International travel

Discussions about serious topics, for serious people
Post Reply
User avatar
headshot
Dorkwood
Posts: 1413
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 9:40 am

Re: International travel

Post by headshot » Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:09 pm

Aye, but we all know that this Govt are so good at providing mass catering for 10 days for *just* £30...

User avatar
Gfamily
Light of Blast
Posts: 5180
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 1:00 pm
Location: NW England

Re: International travel

Post by Gfamily » Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:27 pm

Trinucleus wrote:
Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:54 pm
headshot wrote:
Tue Feb 09, 2021 2:21 pm
£175 a night for what I assume will be a Travelodge or similar. Ouch.

I stayed at the Heathrow TL last March for about £50. Assuming they are desperate for business, could the Govt not have negotiated a cheaper rate??
I'd hope that includes food, unless people are expected to pop down to the chippie?
According to the BBC, "The £1,750 fee includes three meals, tea, coffee and water,"
My avatar was a scientific result that was later found to be 'mistaken' - I rarely claim to be 100% correct
ETA 5/8/20: I've been advised that the result was correct, it was the initial interpretation that needed to be withdrawn
Meta? I'd say so!

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Tue Feb 09, 2021 6:58 pm

they keep using that photo with the Qatar Airways 777 parked on top of a building across the road
... Boris Johnson dressed up in a white coat. I think he’s supposed to appear medical and scientific, but only ever succeeds in looking like he’s got a lovely bit of pork cheek he can do you for £3.50
That's spot on though.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
Little waster
After Pie
Posts: 2385
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:35 am
Location: About 1 inch behind my eyes

Re: International travel

Post by Little waster » Wed Feb 10, 2021 5:55 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Tue Feb 09, 2021 5:27 pm

According to the BBC, "The £1,750 fee includes three meals, tea, coffee and water,"
TBF with this bunch of dipsticks we are lucky it isn’t:-
"The £1,750 fee includes three meals; tea, coffee and water,"
This place is not a place of honor, no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here, nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

User avatar
Brightonian
Dorkwood
Posts: 1429
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 3:16 pm
Location: Usually UK, often France and Ireland

Re: International travel

Post by Brightonian » Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:56 pm

Australia's experience with quarantine hotels
Ninety-nine per cent of cases in the second wave came stemmed from returned travellers infecting staff and security guards at two Melbourne hotels

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:55 pm

Brightonian wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 2:56 pm
Australia's experience with quarantine hotels
Ninety-nine per cent of cases in the second wave came stemmed from returned travellers infecting staff and security guards at two Melbourne hotels
It doesn't say how many cases that was, but for sure (a) it probably would have been much higher if returned travellers had been allowed to go home and self-quarantine on trust, as in the current UK system and (b) it's a really low number compared to the UK, for example, even scaling for population.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-54686812
Victoria state was the epicentre of Australia's second wave, accounting for more than 90% of its 905 deaths.
Victoria state apparently has a population of about 6.4 million, so that's, what, 10-15 deaths per 100,000? Over 112 days?

England is on 183 deaths per 100,000. It has had that many deaths (as a proportion) in the past ten days, and that's with things coming down off the third wave peak. London, population 9 million, has had about 15,000 deaths (maybe nearer 16,000 if you look at death certificates).

So, yes, it's hard. Like all the other hard things to do during this pandemic, not doing the hard thing leads to everything being much harder later on.

‘Significant gaps’ in Covid hotel quarantine plans, says Heathrow

The UK's hotel quarantine plan, like the 10 years in prison thing, only applied to arrivals in countries on a "red list" anyway.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
jdc
Hilda Ogden
Posts: 1925
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:31 pm
Location: Your Mum

Re: International travel

Post by jdc » Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:02 pm

shpalman wrote:
Sat Feb 13, 2021 3:55 pm

The UK's hotel quarantine plan, like the 10 years in prison thing, only applied to arrivals in countries on a "red list" anyway.
Apparently there might be a slight issue with this policy: https://labour.org.uk/press/labour-esti ... on-monday/
New analysis of passenger data by the Labour Party suggests 10,000 passengers will arrive in the UK on Monday from countries where the South African or Brazilian variants of Covid-19 are circulating but which are not on the Government’s ‘red list’. Those passengers will not be required to quarantine in hotels under the UK Government’s planned system.

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sat Feb 13, 2021 4:12 pm

Well for example Austria isn't on the list and there's so much SA variant in Austria that you can't even go to Austria from Austria.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56039335
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
Bird on a Fire
Princess POW
Posts: 10137
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2019 5:05 pm
Location: Portugal

Re: International travel

Post by Bird on a Fire » Sun Feb 14, 2021 4:07 pm

shpalman can I just say that your catty covid coverage is probably my favourite bit of online covid-related content. I'm really enjoying it. Please keep it up.
We have the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment.

User avatar
jdc
Hilda Ogden
Posts: 1925
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2019 4:31 pm
Location: Your Mum

Re: International travel

Post by jdc » Mon Feb 15, 2021 11:47 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... r-official
Border Force sources told the Guardian that all immigration control staff had received a lengthy email with five attachments, detailing official guidance for carrying out the new checks at the border, at 9.25pm on Sunday. The rules came into effect at midnight.

