Yesterday I talked about how to spot which countries could be next to be removed from the “safe” lists of the UK government.
The government has announced this evening that from 4am on Saturday 15 August, any arrivals from
- France
- Malta
- the Netherlands
- Monaco
- Turks & Caicos
- Aruba
into the UK will have to quarantine for 14 days. In addition, those countries have now been immediately removed from the FCO advice against all but essential travel.
If you are already in one of those countries
If you are currently in one of the countries, this does not mean your travel insurance is not valid. It only invalidates insurance for any newly booked trips or if you decide to travel now. If you want to avoid quarantine and return early, try to manage your booking online if you can’t reach them by phone as many airlines will let you change online. There is likely to be a charge for this depending on your type of ticket and the airline. If you need to contact your airline, see this article for advice.
If you have a booking but are yet to travel to one of those countries
If you wish you can still travel. In this article, I talked about the issues and mitigations if you decide to still travel.
If you don’t want to travel, a lot will depend on not only which airline you are flying with but also whether it is a holiday package or a separate flight as well as when you booked. If you booked a holiday package you should be able to get a refund if there is an FCO warning and have the money returned within 14 days.
If you booked a flight only, then if the airline doesn’t cancel they will not give you an automatic refund. Some airlines will issue a voucher or change the dates if you are covered by their book with confidence policy. If they refuse, do not cancel the booking now. If it is still some time off, wait as it is likely they could cancel it nearer the time meaning you get a refund. Check what your airline’s cut off time is for requesting a voucher. The other option would be your travel insurance.
