Jon the Hat

Glory days!!! Fingers crossed Villa give Chelsea a spanking on Sunday!

We can only hope we get back to the normal world of being able to travel freely once we are vaccinated. (Especially as I had my second Pfizer jab today!)

The school offer should tell you what commitment you are making. It could be as much as a terms fees.

I guess what I am saying is they are playing a very different strategy to say Qantas or BA, who are minimising losses by not flying half empty planes. I know a guy senior at Emirates who has been briefed on this strategy.

Great work! This might be a new record for useful activities in Quarantine! Probably moot now as you are out but defo don;t commit to a rental unless you have seen it!

Possibly, but they are also not a commercial airline like Qantas etc , they (and Etihad, Emirates) have Billions of petrodollars behind them, and seem to be seeing this as an opportunity to expand their network and demand.

Interesting the wording has changed and become more vague I think. I'm sure it used to say 6 months. Arrival time of the goods Your personal effects may arrive in Australia before or after you. There must be a connection between your travel to Australia and the importation of the personal effects. For example, you cannot use the UPE concession if you arrange to import your personal effects months after you arrive in Australia. Where you arrange to transport your personal effects before you arrive in Australia, you may be able to use the UPE concession. You must prove you intend to travel to Australia in a reasonable time. Evidence could be an airline ticket or evidence of a work contract in Australia. If your personal effects arrive in Australia before you, they may still be eligible for the UPE concession. There are currently restrictions on travel to Australia because of COVID-19. You will need to show that you can travel at the time you intend. If you are unable to, you cannot use the UPE concession. Unaccompanied Personal Effects (abf.gov.au)

I chose Qatar because they are flexible and were actually flying from the UK to Perth when I booked. They are the only country not to stop transit at some point. EG SIA stopped transit through Changi unless you could stay on the plane, which rules out Perth as the planes don't do there. Emirates were also impacted at one point by DXB restictions.

I think as others have said this isnot really the cost of the food. Or it might be on average, and you have a more expensive room and cheaper food as you can heat it yourself. I would try to forget about it, not worth the effort. The question of whether you pay for more than 1 room is interesting though. Its not clear for WA either. Again it is rather out of your hands, so seems harsh to pay for two rooms.

I guess they sold all the standard economy. We paid £2500 for 3 adults 1 child mid September back in March.

Ouch! I was getting excited for a bit but now thinking you made it because you paid more. I have gone economy and hoping I don't regret it! Not flying till september.

Yes i was basing on the fact that they applied from NI, and mentioned the date of grant vs when they moved to Australia.

I know getting into Australia is hard, but do you really want to commit to a company that would treat you like this?

Note you also have to be resident in Australia, the time after your visa grant but before you migrate doesn't count as far as I know.

As Rammygirl said you should be able to just apply for a new British passport as you were born to British citizens in Britain.

I am very stressed this week! So much on the line.

Sport is different through. I don't live in Leicester anymore, but I will remain a Leicester city fan until I die (there is even a chant about it :)) So when I move to Australia I would probably support Australia in anything not against England. Half the fun is the banter about the result!

They are waiving the 12 month entry requirement at the moment. There is a letter you can request to present at the airport when you board your flight after the 12 months to help you get boarded.

Congratulations on your visa grant! I'm not sure there is any right answer to this to be honest. The best approach seems to me to book direct with the airline, with as flexible t&cs as you can get. Prior to the end of April Qatar were offering full refunds up to the day before flying. I booked with them - flying in September hopefully. The great unknown is whether you get bumped off a flight because they have a higher paying passenger they can take instead. Some people have paid for business or first class to get around this. Personally I think the £13k additional covers quite a few weeks of pratting about waiting for another flight if they do bump us.

I don't think it matters much from here. Even if only half of those under 40 get it we will have protected the vulnerable.

We were vaccinated in a huge sports hall in the UK, where they sit you all down, read a script, then ask you individually if you have any concerns or medicines on the list in the script. They then jab everyone, and 15 minutes later they walk around and let you go one by one. End to end about 30 minutes. The hall was split in 2, so there were 15 minute time slots of probably 50 people per slot. They did over 2000 people on one day! Very well organised.

They talk about being able to offer everyone a vaccine when forecasting true because they cannot assume full capacity is utilised, but not when talking about actual numbers vaccinated.

In Europe the numbers with blood clots is lower int he AZ vaccinated population than in the rest of the population, but that doesn;t stop anyone..

The risk is more that Australia finds it has plenty if IT Network engineers and takes it off any visa list, and your chance is gone forever. I really would start sooner rather than later.

Point well made. The truth of the matter is though this takes 1-2 years, and delaying only increases the cost and reducing the likelihood - and you get points for being younger and can't apply at all after 45!