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Thinking I might start booking stuff for this year- some flights only, some full blown package. What is the safe way of doing this ie fully covered if Covid says you can’t go. I’m guessing travel insurance doesn’t cover it.
Last minute
I'd also use a credit card.
I just think the prices are going to go mental, and I really could do with having something to look forward to.
I don’t think you can at the moment. Things (I.e. this government) are far too fluid to be able to plan without risk.
Maybe book something for late summer 2022?
Fair enough
Why do you think insurance might be a problem?
How to book with 'zero risk' is to go wild camping, go find a place where there's no bugger else around.
Zero risk not possible but most hotels and even Airbnb are cancellable for free until a week out from the booking. You can then just gamble with the flight cost.
Not zero risk but you can reduce risk by having a backup plan.
Book somewhere in france that you can get to by driving (lower risk than flying), if France's doors are not open you can cancel if booked well and try somewhere else.
Some package travel companies are giving a guarantee themselves are they not? But no way on earth would I be booking stuff now with so much uncertainty
Not zero risk. If you book flights and car with BA then it is a package. Only £350 deposit needed until 3 weeks before travel.
Some good prices for USA in September.
Looks like we will both have been vaccinated by then. Just a question of how close to normal the USA is.
Thinking about putting it back to spring 2022.
We have booked a holiday in Spain in May
Both hotel and flights can be rescheduled or credit carried forward if travel restrictions prevent us coming
And I took out annual travel insurance which covers any trip if we can't travel because we are ill (i.e. personal circumstances not travel restrictions)
Plus our home insurance which provides a bit more cover too
Think that covers most eventualities, and fingers crossed we don't need any of it. We just wanted to get something in the calendar to look forward to, and before everywhere gets booked up
We run a small accommodation business and are offering a Covid refund guarantee for bookings this year. If you can’t travel due to being in lockdown, we can’t have you because of lockdown or you have covid symptoms or covid itself you can have a change of dates or full refund of all monies paid. All we ask is at least 48 hours notice. Lots of places will be doing the same. Book direct of poss and avoid the big agencies like Booking.com - save yourself some money.
As tartanscarf says,most companies are going to be a lot more flexible with bookings/cancellations now.Have a backup plan (or two) and go for it, I think it's important to have something to look forward to.
The problem I found was I can get insurance cover, flexible booking etc... But entry requirements are fluctuating and if we needed a PCR test and certificate, was likely to add £500 to our family holiday.
I noticed RyanAir are doing flights to most places in Europe for £12-16 each way, and also saying they don't have any fees to change? Though I wonder if they will charge you the extra cost if the flight you change to is more expensive?
Not a lot of money to gamble with anyway.
Just a question of how close to normal the USA is.
Probably very far from it!
Beware the need to cancel because we are forbidden from foreign travel by the government and the destination has no restrictions. You will be charged to cancel no matter how much notice is given. At shorter notice it could be the whole holiday cost.
@sandwich you are right that travel insurance won't cover any nationwide restrictions, only personal circumstances
But lots of travel companies and hotels are offering flexible cancellation policies
I hadn't considered we might need to show a negative test result before we can travel (maybe both ways?)
I wonder if they will charge you the extra cost if the flight you change to is more expensive?
Pretty sure you will have to pay the difference, it just counts as credit for future flights
I hadn’t considered we might need to show a negative test result before we can travel (maybe both ways?)
That's hit us with my daughter coming home from uni - to get back to Spain she needed a recent (<72hrs) PCR test, and that's another ~150GBP added to the flight. The UK is about to bring it in for people flying into the UK, just hoping it won't be necessary before this Thursday...
We booked a holiday for last summer and got it all back.
The hotel had the option to cancel for free up to 1 week before arrival. I think we paid maybe an extra 5% for that.
The flights were diry cheap and we took the view that if we lost that then so be it. As it happens, Jet2 cancelled the flight so we got a full refund.
Car hire we were always going to leave until last minute.
We're debating doing the same again for this summer.
Be aware that with cheap flights from reputable airlines, they are about 90% refundable even if they say they aren't.
For example I booked MAN FRA a few years ago for around £340 for four. Only around 40 quid of that was the fare ( ie non refundable) the bulk was taxes and charges which they had to refund if I cancelled.
Even when/if covid subsides the cat is now out of the bag and the world now knows that things can be shut down overnight at the drop of a hat whenever governments decide to. Historical precedent shows us that in times of crisis whenever extraordinarily laws are introduced they are never relinquished when the crisis is over. So the risk of global shut down and international travel being banned irrespective of the cause will be something that is considered a risk going forward and will be included in insurance products and other protection methods. Of course there will be a corresponding increase in premiums and prices.
So just check with our travel insurance company and make sure you buy protection specifically offering that protection....it will cost you but if you want zero risk you have to pay for it.
Risk free = book nothing. Things won't be anywhere near normal for a long time. Not even expecting to be allowed to use our static caravan anytime soon. Season opens in 6 weeks. No chance.
As others have said nothing will be entirely risk free.
