As of today anyone returning from Italy and Spain are now being told to restrict their movements for two weeks after arriving in to Ireland.
The Department of Foreign Affairs is advising that citizens avoid all non essential travel to Spain while citizens are advised not to travel to Italy at all. This is naturally going to make a lot of people think twice about departing on their holidays.
As the crisis has unfolded this week many people scheduled to go on holidays have decided to stay at home and not travel at all.
Unfortunately for a lot of these people unless their actual flights have been cancelled they will be unable to obtain a refund for flights already booked. Rebooking usually attracts a rebooking fee and a handling charge depending on the type of ticket booked.
In the last 24 hours Aer Lingus has announced that online bookings made before the 6th March for travel in March, April or May will not now be subject to those change fees. It is hoped that more airlines will follow suit.
For now if in doubt, keep a close eye on your airlines website and social media and check out E.U Regulation EC261/2004 by doing a simple google search to find out what you rights are if your flight is cancelled.
The situation in relation to the cancellation of hotel bookings will depend on the terms agreed to when the booking was made. If you have Private travel insurance policies these should also be scrutinised.
