Cronus wrote:
If you have something booked for the next 2 months or so, wait. It's highly likely there will be almost zero aircraft in the skies in a week or two as airlines start to ground fleets and therefore cancel almost all flights. Many have grounded significant proportions of their fleets, some have stopped operating altogether. Some will never come back from this, but that's another discussion.
If the airline or tour operator cancels, you get a full refund. If you cancel while the flight is still scheduled to operate, you only get money back as per fare rules, perhaps minus a fee or only just a few taxes - often regardless of political advice at either end. Some airlines are holding out on some routes and keeping the flights scheduled in the hope passengers will cancel and they keep the money. Emirates is one. We'll have to see if they cancel at short notice.
If they offer a free change to later in year - up to you. Take it or insist on a full refund, after all they can't fulfil the flight.
Will insurance pay? Depends on your policy. Based on the "all but essential travel" advice some will - but some won't. No policies taken out from this week will.
And remember things are changing hour to hour. It may - and probably will - reach the point of instruction rather than advice, and then total lockdown in which case insurance should almost certainly pay if the airlines play hardball.
Right now anyone living in the UK travelling overseas for anything other than a truly critical or COVID19-related reason needs a slap.
Thank you for the advice, Luckily were not travelling until October, and could get messy if its not all sorted by then as were travelling to 3 different destinations and they have all been booked separately. Also and on the advice of Martin Lewis we took out insurance a couple of weeks ago. However, for people about to go on holiday I do think the advice from the Foreign office was a bit wooly by only advising UK citizens not to fly.
