Bits of the Travel Ind seem to be writing off up to mid-June at the moment. (TUI, EasyJet and others) they all seem to being offering various types of recompense, but Martin Lewis of MSE fame has concluded that if they can’t provide a service because they’re locked down, or your not able to use it because of travel restrictions then they have to offer a full refund including all fees. You might have to ask though.

Personally I’ve got a trip booked at the end of June (based on the original Passportes date), AirBnB are only currently cancelling until the end of May, but if the French bill to ban travel until July the 24th passes then I guess they’ll have to refund which suits us.

I’ve also got a trip to Eurocamp booked completely by accident for the 25th of July, the day after the proposed French travel ban. I’m on the fence with that one, on one hand my Wife really needs a Holiday, her Dad passed from Covid a week ago, on the other I don’t fancy a Holiday under lock down rules, even less restrictive ones. The virus ironically doesn’t phase me much. We were all exposed to it, but we were very lucky with almost not symptoms and with the science now as certain as you can be with it that we’re no likely immune and cannot contract or pass on the Virus, it holds little risk to us.

cannot contract or pass on the Virus, it holds little risk to us.

You can still pass it on.

Just because you are not carrying in your body, you can still move it from another infected person to an unaffected one. A lot less likely but entirely possible.

I’m not surprised but I’m still disappointed, Neilsons have just told me that our week’s holiday on a Greek island in June has been cancelled.

im holding out hope for an autumn neilson – given that you dont leave the hotel apart from on a bike ride (where you dont stop), and the customer facing staff live on site; could be a relatively normal holiday once the airlines are sorted…

Gonna call the insurance company, rest of our balance is due next week for the ferry crossing, see what they say.

I can’t see European travel this summer.

I do a fair but of work with airports and most of our clients have a base case assumption of no flying for between 4 and 6 months i.e. April to July/September.

UK travel – yup – but you’ll find it super hard to get any spots in hotels or campsites, most bookings have just been moved and who knows what restaurants/cafes will be able to open. Hospitality runs on SUPER tight margins and most won’t be able to open with social distancing.

Yesterday the UK had 4339 new cases declared, France 297, Belgium 361, Holland 199. Until all of those number are in double figures and reliable test and trace systems operating I can’t see governements being keen to open borders to tourists. In France the country is divided into red, orange and green areas with appropriate lockdown levels as of 11/5. Travel within the country will be limited to 100km from home and will remain so into June which is as far as we really know anything for sure for the moment.

We’re all being psychologically prepared for holidays in France and near to home, reservations are booming in some areas where people are sure to ba able to travel. People in my town have noted the mountain resorts, Hossegor and Cap Breton are within 100km and are planning accordingly.

The Spanish plan is similar to the French one with limits on inter-provincial travel, with most restrictions being lifted by July or so. If all goes well…

Neilsons have offered to change to another week this year and pay the difference (or they’ll refund us if it is a cheaper option)

They also offered the holiday in 2021.

Unfortunately, neither of those options is available to us so they’ll be refunding us (I’d been told that would be in September)

I’ve just read this thread with interest (yup, all 6 pages of it) as we have two holidays planned this year, one week in Italy in August and Xmas break in Finland. These were meant to be our first abroad holidays with all three of us.

The Summer one is flights with EasyJet who are cancelling on a rolling 7 day basis, accommodation is a small independent owner. Flights paid by CC, accommodation by BACS (we know the owners). We do have pre-COVID insurance but only because I kept an eye on the news and bought it just before the situation got bad.

Speaking to an Italian yesterday she said that talk is that Italy will have internal holidaying only this Summer. We have to pay the remainder by July 4th but we are covered if the owner cancels. If the airline cancels we have to claim it all back through them.

I do not fancy sitting on a plane this Summer to go anywhere to be honest!

As for Winter, I really hope that goes ahead and that everything is sorted out by then. It should be covered by the insurance but who knows what state the travel industry will be in then? Unfortunately the deposit was paid for by debit card not credit, but it’s not really that much in the overall general scheme of things. I’d be happy to move it to the following Xmas, even though we’ll have waited a year for it if we went this year. We’ve already had two things moved to next year.

