Do you disapprove of people who are planning an overseas holiday this summer?

[Johnny Doe]

Yeah, it's a bit of a game changer. I've got a trip coming up and now looking at possibly cancelling. I've just checked with my travel insurance providers and they DO cover additional hotel or overseas quarantine costs if you get stuck abroad due to testing positive and being unable to fly home. Not sure if I fancy potentially being stuck in a hotel overseas for xmas though.

I know people that are still going, and planning on taking NHS LFTs to check before doing the paid LFT to return and then making sure the paid one, which is unsupervised, is done by someone already tested negative. It's such a shitshow, I can't really blame them.

I've tried to get through to out insurers all morning, no joy as yet and 'we'll answer within 21 days' to emails. We're meant to leave in 15 days.

 

[existentialist]

I know people that are still going, and planning on taking NHS LFTs to check before doing the paid LFT to return and then making sure the paid one, which is unsupervised, is done by someone already tested negative. It's such a shitshow, I can't really blame them.

I try very hard not to sit in judgement on people's choices and decisions around Covid, but that's just fraudulent. If you're going to take the risk of going on holiday, TAKE THE FUCKING RISK. Don't try and game the system, or cheat it. We all know it's been set up in a venal corrupt way, but that is no reason to follow the example of our sleazy leaders.

Definitely fileable under "cunt's trick", in my book.

 

[Cloo]

I'm glad we didn't try booking for Slovakia over Christmas - even pre-Omicron news they shut everything down a fortnight ago.

I have a feeling next summer is going to be a total farrago as different countries will have different jab routines and people will find themselves unable to travel because the requirement in their home country is lower than in the destination, especially when it comes to 12-18 age group where this varies a lot. Just saying this for the record now and knowing that it won't occur to anyone in a position of authority to address this before loads of people find they can't go to their destination book holidays in January and then find they can't meet entry requirements in summer.

 

[kebabking]

I try very hard not to sit in judgement on people's choices and decisions around Covid, but that's just fraudulent. If you're going to take the risk of going on holiday, TAKE THE FUCKING RISK. Don't try and game the system, or cheat it. We all know it's been set up in a venal corrupt way, but that is no reason to follow the example of our sleazy leaders.

Definitely fileable under "cunt's trick", in my book.

yup, this is the kind of stuff that takes int travel from 'its a fucking stupid idea, but they're your risks', to just 'no', or 'enjoy paying £3k to sit in a travelodge for 14 days with your kids climbing the walls' territory. fuck 'em.

 

[Cloo]

NB Harry Smiles - those people's plans on unsupervised LFTs won't work. They aren't supervised in person but are set up so you can't get around them that way. You literally have to send video of yourself/person in question doing the test in a very specific way so you can't just substitute another one. Believe me, I know because oldest had to do one on return from Italy in half term and it was such a massive faff that we needed the two of us as well as eldest to do it. Anyway, don't tell them that, let them have the fun of finding out.

 

[Sue]

TBH, trying to keep up with changing developments here and in your destination country, getting there and discovering loads of stuff is closed/not possible to do and then possibly getting stuck somewhere and all that -- doesn't exactly sound like much of a holiday/very relaxing. And that's all apart from whether it's a wise/sensible thing to do.

I mean is it that much of a sacrifice to not go abroad for a while? Load of people manage that just fine every year.

(I'm not including people going abroad because of serious family illness/bereavement/emergency and the like as those aren't what I'd classify as going on holiday.)

 

[DaphneM]

Going to Egypt in late March. Probably will be ok i think

 

[Johnny Doe]

I try very hard not to sit in judgement on people's choices and decisions around Covid, but that's just fraudulent. If you're going to take the risk of going on holiday, TAKE THE FUCKING RISK. Don't try and game the system, or cheat it. We all know it's been set up in a venal corrupt way, but that is no reason to follow the example of our sleazy leaders.

Definitely fileable under "cunt's trick", in my book.

Not for me, I won't do that, I'll cancel if I can get my money back, but I can't blame people who have a choice between loosing the money or risking getting stuck

 

[Johnny Doe]

NB Harry Smiles - those people's plans on unsupervised LFTs won't work. They aren't supervised in person but are set up so you can't get around them that way. You literally have to send video of yourself/person in question doing the test in a very specific way so you can't just substitute another one. Believe me, I know because oldest had to do one on return from Italy in half term and it was such a massive faff that we needed the two of us as well as eldest to do it. Anyway, don't tell them that, let them have the fun of finding out.

