A BUILTH Wells woman’s Spanish holiday was cancelled just hours before she was set to leave the house for the airport.

“We were all packed and ready to go,” said Amanda Thomas, who was supposed to be going to Lanzarote for four days with her daughter.

She found out about the UK Government’s sudden decision to implement a 14 day quarantine for travellers coming back from Spain when watching the six o’clock news on the TV.

She had been set to leave the house at 2am to make the early flight from Manchester in the morning. But at 9.15pm, she received an email from her holiday provider to inform her that the whole trip had been cancelled.

“We were lucky we hadn’t already gone to bed,” Amanda said. “We were totally gutted.”

Amanda and her daughter are both key workers. Her daughter is a midwife and she works at the council as a recruitment manager where she has been relocating staff to the frontline.

“We have both worked right through lockdown and were looking forward to a break,” she said.

Amanda was cautious about booking the trip from the beginning. She was constantly checking the news and only booked the trip the Sunday before she was set to fly.

However, she’s now left frustrated that the Government made it possible to go to Spain at all.

“It would have been better if they hadn’t opened up the travel corridor until they were sure,” she said.

Amanda has been offered a full refund from TUI, who took the decision to cancel all flights and had insurance in place to cover the pandemic. However, she said she could have been in a much worse situation if she had been with Ryanair who are continuing to fly out to Spain despite travellers having to quaratine when they get back onto British soil.

When it comes to Amanda’s next holiday, she said she’ll have to go about things even more carefully.

“I don’t think I’d actually believe it until I’m checked into the hotel - by the door with a cocktail.”