Travelling to China and 14-Day Quarantine
By: Niall Mcnulty
Tags: Coronavirus, Travel, Health, Life, China

Airport Departure

Advice from a weary traveller: Constantly check for changes in your flight status, and updates on flight paths being cancelled. Read on for why this is critical.

Oh it was meant to be a joyous occasion. I was finally on my way back to my significant other. Documents in hand. How I was wrong. Again. My cab was pulling into Heathrow Terminal 5 and immediately I sensed something was off. There wasn’t a car or person in sight. It quickly became apparent the terminal was closed. I asked the cab driver to politely stay put as I investigated. All flights from terminal 5 had been re-allocated to different terminals. Great! I wish my airline had informed me of this. I know some of the blame falls on me too, I should have been more vigilant keeping up with my flight status etc, but I still feel this is something they should have made their customers aware of. As I hopped back into the cab, I see a couple arriving in their taxi. I quickly told them to keep their cab, “The terminal is closed! Don’t let your cab leave, you will be stranded!”. I’m not going to lie, I felt like a superhero saving that couple from disaster. For those who don’t frequent Heathrow often, the terminals are miles apart. It would definitely put a damper on your day. Although, I'm sure it wasn't that dramatic.

Eventually, I arrived at Terminal 2. The diversion had subsequently left me short on time. Naturally, there was a monstrosity of a queue to get into the terminal. Single file lane for every passenger entering the building, with one officer checking everyone's boarding pass. Typical England. Eventually, I made it to the check-in desk. Hallelujah. Pleasantries aside, the check-in assistant got to it. Seconds went by, seconds turned to minutes. “What's happening now”, I sighed under my breath. The airline couldn’t seem to find me in their system. I also noticed the flight number and departure time were slightly different from my booking info. Alas, they found me in their system. There’s just one teeny-weeny problem. The second leg of my ticket had been cancelled. It had been for 7 days already. All flights from that specific destination to China had been cancelled for the foreseeable future. I started to get agitated. Why had the airline not informed me of this? Why was I only finding out about this now? Why was there nothing on the airline website mentioning this? For my troubles, I received a standard-issue apology, no explanation and a voucher. No refund. Back home I went dejected and heartbroken.

If you happen to run into a similar situation, depending on local regulations, you may be legally entitled to a refund. Subsequently, I have taken the airline to small claims court via an online agency that handles such matters.

I mentioned earlier in the article to fly direct. This is why. It saves you having to worry about cancellations across multiple leg journeys. I’m just thankful I wasn’t sitting in that poorly rated terminal hotel in the middle of nowhere when the flight path to China was cancelled. Count your blessings.

Thanks to my lovely family, we can fast forward 24 hours, and I was off to China again, direct to Shanghai this time around and minus a small fortune. Before I carry on, I think it is important to note a few things regarding check-in: First, they ask you to scan and fill out a medical questionnaire using Wechat. You will need to show this on arrival. If you don’t have Wechat (Which the Australian next to me didn’t), they do have workarounds, albeit slow. So don’t fret. Secondly and of even greater importance, is if you have a second leg within China, you need to make sure it is for two weeks time. My ticket was for London — Shanghai — Beijing. The Beijing leg was on the same day as the Shanghai arrival. You will not be able to make same-day connections, let alone 2 or 3-day connections. The port of arrival is where you will quarantine. The airline unbeknownst to this factor, still graciously changed my Beijing flight to the appropriate date. Last but not least, prepare for the unexpected, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. I fear a lot of people missed those local connecting flights for fear of asking.