EDIwanderer

There is a (somewhat meandering) Twitter thread where he was out flying over the Lake District and acknowledges that his trip to the NL was six days prior and uses the defence of commuting allowed under the guidelines, despite the wording of said guidelines. I’d also question his definition of vlogging as ‘journalism’!

KARFA

Well spotted. This would be the exemption he refers to. It is certainly an interesting reading to think it applies to someone having his travel pattern. Whether he is a journalist or not (he mentions this in a later reply) has no bearing, there is no mention of journalists per se enjoying any exemption in the SI.

Someone also helpfully posted the guidance in the exchange too

Nick Art

Based on some countries law he has visited, actually he does.

the UK advises against all non-essential Travel.

Portugal does not allow transits other than for essential reasons.

Italy requires isolation when having traveled through Romania and exciting the airport.

The Netherlands require self isolation for Portugal and Romania. No exceptions for tranist.

The UK requires 14 day self isolation for both Lisbon and Romania. Again, even if you just transited them.

I'm sure he's a nice guy and will follow the guidelines once he was back in the UK.

Oh, a few posts above someone found out he didn't? What a shame. But at least it concludes our discussion. Both morally and legally.

I agree with the second part of your statement.

I think that we're venturing a bit in to opinion territory here as I think both of these conclusions are quite a stretch.

1Aturnleft

No I'm saying a 6 sector, 48hrs trip to nowhere purely to bump your online content is stretching the realms over what I consider is socially acceptable these days. And as someone who's enjoyed long weekend multi-sector tier point runs in previous years I dont say any of this lightly. I've tried to travel 5 times this year and all 5 trips have been cancelled or curtailed. That's my decision not to repeat any of that for the time being - more so becauae I can't be doing with the refund chasing and calling up when said trips are cancelled. However for completely unnecessary trips to multi-hop my way around Europe in a limited period of time for no other reason than just because I wanted to isn't entering into any responsible behaviour that's going to reduce the spread of this virus. Some trips are necessary and I completely get that. This wasn't one of them

KARFA

Well none of my trips since July have been necessary for my work. I guess you would deem all of those unnecessary? There was no purpose other than leisure travel. Or is it the numbers of sectors in a short space of time which is an issue here? Would 3-4 have been ok? I had a 48 hour period where I did 5 sectors recently, does that fall foul of your rule?

Is the purpose relevant? I notice you mention (somewhat derogatorily) his purpose was for content for his channel? Is that relevant? That does seem to be his work. Had he been doing it just for the fun of travel without posting online would that have been more or less acceptable to you?

KARFA

No it does not.

Transit is allowed in Portugal, see what they define as essential travel. https://www.visitportugal.com/en/node/421175

Yes if you enter the country. Airport transit is allowed tho if arriving from Romania and connecting onwards. https://www.esteri.it/mae/en/ministe...in-italia.html

Travellers from EU and Schengen countries can transit in the Netherlands. https://www.netherlandsandyou.nl/tra...he-netherlands

He states he entered the UK before Portugal was taken off the list, with regards to Romania I assume he is attempting to imply he is within the exemption above.

BlueThroughCrimp

That’s the post that I saw which confirmed my opinion of his antics, especially when friends have had to self isolate after transiting some of the places he’s transited.

Nick Art

I completely agree. You put my thoughts in words quite nicely.

All my trips this year were also cancelled and it's actually looking to be the first year in which I didn't fly, except for the year I was born in. And in that one I was alive for only nine days.

However, as we have concluded the discussion about the rather guideline stretching travel blogger, might I suggest bringing forwards some more DYKWIA stories!

While not a traditional DYKWIA I have this story from a few years ago. I didn't deem it good enough back then, but as we seem to have a bit if a dry time I hope it'll be good enough:

I was returning from Marrakech and at the airport I met the parents of a friends friend of mine. Now at the time Marrakech airport was a bit of a mess regarding Lounges and Fast Track as you'd need a voucher from the check-in and they only gave them out if you asked and even then it was a gamble.

