So you think we will able to travel abroad in the summer?

[katie20202]

Hi

I've got a holiday booked in august and I'm just wondering if any one else has a holiday booked? Do you think we will get to go? Oh I hope so! You read all the supposed plans like need a COVID test or be vaccinated!

@newnortherner111 same. Everywhere we want to go is on the red list

@MarshaBradyo

I think so but with tests and maybe vaccination, and long waits at airport.

Long waits at the airport for what? I live in Germany for reference, and currently before you get on a plane there is:

1. Check in at the desk compulsory for everyone, no mobile boarding passes issued in advance, so you have to queue. It’s also compulsory to drop off your hand luggage.
2. Negative PCR, health QR and completed travel info form check
3. Passport control (as usual)
4. Another check at the boarding gate for all of the above
5. Passport and boarding pass before getting on the plane (as usual)

Coming back you have the usual passport control, plus an extra check for negative PCR and travel info form before you get out.

None of this has affected timings in the slightest, and the flights I’ve been getting are always pretty full. As long as you get there 1.5-2h in advance, there are no long waits because of Covid. There is literally no difference, except I used to risk it for national flights and arrive there 40 minutes before take off, which doesn’t work anymore.

I’ve been to quite a few countries this year - including Spain, Switzerland and UK in Europe, which is where most tourists will be heading - and all extra checks at airports run smoothly and have added no stress to the trip. As long as the airports hire enough staff (aka get them back from furlough, it’s not like they’ll be running at capacity anytime soon), there should be no long waits at airports due to Covid.

Extra queues at passport control for UK citizens due to Brexit, is another story.

Eileen we had news reports on it about a week ago.

Chris Garton, chief solutions officer at Heathrow, told MPs on the transport committee that some travellers faced waits of up to six hours.

And

Mr Garton said that all passengers, regardless of nationality, had to be thoroughly vetted before they left or entered the UK to ensure they complied with coronavirus legislation.

However, he said that the queues would become a "much bigger" problem if rules on foreign travel are relaxed on 17 May, as the government is planning.

Here www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56743571.amp

It may get better by summer not sure.

@MarshaBradyo

"We would like to see more resources at the border," he told the MPs. - from that BBC article.

The long queues at Heathrow can be solved very easily. You hire more staff, and come up with a system that means each passenger scans their passport and a QR code with all the information that these forms they’re checking thoroughly contain. In one minute you can do a whole family. Passport, code, passport, code...

It doesn’t need to take hours. It does need, as the airport spokesperson pointed out, resources. Someone actually needs to engage their brain and hire more staff, and create a faster system than what currently is in use.

I’ve done 20+ flights this year. Nowhere have I had long queues (except UK) - because the airports and their respective border controls were efficiently organised. It can be done.

[quote EileenGC]@MarshaBradyo

"We would like to see more resources at the border," he told the MPs. - from that BBC article.

The long queues at Heathrow can be solved very easily. You hire more staff, and come up with a system that means each passenger scans their passport and a QR code with all the information that these forms they’re checking thoroughly contain. In one minute you can do a whole family. Passport, code, passport, code...

It doesn’t need to take hours. It does need, as the airport spokesperson pointed out, resources. Someone actually needs to engage their brain and hire more staff, and create a faster system than what currently is in use.

I’ve done 20+ flights this year. Nowhere have I had long queues (except UK) - because the airports and their respective border controls were efficiently organised. It can be done.[/quote]
Sure. It’s easy yet if not done I don’t fancy a long post holiday wait with small dc.

It’s another factor but hopefully something will change.

To certain countries and having to pay through the nose potentially here and in country for testing, yes.

We’ve moved a three country trip (Croatia, Bosnia & Montenegro) booked last year for August back to 2022. It wasn’t going to happen!

I booked mine last summer thinking things would be back to normal! Well that was a naive thought! At the end of the day it's not the end of the world if I don't get to go and there is worse things happening in the world than me not going away, so if I end up rescheduling to next year I will upgrade to a nicer hotel for a treat

I doubt it. And if I'm honest, I hope not. I will not be impressed if we end up back in lockdown because people wanted to fly overseas for a week.

