UK passport holders will be refused entry into Switzerland from 1st January 2020 as citizens lose freedom of movement rights. This has been confirmed to me in writing from the Swiss authorities this morning.

Switzerland currently refuses entry from countries that they have designated as being “high risk”. But EU/EFTA/UK citizens have enjoyed an exemption under the freedom-of-movement that membership of the EU provides.

This comes to an end on 1st January. Furthermore, Swiss authorities confirm that when UK citizens are allowed to travel, that they cannot fast-track through EU channels but must use “other countries” lanes

1. If you have a British passport you’ll need at least 6 months remaining and it must have been issued within the last 10 years

You can check the validity of your passport on the UK gov website here.
Be sure to do this as you may be surprised by the result. My passport expires July 2022 and I’ve discovered I can only travel to Europe up to early December 2021

2. Healthcare – The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which provided us with reciprocal care, may not be valid from 1st January 2020. You will have to purchase travel insurance with adequate health cover

3. Driving – You may need an International Driving Permit. You may need more than one depending on the countries visited. Each permit costs £5.50 and is available from the Post office , details here

4. Driving – You may need a physical Green Card from your insurers. Your insurer may make a charge for this. You may also need GB stickers

5. Travel with Pets – Pet Passports will no longer be valid. Speak to your vet at least 4 months prior to your trip

6. Mobile Phone / Data … Check with your provider whether data roaming charges apply

As we know, at present, all travel is severely restricted.

All borders are currently closed to any “non-essential” travel.

Some borders that are open require 14 days quarantine.

No-one knows when travel can begin again, for UK citizens, with any surety.

Some gradual changes are scheduled:

Austria, Switzerland, Germany and France appear likely to agree a common free-movement area from June 15th. (But that excludes travel from the UK).

Emirates plan to resume their services from 1st July.

The FCO advises British nationals against all but essential international travel.
For as long as this is place, it invalidates standard travel insurance policies.
This is especially important now with the risks of contracting Covid-19 and potential costs of treatment and/or repatriation from abroad.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania open borders with each other.
Anyone who has not been outside of these countries in the last two weeks, is not infected and has not been in contact with an infected person may travel freely within the three countries.

Anybody arriving from outside the zone must self-isolate for 14 days.

If you’re booking business class or first class flights on Emirates, your choice of seat is available free of charge.

But if you’re booking the lowest economy fares then pre-seating is normally a chargeable extra cost which is not immediately clear.

Members of Emirates Skywards loyalty scheme however, are eligible for free advance “regular” seat assignment, if they have reached “Silver” status. Gold members are eligible for “preferred” seats free-of-charge.

For full details visit the Emirates Page  

Visitors to the U.S. require a visa which is known as a “Electronic System for Travel Authorisation”

Up until now, it has sometimes been possible to gain the approval immediately or within an hour which has been a lifeline for those that have forgotten to apply or who choose to travel at short notice.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has advised that changes in ESTA application processing mean real-time approvals will no longer be available.

International travellers using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) for travel to the United States should apply as soon as possible but not less than 72 hours before their international flight is scheduled to depart.

Business Travellers who may need to travel at short notice should therefore apply for a ESTA in advance.

The genuine site for USA visa applications is on our useful sites page

The UK Government has provided advice regarding the impact on travel to the EU if there is no deal, from the 29th March 2019

The main issue is one of passport validity.

You will have to show that your passport is still valid for at least 6 months from the date you arrive in the Schengen area.

If you have an adult passport that was issued for longer than 10 years, any extra months beyond 10 years do not count.

Full details are available on the UK Government Website here.

There is also an online calculator to check if your passport has enough time left

We are awaiting more detail from BA but at the moment, it appears to only apply to bookings made or changed and paid for online at ba.com

Quote from the BA website:
“This [data breach] relates to customer bookings made or changed between 22:58 BST August 21 2018
and 21:45 September 5 2018 inclusive.
We will be contacting affected customers directly to advise them of what has happened and are advising
them to contact their banks or credit card providers and follow their recommended advice.”

