How long will I be able to spend in the EU after Brexit?

Q My husband and I, as well as our three young daughters, had planned on travelling around Europe for 12 months, starting in September 2020. Does Brexit make this impossible? Will we now only be able to remain for 90 out of 180 days? This won’t work for us as, like I said, we were planning on travelling for 12 solid months. I know you don’t have a crystal ball but any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Joanna B

A Your plan sounds splendid. Unfortunately, the government makes clear this week its intention to have a hard Brexit from a passport and movement perspective. Four years ago, 17.4 million people voted in the referendum on European Union membership to restrict movement for British citizens to travel in the EU. As you fear, the “90/180 rule” is likely to take effect from 1 January 2021.

If a British passport holder is in a European Union country on that date and remains in the EU until the end of March, they will then need to leave and will not be allowed back until the end of June. The ideal workaround is to discover an entitlement to an Irish (or other European Union) passport. Then you can stay as long as you like in any EU country. Assuming that isn’t possible, then I suggest you make the absolute most of the current year, in which the UK is pretending still to be in the European Union.

The clock will not start ticking until New Year’s Day. So you can get four months under your belt from September to December 2020. Then, of the following eight months, you can spend a maximum of five in the European Union. For April, you might want to explore Turkey. As the weather improves, you could mix in some European non-EU countries, notably Albania and the former Yugoslav republics of Montenegro and North Macedonia.

By June, you could contemplate Russia and/or Belarus if their visa friendliness improves. You will be able to return to the European Union in July, and stay there until the end of September as you wish – for each day you stay, you will “delete” a day from earlier in the year.

Finally, if your trip includes Ireland then there are no restrictions on stay. Although the Republic is part of the EU, the Common Travel Agreement – which allows unrestricted movement between the UK and Ireland – trumps European Union membership. So any time you spend on the island does not count for the 90/180 rule.

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Q We are due to fly to Australia this coming Saturday. We are stopping over in Hong Kong for three days en route. But we are concerned about what impact the coronavirus is having on the tourist’s experience while in Hong Kong.

We are flying with Cathay Pacific, which says we can change flights to minimise our stay there. But we are reluctant to give up on seeing Hong Kong unless it is in “lockdown” and there is no benefit to visiting at this time. Are tourist sites open? Are transport systems running as usual, and restaurants open, etc? I welcome any insight you may have – it’s difficult to get any information on the web.

Graham M

A I am delighted to hear about your plans. It is refreshing to get a positive enquiry from someone who is undeterred by the vanishingly low risk of picking up Covid-19 on their travels. Contacts in Hong Kong say that most museums are shut, and some restaurants have shut too. But many restaurants are open, and just half full. The atmosphere is a little strange and the streets are unusually free of their normal bustle, but transport and most other aspects of life are operating mostly as they should be.

Indeed, it should be a fascinating and rewarding time to visit. You will avoid the usual crowds, and should feel especially welcome. The only practical advice I should give is to check the news when you touch down in Hong Kong, to ensure that there has been no significant change in the situation while you were flying. And one more comment from a Hong Kong contact: “You should take your own hand sanitiser.”

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Q Like many people last weekend Storm Ciara caused us serious travel disruption and was wondering about the procedure for a possible claim against easyJet. We left Gibraltar around noon on Sunday and were warned by the captain that conditions in Bristol were poor. The pilots attempted two landings but were then diverted to Bordeaux. We waited on board for 45 minutes and were told by the captain that hotel and food had been arranged. However, this wasn’t the case. Nobody from the airline liaised with us and we were left to fend for ourselves.

Finally, around 11pm we got to a hotel, some 20 minutes from the airport, and paid €80 (£67) for bed and breakfast. The following morning we shared a taxi with another couple which cost a further €20. We eventually arrived in Bristol some 22 hours later than scheduled. Can we claim compensation for the distress we have suffered?

Phil Jones

A You were among hundreds of thousands of airline passengers whose weekend journeys were disrupted by Storm Ciara. Many flights were diverted to foreign airports because there was simply no capacity at UK gateways. It was a stressful and difficult time for everyone, and cost the airlines tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue and extra care costs. Some of those care costs will be heading in your direction. As easyJet knows, at times of disruption it is obliged to provide accommodation (and transport to the hotel) plus meals until it can get you to your destination.

Your account of flight crew wrongly assuring passengers that care will be provided is far too frequent; many people whose flights were diverted have told me the same story. You did the right thing to sort out a hotel, and to mitigate the costs by sharing a taxi to the airport. I trust easyJet will now provide a full and immediate refund of your costs, and perhaps do better next time in looking after its travellers. But I am afraid there is no compensation payable under European air passengers’ rights rules, because the appalling weather was outside the control of the airline.

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Q Here’s yet another coronavirus question, I’m afraid, but it’s relevant because I am waiting to see what my cruise line does. I’m due to depart from Singapore on 24 March for Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. The company hasn’t yet made any changes but I’m betting it will. I understand I am entitled to cancel and get a full refund if it is a “significant” change. If the ship does the obvious thing, and just sails past Shanghai, will that count as “significant”?

Martin D

A If that is the only change, probably not. Since the coronavirus scare began, dozens of cruises in Asia have been cancelled or had their itineraries changed. The significant point about a significant change in your travel arrangements is that it entitles you to a full refund, assuming you booked either through a UK travel agent or direct with the British sales operation of the cruise line.

While it’s something of a grey area legally, it would be difficult for a travel firm to argue that ending up in an unexpected country, as many passengers are facing, is “insignificant”. One current example is a Dubai-Singapore cruise which got no further than Sri Lanka before it turned around and headed back to the Gulf. That is a significant change – though since it happened halfway through the voyage, the poor passengers did not get a chance to cancel.

But let’s assume, as you say, the stop in Shanghai is missed out. This would be a tremendous shame, since it is one of the great Asian cities. But according to the judgement of Abta, the travel trade association, missing out one or two ports does not count as significant. Basically, because you still get all the benefits of being on a cruise ship, the argument goes, the omission of a port or two can be counted as insignificant.

A spokesperson told me: “With cruises, there is the cruising element with the facilities and entertainment on board as well as ports of call, and all aspects of the trip must be considered in any decision about the significance of any changes to the overall itinerary. When there are differences in opinion as to what constitutes a significant change, Abta can and does provide assistance to customers and our members in this area. Customers do have the option to accept a revised holiday under protest if they wished to pursue a claim for compensation on their return.”

I am afraid all you can do at this stage is wait and see.

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