Coronavirus: South Africa, Australia, Kenya, Lebanon and Dominican Republic restrictions

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• PerkyPat says:

  16 Mar16 March 13:21

  All visitors with travel history to the European Union, UK, Ireland and Switzerland, within the last 14 days, will not be allowed entry to or transit through the Republic of Mauritius as from Wednesday 18 March 2020, 20H00 GMT (00H00 local time), for a period of 14 days.

  From Tourism Mauritius website.

• Paul says:

  16 Mar16 March 13:24

  St Lucia are blocking UK, Germany, France and Spain as of tonight, this is in addition to previous countries blocked.

• Clive says:

  16 Mar16 March 13:30

  This is from the UK side https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/travel-bans-restrictions-uk-tourists-coronavirus-a4388006.html

• tony says:

  16 Mar16 March 14:05

  “The Foreign Office recommends against ‘all but essential’ travel to Kenya. This may help with arranging a refund via your travel insurance.”

  What’s the score here? I’ve been through both my policies but can only find explicit reference to the fact that the policy isn’t valid if the FCO ban is in place. Nothing to say that a claim can be made if such an edict comes into force (which was always my assumption). Worryingly, the Times ran an article suggesting that only around half of all travel policies covered this eventuality, anyway.

  • Rob says:

    16 Mar16 March 14:10

    Totally depends on the wording of your policy.

    • tony says:

      16 Mar16 March 14:15

      So Amex Platinum for example. Can’t find anything in there. I consider that my secondary policy as I need another one to cover pre-existing conditions, but again nothing.

      • tony says:

        16 Mar16 March 15:04

        Just read your note from 30th Jan, Rob. Can quite see AMEX reversing that position given there’s a massive hole in the terms. They mirror those of my primary insurance provider who see the liability lying with the tour operator or airline to “do the right thing” if the FCO make it a no-go zone.

        For anyone interested, First Direct’s insurance explicitly covers the FCO changing its view between booking and travel. Am sure there are others out there, too.

• AJA says:

  16 Mar16 March 14:13

  What happened to the Qatar Airways competition? Was there a winner and did they come forward? Or has the prize been extended / shelved? If I recall it only allowed you to fly by the end of June which now looks increasingly unlikely to be able to be utitlised,

  • Rob says:

    16 Mar16 March 14:14

    We have a winner, sorry. Need to get the name up.

    • AJA says:

      16 Mar16 March 14:17

      Lucky them. I think………..

      Seriously though, that is a bit of good news (for the winner at least):-)

• JM says:

  16 Mar16 March 14:21

  QR are certainly playing with schedules too! Booked ex EU (ARN) mid May to Australia and what was a swift connection all the way through is not a 20+ hour stop in Doha in each direction and arrive two days late on return which really does not link to well (obs) with booked BA flights back to LHR. Would this class it enough of a change for a full cash refund?

  • JM says:

    16 Mar16 March 14:39

    Oops… ‘now a 20+ hour’

• Chris says:

  16 Mar16 March 14:24

  email just received from BA regarding my upcoming South Africa flight … “ Your flight to Johannesburg on 27 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, however due to the fast changing situation, we wanted to let you know that if you’d like to change the date or destination of your trip – you can apply for a voucher online”

  As I won’t be allowed to enter the country – I presume this is just BA attempting to get as many people as possible to accept a voucher before they cancel the flight (and then have to provide refund)…

• Chris says:

  16 Mar16 March 14:28

  Hello – I am getting mixed signals here. I contacted Miles & More/Diners to ask if I can make use of chargeback (for flights/hotels) in case I decide not to travel due to COVID conerns but flights are not cancelled and they said they cannot do something. Is this the case? What world we live in? Can I use another argument or go down a different route?

  • tony says:

    16 Mar16 March 14:34

    Chargeback is the mechanism you use when the supplier doesn’t deliver what you bought and is essentially a dispute resolution tool. The airline is still – I presume – offering to fly you, it’s just now you don’t want to go. You can’t arbitrarily change your mind then invoke chargeback. As the over hackneyed phrase goes, that’s what insurance is for (although even this appears to be lacking ref my FCO comments above….)

    • Chris says:

      16 Mar16 March 14:37

      but even insurance has told me that “if it is just because you don’t want to travel due to your personal concerns, you cannot claim anything”…

      • tony says:

        16 Mar16 March 14:46

        Indeed. Otherwise where do they draw the line. Going back to a normal world, if you’d booked a holiday to Thailand and then decided you didn’t like Thai food, that wouldn’t be fair for you to be able to get a refund on non-refundable aspects of your trip. (taking a deliberately spurious example to prove a point here, not looking to play down the significance of COVID19)

        It seems you’re currently just disinclined to travel. If the FCO say you shouldn’t go then some policies seem to pay out, others don’t.

        If the airline cancels or goes bankrupt, you should be OK for a refund (although not sure if Diners has s. 75 cover??)

        • Chris says:

          16 Mar16 March 15:39

          So if I do travel (as no one seems to be willing to refund me) and my elderly parents get the virus from me (though I don’t know if I carry it or not) and die, who will be held responsible? “No one” I guess… that is why I am saying that in these difficult times we have to help each other and not always go by the book.

        • tony says:

          16 Mar16 March 15:47

          You still haven’t said where you’re travelling to but the chance of you getting COVID19 is unlikely to be materially higher overseas than it is doing day to day things in the UK.

          So if you’ve locked yourself away at home and intend to lay low until they have a vaccine, then you’re not missing out by not going on holiday, anyway.

          Your elderly parents will likely be advised to self isolate, in which case they shouldn’t be catching it from you regardless.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.