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The HfP chat thread – Friday 16th July

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We are running this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

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Comments (383)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Lyn says:

    Does anyone think France could possibly go on the red list in the next four weeks? There seem to be more mutterings today.

    We have friends who have the Eurotunnel booked for Wednesday and are worried about their house in France since they haven’t been able to visit since September. I would hate to see them have to cancel yet another trip. It’s not even a holiday, just garden and house maintenance.

  • David says:

    So, how do people think Brits will really fair for holidays and travel this year, if this is/becomes a widely held consenus:
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/16/englands-covid-unlocking-a-threat-to-the-world-experts-say?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

    • Idrive says:

      I just want to point out my perspective as a matter of facts. ‘Holiday or Travel abroad’ is not going to fancy hotels and all we usually discuss,for everyone. There are also people like me that have spent the majority of all this covid period on their own, thousand miles away from families and spending considerable amount of time ownly working working working in their small flat, good we have a job at least but believe me sometimes it has been certainly difficult.
      The idea of going back and relax away from this environment is honestly the best i could hope for and if i can, i certainly will, if not it will prolong this times till it will be possible.
      The sunshine is source of life anyway!
      Just to give a different reading!

      • Anna says:

        +1. OH has just had yet another weekend off cancelled for the G7 shenanigans in October so forgive me if I don’t feel the remotest bit guilty for taking a holiday while that lot are jetting all over the world and inconveniencing frontline workers who quite frankly have better things to do!

    • Anna says:

      Highly selective scare-mongering. Non-scientists were allowed to sign the letter from “experts”. Countries like Mexico where there have been very few shutdowns and huge under-reporting of infections and deaths don’t seem to come in for any criticism, it’s juts trendy to bash the UK.

      • Lord Doncaster says:

        Under-reporting of infections seems to be something that Germany excels at as well.

        • Alan says:

          How do you know that?

          • Peter says:

            They probably do tests same way as in Poland, to get the Polish NHS test you need to have symptoms, not one but two, so high temperature and constant cough may get you a test.. otherwise you’ll need to get a private one, which of course nobody does. Hence number of cases is per average 100 with deaths similar to UK. It does make sense, just doesn’t make sense to compare these numbers to UK numbers.

          • JDB says:

            Other countries simply don’t carry out the tests that we do. We are testing like crazy so we have a rough idea of the truth. We also do the ONS survey testing that I don’t believe most other countries do which provides a very interesting check and while the full actual test data and ONS data are unsurprisingly slightly out of sync, it confirms that we do have a good handle on the facts. There is no way that, for example, Spain and the Netherlands have such high case numbers that the French stats make any sense.

        • Paul says:

          Rubbish

          • JDB says:

            Germany has done less than 1/4 of the tests we have per capita and France less than ½. They don’t have the capacity and they only sequence about 1-2% vs us now at almost 15%. Many would argue we are over testing…

      • David says:

        When you say non scientists signed, what was their professional background? In any event why does that negate the view of the scientists that have expressed this and no doubt put the report/statement together?
        I assume you’re not a scientist, Anna, but that doesn’t seem to stop you expressing your strident views on the matter, so why should it stop others?

    • David says:

      Why do you assume I’m in favour of all the holidays? I think it will be a $#it show. Just trying to enlighten some of our armchair experts and second career virologists and public health experts.

      • Idrive says:

        It wasn’t really referred to your comment but the idea came to my mind, i still think the uk government wants us to soend money here rather than abroad anyway. As someone said Italy and France have internal tourism that can compensate so they don’t really really need incoming flows from Uk, maybe different for Spain or Greece. Anyway i hope we can all enjoy some break at some point before summertime ends in Europe without the need to fly to the other side of the world in winter.Said that, i am always careful nowadays and respect the rules so i can say i am doing my best on my side! Have a good Friday evening

  • BJ says:

    Expletives in HfP comments are becoming more infectious than covid! Can we please tone it down a bit, it just doesn’t look so nice. I get it that sometimes people use them for emphasis but wouldn’t like to see them become the norm.

  • Anuj says:

    For the BP offer, is it supposed to show on the statement as rontec?

    • Craig says:

      I think a lot of the garages as franchises. One appeared as Esso whilst pending, TCS when it posted but still triggered the offer.

    • Vit says:

      Mine shown exactly as is written in the amex participating list pdf but take a good 10 days or so for the £10 to show up.

  • SimonP says:

    Double-vaccinated travellers returning to England from France will still have to quarantine for 10 days from Monday – per BBC. MERDE!

  • Mark says:

    Uk make all French arrivals isolate even if you’re double jabbed

  • John says:

    Longtime coming, but clarification of rules for travelling from GB to ROI (either direct or via NI) from Monday:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/2021/0716/1235623-ireland-britain-travel/

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.