Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

OK, that wasn't quite the way I understood what you said.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

I always found Christmas so stressful with all the family in one place. There was always one person that kicked some inappropriate conversation.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

I was being UK-centric it seems, since I thought that is what we were talking about. UK citizens do still seem to be barred.

I am unlikely to be able to see my son at Christmas. I haven't seen him since last Christmas (he's a student in the UK, I'm in the US). His spring holiday here was cancelled for obvious reasons,, and my summer trip there for the same. We have tickets for him and his UK girlfriend to come for Christmas, but it seems likely she will still be barred and that quarantine will still be on in both countries which makes travel impractical even for him, a dual citizen.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

Christmas is pretty much the busiest travel time of the year - hence the high airfares around it in normal years. Even with covid, I would expect demand for transatlantic to be a lot higher than it is right now.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

We should have a big BE Christmas party for all of us left alone over the holidays! I would normally go home over Thanksgiving, but I'm definitely not going anywhere near Oz any time soon. It's not even clear when flights will be readily available, much less when I will feel like sitting in planes for 20+ hours.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

I am sure you are right.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

A global emergency. This is not the time to travel for "emotional reasons". Batten down the hatches

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

No travelling for me this year, we all agreed to stay separated but safe

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

We already cancelled our trip to the USA to visit our daughter and she and her partner have canceled their trip to Australia at Christmas although if his mother’s health deteriorates he may well want to go over at some point before travel restrictions are lifted.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

I am intrigued by the posts on this thread, and others, that cite "mental health issues" as a reason to "need" to travel. What does a mental health issue look like in this context? What has happened in the past six months? We're you in the habit of returning to the UK/ visiting your family wherever they are, once a quarter? Does not laying eyes on your parents/ children for sixty months cause some sort of anxiety? Or is it that the fact that travel has become challenging precipitated anxiety that it may become even more difficult? :confused:

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

Sorry to labour the point but I just don't see how flights could be that much busier, assuming nothing changes between now and Christmas.

• There are no UK holidaymakers returning home
• There are no Americans travelling to the UK on vacation
• UK Expat visa holders are still not allowed to travel because they wouldn't be allowed back into the US

The only people that can travel are UK/US dual citizens and GC holders, which is a pretty small pool of people in any given area. Using this forum as a straw poll, it seems like of that small pool of people, very few would even consider making the journey back regardless.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

Well yeah, not seeing my son for 5 years would not be ideal. I'd be 70 years old by then.:ohmy:

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

You seem to be overlooking US citizens and their families who live in the UK, on temporary visas, indefinite leave to remain or as dual citizens. I'm on a US expats in the UK message board and I see constant talk about going back to the US for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Perfectly possible under current regulations, as long as they're willing to quarantine for 14 days on return to the UK.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

Right but that is still a relatively small group of people, and then requiring the ability to quarantine for 14 days upon return to the UK makes it even smaller still.

If all flights were going in and out of the 16 initial hub airports then I would agree with you, but when you combine all the stipulations that exist plus the fact that many more US airports are now conducting UK flights, I still think demand will be scarce and they'll be plenty of opportunity to social distance onboard.

Re: Who else is concerned about trip to UK for Christmas with family?
 

From what I am reading, many are willing to quarantine in order to visit family. Another category is US relatives visiting family members in the UK. If your sole purpose is to see family, quarantining in the same household isn't an overwhelming restriction to visiting.

What's the number of flights currently compared to when they were restrictions to certain gateways?