SVca

We are considering a trip to UK in June 2019. Should be delay our vacation ?

Thanks

Heimdall

You might get a better exchange rate if the £ drops in value. Other than that I doubt you will notice any difference at all.

janisj

Why? As far as I can see, the only possible issue would be longer immigration queues at LHR. And the very likely better $ : £ exchange rate . . .

BritishCaicos

Unfortunately, we don’t know what Brexit will look like.

janisj

. . . but you are arriving from the States on a US passport so the affects on you will be minimal to non-existent. The fight is between the UK and he EU (and between factions IN the UK) not between the UK and North America.

thursdaysd

Well, if EU citizens have to use the "other" immigration queue it could be a good bit slower.

MmePerdu

I imagine many of the other "others" will arrive at different terminals, coming from Europe. But would a longer immigration line be cause for cancelling a trip? Not for me and I suspect the OP didn't have that sort of minor inconvenience in mind.

janisj

That is what I mentioned in my first post. Except for longer immigration queues I mostly see positives. Likely better exchange rate, possibly smaller crowds in the short term with fewer visitors from the Continent doing short breaks in London, maybe hotel rate 'sales'.

MmePerdu

Indeed, sometimes even a whiff of difficulty, such as the amorphous concern of this OP, can deter the less committed in their travels. I've been in places almost completely abandoned by tourists in uncertain times making it a perfect time to go. I don't imagine the UK will be abandoned but smaller crowds could certainly be pleasant.

Heimdall

If there is a transition period many of the Brexit changes won't take place until 2020 or later anyway.

LancasterLad

Just come and enjoy some of the Fresh Air than Brexit will bring, once the EU Federal shackles have been kicked into the long grass.

Name me a country in the EU that doesn't have internal problems?

hetismij2

Name any country that doesn't have internal problems.

bilboburgler

Having traded around the world from a UK base for thirty years I am completely unaware of any EU shackles existing. My experience is that Brits (I am one) are not very good at trading and the idea that operating on our own will suddenly make us good traders is laughable. Still, maybe I read it wrong, maybe Brits have an extremely good language skill hidden behind our more obvious monolingual facade, we really have great negotiation skills hidden behind our need for fixed pricing and the mess Parliament is making of the present negotiation. My friends always look amazed when I haggle in shops in the UK, there are no natural hidden skills waiting here to take advantage of non-existent shackles if there was they would not look amazed.

Many of my Brexit friends say that Brexit will allow manufacturing to come back to the UK. Having worked in manufacturing, I do hope not, it is hard work and our snowflakes will wilt before it in the same way as they don't want to pick leeks at 5 am in the morning.

I will now stop taking part in the whole Brexit discussion, but please don't talk BS about a secret Britain that just does not exist.

historytraveler

I have been following Brexit news and it’s consequences but do have a question regarding longer queues at airports. I am obviously missing some point as I know that Brexit will mean U.K. citizens will no longer be able to go through passport control as EU passport holders but will be in the queue with ‘others’ ( such as US passport holders ). Please let me kn ow why this would automatically mean longer queues? The number of passengers are not increasing it just means a shift in which queue some passengers will take. Isn’t it possible to simply shift some of those working in EU queue and add them to ‘others’ queue ? I would think airports have a pretty good idea as to the number of EU and ‘ others’ passengers coming through and they could readjust their employees. I may well be missing something but would like an explanation as to why airports couldn’t solve the problem of long queues in this manner.

janisj

>>as I know that Brexit will mean U.K. citizens will no longer be able to go through passport control as EU passport holders but will be in the queue with ‘others’ ( such as US passport holders ). <<

We are talking about travel in to the UK so most likely there will be a UK-only line and an enormous everyone-else-line. Even today the UK/EU queues can be semi-long while the non-UK/non-EU queue can be huge. Waits of 1 to 2 hours is not uncommon now at LHR and LGW. So I can't see how shifting a few staff from one side to the other would shorten wait times.

loncall

I would think very carefully about coming so soon after Brexit.

Whilst it is difficult to guess what will happen and what the impact of the various outcomes will be there is more than a "whiff of difficulty" and a few immigration queues involved in some scenarios.

Contingency planning for a no deal outcome is covering matters such a signficant food shortages in partiuclar of perisheable food, shortages of essential medical supplies and medicines, critical levels of congestion on roads to major ports that would have knock on impacts on all activities in the area, air traffic and a wide range of other issues that would potentially impact on anyone visiting the country. The Defense secretary has confirmed that 3,500 troops could be placed on standby in this eventuality.

You 'pays your money and takes your choice' as to who and what to believe at the moment in the UK and some or all of the risks being reported might not crystallise [or might have been mitigated by June] but I personally would not pay for firm travel and hotel bookings until it was much clearer which way things are going.

PalenQ

Basically from reading above experts BREXIT if it happens will mean very little except perhaps lower Pound and fewer European tourists though not sure why that would decline - they like cheap pounds too. Maybe longer lines at immigration but who knows maybe UK will put more people to work on that. Really though no reason for lines to be longer IMO as they should open more lines and hire more workers. And, nothing different at least until 2020.
All in all a great time to go to UK with cheaper Pound and air fares may decline too if other Americans react to the non-existent problems from something they know little about.

MmePerdu

This is reminding me of the sky-is-falling non-event of the change of the millennium when computers were going to throw us back to the dark ages. I guess we'll all find out. I'm especially fascinated by the image of queues of escapees on roads to the ports.

historytraveler

Thanks janisj for explaining but if they shifted incoming U.K. passengers to non- EU queues and did the same with some employees it’d solve much of the long queue problem. By adding a U.K. only queue they appease their own citizens but piss off everyone else. I have travel plans that include arrival and departure at LHR and flights to/ from EU countries from LHR and Gatwick this May/June and I certainly don’t plan to cancel. No one hates queues more than I do but knowing it may be a problem I can cope..

hetismij2

The nothing changes until 2020 only applies if there is an agreement. No agreement and everything is different, and a big unknown.

It shouldn't have any affect on a US tourist flying directly to the UK and remaining in the UK for their entire trip.
There may be some food shortages as a result of a hard brexit, but I seriously doubt they will impact tourists very much.

The queues if there are any will be at the sea ports not the airports.