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Holiday Booking Question

Holiday Ideas & Foreign Travel
AsleepInYorkshire
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Holiday Booking Question

#389698

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 24th, 2021, 6:51 pm

Last year we had 3 holidays planned. We have one 13 year old daughter. Two were local to Spain & Tenerife & one was Orlando for two weeks.

With the latest announcements on Covid and that me and the good lady will be vaccinated by May is it safe to book a holiday in the last week of August for a week in Tenerife? We would be out £60 deposit until the final payment is due. We've used the company before and they rang us to return our pennies for the first holiday which was paid for that we missed last year. The other two weren't booked.

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Lootman
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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#389703

Postby Lootman » February 24th, 2021, 6:56 pm

From what I have seen most operators are accepting bookings with some kind of assurance that, if the trip cannot happen because of Covid, then you get a refund or can change your plans without penalty. There are also options to buy travel insurance to increase your cover.

So in my view it is perfectly reasonable to book some travel now for later in the summer. As things stand the government is saying we can go on holiday from May 17th.

The reason to do that now is that there is a huge pent-up demand for travel and, if you wait too long, things may be booked up or the price may increase. And it takes time to get all those mothballed planes running and airworthy again so flight supply may be limited.

I am starting to make travel plans from late May right now.

AsleepInYorkshire
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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#389750

Postby AsleepInYorkshire » February 24th, 2021, 9:20 pm

Lootman wrote:From what I have seen most operators are accepting bookings with some kind of assurance that, if the trip cannot happen because of Covid, then you get a refund or can change your plans without penalty. There are also options to buy travel insurance to increase your cover.

So in my view it is perfectly reasonable to book some travel now for later in the summer. As things stand the government is saying we can go on holiday from May 17th.

The reason to do that now is that there is a huge pent-up demand for travel and, if you wait too long, things may be booked up or the price may increase. And it takes time to get all those mothballed planes running and airworthy again so flight supply may be limited.

I am starting to make travel plans from late May right now.

Well it's booked so I can only imagine between now and then an asteroid will strike the earth :roll:

Both girls are bouncing off the walls already.

AiY

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390322

Postby AF62 » February 26th, 2021, 4:25 pm

Lootman wrote:As things stand the government is saying we can go on holiday from May 17th.


I thought that was for holidays within the UK, as the government knows it cannot predict when Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc. will allow UK tourists back in.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390324

Postby Lootman » February 26th, 2021, 4:31 pm

AF62 wrote:
Lootman wrote:As things stand the government is saying we can go on holiday from May 17th.

I thought that was for holidays within the UK, as the government knows it cannot predict when Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc. will allow UK tourists back in.

Well yes, but the change as I see it is that it will no longer be against the law to travel for pleasure. Whether other locations will let you in is of course another matter. At least some places, like Greece and Thailand I have heard, are considering allowing tourists with evidence of vaccination.

Even now if you get as far as the airport, you can travel. Nobody at the airport is going to stop you and tell you that you can't fly. The risk is getting from your home to the airport, when you could in theory be stopped by a cop and issued a ticket. That risk will presumably cease on May 17th.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390335

Postby AF62 » February 26th, 2021, 4:58 pm

Lootman wrote:
AF62 wrote:
Lootman wrote:As things stand the government is saying we can go on holiday from May 17th.

I thought that was for holidays within the UK, as the government knows it cannot predict when Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, etc. will allow UK tourists back in.

Well yes, but the change as I see it is that it will no longer be against the law to travel for pleasure. Whether other locations will let you in is of course another matter. At least some places, like Greece and Thailand I have heard, are considering allowing tourists with evidence of vaccination.

Even now if you get as far as the airport, you can travel. Nobody at the airport is going to stop you and tell you that you can't fly. The risk is getting from your home to the airport, when you could in theory be stopped by a cop and issued a ticket. That risk will presumably cease on May 17th.


Some politicians in other countries are certainly pushing for an early opening for their tourist industry, but other politicians in the same countries are not so keen - particularly with the slow roll out of vaccinations in Europe. Of course the first group are enthusiastically reported in the UK press; the second group not so much.

As for the 'home to airport' issue, after the police got slapped down for their 'enthusiastic' interpretation of the distance you could travel from home, I don't think there has been any risk at all - last weekend I drove half way across the country without any concern at all.

I see as a far greater risk the potential that some variant pops up in your tourist destination and you either have to make a dash for the airport or risk 10 days locked in a quarantine hotel when you fly home - assuming you need to come home and can't just sit it out in the sun.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390352

Postby Lootman » February 26th, 2021, 6:15 pm

AF62 wrote:I see as a far greater risk the potential that some variant pops up in your tourist destination and you either have to make a dash for the airport or risk 10 days locked in a quarantine hotel when you fly home - assuming you need to come home and can't just sit it out in the sun.

