Will you travel? [Mod Note in Post #1 - Travel Discussion Only! Megathread]

faceman

RobitTV wrote: »

Spanish government is introducing a curfew for the entire country from 11pm to 6am.

The Canary Islands is to be exempted from the national curfew. The 11pm to 6am curfew will not apply to the Canary Islands because the islands have the lowest COVID rates of all Spanish regions.

Each region is allowed flexibility with the curfew hours. Valencia region’s is 12 to 6am

normanoffside

votecounts wrote: »

Bet these people wish they had not travelled
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/thirteen-people-infected-on-a-flight-led-to-59-cases-39664941.html

I have read about that and understood that 3 different groups had the virus but they might have had it separately when flying- they didn't necessarily get it on the plane.

In any case if we had a regime of presenting a negative test, taken before flying, to get into Ireland and avoid restrictions then this could have been avoided as a flyer knowing they have tested positive is unlikely to fly.

That's a much better system than we now have and would cut out the casual flyer who would not want to go to the expense of getting a test before flying to Ireland.

acequion

normanoffside wrote: »

I have read about that and understood that 3 different groups had the virus but they might have had it separately when flying- they didn't necessarily get it on the plane.

In any case if we had a regime of presenting a negative test, taken before flying, to get into Ireland and avoid restrictions then this could have been avoided as a flyer knowing they have tested positive is unlikely to fly.

That's a much better system than we now have and would cut out the casual flyer who would not want to go to the expense of getting a test before flying to Ireland.

What do you mean by "casual flyer"? Agree with the rest of the post.

normanoffside

acequion wrote: »

What do you mean by "casual flyer"? Agree with the rest of the post.

I mean people taking weekend breaks and the like.

Given the extra expense and inconvenience or organising and taking tests before flying out and then again back, People would only fly if they really need the break or are flying for essential purposes.

As it stands for example, thousands of foreigners will be stranded here over Xmas and not be able to fly home because on return they will not be able to work/study for 2 weeks.
A lot of these people work in the health service.

Bringing in testing regime for travel, not only is safer but it's better in evry sense.
Makes no sense to just keep things as they are.

Diarmuid

votecounts wrote: »

Bet these people wish they had not travelled
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/thirteen-people-infected-on-a-flight-led-to-59-cases-39664941.html

Non-paywalled version

One of the poorest attempts at painting travel as the covid boogyman. ZERO proof that they travellers were infected *on the flight*

Most of them had been travelling together in small groups,

So they were travelling together in a group aged 1 to 65. ie a family travelled together and some tested positive. What a surprise

A further 11 passengers were subsequently diagnosed with the virus, but the study said "the source case is not known".

So others got infected but they don't know where. And that's it. They tested others sitting near by and they weren't infected.

One of the most transparent propaganda pieces I've seen, and also one of the weakest.
Compare to an actual reporting

"Freedman looked at all Emirates flights from Dubai to Hong Kong between June 16 and July 5. What he found is quite telling. During those three weeks, Emirates had five flights with seven or more infected passengers on each flight, for a total of 58 coronavirus-positive passengers flying on eight-hour trips. And yet, nobody else on the planes — none of the other 1,500 to 2,000 passengers — picked up the virus, Freedman and his colleague report in the Journal of Travel Medicine."

lainey_d_123

normanoffside wrote: »

I know someone going to Germany next week for essential purposes.
Germany has approximately 30% of our infection rate per head of population.

My Friend can avoid any restricted movement or quarantine by simply arriving in Germany with a negative Covid test from Ireland taken 48 hours before travelling (available from multiple private labs for €180 with Guaranteed 36-48hr turnaround). or if he choses not to do this he can take a free test on arrival in Munich Airport with results guaranteed on 48 hours.

However when he returns to Ireland, despite coming from a country with 1/3 our infection rate, he has no option of avoiding 14 days restricted movement by getting tested before leaving Germany (available in airport for €60 with a guaranteed 24hr turnaround) or by getting a test on arrival in Ireland.

It's just a lazy 'If you return from abroad we advise you to restrict movements for 14 days.

Ireland is a shambles, stupid rules which make no sense, customer unfriendly, arrogant, expensive and yet at the same stage it doesn't even enforce any recommendations.

It doesn't matter if you are flying in from Germany or Brazil we just advise you to restrict your movements and sure if you don't who cares? And we'll leave it at that..

