People who manage risk for a living tend to be good at it from nine to five and then forget all about it when they book a holiday. Pilgrims are no different. An Umrah trip is planned with the heart, which is as it should be, but it is also one of the bigger purchases a family will make in a year. It involves several thousand pounds, a long flight, elderly relatives in many cases, and some of the largest crowds anywhere in the world.
None of that is a reason to stay at home. It is a reason to spend an hour thinking about what could go wrong before you pay. The danger is greatest when price is the only thing being looked at. Adverts for Cheap All-Inclusive Umrah Packages are everywhere, and plenty of them come from honest firms offering fair value. A few don’t. This article goes through the main risks one at a time, in the order you’re likely to meet them, with a simple step you can take against each.
A simple way to think about it
You don’t need a spreadsheet. For each thing that could go wrong, ask two questions. How likely is it? And how bad would it be if it happened? A delayed suitcase is fairly likely but not a disaster. A travel firm going bust is unlikely, but it could cost you everything you’ve paid. The second kind deserves most of your attention, even though it’s the first kind people worry about.
Risk one: the company takes your money and fails
This is the big one. Every few years a travel firm collapses and leaves customers out of pocket, and pilgrimage travel has had its share of rogue sellers as well.
The protection here is ATOL. Any UK company that sells a package including flights must hold an ATOL licence, and if it stops trading, the scheme refunds you or brings you home. You can look up a firm on the Civil Aviation Authority website in about a minute. When you pay, you should be given an ATOL certificate. Keep it.
How you pay matters too. A bank transfer to a personal account gives you almost nothing to fall back on. A credit card gives you legal protection under Section 75 for purchases over £100, so long as you clear the balance and don’t let interest build up. If a seller will only take cash or a transfer, treat that as a warning.
Risk two: the package isn’t what you thought
"All-inclusive" doesn’t have a fixed meaning. One firm uses it for flights, visa, hotels and transfers. Another leaves out the visa fee, or the transport between Makkah and Madinah. The hotel "near the Haram" may turn out to be a twenty-minute uphill walk.
Get it in writing before you pay a deposit. Ask for the hotel names and look them up on a map yourself. Ask which airline, which airport and how many stops. A good agent will answer without fuss. Vague replies tell you something as well.
Risk three: paperwork
A surprising number of trips fall apart at the check-in desk. The usual causes are a passport with less than six months left, a name spelt differently on the visa and the ticket, or a family member with a non-British passport who needed a different visa from everybody else.
Check every passport in the group on the day you start planning. Type names exactly as they appear in the passport. Keep copies of everything on your phone and on paper.
Risk four: the journey itself
Flights get delayed, connections are missed and bags go astray. You can’t prevent these, but you can make them matter less.
Where you fly from changes things a bit. Umrah Packages from London usually have the widest choice of flights, including direct ones to Jeddah, and a direct flight takes away the risk of a missed connection altogether. If you live elsewhere and are travelling down to Heathrow or Gatwick first, leave far more time than you think you need. A late train shouldn’t be able to cost you the whole trip. Some families stay near the airport the night before, which is money well spent with young children or grandparents.
Pack your Ihram, medicines and one change of clothes in your hand luggage. Then if your suitcase turns up two days late, you can still carry on.
Risk five: health
Health is the most likely thing to cause trouble, and the most common problems are ordinary ones. Heat, tiredness, sore feet, coughs and stomach bugs account for most of it. Makkah goes above 40 degrees in summer, and you’ll be walking for miles.
- Vaccination. A meningitis ACWY jab is required for pilgrims. Get it in good time and carry the certificate.
- Medicines. Take enough for the whole trip plus a few days extra, in the original boxes, with a copy of your prescription. Some drugs that are common here are controlled in Saudi Arabia, so check before you travel.
- Heat. Do your Tawaf late at night or early in the morning if you can. Drink water before you feel thirsty.
- Older relatives. Book a wheelchair in advance, and don’t let pride talk anyone out of using one.
Risk six: insurance that doesn’t pay
Lots of people buy the cheapest policy and never read it. Then they find out it doesn’t cover what happened. Three points are worth checking. First, your UK health card (the GHIC) is no use in Saudi Arabia, so medical cover has to come from your policy. Second, you must declare existing health conditions for every traveller. An undeclared heart problem can cancel a claim completely. Third, see whether the policy covers pilgrimage travel and large gatherings, as a few don’t.
Have a look at the Foreign Office travel advice for Saudi Arabia before you book and again before you leave. If you travel against its advice, most insurers won’t pay out.
Risk seven: crowds, and losing each other
The Haram can hold a huge number of people, and at busy times it does. Serious incidents are rare, and crowd control has improved a great deal over the years. The everyday risk is much smaller and much more likely: somebody in your group gets separated.
Agree a meeting place on the first day, somewhere easy to describe, like a numbered gate. Give children and elderly relatives a card with the hotel name and a phone number on it. Save the hotel’s location on everyone’s phone. Keep your phone and money in a bag worn across the body, as pickpockets work in crowds everywhere in the world.
A short list to finish
If you only remember a few things from this article, make them these:
- Check the firm’s ATOL licence yourself.
- Pay by card and keep the receipts.
- Get the hotels, flights and what’s included in writing.
- Check every passport and visa early.
- Buy proper insurance and tell the insurer the truth.
- Agree a meeting point on day one.
An hour spent on this list won’t take anything away from the trip. It means that when you finally stand in front of the Kaaba, your mind is on your prayers and you aren’t fretting about a missing suitcase or a booking that fell through.
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