To my way of thinking there is not really full permission to go overseas on holiday unless the requirement for quarantine is waived. It is hard to go to Benidorm for a week and then spend two weeks cooped up somewhere unable to go back to work or see anyone.

So I would expect to see quarantine relaxed as part of the return of foreign travel. Although of course there is always a risk of a sporadic outbreak somewhere that might require special treatment for anyone returning from that location.

Whether unrestricted travel will require a vaccination certificate remains to be seen. I suspect other countries will continue to vary on this. The OP mentioned Orlando and it cannot yet be known whether the US will relax the current restrictions on travel from Europe.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390397

Postby richfool » February 26th, 2021, 9:11 pm

Yes, at least part of the issue will be the policy of the country you are proposing to travel to.

Whilst, for example, Thailand is allowing tourists, it requires them to have pre- applied for a visa, provide evidence that they are covid free and then to quarantine on arrival, in predetermined authorised locations under strict controls for (I think) 14 days. Other countries will be free to impose whatever restrictions they see fit, based on unfolding events.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390404

Postby Lootman » February 26th, 2021, 9:44 pm

richfool wrote:Yes, at least part of the issue will be the policy of the country you are proposing to travel to.

Whilst, for example, Thailand is allowing tourists, it requires them to have pre- applied for a visa, provide evidence that they are covid free and then to quarantine on arrival, in predetermined authorised locations under strict controls for (I think) 14 days. Other countries will be free to impose whatever restrictions they see fit, based on unfolding events.

Agreed but then in those circumstances one should receive a refund or opportunity to re-book without penalty. That is how the travel business is marketing holidays given the uncertainty, which makes perfect sense.

The question being asked here is only whether a holdiay can be safely booked, and I believe that it can, subject to the above caveat. In fact BA is currently promoting discounted holidays to various European destinations starting from May 17th, the mooted date of the relaxation of travel restrictions.

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390504

Postby dspp » February 27th, 2021, 10:08 am

Lootman wrote:
richfool wrote:Yes, at least part of the issue will be the policy of the country you are proposing to travel to.

Whilst, for example, Thailand is allowing tourists, it requires them to have pre- applied for a visa, provide evidence that they are covid free and then to quarantine on arrival, in predetermined authorised locations under strict controls for (I think) 14 days. Other countries will be free to impose whatever restrictions they see fit, based on unfolding events.

Agreed but then in those circumstances one should receive a refund or opportunity to re-book without penalty. That is how the travel business is marketing holidays given the uncertainty, which makes perfect sense.

The question being asked here is only whether a holdiay can be safely booked, and I believe that it can, subject to the above caveat. In fact BA is currently promoting discounted holidays to various European destinations starting from May 17th, the mooted date of the relaxation of travel restrictions.


I utterly disagree with the meme "one should receive a refund or opportunity to re-book without penalty." that I am continually hearing.

If the unforced commercial offer is that, fine. However the service provider should not be pressured or forced into making such a commercial offer. For holiday cottages demand is strong and has been throughout : there are a lot of people who have become stranded due to house moves going wrong, divorces during lockdown, nursing & care staff forced out of lodgings, an entire array of things. As my GF starts to redirect her cottage back towards the holiday market she is quite clear, no refunds outwith the standard pre-Covid norms. If 'picky' purchasers don't like that, then tough on them as she can let the place 3x over. Demand is high and prices are up by about 25% in our observation. She has been quite clear and crisp with her agent on this (one of the big agents) and has stuck to her guns on this point and the agent has backed down. The agent in turn has been under enormous media and political pressure to introduce that offer.

There is a very big risk that I see coming, of a certain sort of person booking two holidays - one in (say) Greece, and another in (say) UK, and then cancelling the one they cannot get to / least prefer at the last moment depending on how things develop. These are exactly the sort of 'entitlement culture' clients one does not want, and it is a meme one should not encourage. Hence a fairly brisk pushback is called for.

If folk want to take an elective risk, fine, go ahead and take the risk. But don't expect others to subsidise that risk. Booking a holiday is not a right and not a need, it is an elective decision.

regards, dspp

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Re: Holiday Booking Question

#390548

Postby richfool » February 27th, 2021, 11:55 am

Lootman wrote:The question being asked here is only whether a holdiay can be safely booked, and I believe that it can, subject to the above caveat. In fact BA is currently promoting discounted holidays to various European destinations starting from May 17th, the mooted date of the relaxation of travel restrictions.

Well then, to strictly answer the question "being asked here", yes, one can obviously "book" whatever holiday one wants. My point was that that doesn't guarantee that one will be able to travel. The latter will depend on how the pandemic progresses and what restrictions, or otherwise, that the destination country may choose to apply, or indeed that the UK may apply at that time. Noted that the OP says he would only be at risk in terms to the extent of his deposit.


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