This is SO much more sensible. Quarantine would have made sense back in March when we didn't have tests. Now we have tests, so why not just bloody avail of them? A 14 day quarantine is so ridiculous and excessive when many of the places people are flying in from have LOWER rates than the UK/Ireland. It just doesn't make any logical sense to have someone quarantine for that length of time.

normanoffside

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

This is SO much more sensible. Quarantine would have made sense back in March when we didn't have tests. Now we have tests, so why not just bloody avail of them? A 14 day quarantine is so ridiculous and excessive when many of the places people are flying in from have LOWER rates than the UK/Ireland. It just doesn't make any logical sense to have someone quarantine for that length of time.

I don't think we should be using public resources for this. I was googling this on Friday and there are at least 10 companies in Dublin alone offering private PCR tests for people who have to travel abroad and need a travel clearance certificate.

They should be asked to bid for a contract in Dublin Airport and set up a lab ASAP. Charge €100 or whatever is reasonable for people coming in without a test result from the country of departure and mandate that they restrict movements (with fines) until the results come in.

This won't 100% stop the import of cases from abroad but would massively reduce the risk and make it much safer to travel.
The consumer would be happy to pay these costs, the government have nothing to lose.

faceman

normanoffside wrote: »

I don't think we should be using public resources for this. I was googling this on Friday and there are at least 10 companies in Dublin alone offering private PCR tests for people who have to travel abroad and need a travel clearance certificate.

They should be asked to bid for a contract in Dublin Airport and set up a lab ASAP. Charge €100 or whatever is reasonable for people coming in without a test result from the country of departure and mandate that they restrict movements (with fines) until the results come in.

This won't 100% stop the import of cases from abroad but would massively reduce the risk and make it much safer to travel.
The consumer would be happy to pay these costs, the government have nothing to lose.

Tests are €30 in some countries

normanoffside

faceman wrote: »

Tests are €30 in some countries

Mostly Antigen tests though?

lainey_d_123

normanoffside wrote: »

I don't think we should be using public resources for this. I was googling this on Friday and there are at least 10 companies in Dublin alone offering private PCR tests for people who have to travel abroad and need a travel clearance certificate.

They should be asked to bid for a contract in Dublin Airport and set up a lab ASAP. Charge €100 or whatever is reasonable for people coming in without a test result from the country of departure and mandate that they restrict movements (with fines) until the results come in.

This won't 100% stop the import of cases from abroad but would massively reduce the risk and make it much safer to travel.
The consumer would be happy to pay these costs, the government have nothing to lose.

That's grand, I think a lot of people would be happy to pay for a test compared to 14 days quarantine. I don't even think it needs to be 100 quid, under 50 should be plenty to make them a profit.

It kind of seems mad that at this point in time, testing is not required before flights. That (when combined with masks) surely would mean that the chances of someone boarding a plane with covid and taking it to where they're going are incredibly low?

faceman

normanoffside wrote: »

Mostly Antigen tests though?

Probably. But deemed acceptable in some countries

So, drove to London yesterday, on an absolutely empty ferry. Didn’t come within 10m of another human, let alone 2m. The W B Yeats really is a beast of a boat. London is a breath of fresh air....life much like normal except for pub closures at 10pm, and the limits on household mixing inside means that they are all nice and quiet. Cafes and restaurants all open as normal but behaviour is very good, at least in my neighbourhood.

Flying to Valencia on Thursday for three weeks initially, ‘WFH’ for the duration. But fully expecting to change my ticket to stay longer

Glad I took off to get away from the incessant COVID noise in Ireland. Sure, it’s the main news everywhere here, but its not permanently ‘in your face’....there is nothing near the level of COVID fixation as back home

fawlty682

The attack on travel is blatant. No tracking of meat plant cases, nursing homes.

Spanish Eyes

faceman wrote: »

Each region is allowed flexibility with the curfew hours. Valencia region’s is 12 to 6am

Hola, que tal. That to us here in Ireland sounds great, but as I am sure you know, many Spaniards don't go out until 11pm or so and live the life until the early or late hours. The siesta helps to compensate

So it is a big restriction on their way of life really. Even though the rest of us looking at it think it is no restriction at all.

Andalucia was low risk for ages, but is now creeping up esp in Granada Province.

This is never going to end is it. Just like here.

