Australia?

Newly_retired

My daughter and her husband are booked to go to Australia later this month. Given the situation with bush fires and the air pollution, it would be sensible to cancel, but does anyone have any experience how insurance companies would react to a claim? They would be staying with friends, so it is just flights.

TELLIT01

As there is no advice against travelling to Australia (as far as I know) I doubt if you would be able to claim off travel insurance.

waamo

Australia is a big country and the fires seem to be confined to New South Wales currently. If your daughter isn't going to that area then I can't see a reason to cancel.

photome

As above



where is she going?

comeandgo

Who is she flying with and what are the conditions regarding altering or cancelling flights? Unless her travel insurance has a bush fire condition then her insurance will not help her.

TELLIT01

waamo wrote: »

Australia is a big country and the fires seem to be confined to New South Wales currently. If your daughter isn't going to that area then I can't see a reason to cancel.

The fires are not restricted to NSW. Victoria and South Australia are also affected, as is Tasmania. Map here https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10317573/where-are-australia-fires-map-bush-fires/

ibizafan_2

My son and his family live in Brisbane and haven’t mentioned any problems there, or on the Sunshine or Gold Coasts.

[Deleted User]

Unless you are traveling to the affected areas you won't see A fire, just the smoke. It's all happening in the bush, small towns, not the cities. My in laws live in parramatta nsw and the fires are still a good 2 hours away from them.

martinthebandit

.....and to add a little perspective, if Sydney was where Dublin is then Perth would be where Moscow is (Australia is big!)

Would you really cancel a holiday in Ireland because of fires in Russia?

TELLIT01

_shel wrote: »

Unless you are traveling to the affected areas you won't see A fire, just the smoke.

That's fair comment, but at times the news reports do show the smoke seriously affecting air quality in cities too. We were in Canada a few years ago and were at least a couple of hundred miles from the forest fires they were experiencing. Despite that there were days when you could smell and taste the smoke and visibility was affected.
Any travellers planning to stay in the cities may not be too badly affected, but any touring plans need to be looked at carefully to avoid problem areas.

Westin

...if only the OP would have mentioned where in the vast country of Australia he/she is visiting....