Found out a biking friend took their life over the weekend, which means I’m viewing my lack of a family foreign holiday a bit differently today.

Given that by about the end of the week, the UK is on target to being the second-worst hit country in the world, behind the USA, I can’t imagine any countries wanting us to visit any time soon. It’d be like phoning up from Wuhan and asking if there are any vacancies in the village…

You can still pass it on.

Just because you are not carrying in your body, you can still move it from another infected person to an unaffected one. A lot less likely but entirely possible.

Do you mean by say touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching something else thus moving it about?

Do you mean by say touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching something else thus moving it about?

Yes.

Or having contact with someone who has and doesn’t know, then carrying to another location/person.

I’ll be interested to see (if interested is the right word) how this weekend’s Spanish restriction easing manifests in 2 or 3 weeks’ time.
I didn’t see a lot of social distancing going on last night on my way back from riding, rather big groups of teens, people stopping and chatting, runners getting sprayed with snot rockets etc.

Given that by about the end of the week, the UK is on target to being the second-worst hit country in the world, behind the USA, I can’t imagine any countries wanting us to visit any time soon. It’d be like phoning up from Wuhan and asking if there are any vacancies in the village…

this is my view of late, best keep us lot separate on our island from our EU neighbours, for their safety…

I do not fancy sitting on a plane this Summer to go anywhere to be honest!

We have just postponed our August holiday on Rhodes until next year, for this reason. Greece have done a great job in containing the virus, so it’s a shame, as I wouldn’t be worried about catching it there.

Edit: of course that might change too once the season is in full flow.

I received the following in an email from an airport transfers company that operates out of geneva this morning, might be useful info:-

Summer 2020

Clearly, the situation is uncertain regarding travel this summer.

Here in France, restaurants and bars are expected to open at the start of June and Morzine aims to open the Pleney lift on the 29th June, with other Portes du Soleil lifts opening on the 4th July. The season this year is due to run three weeks later than usual, until the 20th September, due to the MTB World Cup.

We have already seen procedures being put in place to allow for social distancing on lifts and around town and obviously shops already have this in place.

The main problem is whether people will be able to get here! Importantly, France yesterday confirmed that any quarantine measures put in place for people arriving from abroad would NOT apply to visitors from the UK. This means that once travel and flights resume, you would be able to visit Morzine.

As I said, we are waiting for further advice from the government (which is expected over the next few days) and once we have a clearer picture, we should be able to start offering summer transfers…we’ll keep you updated.

We’ve booked a campsite in Northern Spain in August and will be driving down. My sister has a house in the Pyrenees so will stay there for a week as well….. No idea if we’ll be able to go but we already have a tunnel crossing from a trip we should have been on in April and if we have to cancel we’ll only lose about £50 in a deposit so figured we may as well chance it…..

I received a similar email from mtbbeds about the lifts and as far a I read into it, its the lift companies just pushing to open and nothing official from the Govt

Given that by about the end of the week, the UK is on target to being the second-worst hit country in the world, behind the USA, I can’t imagine any countries wanting us to visit any time soon. It’d be like phoning up from Wuhan and asking if there are any vacancies in the village…

This. Yet there are still those in this country that seem to think we are generally better than everyone else in the world, especially when it comes to a crisis. The “inalienable British spirit” seems to be doffing your cap to empty slogans, singing Jerusalem then having a bit of a cough then dropping down dead.

Is it possible that travel will be restricted according to tracking app usage?

Do you mean by say touching a surface with the virus on it and then touching something else thus moving it about?

Yes.

Or having contact with someone who has and doesn’t know, then carrying to another location/person.

Do you have a source for that? There’s so much opinion / fact (based on current knowledge / bullshit flying around at the moment I’ve not heard that mentioned before.

I received the following in an email from an airport transfers company that operates out of geneva this morning, might be useful info:-

Summer 2020

Clearly, the situation is uncertain regarding travel this summer.