We go to Cacares above Estepona. But when we will go again, who knows.

sy_flembeck

Deleted User wrote: »

Glad I took off to get away from the incessant COVID noise in Ireland. Sure, it’s the main news everywhere here, but its not permanently ‘in your face’....there is nothing near the level of COVID fixation as back home

If you think London is free of depressing Covid news wait till you get to Spain. It's an absolute delight and you will utterly recharge your batteries and be set up for the long winter ahead.

Enjoy your break and let us poor souls know how you get on!!

acequion

normanoffside wrote: »

I mean people taking weekend breaks and the like.

Given the extra expense and inconvenience or organising and taking tests before flying out and then again back, People would only fly if they really need the break or are flying for essential purposes.

As it stands for example, thousands of foreigners will be stranded here over Xmas and not be able to fly home because on return they will not be able to work/study for 2 weeks.
A lot of these people work in the health service.

Bringing in testing regime for travel, not only is safer but it's better in evry sense.
Makes no sense to just keep things as they are.

I might have misread your earlier post, hopefully you wouldn't want to discourage the casual flyer. The accessibility of air travel and what it has enabled in breaking down frontiers, like a weekend trip to see loved ones or other offshore interests or indeed a short casual trip to another land has been one of the stand out developments of our age. I would really hate to see society regress in that sense.

And I completely agree that keeping things as they are would be awful. 2020 has been awful and I'm banking on making up for lost time in 2021.

acequion

normanoffside wrote: »

I mean people taking weekend breaks and the like.

Given the extra expense and inconvenience or organising and taking tests before flying out and then again back, People would only fly if they really need the break or are flying for essential purposes.

As it stands for example, thousands of foreigners will be stranded here over Xmas and not be able to fly home because on return they will not be able to work/study for 2 weeks.
A lot of these people work in the health service.

Bringing in testing regime for travel, not only is safer but it's better in evry sense.
Makes no sense to just keep things as they are.

Actually I didn't misread your post. and more's the pity. As I said earlier the accessibility and availability of air travel is one of the stand out developments of this era. Making it elite again and only available to those "flying for essential purposes" would be a retrograde step for societal and economic reasons. I agree that pre flight testing would be an efficient solution to the current impasse but it shouldn't be at prohibitive prices.

caveat emptor

Diarmuid wrote: »

Non-paywalled version

One of the poorest attempts at painting travel as the covid boogyman. ZERO proof that they travellers were infected *on the flight*


So they were travelling together in a group aged 1 to 65. ie a family travelled together and some tested positive. What a surprise


One of the most transparent propaganda pieces I've seen, and also one of the weakest.
Compare to an actual reporting

I'm afraid it's fairly conclusive they got it on the flight. :eek: Nice propaganda rant but here's the scientific paper the articles were based on. Mad thing about science and virology is they are able to analyse the genetic code of virus between the people.

Don't let science get in the way of your opinion or hysterics though.

Whole genome sequencing and analysis was performed on five available samples, which came from one case travelling from one continent, three cases travelling from a different continent and one case travelling from a third continent. All five samples were identified as belonging to SARS-CoV-2 viral lineage B.1.36 (PANGOLIN nomenclature, v2.0.7). Pairwise comparison of the nucleotide sequences showed more than 99% homology across the entire viral genome, strongly suggesting a single point source of infection.

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.42.2001624#html_fulltext

faceman

sy_flembeck wrote: »

If you think London is free of depressing Covid news wait till you get to Spain. It's an absolute delight and you will utterly recharge your batteries and be set up for the long winter ahead.

Enjoy your break and let us poor souls know how you get on!!

Oh believe me covid news is here! But it’s mostly in Spanish

Got back to Spain this weekend. I’ve no work this week so it’ll be nice

Glad to be back. Curfew came in tonight but I haven’t heard any tanks on the streets yet! :pac:

3xh

normanoffside wrote: »

I don't think we should be using public resources for this. I was googling this on Friday and there are at least 10 companies in Dublin alone offering private PCR tests for people who have to travel abroad and need a travel clearance certificate.

They should be asked to bid for a contract in Dublin Airport and set up a lab ASAP. Charge €100 or whatever is reasonable for people coming in without a test result from the country of departure and mandate that they restrict movements (with fines) until the results come in.

This won't 100% stop the import of cases from abroad but would massively reduce the risk and make it much safer to travel.
The consumer would be happy to pay these costs, the government have nothing to lose.

What do we do with people that travel a lot? I don’t mean people with a penchant for weekend breaks but those who have family abroad? Or a reason that has them travelling, basically, weekly on a personal level and not through work.

Your idea works but not for those who fly for non-tourist reasons.