You don't for some of them. They are the same set up and providers as the Day 2 LFT I did I while back. Of course I did the test myself, but only had to send a photo of the test cartridge back. I could have got the postman to do it for all the provider knew.

The system is so easily gameable, it's an absolute farce.

 

[kebabking]

Not for me, I won't do that, I'll cancel if I can get my money back, but I can't blame people who have a choice between loosing the money or risking getting stuck

sorry, but i can - anyone who hasn't learnt over the last two years that the rules can change in an instant, and that exactly this happened last year is an idiot - if they booked a holiday thinking it can't/shouldn't happen to them, or that if it does they'll 'work around it' then they are stupid, massively entitled cunts. people who take that view are no different to the people who bought 5 years supply of toilet roll in a weekend, or who refuse to wear masks in shops or on PT.

cunts, just massive cunts.

 

[LDC]

Going to Egypt in late March. Probably will be ok i think

What are you basing the 'probably will be ok I think' on?!

I'm supposed to be going to France for 2 weeks mid March next year, and in the last few weeks have started to think that is quite likely not to happen, or at least be so much faff as to not make it worth it.

 

[existentialist]

Not for me, I won't do that, I'll cancel if I can get my money back, but I can't blame people who have a choice between loosing the money or risking getting stuck

I can. I think that, if you decided to spend money on travel during these times, then you don't get entitled to fuck the system just to save yourself some £££. Those precautions - weak as they are - are in place to prevent a serious pandemic getting worse, and people who cheat the system are directly undermining those precautions.

If people MUST try and go on holiday (and I seriously doubt that "must"), then they have to bear the risk of losing money. It is completely unreasonable to expect the rest of the world's population to bear additional risk because they don't want to.

 

[Spymaster]

I try very hard not to sit in judgement on people's choices and decisions around Covid, but that's just fraudulent. If you're going to take the risk of going on holiday, TAKE THE FUCKING RISK. Don't try and game the system, or cheat it. We all know it's been set up in a venal corrupt way, but that is no reason to follow the example of our sleazy leaders.

Definitely fileable under "cunt's trick", in my book.

It's also the kind of thing that gets your picture in the news if you get caught and makes you public enemy number one!

 

[existentialist]

Going to Egypt in late March. Probably will be ok i think

What's your definition of "will be OK"?

 

[Johnny Doe]

I can. I think that, if you decided to spend money on travel during these times, then you don't get entitled to fuck the system just to save yourself some £££. Those precautions - weak as they are - are in place to prevent a serious pandemic getting worse, and people who cheat the system are directly undermining those precautions.

If people MUST try and go on holiday (and I seriously doubt that "must"), then they have to bear the risk of losing money. It is completely unreasonable to expect the rest of the world's population to bear additional risk because they don't want to.

I'll save my ire for the idiots in charge, but I see your point

 

[existentialist]

I'll save my ire for the idiots in charge, but I see your point

Oh, nothing I am saying here is in any way intended to let the idiots in charge off the hook - they've been bigger cunts over this than anyone. That's all the more reason for the rest of us to dial back on the cuntitude, in my view.

And I have ire to spare

 

[kabbes]

I think that if you want to go abroad in the next few months, you should be absolutely counting on it being a shitshow of quarantine hell in both directions. If it turns out not to be, that should be a bonus, not the expectation.

 

[2hats]

Going to Egypt in late March. Probably will be ok i think

2023 or 2024?

 

[Johnny Doe]

Oh, nothing I am saying here is in any way intended to let the idiots in charge off the hook - they've been bigger cunts over this than anyone. That's all the more reason for the rest of us to dial back on the cuntitude, in my view.

And I have ire to spare

Spare Ire! Under the mat in the boot, I'd guess. (Or around the midriff, at my age!)

 

[Cloo]

The stress of getting oldest to and from Italy with my inlaws put us off Christmas booking in the end. gsv was talking about resurrecting out 2020 America plan for next summer but I think we're probably best off sticking with short-haul, not super-expensive and not booked way in advance for the foreseeable. I'm a bit annoyed we held off abroad last year on accounts of 'it'll be easier next year' - the fact is I think 2022 could be even more complicated now!