More details available on the British Airways Home Page

If I stay in a very cheap hotel with minimal security I take extra care to ensure that valuables are placed in the room-safe and that the door is locked securely

I have always assumed that when I close the door in one of the international chains such as Radisson, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton, Waldorf Astoria, Fairmont, Park Plaza, that their door key system is 100% secure but researchers have discovered that some door lock technology is vulnerable to being hacked.

BBC article here

Best to use that room safe deposit box every time!

Direct flights from these countries:

Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia

You will not be able to carry laptops, tablets and larger mobile phones in your hand baggage on these flights. Only mobile phones smaller than the following dimensions will be allowed in the cabin:

Length: 16 cm

Width: 9.3 cm

Depth: 1.5 cm

In addition, the UK government has also said that certain items known as peripheral devices (which can be attached to a laptop, tablet or larger mobile phone) are also subject to new security requirements

The latest updates are available here

https://www.gov.uk/hand-luggage-restrictions/electronic-devices-and-electrical-items

British Airways Strike Dates Sunday 25 and Monday 26 December 2016

Does not affect London City airport or London Gatwick airport

All long-haul flights expected to operate to normal schedules

The short-haul routes listed below are being reviewed and BA is offering refunds or free rebooking to travel the same route as originally ticketed and to travel within 355 days.

Warning:
If you apply for a refund and then discover the flight is operating and should you wish to travel as  originally planned you will be treated as a new passenger and charged what will most likely be a very high last-minute fare!

Our advice? Wait and see. And use our recommended flight-monitor tools on our useful sites page.

Routes liable to cancellation, Between London Heathrow and:

Aberdeen, Bergen, Belfast City, Bilbao, Bologna, Basel, Budapest, Dusseldorf,
Gibraltar, Gothenburg, Hannover, Hamburg, Helsinki, Kiev, Krakow, St. Petersburg,
Lisbon, Luxembourg, Manchester, Paris Orly, Oslo, Prague, Pisa, Stuttgart,
Stavanger, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Zagreb.

We have always recommended skyscanner for general flight search and have hosted their search widget on our flight search page.

The company, based in Scotland, has always been best for the UK market with better links to more UK low-cost carriers than other companies such as Kayak from the USA, etc.
And we are delighted that Chinese company Ctrip has bought Skyscanner for $1.75 billion
Gareth Williams of CEO Skyscanner said to Tnooz,

“Ctrip is the leading OTA in China and working with it allows us to deepen our understanding and offering to the Chinese market, where we’ve already seen great success, as well as leverage Ctrip’s product investments and insights.
In short, this allows Skyscanner to strengthen and augment its existing offering, ensuring that it’s the world leader in the metasearch field.”

We say, from the perspective of a daily users of Skyscanner, that there will be benefits in terms of content of the China market which is rapidly expanding.

And that content will assist the many of us that are unfamiliar with Chinese cities and airport codes enormously.

It’s always been another task to do. Now, Lufthansa Innovation Hub have created a process that automates the checkin procedure across approximately 100 airlines!

Check-in online opens at different times, sometimes 24 hours or 36 hours before departure. You no longer need to schedule this task. Forward your confirmation emails to AirlineCheckins.com and they will automatically check-you in as soon as checkin opens. You can lodge your seating preference with them and they’ll assign the seats you prefer.

There are just three problems I see with this ….

1. From a security point of view, you will no longer be asked to confirm, or told about the baggage restrictions and dangerous articles etc. You are advised about dangerous and prohibited goods when you first register though.
2. You will not be forced to familiarise yourself with check-in times, terminals etc.,
3. You’ll miss out on airline offers to upgrade and additional purchases

Currently, only the German language version accepts your passport details so you will need to ensure that your booking contains this information for the check-in process to work.

If you’re content with these issues, it’s a fabulous idea and should prove to be very popular with frequent travellers

Visit airlinecheckins.com here to register.