A Melbourne man says he and his wife feel lucky to be back in Australia after having their original airline tickets cancelled because of a reduction in the hotel quarantine caps.
29-year-old Jackson McLennan and his wife arrived in Sydney on Wednesday morning on a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles and have now started their 14 days of hotel quarantine.
Highlights
- Australians who want to come home from overseas are finding the process frustrating and expensive
- the process has been made more difficult because of the arbitrary nature of the cap on returning visitors, which can cause flight cancellations at very short notice
- The regional Victorian city of Ballarat enters a week-long lockdown from Wednesday night
The couple left for the United States in April chasing work after winning a place in the US Green Card lottery.
They were able to leave under a travel exemption which required them to stay overseas for at least three months.
Mr McLennan says the pair found some freelance work but not enough to sustain them.
He says their work situation and a reduction in the quarantine caps saw them decide to return to Australia.
They were able to take a couple of last minute seats on a flight home - but he says he realises they were lucky because they were able to take advantage of a last minute offer, and many stranded Australians are not.
"We felt really lucky that we were able to get home - there are so many people in similar situations who can't. We happen to be in L.A., which is where the flight leaves from, but there's lots of people across the US who aren't in L.A., who can't take advantage of last minute flights, last minute cancellations."
Mr McLennan says he and his wife would have been very happy to follow all the rules and quarantine strictly at home - however, as yet, that is not an option.
He says the cost of the one way tickets from Los Angeles to Sydney and for 14 days in hotel quarantine is more than 12,000 dollars.
He says the process has been made more difficult because of the arbitrary nature of the cap on returning visitors, which can cause flight cancellations at very short notice.