Here in France, restaurants and bars are expected to open at the start of June and Morzine aims to open the Pleney lift on the 29th June, with other Portes du Soleil lifts opening on the 4th July. The season this year is due to run three weeks later than usual, until the 20th September, due to the MTB World Cup.

We have already seen procedures being put in place to allow for social distancing on lifts and around town and obviously shops already have this in place.

The main problem is whether people will be able to get here! Importantly, France yesterday confirmed that any quarantine measures put in place for people arriving from abroad would NOT apply to visitors from the UK. This means that once travel and flights resume, you would be able to visit Morzine.

As I said, we are waiting for further advice from the government (which is expected over the next few days) and once we have a clearer picture, we should be able to start offering summer transfers…we’ll keep you updated.

I’m frankly amazed at that, but that how the News seems to be working at the moment, reporting the headlines (2 week quarantine etc) but not the details for maximum impact.

I’d still need to see the exclusion for UK travelers before I pay the balance for my Holiday in Aug.

It’s also only half the Story. We seem to be at least 2 weeks behind mainline Europe, they may be back to (almost) Business as usual from early July, we may not be.

The message about the Portes du soleil is jumping the gun.
French parliament is voting this afternoon on the prolongation of the state of emergency up until July 10th (initially the 24th until the senate dialed it back when drafting the law yesterday)
There won’t be any foreign tourists before then, if it goes through.

@julians and @P-Jay – it’s still not actually confirmed. The uncertainty is because early reports indicated there would be quarantine for arrivals from the UK, but the French government rowed back (in comments to the press) on that the following day: there’s a good account here: https://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2020/05/02/quarantaine-stopcovid-abandonne-verbalisations-les-precisions-du-gouvernement-sur-l-apres-11-mai_6038464_823448.html

The proposed law itself is here: https://www.scribd.com/document/459488341/Projet-de-loi-prorogeant-l-etat-d-urgence-sanitaire-et-completant-ses-dispositions#from_embed. The quarantine stuff is in article 3. It provides for quarantine for arrivals from “zones where the infection is circulating”, but leaves it to the government to subsequently make the list of where that means. Their reaction to those early news stories is a good indication they don’t intend to put us on the list. But they will have the power to and nothing is decided yet. So wait and see is the only sensible policy.

Also worth noting that France is following a geographically variable approach to this – some departments being classified according to their epidemic charactistics as “red” (where stricter controls will continue) and others as “green” where the lockdown will be eased more. 74 (i.e. Morzine) is orange on today’s map – a colour that won’t exist when the final map comes into force, but also a pretty good indication that it’s early to be anticipating international tourism there early in the summer.

Do you have a source for that? There’s so much opinion / fact (based on current knowledge / bullshit flying around at the moment I’ve not heard that mentioned before.

If someone sneezes and leaves the virus on a surface, that you later touch and move to another surface or object. This could possibly increase the spread.

There is a lot of speculation on what surfaces the virus can live on and for how long but from what I have read, temperature and moisture levels are key factors.

Virus transmission
Definition of ‘fomite’
A fomite is defined as an object that becomes contaminated with infected organisms and which subsequently transmits those organisms to another person. Examples of potential fomites are surfaces, toys, mobile telephones or any inanimate objects.

Companies like that Geneva transfer bunch haven’t understood what the end of lockdown in France looks like. If we French are restricted to 100km from home for a still undetermined period then foreigners won’t be let loose. The lack of quarantine is simply so normal business and “essential” traffic can continue without drivers being stuck in quarantine for two weeks. That deosn’t equal freedom of movement for leisure activities. The controls on the German border are very much in place and if junior returns from Berlin he may be faced with two weeks quarantine but that isn’t certain.

In short, nobody has any idea what the situation will be in France at the end of June and that includes Macron. One step at a time then review. The laws are being passed to give the government the power to make the choices deemed necessary in the future it seems to me.

If the Spanish holiday resorts have any say in it, we will be back sharpish as they really can’t service without many of this fine countries massive drinking binges, sorry holidays to cultural sites propping up their economy.

