International flights to and from Australia resume on 7 December, but many have fount it difficult to return.
Typical is the case of Giannis Rakas, who dealt with continuous postponements of his initial flight from Athens to Melbourne schedule for 5 October.
He needed to return home urgently for a family emergency.
“I ran into many issues…Finally, they told me the 28th, then they canceled it, then they told me about December 24th,” he told SBS Greek.
Although he made it back into the country, he was not able to return to his hometown of Melbourne and has had to stay in Sydney to quarantine, whilst incurring further costs for connecting flights as many direct lines had been cancelled.
Mr Rakas forked out around 2,500 euros after his airline was not able to accommodate a direct flight from Greece, forcing him to head to Paris, stay overnight and then head to Sydney on the only flight out.
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Christina Karvelas made the trip to Greece to be by her dying father and has been trying to return home since September.
“Because of the pandemic, I was told that I would be able to return to Australia with the same ticket. But not to Melbourne and instead to Perth, where I would have to book another ticket,” Ms Karvelas explained.
Ms Karvelas was told she would have to quarantine for 14 days before booking her flight home and as a consequence would have to book a hotel for a few more nights, paid out of her own pocket.
“I have applied to help with the price [$180 per night] and I am waiting for their response,” she said.
