Many travelers to Europe over the past few weeks have faced the stressful challenge of getting home during the Coronavirus pandemic. On top of worrying about the possibility of infection, there’s the anxiety about the well-being of loved ones at home. This is compounded by the chaos of flight cancellations and travel restrictions, even as people were urged to return home.
This story revolves around a trip to Ireland that turned into a frantic race to get back home, entangled in bureaucracy. Here’s the experience of US-based Saul Schwartz as he navigated this ordeal and offers insights for future travel.
In the middle of the night, while staying at the Trident Hotel in Kinsale, Ireland, my wife Fern and I received a startling call. It was around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 12, 2020. Due to the travel ban, we had to leave Ireland by midnight on Friday, March 13, 2020. Since we were traveling with four other relatives, we decided to cut our trip short by two days to return to Washington, D.C. before the ban took effect.
Our travel company didn’t have an emergency contact number or 24/7 hotline. Nor did they have a way to reach them online that night. We had to make our plans without their assistance.
We met with the tour guide in the early hours, who, as an independent contractor, also couldn’t contact the travel company until the next day (Colorado time). She suggested booking an early flight to Heathrow Airport in London. Acting on her advice, we spent a considerable amount booking tickets from Cork, Ireland, to Heathrow for the next morning. We didn’t sleep that night, packing up and preparing to leave early. Our last-minute tickets with Aer Lingus, normally a budget carrier, ended up costing about $250 per person.
Her advice, though well-meaning, turned out to be wrong. At Heathrow, everything went awry. The British Airways representatives were polite but informed us that only the travel company could rebook our flights to Washington Dulles, not us. Since the company wasn’t open yet, we had to wait.
Throughout the morning, the British Airways staff told us we shouldn’t have flown from Cork to London because our original tickets were from Dublin to Heathrow. This decision voided our original tickets. We looked into traveling from Dublin back to Heathrow, but all flights were booked. We also checked for flights to other Washington, D.C. airports, but found none available before the travel ban.
We eventually reached the travel company, but they couldn’t help us either. My wife Fern spoke with British Airways executives, and a kind executive named Beatrice managed to book us on a flight from Heathrow for the next day, March 13. We were overjoyed!
We then booked a night at a Hilton Hotel in London. Fern and I had stayed there before, and it was a nice place. We took the tube to Edgeware station, exhausted, and spent the day relaxing. We visited a nearby department store before getting some much-needed rest.
On Friday the 13th, we finally made it home before the travel ban started. We hired a van to Heathrow to avoid hauling luggage on the tube. Later, we learned that the travel ban might not have applied to flights from Ireland and the UK, making us second-guess our rushed departure. Nonetheless, we were relieved to land on U.S. soil. With our global entry passes, everything at Dulles went smoothly. Other travelers shared similar stories of rushed exits from Europe.
After the trip, we considered whether travel insurance could have helped. However, inquiries revealed that most wouldn’t cover virus-related travel disruptions unless there was a health issue requiring a change of plans.
Usually, Fern and I love to travel, but this 48-hour period was among the most stressful times for us. We’re glad to be home but uncertain when we’ll travel again. We hope to return to Ireland to explore places we missed, like Dublin and Belfast, and plan to travel differently based on our lessons learned.
Saul lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and has enjoyed traveling throughout Europe with his wife and family, learning about different cultures and lifestyles. His travels include visiting Berlin, cruising the Danube, exploring Rome, and more.
suansuan