That level of repetitive cost becomes prohibitive very quickly.

GazzaL

Two tests are needed over a seven or ten day period to be effective, so the idea of having a test in the airport or just before you travel is a complete waste of time. Far better off focusing on the basics like good hygiene and social distancing.

faceman

GazzaL wrote: »

Two tests are needed over a seven or ten day period to be effective, so the idea of having a test in the airport or just before you travel is a complete waste of time. Far better off focusing on the basics like good hygiene and social distancing.

Don’t be preposterous. An airport test is not a waste of time

GazzaL

faceman wrote: »

Don’t be preposterous. An airport test is not a waste of time

Michael O'Leary said it's a load of bollocks. And he's right.

RobitTV

One thing that is starting to worry me a little is that they may change the current rules and then require a 48 hour Covid test before you are able to travel to the Canary Islands.

At the moment you do not need a test. But I heard the Canary Islands are considering different options and they may require passengers to get a Covid test at home before travelling.

There are rumours too about them possibly testing people at the airport in the Canary Islands, so nothing is 100% yet. I personally hope they consider this option of testing at the airport because the price of a Covid test in Ireland is absurd.

A Covid test is a terrible price of €180 in many places and it's just simply unaffordable for many people.

ax530

are there less travel restrictions for people who have recovered from covid ?

johnire

Do you not think though there's a moral responsibility to take the test before travelling? As regards the cost -basically it's tough if you can't afford it. If you cant then don't travel. I certainly know that if I were a Canary Issland resident lucky enough to be living somewhere that is relatively Covid free I wouldn't want hordes of holiday makers coming who potentially are carrying the virus. That's ludicrous.

RobitTV wrote: »

One thing that is starting to worry me a little is that they may change the current rules and then require a 48 hour Covid test before you are able to travel to the Canary Islands.

At the moment you do not need a test. But I heard the Canary Islands are considering different options and they may require passengers to get a Covid test at home before travelling.

There are rumours too about them possibly testing people at the airport in the Canary Islands, so nothing is 100% yet. I personally hope they consider this option of testing at the airport because the price of a Covid test in Ireland is absurd.

A Covid test is a terrible price of €180 in many places and it's just simply unaffordable for many people.

RobitTV

johnire wrote: »

Do you not think though there's a moral responsibility to take the test before travelling? As regards the cost -basically it's tough if you can't afford it. If you cant then don't travel. I certainly know that if I were a Canary Issland resident lucky enough to be living somewhere that is relatively Covid free I wouldn't want hordes of holiday makers coming who potentially are carrying the virus. That's ludicrous.

Exploiting the pandemic and turning it into a nice little money earner is morally indefensible. The tests do NOT need to cost €180 euro as that is a highly inflated price designed to put people off.

The Canary Islands are currently begging for tourists to return as tourism makes up 35% of the their GDP. The UK and Germany have took the Canary Islands off the quarantine list and now its safe for passengers to travel and they won't have to quarantine on the way home.

This is the main season for the Canary Islands and it begins usually in October when winter hits mainland Europe. They are very pleased that they will have income throughout the winter season and jobs which are very important for local families throughout the winter season.

I have nothing against the test at all. But it should be done at the airport's where people can be tested before they leave the country. The 48 hour test you do yourself there is no guarantee of getting the results before you travel.

faceman

RobitTV wrote: »

One thing that is starting to worry me a little is that they may change the current rules and then require a 48 hour Covid test before you are able to travel to the Canary Islands.

At the moment you do not need a test. But I heard the Canary Islands are considering different options and they may require passengers to get a Covid test at home before travelling.

There are rumours too about them possibly testing people at the airport in the Canary Islands, so nothing is 100% yet. I personally hope they consider this option of testing at the airport because the price of a Covid test in Ireland is absurd.

A Covid test is a terrible price of €180 in many places and it's just simply unaffordable for many people.

Canaries at looking to do the testing at your hotel on arrival as the airports don’t have the capacity. If positive, then you’re shipped to specially designated quarantine hotels.

global23214124

Anyone planning on flying at the end of the week or early next week? My trip is up soon and dont want to go back to level 5 ****e for a month so wondering where restrictions arent too bad. Italy is tightening up. Perhaps Greece?

dundalkfc10

Just booked Portugal next Thurs to Tues. Will be my 3rd time since June. Alot safer going out and about there than around here and alot more to do

Think il take the kid over for Christmas, give him a normal Christmas unlike here