- Since voiding amber list countries is more like advice and not a legal requirement, travel agents and companies are within their rights to refuse refunds, credits, and travel changes.
- Expectations were that travel will be changeable is turning out to be a nightmare.
- “Options” are to lose the money you paid to travel as well as the timeshare investment or travel anyway and lose earnings from work time spent in mandated quarantine.
Being on the amber list means the official advice is not to travel to those destinations. Because of this, many travel agents are refusing to refund or credit timeshare owners who made plans to travel but are now stuck having to wade through the conditions and potential loss of financial earnings and pre-paid travel expenses.
For holidaymakers like Sandra Norman who is unwilling to fly to amber list countries, this is a big dilemma. Sandra explained in an interview with the BBC that she booked an important family trip to Greece a year ago with the expectation that if travel was disallowed, she would be able to move or cancel the holiday. She tried to move the booking to 2022 but says the travel agent refused. The Normans can either risk going to an amber list country or lose the £5000 they paid.
Avoiding amber list countries is not a legal requirement, meaning companies are within their rights to refuse refunds or date changes.
The quarantine hurdle
Even if the Normans brave the amber destination, the other factor that makes such a country holiday impossible for Sandra’s family is that a 10-day quarantine is obligatory on return, as well as expensive PCR tests.