Significant numbers of staff would not have seen the email when they started their shifts on Monday, the sources said. One Border Force operative on duty at Heathrow airport during the first day of the checks described the process as “an absolute joke”. The Home Office has been approached for comment.

User avatar
Little waster
After Pie
Posts: 2385
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:35 am
Location: About 1 inch behind my eyes

Re: International travel

Post by Little waster » Tue Feb 16, 2021 1:36 am

The BBC were interviewing a couple of the first group of red-listers.

One of the quarantiners expressed surprise that while they were having to quarantine for having merely passed through a red-list country the people sat immediately across from them on the mumblety-hour flight were simply allowed to go on their way as their point-of-origin wasn’t on the list.

I see a small flaw in this approach ...
This place is not a place of honor, no highly esteemed deed is commemorated here, nothing valued is here.
What is here was dangerous and repulsive to us.
This place is best shunned and left uninhabited.

User avatar
Matatouille
Fuzzable
Posts: 317
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 5:26 pm
Location: UK

Re: International travel

Post by Matatouille » Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:12 am

Matatouelle's mum has had a bad medical diagnosis, and so she needs to go and visit in Sri Lanka asap. Apparently it is easier for me as a UK citizen to enter Sri Lanka, than it is for Matatouelle as a Sri Lankan citizen. According to the official website, in Covid times everyone including citizens has to have an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to enter the country. In normal times, this is the tourist visa - you fill out the form, pay the fee and in 24 hours get approved (sometimes it only takes minutes). The catch? The form hasn't been updated to allow you to put "Sri Lankan" in the "Country of Citizenship" field. Emailed to ask the ETA people if we misunderstood the requirement and she doesn't need it or needs something else, and they directed us back to the form that doesn't work.

The SL High Commission has a form for requesting repatriation - its not clear if that is for returning to SL for good and they pay for flights and tell you when you're flying, or if it is just they give you a permit to enter SL on arrival from a certain flight. Filled out the form anyway, since no-one at the High Commission answers the phones so you can't find out.

And we still have no idea if the 2 weeks hotel quarantine requirement is for tourist visa holders only or everyone. If she could quarantine in the self-contained apartment within her parent's house that would save us a massive amount.

Having information is great, isn't it? AAAAAAARRRRGH!

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:46 pm

Gfamily wrote:
Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:46 pm
Bird on a Fire wrote:
Tue Feb 09, 2021 3:35 pm
Yeah, when I got stuck at Heathrow over New Year all the hotels were doing discounts down to about £50/night for a room. Block bookings should be cheaper.
I'm not sure. The hotel and its staff will have to take special care against cross infection, and I don't know whether there's supposed to be control of the corridors to make sure people stay in quarantine ( 10 days, dec-ine?).

And your £50 rate was open to anyone, whereas people willing to book into a plague hotel will only be travellers who are obliged to stay there, so there may not be enough demand to keep the rooms filled.

I think the question was raised earlier as to whether that's meant to be a full board rate.
FB_IMG_1613911474672.jpg
FB_IMG_1613911474672.jpg (64.57 KiB) Viewed 2304 times
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sat Mar 20, 2021 1:20 pm

having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
Brightonian
Dorkwood
Posts: 1429
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 3:16 pm
Location: Usually UK, often France and Ireland

Re: International travel

Post by Brightonian » Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:32 pm

Spain says EU vaccine certificates to be ready in June at latest

Not a great deal of information in that news item. Unclear whether people vaccinated outside the EU would be able to get a certificate. Unclear what would be required of the uncertificated (multiple negative tests? quarantine? scout's honour?).

User avatar
sTeamTraen
After Pie
Posts: 2550
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:24 pm
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Re: International travel

Post by sTeamTraen » Wed Mar 31, 2021 9:38 pm

Brightonian wrote:
Wed Mar 31, 2021 5:32 pm
Spain says EU vaccine certificates to be ready in June at latest

Not a great deal of information in that news item. Unclear whether people vaccinated outside the EU would be able to get a certificate. Unclear what would be required of the uncertificated (multiple negative tests? quarantine? scout's honour?).
I suspect it will be for intra-EU travel only, and probably only replace the need for a negative test on landing. So instead of scanning a negative PCR barcode, you would scan a vaccination barcode. This seems like quite a mild application of the dreaded "vaccine passport Big Brother" idea.

It might also actually be reasonably practical. Many EU countries will be keeping some kind of record of the vaccination [that can be] tied to your national ID card. In Spain this is almost trivial since every time you do anything, you have to present your DNI card or (as a foreigner) give your NIE number. In fact the biggest obstacle so far to me and Mrs sTeamTraen getting a vaccine has been that we weren't in the national health computer, but we are now. When we get called, we will be given a 10-ish digit number which we give to the jabtron, who will put it in the computer and our status will be recorded. A useful backup if the 5G chip they inject us with ever fails.
Something something hammer something something nail

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:19 am

Unfortunate typo in the Guardian

They've written that that traditionally favoured continental destinations among British holidaymakers are deemed more high-risk than the likes of the US and Israel, because of "Hesitancy towards the vaccine across parts of mainland Europe".

