borders to visitors until July 2021?

@BananaPop2020 that’s the current situation yes relative works for local government in Queensland and that’s what they have been told. She did say she was cautiously optimistic it could be brought forward to May. Obviously there will be exceptions where you can quarantine for compassionate reasons etc but not for holidays.

Reports on Qantas's plans seem reflect the above comments:

"The Australian flag carrier has removed inventory for all international routes—except for a handful into New Zealand—through March of 2021, according to Executive Traveller. So although Qantas’ international routes have not yet been formally canceled, the flights are likely to be officially nixed in coming days.

Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce has alluded to the fact that the suspension of international flights could stretch even further into next year. Last month, Joyce said he doesn’t foresee the airline’s international route network significantly relaunching until at least July 2021, according to Australia’s 7News.

www.cntraveler.com/story/qantas-is-effectively-canceling-all-international-flights-until-march-2021

No chance. Maybe next Christmas. Maybe.
At the moment if you are Australian (or have residency) you can’t leave the country and if you are not Australian you can’t come in (even if you are Australian the flights are limited and expensive and you have to do 2 weeks of proper hotel quarantine) They are talking about possibly increasing flights in the new year but not removing the quarantine obviously. I would get a refund and make other plans... One day!

I wouldn't think so.

My sister lives in Melbourne, she usually brings her family to the UK every two years. She is sure that she wont be allowed to travel until at least next summer.

I know of 2 people who have been stranded in Australia for weeks after visiting for a holiday in Feb/March. One finally got home at the end of May, the other one only got home 2 weeks ago.

My sister lives in Melbourne, and she was saying today that there's talk of Australia's borders being closed for up to 5 years!! She thinks it's very unlikely they will allow travel to and from Europe before 2022. One thing with them having dealt with it all so well, is it's actually isolated them quite a lot. Which I think is going to make it really tough for them in the next few years.

I am keeping a close eye on the situation. My DP is Australian and his family (including his twin and twin’s daughter [just over 1 year]) are all over there. It’s hard because we know that he could technically go over there but a) I couldn’t and b) it wouldn’t be worth it as we are both teachers and 2 weeks quarantine on both sides would really mess us up.

Does anyone know about the prospects of long term travel of a year working in Australia? Is it possible that this could happen sooner than summer 2022?

Thank you so much everyone for responding so far.

In my heart I knew it probably won't be possible to go this year but I had hoped that it might happen. It's looking more and more likely that it won't unfortunately.

We have only had to pay for our flights as we are staying with the friends/family.

Think we need to consider that it's not likely that we'll be going this year

I'm in Australia. There is no border date for reopening. It's all speculation. However, I can tell you with certainty it won't be this year. Sorry.

Anyone who is let in will have to quarantine for two weeks, in a hotel, costing between $2800-$4000. This won't change either. There's also very few flights & even this that go ahead, airlines are cancelling prebooked seats & reselling at astronomical prices.

We’re aiming for PIL to visit in March 2021 from Australia, so they don’t have to go through hotel quarantine again.

It upsets me that they won’t be able to meet their grandchild in person until he’s at least 3 months old. I really feel for DH not being able to freely book flights to see his family.

I feel your pain OP. We booked our month long holiday to NZ for Christmas, back in February. We are also flying through San Fran and as the US don't really 'transit' passengers (you have to leave the transit area with all your luggage then check back in) we are facing the prospect of mixing with large numbers of people which I don't feel comfortable with, given the current numbers of CV-19 in California.

It sucks and I'm missing home desperately. Even if I go home, quarantine in one of the quarantine hotels (I could work from there) to see my elderly dad, my husband and two young children couldn't come as they're not NZ citizens.

Our 'one world' feels so fractured right now.

Does anyone know what happens to those caught up in Australia? Friends of ourS went to Australia at the beginning of lockdown. Wife is Australian but husband and son aren’t. They have a flight booked still for end of August. Is this going to happen??

My BiL lives over there. We've just found out that MiL probably only has a couple of months to live. It is very unlikely he is going to get to see her. It's pretty rotten.