If buying separately and return ticket from the UK, if the airline cancels the flight then you are due a 100% refund (EU261). If there is a change of Government rules (either UK or destination) or a change in your personal circumstances but the flight goes ahead, you are looking at the T&Cs of the ticket when you bought. Most airlines are offering a 'covid guarantee' of some kind, usually that you can keep the money as credit with the airline. This will need to be used in a timely manner and of course as things get 'back to normal' expect fares to go up, so it is not risk free because you might find you can't use the money to where you want to go, have to spend more money for the same flights later, or in an extreme example the airline goes bankrupt and you lose your cash.
Hotels though are mostly fully flexible, or within a few days, with full refunds. Book direct if you can rather than through a third-party.
A package holiday from the UK with ABSA type protection means you'll get your money back eventually if they go bankrupt. You have to look at the T&Cs but generally you'll be risking a deposit, or again if you can't travel for personal circumstances or Government rule changes, you might be able to have a credit on file, and so you may have to pay more for the same holiday later.
You can get travel insurance for some things. Even if the FCDO is advising against all but essential travel and you go for leisure, you can get insurance for medical and repatriation (Battleface for under 60s worldwide; High Risk Voyager; StaySure for Europe; Avanti for Europe). Please do not consider travelling to Europe without medical cover + repatriation at the very least. I don't know of any insurances that will cover covid-related cancellations, i.e. if Government rules change and you can't go. But there are insurances that will cover covid-infection so if you tested positive within 7 days of travel they will cover you. You may need to buy several policies for different circumstances, including if the FCDO advise ('travel corridors') keeps changing.
You are likely to need RT-PCR tests before travel both ways for the forseeable future, since the vaccination doesn't give 100% efficacy against infection (and hence you could be vaccinated but still spread the disease even though you personally are very unlikely to get severe disease) to keep infection rates as low as we sensibly can. If you can't afford it, yes it sucks and it further enhances the socio-economic divide. It will decrease travel-for-fun, which for the next year+ is a good thing.
"Forbidden from foreign travel by the government " Note technically UK nationals have never been banned from travelling - in this lockdown you are banned from leaving your home unless an essential purpose. Some European (and other) Governments do actually ban crossing the border.
"For example I booked MAN FRA a few years ago for around £340 for four. Only around 40 quid of that was the fare ( ie non refundable) the bulk was taxes and charges which they had to refund if I cancelled." @thegeneralist Yes you can always claim back taxes and airport fees of you cancel or no show, but you cannot claim back other charges like the airline surcharge (a fuel surcharge) as well as the fare. I suspect for most tickets, even cheap European flights, the airline would keep 50% of the cost.
I've come to the conclusion that having things to look forward to and then having to cancel them all is worse than not having anything to look forward to. I am therefore not booking anything for this year for the time being...
I tend to book short city breaks at just a few weeks notice so for me, no change.
Sadly I didn’t get to book anything in 2020, but at least I didn’t have anything I had to cancel
Just a question of how close to normal the USA is.
Biden is promising 100m vaccinations in his first 100 days, which as a % of their population is slightly easier than Johnsons promise.
Travel, freedom etc all depends on how Governments think Covid should be managed once the Health Care Crisis is over.
IF the US offers vaccines for free and IF they follow the rest of the world in offering it to he most venerable first and IF Biden's can keep his promise, by the end of April Covid deaths and hospitalisations will be very low by the end of April compared to now.
Similarly here, in theory by the 3rd week of Feb (7 days after the Gov Pledge to have the first 4 priority groups vaccinated by mid-Feb) new Hospital admissions should fall by around 70%, and Deaths by about 90%. It would of course rely on everything going right in a crisis when it seems if it can go wrong, it will.
By the time Spring arrives the Healthcare crisis should be over, people will still end up in Hospital and people will still die, but the NHS should be able to cope comfortably.
What happens then is the big question, there will still be millions of us in the lower risk groups that won't be vaccinated and haven't been exposed to it yet. Goverments are seeing an economic crisis on the horizon they need to deal with, I fancy once the healthcare crisis is over, or at least controlled, they'll want a post-Covid boom to try to drag is out of recession and you can't do that under covid restrictions. I have a feeling the rest of us will be left with a choice, stay in, socially distance, wait for your vaccine, or accept the risks.
The UK is about to bring it in for people flying into the UK, just hoping it won’t be necessary before this Thursday…
@mogrim - I believe Scotland aim to have this from Friday 15th; implied England would too.
If buying separately and return ticket from the UK, if the airline cancels the flight then you are due a 100% refund (EU261).
does that still apply to us lowly peasants from non EU countries?
By the time Spring arrives the Healthcare crisis should be over, people will still end up in Hospital and people will still die, but the NHS should be able to cope comfortably.
Well there's no need to ask if your glass is half full or half empty. Carefull you don't spill it.
If buying separately and return ticket from the UK, if the airline cancels the flight then you are due a 100% refund (EU261).
does that still apply to us lowly peasants from non EU countries?
The European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (signed into UK law) meant that all EU regulations as applied to the UK came into UK law when we left the EU. So until our Government decides to revoke it, the EU261 regulation applies just under a different name.
Geez we're in the middle of a once-in-a-hundred years global pandemic and all some people can think about is booking a foreign holiday @@
It’s not all I’m thinking about. I’m also thinking about all those people having outdoor sex in that other thread.
I believe Scotland aim to have this from Friday 15th; implied England would too.
Yeah, comes into effect from Friday - a day after her flight 🙂