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

What are you basing the 'probably will be ok I think' on?!

I'm supposed to be going to France for 2 weeks mid March next year, and in the last few weeks have started to think that is quite likely not to happen, or at least be so much faff as to not make it worth it.

We're thinking of going to Dorset next April, and I'm not even sure about that now.

 

[kebabking]

We're thinking of going to Dorset next April, and I'm not even sure about that now.

The huge advantage of staying in the UK is that - financially aside - you're never commited: you can decide on your way there that it's not going to go well and turn around, you could even be half-way through the holiday, hear about incoming travel restrictions and bale at 4am. Once you walk up the steps to the flight, or drive onto the ferry, or get on the train, you lose any control and entirely place yourself in the hands of the whims of others.

UK holidays for us next year. If they happen they happen, but if not at least we're not risking a hotel quarantine with all the agro.

 

[MickiQ]

Middle Q and her fiance are going to visit his family in Ireland for the first time in three years after Xmas, they need Digital Test Certificates going (they're both vaccinated, both had the lurgy for that matter) but no tests either way (so far) apparently the rules change again this week but Ireland isn't affected. However she reckons getting stranded in County Galway probably not worst fate in the world.
As for her mother and I, the last time we went abroad was Salzburg in 2019, no idea (and no plans) when we will again at the moment. Next year it will probably be Scotland. Despite or possibly because she is a city girl, Mrs Q loves the Highlands. It's much less likely we'll be forced to abandon it, It doesn't require any testing and social distancing is automatically included.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Middle Q and her fiance are going to visit his family in Ireland for the first time in three years after Xmas, they need Digital Test Certificates going (they're both vaccinated, both had the lurgy for that matter) but no tests either way (so far) apparently the rules change again this week but Ireland isn't affected. However she reckons getting stranded in County Galway probably not worst fate in the world.

I am confused here, surely 'Digital Test Certificates' require a test, so 'no tests either way' makes no sense?

 

[Pickman's model]

I am confused here, surely 'Digital Test Certificates' require a test, so 'no tests either way' makes no sense?

the test refers to the certificate

 

[cupid_stunt]

the test refers to the certificate

Ireland requires travellers from the UK to have a test, so 'no tests either way' makes no sense, as you need one to get into Ireland.

 

[Pickman's model]

Ireland requires travellers from the UK to have a test, so 'no tests either way' makes no sense, as you need one to get into Ireland.

yes but you have a test certificate which will only be valid until they issue a more permanent piece of paper or digital certificate: the certificate is in its testing phase. as usual the government confuses matters by not calling it a test digital certificate

 

[cupid_stunt]

yes but you have a test certificate which will only be valid until they issue a more permanent piece of paper or digital certificate: the certificate is in its testing phase. as usual the government confuses matters by not calling it a test digital certificate

I have absolutely no idea about what you are going on about TBH.

MickiQ posted about travel between Ireland & the UK requires 'no tests either way', yet Ireland requires tests from UK travellers.

 

[MickiQ]

I have absolutely no idea about what you are going on about TBH.

MickiQ posted about travel between Ireland & the UK requires 'no tests either way', yet Ireland requires tests from UK travellers.

As I understand (and I freely confess to relaying all this information third hand and may thus be completely wrong) is that these DTC's or whatever they're called are some sort of EU thing that is a QR code on their phones that say that they are vaccinated. Middle reckons there will be no need for them to take a test either in the days leading up to driving onto the boat or off the boat at either end.
If we get a disgruntled phone call from either Holyhead or Dublin then we will know she is wrong.

 

[Glitter]

NB Harry Smiles - those people's plans on unsupervised LFTs won't work. They aren't supervised in person but are set up so you can't get around them that way. You literally have to send video of yourself/person in question doing the test in a very specific way so you can't just substitute another one. Believe me, I know because oldest had to do one on return from Italy in half term and it was such a massive faff that we needed the two of us as well as eldest to do it. Anyway, don't tell them that, let them have the fun of finding out.

I did one when I came back from Spain last week. No instructions whatsoever, no video, nowhere to send the photo.

It’s almost like I handed over money for nothing.