How do I dodge Sweden’s travel ban to see my young grandson?

Q I’m a desperate grandma who wants to visit my 22-month-old grandson in Stockholm after a year. But Sweden has extended its travel ban on arrivals from the UK until 31 October. Any idea if they will lift it then? Can I fly to Denmark and then on to Sweden to get round the ban?

Dilva

A Because of the high and sustained UK Covid infection rates, many countries impose severe restrictions on British travellers. However, these almost all apply to direct arrivals. Going via a third country is often a good solution. As I have mentioned before, Mexico is being used as a “back door” to the US by British visitors, who stay south of the border for two weeks to “launder” their UK status.

Anyone seeking to travel via a third country must, of course, ensure that the intermediate nation is happy to welcome them. In addition, the final destination may well have special requirements for people who have recently been in the high-risk UK.

Assuming you have been vaccinated, the omens for Sweden look good, though. Denmark admits fully jabbed arrivals from the UK. The Foreign Office travel advice says: “Fully vaccinated UK residents or those previously infected with Covid-19 can enter Denmark for all purposes, without the need to test or self-isolate.”

Next, the Swedish police say: “Sweden will always apply entry regulations according to the last country you enter from, even if this is only a transit country. No entry ban or negative Covid test is required when travelling directly from another Nordic country.”

Remarkably, that means you could fly into Copenhagen, be legally admitted into Denmark – and go straight to the airport’s railway station for the train to Stockholm (change at Malmo and Lund, total journey five hours, 22 minutes).

At the end of the trip you will be able to fly straight back from the Swedish capital to the UK, but you face a lot of red tape: a pre-departure lateral flow test, a pre-booked post-arrival PCR test and completed passenger locator form.

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Q The MSC Virtuosa has been doing round-Britain cruises this summer. I have observed that there is a choice of boarding (and disembarking) at Southampton or Liverpool. In my experience, it costs around £200 more to book from Liverpool, for presumably exactly the same product. For those of us in the northwest it’s actually cheaper to travel to Southampton and sail from there. Do you have any idea why the same holiday would cost more from Liverpool?

Philippa B

A It may be that the port costs for MSC Cruises are different, for example because of a “bulk discount” at Southampton for a large number of departures. But I believe the real reason can be summed up in one word: competition. There is an abundance of rivalry between cruise lines at Southampton, which generally has more departures than all other UK ports combined. Today and over the weekend, there are four sailings on three different lines. Add in additional departures from Portsmouth (just down the road from Southampton), Dover and Tilbury, and it is clear that the south/southeast of England is a lot more competitive than Liverpool – which has no sailings until Tuesday next week.

Effectively, prospective cruisers like you in Merseyside and the wider area are being asked to pay a premium for a local embarkation. Of course it is entirely up to you either to accept the price quoted or to choose to make the four-hour-plus journey by road or rail to Hampshire.

A more economical option, though, could simply be to wait until the last few days before departure. I sailed aboard the MSC Virtuosa on her first cruise this summer (a four-day adventure from Southampton) and paid over £800 for the privilege. I regarded that as good value for money. But I met people on board who had booked three days ahead and paid only £300.

While I have not previously encountered such sharp drops in price (the biggest in my experience has been around a 50 per cent discount), it is entirely possible that there may be large cuts prior to the Liverpool departure. One reason: there is a smaller catchment area than Southampton.

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Q In February 2020 we paid a deposit of £3,000 on a motorhome rental in New Zealand for a trip in January 2021. When Covid-19 started to cause travel problems the company offered us a voucher. We accepted as, at the time, we hoped to postpone the trip for, maybe, a year while the virus was dealt with. How wrong we were!

In October 2020 we asked for a refund instead of keeping the voucher as the pandemic worsened worldwide. They responded by offering to pay us an amount quarterly but they would charge us a cancellation fee of approximately £250. We pointed out that the New Zealand government had made it impossible for us to enter the country by closing the border to foreign nationals – to no avail. We decided to keep the voucher rather than wait years for our full refund and lose the £230.

Now we feel we would like our refund as the future looks pretty uncertain. How can we obtain a full refund in a timely manner without losing a ‘'cancellation fee’’?

Sue and Barry

A I am afraid my answer is going to begin with the unhelpful words: I wouldn’t start from here.

I can understand your wish to guarantee access to a motorhome during the January summer peak in New Zealand. Even so, it was a bold move to commit so much cash almost a year ahead. I am also concerned that the deposit was so high. Given that the hirer would, in normal times, expect to be able to rent the vehicle elsewhere if you were unable to take it up, a deposit of perhaps £500 would have been more reasonable.

Anyway, the situation has moved on in ways that few could have predicted. Had this been a UK rental, then the legal position would have been clear: the contract was “frustrated” by the coronavirus pandemic and therefore both sides revert to the positions they were in originally – ie with your money back in your account. Regrettably there is no such protection in place that I can find for New Zealand.

Tourism businesses in New Zealand that normally depend on overseas visitors have been extremely hard hit financially. Therefore I am surprised that the company even offered to refund the cash – albeit in instalments and withholding £250. My recommendation is that you ask at once if the same deal is still available. Yes, you will lose a 12th of your original stake, but in the circumstances that strikes me as the least bad option.

Sadly, New Zealand shows little sign of welcoming overseas visitors any time soon.

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Q I’ve just been to Leeds Bradford airport and they refused to board me, saying my passport is not valid. It is due to expire in August 2022 but is over 10 years old. I was completely unaware of this new rule. Is there anything I can do to at least get some of my money back? The holiday has cost us well over £1,000 and I don’t believe our insurance will cover it.

Name supplied

A I am sorry to learn you are one of many thousands of prospective holidaymakers whose plans have been wrecked this summer by the passport changes brought about by Brexit.

As I have tried to remind travellers regularly, the old certainty that your passport was valid for travel in the European Union up to and including the day of expiry has been torn up since the UK left the EU. Instead, there are two criteria your passport must meet:

1. That it is valid for at least three months after the date you intend to leave the EU country you are visiting.

2. That it was issued within the previous 10 years.

As you may have identified, there is something of a grey area: are the two criteria interdependent? In other words, must the passport be no older than nine years, nine months, on the day that you plan to return from the European Union?

Many travel companies are applying this interpretation, and I believe it will take a legal test case to get a definitive ruling. Meanwhile, I am afraid that there is no chance that travel insurance will meet any of your losses; the strict obligation is for the traveller to ensure they are properly documented for the trip they intend to make.

The only ray of hope I can offer: if your passport is due to expire in August 2022, then it cannot be over 10 years old. I calculate that the earliest possible issue date is 1 December 2021. And if the date it was issued was less than nine years, nine months before your intended date of return, then it appears to me you have been wrongly denied boarding. If so, the airline must provide new flights and cash compensation.

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