Travel questions

Will there be a warning about hotel quarantine coming into force?

Simon Calder answers your questions on the latest travel restrictions and mandatory self-isolation

Monday 25 January 2021 21:30 GMT
Comments
The government has a track record of allowing 35 hours to beat new travel rules
The government has a track record of allowing 35 hours to beat new travel rules (Getty)

Q Do you think we will get any warning of “hotel quarantine”? Also, if you have a connecting flight at Heathrow to, say, Manchester or Edinburgh or Belfast, where do you quarantine?

Will M

A Ministers are about to agree on arrivals to the UK self-isolating in a hotel room; the only issue whether it applies to everyone coming in or merely to those from high-risk locations.

Many other countries have chosen this option in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus, though this happened rather sooner in nations such as Thailand, Vietnam and Australia: in March 2020.

The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has confirmed only one in 1,000 of new cases of Covid in the UK in December was brought in from abroad. But the government insists the measure is necessary to prevent new variants from entering the country.

So how much warning will be given? The government has a track record of allowing 35 hours to beat new travel rules. For many weeks from August 2020 onwards, Mr Shapps announced additions to the must-quarantine list at 5pm on Thursday, with the measure taking effect at 4am the following Saturday.

In the context of hotel quarantine, there is a big problem allowing that degree of flexibility. Home self-isolation may be annoying, but bearable, particularly for those lucky enough to have a garden. And it doesn’t cost £100 per night. But hotel quarantine demands money as well as time. So there would be a surge of people getting on flights, ferries and trains to try to beat the deadline. That could inadvertently trigger greater risk, as well as not meeting the key need of a policy intended to apply rigorous conditions to arrivals.

The smart way to impose hotel quarantine is to give almost no leeway; to announce it in the evening, and to make it apply from noon the next day onwards. That should avoid “trapping” people who have embarked on long journeys to the UK, but without encouraging a mad rush.

Finally, changing planes to other UK destinations is most unlikely to be possible. To apply hotel quarantine other than at the point of arrival would undermine the whole principle of the policy.

How will hotel quarantine work for inbound travel?

Q What would “hotel quarantine” be like for arrivals to the UK, and when might it start?

Jeffrey P

A Hotel quarantine means mandatory self-isolation in a room for arrivals to a country. Ministers are meeting to decide whether to adopt the same policy imposed 10 months ago in Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

At present arrivals at Heathrow airport, the main gateway, can travel on by Tube, train or bus to their final destination in the UK, stopping overnight en route if it is difficult to make the journey in a single day. Arrivals to Australia are different. Border officials board the plane on arrival to give instructions. Passengers are escorted through the airport, including a health screen process, and taken to a “quarantine facility” of the government’s choice.  

“You will need to stay in your allocated room for 14 days and you won’t be able to have visitors,” says the Australian government. “Access to a balcony or open window can’t be guaranteed. You will be given three meals per day.  

“Staff will not be able to enter or clean your room for you. You won’t be able to smoke in your room. This may mean you won’t be able to smoke for the duration of your quarantine stay.”

Presumably something similar will apply for arrivals to the UK. There has been plenty of time for officials here to study the concept and plan for its introduction, so it could start within a week. But experience during the coronavirus pandemic shows that if the government is considering a travel measure primarily for political rather than medical reasons – as I believe is the case for hotel quarantine – then there will be no rush to bring it in.

The trajectory as used for blanket quarantine last June, and test-to-release in December, is roughly as follows. Day one: leaks to friendly publications. Days two to seven: ministers saying it could happen. Day eight: an actual announcement, with the measure taking effect between 10 and 20 days later. If the scheme is announced on, say, 2 February, then I predict it will take effect between 12 February and 22 February. But the other thing we know is that the government is capable of making completely unexpected statements.

Should I cancel my July trip to Barcelona or hold off?

Q I’m sure it’s too early to make a call but I’ve got flights booked with easyJet to go to Barcelona on 16 July. If I wanted to get a refund, do I have to wait for the flights to be cancelled or is there a cut-off point for when I have to make a decision on keeping the flights?

Matt L

A It is indeed early to make a call for a flight which is due to depart in 25 weeks’ time. When considering cases such as yours, I recommend looking back the same length of time – which takes us to the very start of August 2020. While Spain had just back gone on the “no-go” list, millions of people were enjoying holidays across Europe, and in the UK the Eat Out to Help Out scheme was getting under way. Today the UK, and the rest of Europe, is in a very different position, enduring another lockdown.

Such dramatic changes in less than six months show the unpredictability of life, and in particular international travel, right now. They also help to understand why even ministers in a supremo tourist nation such as Spain could put out conflicting statements in the past few days. On Wednesday, Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister, warned that international tourism would restart only once 70 per cent of Spain’s population had been vaccinated, and indicated that would be at the end of the main tourism season. By Friday, Spain’s tourism minister had insisted that the country will open up for holidaymakers in spring or early summer.

Airlines such as easyJet want your flights to and from Barcelona to go ahead. At this point I estimate your chances as 75 per cent likely they will. In the (I think) unlikely event that the flights are cancelled, you will be entitled to a full cash refund. But that is the only circumstance in which getting your money back would apply.

There is not exactly a cut-off point by which you must decide whether to keep the booking, but easyJet’s general policy is that you can rebook for other flights up to 14 days before departure without paying a fee (though you will need to pay any difference in fare). While that deadline has been temporariliy shortened to just two hours during the current lockdown, I do not expect that courtesy to extend to the summer. So prepare to make a decision right at the start of July about keeping the flights.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in