Isolation at airport hotels.

[itsgettingwierd]

I maybe being thick and missing something obvious.

But I just don't understand how come 1000 people a day are travelling from red list countries and therefore more in total?

We aren't meant to be travelling. So no one should be going on holiday?

Anyone got any insight and could explain it to be better so I can make sense as I don't trust the negative MSM continuous reports which are opinion more than actual fact most if the time!

Fwiw I agree with the quarantine and think we should have been better at it earlier (like a year ago!)

I've just been having this same conversation with dd.

It's so odd isn't it?

I can understand people who have had to travel in emergencies - eg family abroad who take ill etc. But that can't account for the high numbers?

I also don't understand how this hotel quarantine allows the people to mix with others the airport before going into quarantine?!

Some people travelling:
Offshore workers
Oil and Gas workers in "unpleasant" countries
Musicians - going wherever there is work
Actors and production crews - film and TV production has slowed, not stopped
Expat kids at boarding school - and/or their parents taking or collecting, because lots of unaccompanied minors schemes have been stopped
People working on stuff that cant be done remotely for example fixing complicated equipment
People who had been working abroad, and now have lost their job, so are coming home
People who have family abroad, and have been to see their close family members last few days and/or funeral

🤨 There are other reasons to fly abroad besides holidays, Op. Work, bereavement, emergencies, immigration...

They will all be British citizens coming home after being away for reasons that pp have mentioned. I don’t think you’re allowed in at all if you’re a citizen of one of the 33 countries
Seems completely arbitrary though. Some of the African countries listed have barely had any covid cases at all. Not worth doing unless you can quarantine everyone coming in Imo. Which isn’t going to happen.

@MrsMariaReynolds

🤨 There are other reasons to fly abroad besides holidays, Op. Work, bereavement, emergencies, immigration...

Well yes I get that - hence me asking what people were travelling for!

List above by poster has things I didn't consider. Eg working abroad on things you have to travel to do and off shore workers.

But I'm thinking those people who travel for work are more likely to isolate? But I guess then they risk passing infection to family asymptomatically who take it out into the community?

I maybe wrongly assumed those who weren't sticking to isolation rules were those who thought travelling in a pandemic was sensible?!

Eg o thought those not isolating would be holiday makers.

I also wonder as numbers are so much lower they could have had a better checking system for isolation?

I am surprised though at number of people who are coming in from off shore work daily. I didn't realise the numbers were so high!

I watched news earlier of Heathrow and it seemed mainly couples travelling?

@NCTDN

I also don't understand how this hotel quarantine allows the people to mix with others the airport before going into quarantine?!

Also there are currently no direct flights from the 33 countries so they will all have to take indirect flights. And sit next to someone who doesn’t have to quarantine.

Crew staff, Scientists, technicians, engineers, politicians, diplomats, journalists, business people, medical persons, people accompanying organs for transplant or scientific material/equipment, criminal repatriations, other repatriations, students -- probably make up 95%+ of the arrivals.

Very few people are travelling between countries for 'holidays' right now.

1000/day over the 5-6 relevant airports, is miniscule compared to the 250k persons per day that used to arrive at Heathrow alone, large numbers of them were business travellers in normal times, too.

I know someone who is an offshore worker in the oil industry. He lives in the UK but flies out to the Gulf working something like a month on/month off. If he's caught by this, half his time off will be lost to hotel quarantine. I presume he earns good money but probably not good enough to be spending a grand a month on quarantine.

We have aerospace contractors who are flying out for work. They have to be tested twice for the locations we work with.

In normal times, 33% of Heathrow travellers were on business. About 15% of total business travellers normally at Gatwick. I am fairly certain most of the travel out of my dinky regional airport was business/work related (I've flown out of there 2 or 3 times more for business than leisure myself).

Just heard that a grand total of 8 people have arrived from the red list of countries this morning.
I suppose they would have done anything possible to arrive yesterday instead.

