A holidaymaker who spent nearly £1,000 changing her family’s flights home from the Algarve to avoid having to quarantine has accused the Government of “moving the goalposts left, right and centre” after Portugal remained on the exempt list.
Kelly Jones, from Birmingham, said she paid Jet2 £900 to move her flights home from Faro from Saturday to Friday in anticipation of quarantine measures being reintroduced, to ensure her three children would not miss out on two weeks of school.
But despite widespread speculation that Portugal and Greece would be removed from the list of exempt countries because of rising case numbers, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Thursday there would be no changes in England. Mrs Jones, 45, said the situation was “absolutely disgusting”, telling PA: “It’s cost us a lot more money and it’s money we didn’t need to spend now.
“We’ve lost an extra night in our villa – we won’t get that back – we’ve got a hire car, so we’re taking that back a day early. It’s the knock-on effects as well.”
Mrs Jones said she and her husband took the decision to change their flights after monitoring the seven-day infection rate for Portugal, which reached 23 per 100,000 on Wednesday – above the Government’s stated quarantine threshold of 20.
Read More: Mum left furious after wasting £900 changing family’s flights home from Portugal