Since I know Marrakech a bit as I pass through it often enough I started to explain the process to those two while we were waiting in line for the check-in to open.
My explanation was met with a quite abrupt "I know, I travel a few hundred thousand miles per year." from the guy. (It was his first time in Marrakech I later found out).

Despite my urge to not tell them that they were in the wrong check-in line (I was flying to Geneva with Swiss, they were flying to Zurich direct with Edelweiss, a Swiss subsidiary, and despite that the flights always use different check-in desks), I did, which was met with a "I know what I'm doing. This is the right line." They stood their ground and when coming to the desk after me, after some arguing, they were sent away to the other business desk at which a huge line had formed by now.
Telling them: "I told you so." just didn't feel quite fitting then. Ah regrets...

Later in the terminal I was sitting in the lounge enjoying a drink when both of them arrived. I greeted them and told them that it's great they were let in as it's always a bit of a gamble here to which the guy replied with a pretentious smile: "I have all the cards to get in anywhere. Boy, why did they let you in?" while showing me his wallet with a Priority Pass, a few golden credit cards and one very high status card.

I really wish I had a better response than literally just telling them I had status and was flying J... Suggestions for next time are very welcome.

It's just the cheesy way he said it that made everyone around know how highly he thought of himself, in the sense of DYKWIA.

1Aturnleft

I just don't think it's a particularly good look for his brand image when he's flaunting it so blatantly to the limit over what I (and others) consider as acceptable. I'm completely aware everyone will have a differing view over what's acceptable. To me, he's crossed the line in that respect. There was no derogatory remark, it was purely dumbing it down to what it is - YouTube subscribers which in turn gives him revenue from his sponsors. Other vloggers have managed to draw upon historic content and taken their uploaded content in other more socially responsible directions. But yet he's decided it's appropriate to forge ahead with this trip regardless and chosen not to self isolate if the Twitter post of him out private flying 6 days after his trip is anything to go by. We've been advised not to travel unless absolutely necessary. What you, I or anyone considers absolutely necessary is always going to be down to personal opinion. In order to get from A to B in order to enjoy a holiday of some description I would consider acceptable - we're allowed to do that. Some people wouldn't even entertain that for various reasons and that would be entirely their decision. I consider flying A-B-C-D-E-F-A in a 48hr period to be pushing the boundaries of what I consider acceptable with regards to essential travel. Ultimately if you, I or the vast majority of other people copied his Wizzair trip tomorrow, we'd all be none the wiser unless we chose to announce and promote it for public scrutiny. If you're going to pursue an online presence as a vlogger/styled journalist and take an income from that, I think you have a social responsibility to do the right thing and be ready to accept the consequences if your personal conduct falls below acceptability for those who follow you.

KARFA

I have never been so insulted in my life. I can assure you I will not be copying anyone's trips on Wizzair now or in the future

Good day to you!

Nick Art

Uk.gov a few seconds ago?

I disagree that he falls under the portugese essential business travel excemption. This trip was most definetly not essential.

As for the other countries, that's fair, although imho definetly not the way how the rules were intended to be lied out.

As for the list I don't know when that was changed. I still find it rather irresponsible to go through such lengths just to find a loophole with some very stretched argumentation against rules that exist for everybody's best interest...

fatmac70

I think he did leave home between 26th March and 1st June - he published a YouTube video on 23rd May titled - “The only way to get to Amsterdam? Stena Line Rail and Sail’
Not sure if he was an exception. I think this trip also went onto Sweden with other videos, as he ended this video at a hotel at AMS airport.

1Aturnleft

That definitely bought a smile to my face KARFA 👍

u01sss3

That seems to suggest you can only visit one country and one location.
Unless there's another caveat his jet-setting surely wouldn't qualify.

u01sss3

He went on a trip to a rural town on a small aircraft and ended up sharing a people car.
Thinly resources, rural communities being the most stretched in terms of local health care isn't great either.
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