Can I remain in Kefalonia until my passport expires?

Q I am currently on the Greek island of Kefalonia and may stay here until after 1 January 2021. My passport expires in March, however. With the new post-Brexit rules from 1 January requiring at least six months’ validity to enter EU countries, will I be OK to remain here until my passport expires? Or should I try to renew it from here?

Name supplied

A My firm advice: do nothing except to make sure you fly direct to the UK on or before your passport’s expiry date.

As you say, from 1 January 2021, European rules on passport validity become much tougher. If yours was issued before January 2011 (as it may well have been, since the UK for ages renewed passports for more than 10 years), technically it will already have run out from the point of view of the EU.

However, I confidently predict the chances of this unfortunate situation causing you any problems whatsoever are zero – so long as you don’t try to enter a different EU country. The prospect that the Greek authorities would bother to seek out the very small number of British travellers who are in your bureaucratic no man’s land are vanishingly low. Consider this: you remain effectively an EU citizen up to 10pm Greek time on 31 December. So if you turned up at Athens airport at 9pm on New Year’s Eve, the officials would have to let you in even if they know you are about to become irregular.

In addition, all European Union nations are treating the Ehic cards of British travellers who arrive before 1 January 2021 as valid for the length of their stay. It looks to me that the prevailing wisdom across the EU is that UK citizens who arrive before the barriers go up can stay for up to 90 days into the new year – which takes you to 31 March 2021.

Given the scale of the economic and bureaucratic damage that Brexit will create for the UK, Greece and the rest of the EU, with the greatest respect your hopefully enjoyable stay in the Ionian islands does not even register on anyone’s list of concerns.

I certainly don’t recommend trying to renew your British passport from there; there are far too many possible pitfalls, including not having official identification in case the Greek police ask. Then you would be in trouble.

Q Does travel insurance cover you if you are travelling abroad from tier 3 and against the government’s advice?

Amanda C

A Almost half the population of England has been assigned tier 3 status. This “very high alert” category covers much of the north of England as well as the midlands, the Bristol area and Kent. People living in tier 3 areas should “avoid travelling to other parts of the UK [except] as part of a longer journey”.

The government has confirmed to me that the residents of these areas are allowed to go on holiday abroad. In any event, travel insurers are not concerned with the tier you are in. Indeed, were you to go on holiday abroad from England before 2 December, you would be breaking the law but would not invalidate your travel insurance.

However, the question “Is my travel insurance valid?” is highly relevant in relation to your choice of destination. The Foreign Office currently warns against travel to all the most popular holiday destinations, including France, mainland Portugal, Spain (except for the Canary Islands), Malta, Turkey, Egypt, etc. It insists that the risk of contracting coronavirus in these and many more countries is “unacceptably high”.

Every standard policy that I have seen includes a clause that if you travel somewhere against Foreign Office advice then you are not covered. Some consumer advocates have argued that this term is not enforceable. The official warning is purely about Covid-19, they argue, and the Insurance Act does not give an insurer an excuse not to pay out if something unrelated happens – eg you were unfortunate enough to break an ankle.

I do not recommend that you test this argument. Instead, if you are going off-limits, then arrange special (ie more expensive) insurance through a provider such as Battleface or Campbell Irvine. Alternatively, if you are departing before the end of the year to an EU country, you will be covered by the Ehic for emergency medical treatment in your destination.

Q I have booked a river cruise for May next year. My travelling companion has cold feet and wants to cancel and get her deposit back. If we cancel now, is the company within its rights to offer us only future travel vouchers to the value of our deposits (valid to the end of 2022), or can we demand our money back? My feeling is that we can only have that if they cancel, which they may well do, but not yet.

Name supplied

A If there is a holiday company offering a full cash refund on holiday deposits if you decide not to travel, I have yet to find it; anyone tempted to book in these uncertain times should be aware that a change in mind almost always comes with strings attached.  

Let me restate the general principle that applies when you book a trip a long way ahead. You pay a deposit, typically 10 per cent. From that moment, the only way you will get that actual money back is if the firm cancels or significantly changes the trip. In the case of a river cruise, the latter case might involve a change of date or a wholesale revision of the ports of call.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the wholesale cancellation of holidays and attendant full refunds during 2020, as well, sadly, as a number of company collapses. Surviving travel firms have been doing all they can to bring in cash. The main strategy is to entice customers such as yourselves by offering attractive deals (which presumably yours was) and a degree of flexibility to change. But that flexibility does not extend to handing money back. In the case of your cruise line, so long as you decide to cancel at least 120 days before departure, you get a time-limited “Future Travel Certificate” – a credit note or voucher. But not cash; such an offer would have no value to the travel firm.

I urge you to wait until 28 January 2021 to make a final decision; there is nothing to be lost by seeing how things look a day before the 120-day cut-off. Over the next couple of months, circumstances will certainly have changed, and both your friend and you might feel differently about the May cruise – and possibly decide to travel after all.

Q How I can find out about Boxing Day travel? I need to get a train from Gatwick airport to Southend-on-Sea. But every number I call, they say they don’t know.

Angela H

A I am not sure who you have been calling, but I am sorry you have been unable to get any sense out of them.

From a public transport point of view, Boxing Day 2020 will be like all the recent 26 Decembers – only with added face coverings. Hardly any trains are running, though one of them is the half-hourly Gatwick Express from the airport to London Victoria.

Unfortunately, having reached the capital, your problems are only just beginning. Neither Abellio from London Liverpool Street nor C2C from Fenchurch Street is running trains on either of the routes to Southend. National Express has no coaches from Victoria Coach Station.

A taxi from either Gatwick itself or central London to Southend would be ferociously expensive. So instead I recommend you take advantage of the fact that the Tube is running in the capital. You can minimise the onward fare by taking the District line of the London Underground from London Victoria as far east as you can – in this case, a good 20 miles to Upminster. I suggest you phone around the local cab companies in advance to find out how much they will charge to cover the remaining 25 miles or so to Southend.

You may wish to consult a service such as splitcab.co.uk in case there is any way to find a cost-sharing companion online – but in your position I would probably simply ask opportunistically. At Gatwick, enquire at the taxi office near the ground-level exit from the North Terminal in case anyone is going your way; or, at Upminster station, you may well find other like-minded eastbound souls, with whom you can split the fare at least as far as Basildon. Good luck.

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