The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Should I stay or should I go? Your questions answered
Nick Trend and Greg Dickinson look at the key factors you should consider when booking a holiday in the UK or abroad
Next Friday I am due to fly to Rio de Janeiro for a two-week holiday. Will I be cancelling because of the global coronavirus crisis? Absolutely not. Or at least, not unless the Foreign Office warns otherwise.
With Boris Johnson saying the coronavirus outbreak in the UK will “become more significant” in the coming days, and cases in Europe now exceeding 2,500, there are growing concerns of how the virus could impact our everyday lives: our health, our daily routines, and indeed our forthcoming overseas holiday plans.
These holiday concerns are understandable. This week, Flybe has collapsed, British Airways announced it was cancelling hundreds of flights in March and Ryanair is reducing its programme – especially to Italy – as is easyJet. We have heard many stories of tourists affected by coronavirus in the past month – including the lockeddown hotel in Tenerife, where 168 British nationals were staying, and the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, which had 30 Britons on board. What if you find yourself in one of these situations? Is it worth the risk, just for the sake of a holiday?
The extreme position, for those who have trips already booked, is simply to cancel everything. I know some people who are seriously considering taking this nuclear approach. But cancelling a holiday is a big decision, which on a practical level could mean losing significant sums of money, and on an emotional level would mean a fair dose of disappointment.
Over the past month, I have had countless conversations with friends as to whether they should crack on with holiday plans, or cancel. To help you reach a decision, we have come up with the key questions to ask. In my own case, I emerged from this labyrinth of considerations with a positive result, and will be travelling to Rio next Friday – so long as there are no major changes between now and then.
Q AIf you have booked with a tour operator, the status of the current Foreign Office advice is critical. You will only be automatically entitled to a refund if the FCO is advising against all travel or all but essential travel to the destination.
Even then, if you are not due to travel for a few weeks yet, you will probably have to wait before a cancellation is confirmed. Some operators – Wendy Wu, for example – are currently allowing cancellations of holidays booked to China if you were due to travel before the end of March. But much depends on the country to which you have booked your trip and the tour operator concerned.
The key thing is to talk to the operator if you are worried – it will want to help if it can. If you cancel unilaterally, package holiday cancellation fees are often as high as 90 per cent of the total holiday cost if you cancel 28 days before departure, and 100 per cent if it’s within 14 days. But you may find that you can negotiate to postpone travel or change your destination.
If you have booked your flight and hotel separately and independently, you have no automatic right to a refund even to a “do not travel” zone. However, some airlines, including BA, have said that they may allow you to postpone your flight, and some travel insurance policies – though certainly not all – will cover any losses you incur if you have to cancel because Government advice forces you to cancel.
Travel insurance will not cover cancellation costs if you are nervous about travelling but there is no Foreign Office advice against visiting the destination you have booked (see below).
Q AWhat if I get quarantined?
This is a possibility, as is finding yourself stuck overseas because of an outbreak, with your return flight cancelled.
For many people, this is a big concern after seeing the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Adeje closing its doors due to coronavirus, putting more than 700 guests in quarantine and leaving 168 Britons unable to return to the UK last week.
If you are travelling independently, the best way to prepare yourself for this eventuality is to purchase the right travel insurance (see right) which will at least cover any extra costs you incur on the ground and getting home. If you are travelling with a tour operator, it has a legal duty of care and should look after you and arrange a new return flight, for example. Some airlines have also offered to rebook holidaymakers who miss a flight because of coronavirus.
Even if you are sanguine about the potential risks to your health, you might also want to take into account the personal considerations of getting stranded overseas. Do you have an event you simply cannot miss, shortly after returning? Do you have young children with you? These questions might well tip the balance when deciding whether to hit “cancel” on your holiday – particularly if cancelling wouldn’t mean losing out on astronomical sums of money.