Also just read a sad story about a dad who works in dubai in the oil industry and does 4 weeks on then 2 weeks off where he flies back to the Uk. Not feasible now (quarantine at home was doable otoh) so basically he will have to stay in dubai and not see his kids and wife until God knows when. There could be thousands in this position. Also heard of kids in dubai who will need to be flying back unaccompanied to England when schools restarts. Government hasn’t made any exceptions for them so who knows what they’ll do.

@user1495884673

I know someone who is an offshore worker in the oil industry. He lives in the UK but flies out to the Gulf working something like a month on/month off. If he's caught by this, half his time off will be lost to hotel quarantine. I presume he earns good money but probably not good enough to be spending a grand a month on quarantine.

Surely the company will foot the bill of its work sending him abroad?

Yes I read about the schools.

That's a tough one. I guess there is the risk of taking it to a school or schools could and should have an arrangement with government these pupils isolate at school in an approved environment?

@frazzled2207 bil was stuck on an oil boat in the middle east last year was supposed to be jan to March but he didn't get off until sept. He lives in Thailand and they weren't letting non nationals in for a time and he also had problems getting to Dubai to fly out in the first place. That's when they finally let them off the boat!

His wife and kids were in Thailand. On the plus side he earth enough that he doesn't need to work until next year!

It was very tough for him.

The people at Heathrow didn’t look like oil-rig workers or diplomats to me. I suppose some people just don’t give a fig and if they can travel they will.

@IrmaFayLear

The people at Heathrow didn’t look like oil-rig workers or diplomats to me. I suppose some people just don’t give a fig and if they can travel they will.

If they are willing to pay nearly £2k to be stuck in a hotel room when they come back then fair enough I guess. as for people in countries other than the 33 I can see how quarantining at home for 10 days could be seen as acceptable - especially if you have a massive house and a garden. I totally would not do it unless it was a desperate situation.

Surely the company will foot the bill of its work sending him abroad?

I don't know him well enough to know all the details so happy to be corrected (husband of school-gate mum-friend sort of thing) but I'm not sure it works like that. As far as I know, he is employed by the company out in the Gulf, he isn't being sent out from a UK base so I would have thought any additional costs are likely to fall to him, or, more likely, he will be stuck in the Gulf until things change again. I know lots of North Sea workers choose to live in places like Spain and fly in for their shifts. I don't think they get flights paid back to the UK - it's effectively their commute and the lower cost of living and budget airline prices make it worthwhile.

(I don't actually know which country he works in just the area of the world, so he may not even be in a red list country, hence saying "if" in my first post.)

My cousin works on oil rigs. He gets paid big bucks when he is working, zilch when he is not. His flights are arranged and paid. But it is not a job where you are paid as a full-time employee with holidays/other benefits etc. At least not at the contract worker level.

Yes, similar to oohmyback's bil. I think friend is on a boat when he works and could theoretically live anywhere except he chooses to commute from a shitty run-down town in the Uk rather than somewhere like Thailand!

There are some people (I don’t know how significant the numbers are) who winter over in places like the Canary Islands. They chose not to cut short their plans and are now faced with the 90 day Brexit rule and the fact that flights are severely reduced in number/cancelled.

@IrmaFayLear

The people at Heathrow didn’t look like oil-rig workers or diplomats to me. I suppose some people just don’t give a fig and if they can travel they will.

You must have seen the same report as me. I saw couples mainly. One looked liked they had a giant sleeping bag that looked like a body bag being pulled along

@user1495884673

Surely the company will foot the bill of its work sending him abroad?

I don't know him well enough to know all the details so happy to be corrected (husband of school-gate mum-friend sort of thing) but I'm not sure it works like that. As far as I know, he is employed by the company out in the Gulf, he isn't being sent out from a UK base so I would have thought any additional costs are likely to fall to him, or, more likely, he will be stuck in the Gulf until things change again. I know lots of North Sea workers choose to live in places like Spain and fly in for their shifts. I don't think they get flights paid back to the UK - it's effectively their commute and the lower cost of living and budget airline prices make it worthwhile.

(I don't actually know which country he works in just the area of the world, so he may not even be in a red list country, hence saying "if" in my first post.)

Yes if he's employed by the company abroad and lives in uk there is a chance he has to pay if they don't pay transport etc.

I don't know either