HELP with FCO Advice

Josie1996

Afternoon All, I am looking for some advice with regards to a holiday that I have booked in 3 weeks time.  We are due to fly to Sri Lanka but the FCO have now advised against all but essential travel. The Holiday company I have booked with are saying that the holiday can still go ahead as the flights will be going and the hotels are open.  Where do I stand?  Surely essential travel is not a holiday and therefore we should not be going?  Not able to get travel insurance either?  There is a State of Emergency, an island wide curfew, a shoot on sight order by the military and yet my travel company are stating that 'everything' is going ahead as normal.  All the tourist venues we were going to visit are still open and therefore any costs for cancellation would be down to me.  Can someone please help?

Sandtree

FCO notices change at short notice, it could be that they are simply waiting to closer to the time to make a decision.

Which travel company did you buy from? Are they UK based?

Josie1996

Yes, they are UK based - Luxtripper.  I do understand that the advice could change from the FCO but they are saying that if I was travelling today I would have to go or risk losing everything?

marcia_

 Why did you not purchase holiday insurance when booking? 

Josie1996

marcia_ said:

 Why did you not purchase holiday insurance when booking? 

Because I very rarely do, I purchase it before we leave - but it doesn't matter as I should be covered anyway

marcia_

 Not if the holiday is going ahead you won't be. 

 Insurance covers from the date you buy it. Covering you for situations like this or falling ill. 

Pollycat

Josie1996 said:

marcia_ said:

 Why did you not purchase holiday insurance when booking? 

Because I very rarely do, I purchase it before we leave - but it doesn't matter as I should be covered anyway

Doing it that way means you are not covered if something happens between booking and departure - as it has in this instance.

The flights will probably have been paid for at the time of booking (that's usually how scheduled flights work) so if the flights are still operating, the tour operator will expect you to pay for them (unless they have booked you refundable flights).
Ditto for the hotels.

Pollycat

And it's FCO advice.

I found this statement by Dominic Raab during lockdown 2020

Whether travel is essential or not is a personal decision and circumstances differ from person to person. It is for individuals themselves to make an informed decision based on the risks and FCO advice. Anyone still planning to travel should check the validity of their travel insurance.

Travel Advice against all non-essential travel: Foreign Secretary's statement, 17 March 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I think this covers your situation (and agrees with what your tour operator says).

onashoestring

This is when your insurance would cover you if you had purchased it . 

CKhalvashi

Pollycat said:

And it's FCO advice.

I found this statement by Dominic Raab during lockdown 2020

Whether travel is essential or not is a personal decision and circumstances differ from person to person. It is for individuals themselves to make an informed decision based on the risks and FCO advice. Anyone still planning to travel should check the validity of their travel insurance.

Travel Advice against all non-essential travel: Foreign Secretary's statement, 17 March 2020 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

I think this covers your situation (and agrees with what your tour operator says).

We agree on this part Pollycat (I would still have gone to Georgia in 2021 if I'd booked it to be out of the UK for 11 days after, not going after being outside of the UK for 14 days and returning after 2 days in another country, due to the red list that plan failed miserably).

It's very possible however that under Section 12, part 7A of the PTD (click here) with an incident occurring in the immediate vicinity of the travel so serious that the government is advising against all non-essential travel that there would be a right to a full refund in any event. This has scored refunds on the forum before (in the context of Covid for purely leisure travel), however as far as I'm aware has not been tested in court.

Josie1996

CKhalvashi said:

We agree on this part Pollycat (I would still have gone to Georgia in 2021 if I'd booked it to be out of the UK for 11 days after, not going after being outside of the UK for 14 days and returning after 2 days in another country, due to the red list that plan failed miserably).

It's very possible however that under Section 12, part 7A of the PTD  with an incident occurring in the immediate vicinity of the travel so serious that the government is advising against all non-essential travel that there would be a right to a full refund in any event. This has scored refunds on the forum before (in the context of Covid for purely leisure travel), however as far as I'm aware has not been tested in court.

Thanks, my argument is is that they cannot provide the holiday that I booked and paid for and therefore I should be able to gain a full refund as the holiday has changed so significantly that I am covered.  Berating me for not taking out travel insurance at the time is unhelpful.  The simple fact is that the company are unable to provide me with the holiday that I booked?  Encouraging people to go to a country that your own government has advised travel against makes the original holiday untenable.