UK FCO Advises Against ALL non essential travel

[Carolina]

Just announced:

FOREIGN OFFICE ADVISES AGAINST ALL NON-ESSENTIALTRAVEL OVERSEAS
Today (17 March 2020) the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised against all non-essential international travel, initially for a period of 30 days. This advice takes effect immediately.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/trav ... march-2020

[Kilkis]

I think all ex-pats of all nationalities need to decide urgently where they want to ride out this storm. If they prefer to be in their country of origin then I think they need to get back quickly because I don't think it will be long before there is no way back.

Warwick

PS I'll still be here to irritate everybody.

[bobscott]

I think all ex-pats of all nationalities need to decide urgently where they want to ride out this storm. If they prefer to be in their country of origin then I think they need to get back quickly because I don't think it will be long before there is no way back.

Warwick

PS I'll still be here to irritate everybody.

Me too! Bob.

[Yin&Yang]

And me but hopefully I won’t be irritating anybody

[bobscott]

And me but hopefully I won’t be irritating anybody

Oh, go on! Live dangerously!! It's such fun. !

Bob.

[filippos]

PS I'll still be here to irritate everybody.

With the existence of the Internet, Warwick you could irritate everybody wherever you are. ;-)

[Kilkis]

I know. It's magic our Morris.

Warwick

[YoMo2]

But where does this leave us with cancelled flights? Do we get refunds? Nothing on easyJet website.

Andrew

[Mixos]

Good question Andrew. If the official FCO advice is not to travel, then surely the airlines should now be offering full refunds, as opposed to simply re-booking without a fee?

[Tim]

Who do the airlines think is going to rebook when nobody knows how long the pandemic will last, when restrictions will be lifted or how often they will be extended or re-imposed? It's just a rather underhand tactic to try and avoid paying compensation for cancelled flights for as long as possible.

Tim

[Mixos]

Indeed, Tim, and if people do transfer flights now, it's a cheeky way for airlines to maintain some working capital. Example: return flights we booked six months ago for April for £140 each (and have now obviously lost) are being offered for over £400 each in May. As our American cousins might say: Do the math(s) !

[Kilkis]

I suspect thinking in terms of changing from April to May is wishful thinking. Perhaps October is a possibility or April next year. Governments might be announcing restrictions in terms of a few weeks but I think reality is going to be very different. At best this is not going to peak until May, probably later. I would also advise against hoping that it is over more quickly. If it does peak sooner it means that governments have failed and the death rate will be much higher.

Warwick

[Kilkis]

It looks like Easyjet have worked out what the reality is concerning travel restrictions. They have released their winter schedule early so people wanting to reschedule flights, which they have already booked, can now do so up to February 2021. They seem to be thinking along the same lines as my previous post. Obviously not much use to us in Crete since they are not flying to/from here through the winter.

Warwick

PS It should be online tomorrow, Thursday 19 March

[SatCure]

Who do the airlines think is going to rebook when nobody knows how long the pandemic will last

My wife just rebooked for September.

My own intuitive feeling is that this problem will be gone before end of April. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Kilkis]

I really hope you are right but everything I see from around the world tells me that it is going to be much longer.

Warwick