Unless they mean "hesitancy" of AstraZeneca to provide doses to mainland Europe. Or hesitancy of the EU to tell the UK to f.ck off as it continues to take Pfizer doses from Belgium and not give any AstraZeneca doses back.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
sTeamTraen
After Pie
Posts: 2550
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:24 pm
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Re: International travel

Post by sTeamTraen » Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:02 am

shpalman wrote:
Sat Apr 03, 2021 8:19 am
Unfortunate typo in the Guardian

They've written that that traditionally favoured continental destinations among British holidaymakers are deemed more high-risk than the likes of the US and Israel, because of "Hesitancy towards the vaccine across parts of mainland Europe".

Unless they mean "hesitancy" of AstraZeneca to provide doses to mainland Europe. Or hesitancy of the EU to tell the UK to f.ck off as it continues to take Pfizer doses from Belgium and not give any AstraZeneca doses back.
Well, France and Italy, at least, do have pretty substantial anti-vaxx movements in general. Didn't M5S make it part of their election platform a few years back? And France's population has been throughly brainwashed on Facebook, although maybe when push comes to jab they will mostly actually have it, in order to be allowed a bit of Peter Hitchens-style martyrdom.
Something something hammer something something nail

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:51 am

Whatever, Italy is giving jabs just about as fast as it gets them (luckily another 1.3 million AstraZeneca doses just arrived because some regions were in danger of having to cancel appointments), and every group is clamouring for "priority". "Hesitancy" isn't the reason that only about 12% have received a first dose.

On the UK rollout thread, "hesitancy" is being discussed as a reason why some areas of the UK have gotten so far down the age groups.
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:40 pm

Narrator: People were not, in fact, cancelling their appointments in droves.

It’s amazing how much this fallacy has taken root across the British media.


https://twitter.com/DaveKeating/status/ ... 70305?s=09
having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
shpalman
Princess POW
Posts: 8241
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: One step beyond
Contact:

Re: International travel

Post by shpalman » Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:54 am

having that swing is a necessary but not sufficient condition for it meaning a thing
@shpalman@mastodon.me.uk

User avatar
sTeamTraen
After Pie
Posts: 2550
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:24 pm
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Re: International travel

Post by sTeamTraen » Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:42 pm

More Brits denied entry to Spain... by gate staff at Manchester.

A variety of borderline dog-'n'-homework excuses, although I do feel sorry (if it's true) for "a woman with Italian citizenship [who] was travelling back to her family also living in Spain, but [...] was also denied boarding, leaving her in tears". She has been entitled to fly directly to Spain from the UK since 30 March, when the B.1.1.7-inspired ban was lifted, revealing the more general limitations on entering for non-EU citizens which are keeping Brits out unless it's a family emergency, but should not have applied to an Italian.
A passenger wrote:Given that so many Brits are having to be flown back at the airline's expense, I wonder if this was merely a cost-cutting exercise for Ryanair.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
Something something hammer something something nail

User avatar
Opti
Dorkwood
Posts: 1473
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:21 pm
Location: On the beach

Re: International travel

Post by Opti » Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:03 pm

Here on the CdS, many brit 2nd home owners are trying to find all sorts of dodges to get back to their 'piece of heaven'. Some of them are getting in, some not, but they all have one thing in common. They don't have 'essential' reasons for travel.
Online fights are currently ongoing between them and permanent UK immigrants. It's all quite fun to watch. :lol:
Time for a big fat one.

User avatar
sTeamTraen
After Pie
Posts: 2550
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 4:24 pm
Location: Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Re: International travel

Post by sTeamTraen » Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:50 pm

Opti wrote:
Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:03 pm
Here on the CdS, many brit 2nd home owners are trying to find all sorts of dodges to get back to their 'piece of heaven'. Some of them are getting in, some not, but they all have one thing in common. They don't have 'essential' reasons for travel.
Online fights are currently ongoing between them and permanent UK immigrants. It's all quite fun to watch. :lol:
A lot of people seem to think that because the UK government lets you out to "carry out activities related to buying, selling, letting or renting a residential property", this means (a) you can fly to your holiday home in Spain for two weeks to make really sure that the kitchen tap isn't dripping, and (b) Spain has to accept your property-related trip on the way in because the UK does on the way out.

The officially allowed reasons for entering the EU for non-EU citizens, other than professionally-related ones, are "people who are travelling for essential and justified family matters ... force majeure cases, necessary situations or humanitarian reasons". Not having seen your grown-up kids for six months really doesn't count, sorry.
Something something hammer something something nail

OffTheRock
Fuzzable
Posts: 272
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 6:52 pm

Re: International travel

Post by OffTheRock » Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:41 pm

I have spent quite a lot of time having to explain that just because the U.K. will let me out of the country and back in again pretty easily it doesn’t mean I can get home to visit my parents/siblings a) at all or b) without a 14-21 day quarantine. Although tbf this isn’t helped by a number of people not realising the Channel Islands are not part of the U.K. and have a different government.

Post Reply