@katie20202 we had Florida booked for May 2020, my TimeHop is hilarious showing screenshots I've sent to my husband as "evidence" as late as April that Florida will open up in time for us to go 😂😂 I can't remember at what point it took me to realise we weren't going. I'm clearly the eternal optimist!

Or just stupid

We’ve just cancelled and rebooked for next year in a really luxurious villa. It’s not worth the uncertainty.

My ds, currently in quarantine in Ireland, has to pay 180euro for a covid test (that he had done in France for nothing five days ago). That’s a hefty holiday supplement.

I think there will be foreign travel this summer and I think things will look a lot better by July/August then they do right now, purely because of ever-increasingly vaccinations in all the main holiday countries in Europe. There will be a lot of uncertainty though and the situation is likely to be fluid, particularly once large numbers of people start travelling again and localised outbreaks happen. Vaccinations and/or negative Covid tests for all travellers will necessary until the pandemic is over IMO.

I wonder if there will be added delay for UK folk entering Europe as third country/non EU residents, like Spain perhaps?

I've got one booked for August I'm just hoping TUI cancels it before I pay the 150 to change it to next year! Don't wanna be going on a holiday full of restrictions! That's not a holiday that's a butt load of stress

I’ve booked the USA for late July. The state I plan to visit has declared that it will reopen for fully (except removing its face mask mandate) by mid June if things continue the way they are with hospitalizations, deaths and infections all going down rapidly there - I think it will. Just need Biden to open the border to the UK as it looks pretty certain the US will be on the green list. Just hope you won’t need to be fully vaccinated as I might not have been fully vaccinated by then. I would say I’m 70% confident i’ll go but won’t be happy until my bum is on the seat on the plane!

I’m hoping Grant Shapps manages to bring down prices of PCR tests as he promised!

@zafferana

I think there will be foreign travel this summer and I think things will look a lot better by July/August then they do right now, purely because of ever-increasingly vaccinations in all the main holiday countries in Europe. There will be a lot of uncertainty though and the situation is likely to be fluid, particularly once large numbers of people start travelling again and localised outbreaks happen. Vaccinations and/or negative Covid tests for all travellers will necessary until the pandemic is over IMO.

I agree with this. Tests and proof of vaccinations will be normal until the pandemic is declared over. Who knows what will happen after that?

Doubt we’d be going anywhere till at least 2035.

Do you mean yourselves @Randominternetbitch or anyone? And why 2035?
Not sniping, just curious. This Holiday section must make rather depressing reading for you as well!

@SJaneS49 - don't know, apparently that's the law according to MNetters...

Personally, we have a couple of trips booked end of August and in October; I am keeping everything crossed for their going ahead and I am feeling more and more optimistic as the days go by. I can't wait to escape all the misery and damp!

Where has the travel advice board gone ?

Not for us this year. The stress, hassle and extra cost isn’t worth it. Tests, long airport queues, change of quarantine rules, no insurance cover.... clearly, I’m becoming more risk averse/pessimistic. I’ve just had my first dose of vaccine but the vaccination rates in other countries are hugely lower. I think that I can wait longer to see how the pandemic plays out in the wider world. Cases are rising in Europe again along with intermittent on/off restrictions...they may well peak next month and will be lower in June/July but who knows.

Word from the USA (I work over there for a few months each year) - my boss has said the feeling is that borders will open again this summer but to fully vaccinated travellers only. This is both shots plus two to three weeks afterwards. So I am having my first jab tomorrow, second jab around 11th July which makes me eligible for any sort of vaccine passport from 1st August at the earliest. The under 40s don’t stand a chance of being fully vaccinated before the end of August.

So in theory the government might allow us to travel BUT the country you are visiting may well have entry criteria that mean you can’t go. The government are therefore being quite crafty in that they are “letting” us go abroad in theory but the reality is we can’t go. Much better PR for them than telling us all no!!!

I have something in Italy booked for July but fully cancellable. We live abroad so could drive or get the train. We will be vaccinated by then. Though not dd. I am not getting my hopes up particularly but knew if I left it and we COULD go, there would be nothing decent left.

That’s the thing, it will depend on each country’s rules. The EU seems unanimous in that negative tests will be required from everyone, regardless of vaccination status. But that doesn’t help people who want to travel to the US or other countries where you won’t get in without being fully vaccinated, end of.