It’s not just for health reasons. We can live with the financial hit if it helps our communities

Damned Ryanair. It wont give us our money back. And damned Government. It looks unlikely to force the airline to refund us. But, to be honest, thats actually fine with us.
We know that when our flight to Athens takes off, a little more than a week from now, we wont be aboard. As it disappears over the horizon itll be taking our airfares more than 500 that we paid back when the first coronavirus stories were still only trickling out of China with it.
Why can we live with that? Its not just because of the second wave of coronavirus disease that health officials are worried about.
When we made our decision, last month, we didnt know if wed be allowed, or sensible, to travel next week. And what if we had to quarantine for 14 days when we arrived for our 14-day break? Or when we returned? How would we manage either? We decided it would be simpler to say we wouldnt go, and find some other way to have a holiday this summer.
But theres another reason why we can put up with losing our money. If most flights were still suspended, or a new travel ban were to mean airlines had to refund everyone, they could very well go bust. As could insurers if they had to pay out hundreds of euro on every 75 travel policy they had sold in the past year.
Its not nice, but its a financial sacrifice to help get the economy going after Covid-19, in the same way weve sacrificed our social lives in order to help keep our family, our friends, our community free of infection
And despite all our grumbling about customer service and standing up for our rights, wed much rather they didnt go out of business. Were lucky: saying farewell to our fares wont bankrupt us. But it will help airline staff and, we hope, many other people keep their jobs. And if enough of our fellow affluent holidaymakers are also prepared to sacrifice their foreign-travel plans, we will, together, be helping to spread this bit of the financial downside of the pandemic across so many of us who, having been in the market for overseas vacations to begin with, can generally afford to take the hit this time around.
Its not nice, but its a financial sacrifice to help get the economy going after Covid-19, in the same way that weve sacrificed our social lives our meals out, our weekends away, our sport, our choirs and our evening classes in order to help keep our family, friends and community free of infection.
Our compensation will be that well get to holiday abroad again next year, with any luck, as Ryanair and Aer Lingus will still be around, and might still even be able to offer us pretty low fares.
Should governments step in and compel airlines to refund everybody? If the new Irish Governmentforces Ryanairs hand it will be jeopardising the future of one of Irelands biggest businesses. Perhaps the airline wouldnt go bust but would instead choose to move abroad. And perhaps, in any case, its just as good at minimising its tax bill as the tech and finance giants that base their European operations in Ireland are which is to say it may not be contributing as much to the exchequer, or to the Irish economy, as we might assume. Perhaps not as many jobs rely on it as we imagine. But the effect on peoples lives could be catastrophic all the same.
Frontline healthcare staff: public money might be better spent on them than on affluent people whose foreign holidays are in jeopardy. Photograph: Alan Betson
So can we blame the Government for procrastinating about whether to support consumers or big business? Whichever it backed would benefit at great cost to the other. Politically, it cant come out for Ryanair. Economically, it cant come out for consumers.
One solution would be for the Government to bail out the travel industry in the way it bailed out the banks. This recession looks set to be even more serious than the one that began in 2008, after all. Giant airlines, like giant financial institutions, could be too big to allow to fail.
Or the Government could refund holidaymakers itself. But, just as it was galling to watch bankers be saved at everybody elses expense the last time around, would it be fair to ask every taxpayer help foot the bill for the vanished holidays of people who were rich enough to pay for them in the first place?
There could be better things to spend public funds on, not least the frontline healthcare staff, friends of ours among them, whom we have applauded so warmly as they have battled Covid-19 on our behalf, and the schools that will be doing their best to reopen safely in the autumn and so, among other things, relieve the burden that has fallen on so many people whove been working from home aka parenting from work since March.
Irish holiday: this summer well be in Co Donegal again. Photograph: Liam Stebbing
A lot of this is easy for me to say. My wife and I both have good jobs I work at The Irish Times and we only needed to buy two tickets to Greece this year, as our children are now old enough to have other plans. We might not be so sanguine if wed paid 1,100 for the four of us to fly to Athens, or if wed been unable to cancel our Airbnb and scrap our car hire actions we know might play a part in putting those businesses in jeopardy too. Wed certainly be desperate to get our money back if wed lost our jobs.
But, for us and many others like us, and in the name of doing what we can to stop our country, and our communities, from going under, is losing our airfares really so different from having continued to pay our gym-membership fees, yoga-class subscriptions or Irish Rail season-ticket instalments during lockdown? Perhaps weve a right to a refund. Yet, for as long as were able to shoulder the financial burden, were willing not thrilled, but prepared to do so.
If nobody else adopts our approach we might look like complete mugs: we could lose our airfares yet airlines, and many other companies, would still go bust. But life isnt all about profit and loss. Not the financial kind, anyhow
More financially focused people might say were doing the wrong thing, might urge us to claim our money back. And if nobody else adopts our approach we might look like complete mugs: we could lose our airfares yet airlines, and many other companies, would still go bust. But life isnt all about profit and loss. Not the financial kind, anyhow.
Wed rather have a vibrant, diverse, Covid-free community come this time next year. That includes all the people who work for Irish companies (or for any companies, really). Wed like those businesses to survive, so we can be their customers again, just as wed like their employees to still be buying, or subscribing to, The Irish Times 12 months from now, or still go to our neighbour when they need an optician, or go into the local bookshop to pick up a novel whose author were excited to know.
Money needs to keep moving around the economy for that to happen. With luck our 550 will help somebody else stay afloat. And instead of getting away to Greece this month well be holidaying in Ireland, as we have done for the past three summers. We wont have as much spending money. Ryanairs probably keeping that. But losing our airfares is an acceptable price to pay to keep a strong community right here around us at home.