On 15th March, could I have crossed the border from Germany-France and France-Spain?
on 14th March I had a ticket for Frankfurt-Barcelona with FLiXBUS, where the departure time would have been around 3pm and I would have arrived in Barcelona on the 15th March around 9pm. Now, I got a voucher from FLiXBUS because I cancelled the trip myself, but I am now reaching out to the Customer Service Team because I would like to get my money back instead of a voucher.
However, I just searched on Wikipedia and on the FAQ of this site about travel restrictions, but as far as I get it, I would have been able to cross the two relevant borders (Germany-France, France-Spain), right?
What I found is that Spain closed its borders on the 16th/17th March, Germany closed its borders later, as far I know, but I didn't find any information on France so far. Because if France hasn't closed its border yet, then of course I cannot get my money back, then FLiXBUS could have offered its service and so I don't think I have a right to get my money back instead of a voucher.
Best Answer
France hadn't “closed” its border on the 16th of March. France always insisted that borders needed to be kept open and lamented unilateral action by other European countries.
On the evening of March 16, France announced a new lock-down order, effective on March 17 at noon that formally made it illegal to travel outside of a limited number of purposes (unavoidable professional travel, etc.) Since then, France tightened the rules but still hasn't taken any specific measures regarding Schengen borders. It's largely moot as travel inside the country is now severely limited.
Flixbus announced a total suspension of their operations in Germany from March 18th.
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Answer 2
Since relevant information is missing:
- Citizenship (Spanish: yes or no)
- place of residence (Spain: yes or no)
- date you cancelled the trip (before the 14th of March: yes or no)
no precise answer can be given.
Since the State of Emergency in Spain was announced on the 14th of March, it is likely that any non-Spanish citizen or resident would have been refused entry at the Spanish border if checked.
Since you have allready accepted the voucher, your chances of getting a refund is less likely.
Had you cancelled after the State of Emergency was known, then a refund would have been probably possible due to Force Majeure.
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