Foreign Office says avoid ‘all but essential’ travel to the United States

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• ColinC says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:02

  Booked on Virgin via Expedia 8 hours after the ban starts! They still say call rather than cancel online. Phone line just gives “ technical difficulties “ … or cuts off after being on hold.
  Do I need to actually cancel.. as this might give a small tax refund ,

• maccymac says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:02

  Thank you for this Rob.

  When the FCO advises against all but essential travel, how far forward does that advice cover? We have a trip end of June – I presume it is not applicable to us?

  • Mark says:

    15 Mar15 March 13:08

    It’s usually measured the other way around ie. claims can only be made a certain period of time (31days normally) before travel due to begin. Depends if advice is still in place at that time in your case. Read your policy.

• Rich says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:18

  Are there really insurance companies who won’t pay out on ‘all but essential’ only ‘all travel’?!

  I would have thought ‘My travel is not essential. I’ll see you in court’ would be the correct response to that.

• Mario Fonseca says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:27

  But is AMEX Platinum insurance covering this? Strictly speaking their wording doesn’t cover any of this.

  • flyoff says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:55

    I had a discussion with Amex Plat insurance last week. I wanted to find out about what would happen if there was disruption to travel to the USA and whether I needed to buy another travel policy to gain better cover. They told me that cancelling of flights by the airline, the US banning foreign visitors or the FCO advising against travel would trigger them paying out for other travel costs that I could not get refunded from the vendor.They wouldn’t put this in writing but did say the call was being recorded and I should note the time and date.

    • Seppy says:

      15 Mar15 March 16:17

      Interested to know what you find out now.
      Was booked to fly from Sweden to London today, then into USA tomorrow – leading to my ESTA has being cancelled.
      I’ve cancelled the flights but AA won’t give a refund – only a credit and that may expire in June.
      The T&Cs don’t seem to cover a situation like this one way or the other.
      Will call AmEx / AXA early in the week to discuss.

      • Lady London says:

        16 Mar16 March 12:50

        You were departing Europe so EU261 covers you on any nationality of airline. YOU choose if you take refund or if you prefer to be re-routed i.e.they give you a replacement ticket. The airline does not choose.

        You do not have to take a voucher. Tell them you are aware of your EU261 rights to duty if care which is what the above comes under.

        No comoensation(that’s also provided by EU261 as a separate issue

        Go tell them you want your money back as above. Pretty sure EU261 says they have to pay you within 7 days as well (iirc). Probably impractical right now unless agent or manager credits your card while you are in phone.

        Don’t put up with this rubbish from poorly-trained or possibly mis-trained agents. Personally I’d chase it up and keep following up given other recent comment.

    • GeorgeJ says:

      15 Mar15 March 16:35

      I can confirm this, I have a slightly policy ($ platinum) and was already caught out by the need to have been outside Schengen for 14 days. The Axa rep for Amex coverage was both knowledgeable and helpful with the options including FCO or US government policy.
      Unfortunately it has come to nought with the latest announcement and we cant travel due to the non essential limitation (skiing definitely isnt essential!) and the coverage should kick in.

• meta says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:30

  O/T Reports of Singapore ban for Britain and a few other countries including Japan. Just read on Japanese news. Nothing written on official websites. Need to do 14 day isolation.

  Personally, I have a flight back from Japan on 14 April through Singapore. Not sure about transits. Need to find alternative routes…unless Japan also bans British arrivals. But chances are slim that this trip will happen.

  • meta says:

    15 Mar15 March 15:23

    I’ve now emailed Singapore Airlines to see if they can put me on a flight so I can only transit Changi. Waiting continues…

• Rob says:

  15 Mar15 March 13:47

  Just cancelling a LGW-JFK reward flight tomorrow, booked with the amex 2 for 1, in light of this. Some useful info for anyone in the same boat:

  Am on the phone to BA now and they’ve offered the usual £35/pax refund fee (could change though so I’m told), a reschedule for another date, or a flight voucher which you can use for 12 months from the original departure date, interestingly locking in your avios and 2 for 1 voucher for that period (and extending it’s validity if due to expire!).

  With the latter option, you are able to change the destination based on availability. However, passenger names need to be the same, you may need to pay extra avios on the future booking (if required) and it must be made over the phone.

  • Tom says:

    15 Mar15 March 14:45

    I received the same offer via the First team on an award booking – although they didn’t give me as much detail as this.. but said I could rebook within 12 months they would extend the 241 voucher by 12 months.

  • Gill says:

    15 Mar15 March 20:24

    You actually managed to get through to someone? I’ve been trying for 2 days and just get cut off, once after an hour on hold. The cancel your booking option has been removed from my booking so I have no choice but to keep trying. I’m due to fly on Thursday to IAD on a reward flight with 241 voucher

• KBuffett says:

  15 Mar15 March 15:37

  I’ve heard that UAE have cancelled all Visa.
  Have the UK stopped anyone from entering?
  Or are we open for business?

  • meta says:

    15 Mar15 March 16:01

    Open for business! Boris is doing rounds with remaining foreign governments trying to charm them into not imposing restrictions…

    • Anna says:

      15 Mar15 March 17:13

      Ooh, where will we all be going for Easter then?!

      • ChrisBCN says:

        15 Mar15 March 17:18

        Probably not much further than your back yard!

        • Anna says:

          15 Mar15 March 17:26

          My back yard is north-facing and won’t even have any sun on it by then 😩. Maybe Boris can tempt some balmy nation with promises of guaranteed tourist revenue from sun-starved British holiday makers. As long as he doesn’t let them see those media pictures from Benidorm this past week 🤦‍♀️

    • meta says:

      15 Mar15 March 19:53

      Japan or Switzerland. (This is me really hoping). Singapore specifically put UK and Switzerland due to delay tactic. Japan is doing a mixture of delay/contain by allowing some people in (especially those who’ve been to Europe, though Italy is on the list), so they put them as well. Abe and Boris had a nice phone chat about preventing coronavirus according to Japanese media.

      @Anna There’s always Okinawa 😂

      • Anna says:

        15 Mar15 March 19:57

        Indeed though you’ve given me a glimmer of hope that Boris is in the process of bullying our BOTs into letting us carry on visiting. Have you got a link to a report, btw, I can’t find anything about this despite frantic googling?!

        • Anna says:

          15 Mar15 March 19:59

          Plus BA will be pushing for this as well as they have a virtual and lucrative monopoly on these routes.

• Clive says:

  15 Mar15 March 17:14

  Vietnam also now has all but essential wording

  • Aston100 says:

    15 Mar15 March 17:28

    As does Morocco too.

    • Oli says:

      16 Mar16 March 07:46

      The Foreign Office published a list of 30 countries yesterday night.

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