BALI, INDONESIA
Five women from Neath Port Talbot are among hundreds stranded in Bali due to restrictions in Hong Kong Airport, where they were supposed to travel through on the way home.
Katie Jane-Lloyd, 23, travelled to the Indonesian island with three friends two weeks ago to meet another friend also travelling.
The group – all aged 23 and 24 – were due to return to the UK on Friday, but due to flight cancellations and Hong Kong Airport refusing transit passengers, they are now stuck on the island.
Despite Foreign Office advice to return home immediately due to the escalating seriousness of the outbreak, the girls fear they might not be able to return home for weeks – or even months.
“When things became serious we went to seek advice from the embassy – their only advice was to look online and travel home ‘if you wanted’,” said Katie.
“It was then also announced shortly afterwards that Hong Kong would not be taking transient passengers, meaning we could no longer fly with Cathay Pacific through HKG.”
Katie says that no members of the group have heard from the airline and are unsure what their options are for cancellations or refunds.
Despite Hong Kong airport declaring it won’t be taking passengers, their original flight hasn’t been cancelled.
“The advice is to book a commercial flight home, but many aren’t running even though they are still being sold. UAE, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore are all closed to transient passengers,” she said.
“Our flight was meant to be this Friday and there is a day of silence on the island tomorrow, meaning we will have no internet or access to communications from airlines.”
While some flights are being sold back to the UK via other countries, Katie says the girls are reluctant to book these are risk being stranded in another country if restrictions change.
“Of the flights that are left, we risk being stranded elsewhere as some have ended up stranded in Dubai and elsewhere.
“The re-routing options are so limited, and we risk spending more money with further cancellations or getting stuck in another country.”
While the girls did have travel insurance for their trip, they say this and future flights wouldn’t be covered due to pandemic small print.
Despite restrictions and possible cancellations, they say flights are still being sold for £2,000.
“It’s a mix of emotions really, stressed, emotional, angry. I think we just want to know what’s happening and how long roughly it’ll take – at this rate it could be two days two weeks or two months.”
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