When do you think international travel ban will be extended

[Ilikefresias]

I know it’s the million dollar question but when do you think that package holiday companies will stop taking final balances? I can’t see foreign travel being allowed in July/ August but the companies are still saying it will be! Or do you think we will be flying abroad by then?

They are just managing their cashflow to make sure they can give everyone who requests a refund gets one. In theory there is a very small chance that come a few months time you might be able to go, but not only does the U.K. foreign office travel advice have to change to let you travel but the country you are travelling to has to let you in.

As it’s still a way off, nobody knows. Whilst that small chance is still there they will drag it out. Read your terms and conditions very carefully. In most instances, failure to pay your final balance is seen as you cancelling the holiday so you would lose everything paid to date. If you pay your final balance and then it gets cancelled by then, by law you are entitled to a full refund or your travel insurance should pay out.

I spoke with both my agent and travel insurance people yesterday as I received my final balance email. They sent through three options for me - paying final balance as holiday not yet cancelled but will get full refund if holiday is cancelled 30 days before departure, moving my holiday to different dates, or cancelling and losing everything paid so far. We are moving the holiday. We can’t take the first option as nobody is doing travel jabs at the moment and is unlikely to in the timeframe we need. Insurance company said we would not be covered for treatment if we caught any of those diseases whilst away if we haven’t been vaccinated.

Anyway, I waffle on. It’s highly unlikely you’ll be going but your only option if you want a full refund (and are happy to travel if allowed) are to pay up and play the waiting game.

No that wasn’t waffly Zodlebud, it helped a lot! I’m reluctant to pay the balance because I don’t want to go (although DH thinks I’m mad and we should if flights are on). I’m going to see if they will let me change dates. Thanks for your reply

Bump! Anyone else want to play a guessing game with this?! Do you think Boris will announce anything this week about international travel?

I think as zodlebud said, it's not necessarily whether we can travel from the UK, but whereabouts we're travelling to. If countries are happy to accept us then I think the UK will be happy to send flights there. I'm just not sure how many countries that will actually be. We are due to pay the balance on our early August holiday next week, we paid a huge chunk of deposit and don't want to lose it so we'll just pay the rest. I'm not expecting to get there so hopefully a refund will be failry quick and not too painless.

Where are you meant to go to and when ? We might be able to help a bit more with those details ?

July 20 to Crete, I'm just not sure I feel it's safe enough but need to decide soon whether to lose my deposit or pay the balance. I know I need to make the decision but I suffer with anxiety anyway so am interspersed to hear the views of others! Thank you

So it looks - on a quick google - as if Greece are handling the pandemic pretty well and from what I've read may be more quick to open their borders up than other countries as they need the tourist income. I suppose it depends if your holiday is at the start or end of July about how likely it is to take place.

It looks as if all hotels were closed until end of April- it's hard to tell from google if they have been reopened or not.

It's so hard to say if your holiday will take place or not. I think all countries are being very cautious about infection rates, so if it does go ahead then I would imagine it should be because infection rates have diminished enough to do so.

Exact same position here, we are due to pay our balance by Saturday for holiday to Majorca. I can't decide if I want to go even if we're allowed. It's risky, what if they have to lockdown while we're there?
I'm also not keen on the idea of flying on a plane, got to be the worst place for picking up bugs.
We're booked with jet2 who seem to be honoring cash refunds, but obviously if we choose to cancel ourselves we'll lose our deposit £180.

@wormshuffled so hard to know what to thing isn't it! I think BoJo will announce on Sunday about travel but like you that's a day too late for me to risk! Not helping that Jet 2 have removed the cancel button off manage my booking and they don't respond to emails ....

likefreejus I don't think timelines for international travel will be announced on Sunday anyway. There's still too much uncertainty about getting our own country out of lockdown at the minute before adding that in. He might allude to it, but I'd be very surprised if there were any hard dates on it, plus of course we're reliant on being let in by the receiving country which we cannot control.

@Ilikefresias I've cancelled it, was surprisingly easy... The button to cancel now had gone but I found an option to do it buried. Just read in the fail that as we have the highest death toll in Europe now Brits are unlikely to be allowed to travel within Europe all summer. Guess I'll spend the holiday fund on a woodburner for a cosy winter. Hope it works out for you OP.