A LONG time ago, back in February 2021, we had an optimistic plan of travelling to France to see relatives at Easter. A car was hired, a ferry was booked, and COVID travel test kits were purchased. This was overly precipitate, but I figured it was worth the risk given once everyone else cottoned on that they’d be able to travel, there may end up being a shortage of such kits and we’d be the ones laughing.
Well, we didn’t laugh. We were close to going at Easter which would have involved some slight bending of the rules, but not unreasonably so. but the ramping up of Lockdown in France and the threat of France being added to the red list (which didn’t happen) was enough to put the kibosh on that trip.
The car hire was cancelled, the ferry booking was deferred to the summer. The travel test kits (which had still not been dispatched, that was still several weeks in the future at this point) could not be cancelled or refunded. 2 adults and one six year old = £600 in kits.
Oh well, I thought, we’ll be able to use them when we come back from the summer trip, if we still need them.
Wrong. I’ve just got off the phone with travelctm.com who (apologetically, at least) inform me while the kits don’t expire, the reference numbers associated with them are only valid for 14 days and there’s no way to update reference numbers…without making a new purchase.
I get that launching a scheme like this quickly meant not covering all the bases, and refunds and changes are complicated. But it’s been live for months, and crucially, the testing for travel purposes in France are: free. So it’s entirely a means to line pockets at citizens’ expense.
Timsformational 