Jet2 have coloured my opinion in a positive way.  My cancelled lads trip – a retirement sending off – to Cyprus has been refunded with no asking, no shadow of any argument and with an apologetic email referencing the current issues.  It’s great customer service as it should be.

Our August holiday is with Jet2.   It’s a package and Atol protected so I’m more confident that refunds etc would be handled well, leaving me with the decision now based on the style & quality of the holiday as it’s likely to be.

We’ve cancelled our trip in Aug to Burgundy/Morzine.

We’ve got a Morzine (well Chatel) trip booked for mid August, so hoping that can go ahead. Had a track day to Portimao booked for March, but there was no chance of that!

I’ve to pay for the rest of my french camping trip by end of July for end of aug, we should have more of an idea what’s going on by then , worse case I’ll write off the deposit

We usually take our motorhome down to SW france in August. I still have high hopes we can this year but I suppose it depends on UK visitors being allowed to enter France.
Thinking about it as long as the beach is open and we can surf social distancing measures wouldn’t drastically affect our holiday

The message about the Portes du soleil is jumping the gun.
French parliament is voting this afternoon on the prolongation of the state of emergency up until July 10th

This article says the prolongation was voted in favour of and will now move into being examined by the Assemblée Nationale this week, I have a trip to Morzine booked for start of July so interesting to see what the outcome of this is, I too have received messages that the lifts in Morzine are looking to open. The queue for the lift from the town to super morzine and SM to top was already long enough, imagine how long it would be with social distancing! How do you disinfect a lift when the lifts typically dont stop too?

How do you disinfect a lift when the lifts typically dont stop too?

They Could run the chairs through a constant fine mist of disinfectant at the top just after people get off, the chairs might be dry by the time it gets to the bottom. That wouldn’t take much setting up, should be straightforward.

They Could run the chairs through a constant fine mist of disinfectant at the top just after people get off, the chairs might be dry by the time it gets to the bottom. That wouldn’t take much setting up, should be straightforward.

Bit of an ecological nightmare, though.

Bit of an ecological nightmare, though.

It’s a ski resort – compared to the vast amount of energy to build the thing, run the lifts, carving up the mountain to make runs, additives in artificial snow, get people there etc etc. The areas around lifts tends to be a wasteland anyway.

But, I think they’re massively jumping the gun on opening. We might not even have much travel within the UK this summer, let alone abroad – I’ve heard the Lake District national park are advertising to keep people away?

I’m at the point of just cancelling now as well. It’s getting on my nerves with the whole will/won’t I be going, plus the crap the lift companies are coming out with which is then amplified by the holiday companies/influencer’s

All that and we’re heading into a massive recession, even though I should be ok I won’t have the safety net of 80% pay by then

If the rules go ahead as per the Transfer company’s email I might end up a little screwed (is complain more of 250,000 or so hadn’t died recently).

We’re booked in an AirBnB in Morzine from the 24th of June until the 29th for Passportes, £2k for the accom on top of a bit over a grand for flights (it’s between loads of us so ‘only’ £300 each).

On the face of it, France will be open, and hotels will be open so it seems very unlikely AirBnB will move their rolling cancellation forward, so we can go, we ‘just’ can’t use the lifts… bit of a waste of time really.

^

That is also why I’m on the verge of cancelling, I don’t want them turning round and saying actually you can come, they’ll just be massive queues for the lifts and none of the bars will be open etc..

I’ve got till the 12th June to cancel and claw back the maximum

I’m at the point of just cancelling now as well. It’s getting on my nerves with the whole will/won’t I be going, plus the crap the lift companies are coming out with which is then amplified by the holiday companies/influencer’s

All that and we’re heading into a massive recession, even though I should be ok I won’t have the safety net of 80% pay by then

As above, we’ve been trying to cancel since they postponed Passportes, but the insurance co and AirBnb have both pretty much said that until on the balance of probability you can’t go, you can’t cancel and claim insurance. Best we could hope for was about 50% back from AirBnB so we’ve been waiting to see what will happen.