British Airways will no longer refund your China or Hong Kong flights due to coronavirus

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• Paul Pogba says:

  25 Feb25 February 21:14

  At what point does FCO advice cause travel insurance companies to be liable? The advice for China is “The FCO advise against all travel to Hubei Province due to the ongoing novel coronavirus outbreak. The FCO advise against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China”. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

  Italy: “The FCO advise against all but essential travel to 10 small towns in Lombardy (Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo and San Fiorano) and one in Veneto (Vo’ Euganeo), which have been isolated by the Italian authorities due to an ongoing outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19).” https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy

• Russ 😷 says:

  25 Feb25 February 21:29

  Surely that’s not going to be enforceable?

  • Shoestring says:

    25 Feb25 February 21:31

    site deficient – unable to see previous posts on this page in both Opera & Edge

  • Callum says:

    26 Feb26 February 01:36

    Why wouldn’t it be?

• Ricatti says:

  25 Feb25 February 21:44

  Customers must react accordingly and avoid BA for any but essential bookings…

  • Russ 😷 says:

    25 Feb25 February 21:55

    We have no live bookings anywhere, doing everything by Skype and other channels. Customer’s don’t want to travel and neither do we. Some departments aren’t even receiving goods from infected areas. Thinking some of my point pots i.e. Etihad and Singapore won’t survive.

  • Mark says:

    25 Feb25 February 22:28

    To be fair BA are not the worst here… e.g. Lufthansa haven’t offered any refunds at all for Hong Kong flights. At one point we thought we were going to struggle to get back to HK for our return flight – no flexibility from them at all.

  • Paul says:

    26 Feb26 February 16:24

    Absolutely, avoid BA must be the mantra. Their policies are bizarre at best of times but this is simply ridiculous.
    I’ve just been clobbered and lost all my Avios on a gold reward double booking. I had temerity to have an accident but you can cancel the return sector once outbound flown. No leeway for medical repatriation

• BJ says:

  25 Feb25 February 21:56

  You’re much too nice Rob! Should come as no surprise from the money-grabbing vultures that charge £100ish to select a seat on a £4000+ ‘business’ class reservation that most other airlines would sell for less than half that price…a bit too polite also, I’m sure others can do better.

  • Doug M says:

    25 Feb25 February 23:16

    If you pay £4K for a ticket you don’t care about £100. It’s 2.5% of the main fare.

    • Dubious says:

      26 Feb26 February 01:11

      I do! It’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back!

      And besides some of us cannot expense the seat selection fees.

      • Chrisasaurus says:

        26 Feb26 February 02:04

        But can expense the 4I J ticket?

        Dammit, my tiny violin got lost by AA on my flight in Y….

        • Ian says:

          26 Feb26 February 10:06

          Can’t believe the reactions to this. BA are money grabbing *****. Doesn’t matter if it’s only 2.5%. It’s the prinicipal. Milking you for more cash just to select a seat on any business class ticket is despicable.

        • Doug M says:

          26 Feb26 February 14:38

          Actually it’s great you have to pay. The point is BA don’t want you to pay, they want the good seats empty for the customers with status. They’re rewarding the loyalty of status customers. There’s are thousands of comments demanding this, but when a company does it, and it doesn’t suit someone it’s ridiculed. The whole thing will become moot as the CS rolls out, it only matters now because the best CW seats are so much better than the others.

        • Doug M says:

          26 Feb26 February 14:40

          Fully flex J fares include seat selection, only the cheaper buckets don’t.

      • Oh! Matron! says:

        26 Feb26 February 08:35

        And besides, some of us cannot expense anything other than economy.

        You’ll earn more than £100 in points, so stop yer whining 🙂

    • James 1 says:

      26 Feb26 February 08:48

      I look after my bigger clients. I don’t milk them for more.

      In any case, where’s the tipping point? You think 2.5% is ok? Is 5%? 10%? Where would you not be prepared to pat?

      • insider says:

        26 Feb26 February 10:30

        I think it’s fine – it rewards loyal customers who have earned status with the airline by allowing them to choose for free, and actually have some seats left over when they choose.

      • AJA says:

        26 Feb26 February 10:53

        BA also looks after its bigger clients (those who have Silver status or above) who do not pay for seat selection.

        If you’re only going to fly BA in Club only once a year you’re not one of their bigger clients. Alternatively do 25 return flights at the back of the plane and you will also get Silver status.

        If you’re paying £4k for a seat in Club World you’re buying at the last minute and probably do it fairly often so chances are you’re already a gold card holder. It only takes 2 return flights in CW and a one way flight in CE to get Silver. Or one return flight in CW and 2 return flights in CE to HEL or any of the 80TP each way routes. I’d argue that even with 3 return flights in CE/CW BA would argue you’re not an important customer, you’re definitely not one of their bigger ones.

        • Lady London says:

          26 Feb26 February 18:37

          Lets just amend that to the truth which I know from multiple corporates.

          BA hands free seat selection for free to any flyer booked from any large corporate, from time of booking, r e g a r d l e s s of that individual traveller’s status.

• Phillip says:

  25 Feb25 February 22:09

  Having been caught up in a number of flight cancellations recently due to the virus, I feel I have to be fair to BA and say they’ve had the most generous rebooking/refund conditions compared to any other airline! LH/LX would not budge on allowing rerouting/rescheduling flights to HKG. Fiji Airways have cancelled half their flights to HKG and have been a nightmare in the rescheduling process. CX have been moderately flexible. Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific couldn’t care less despite their government banning anyone even transiting from HKG. And the list goes on. It is now coming to a point where there are issues across the globe where the virus is concerned. How many destinations can they add to the list? It was certainly a sad sight seeing HKG so deserted with scores of Cathay and HK Airlines aircraft parked nose to tail along taxiways!

  • Lloyd says:

    25 Feb25 February 22:32

    This is exactly what happened to me. We were booked to fly LH to HKG at the end of March, and no refund or re-booking was offered. Either we would have to travel and be uncomfortable about it, or lose the £2000 of flights. Fortunately, LH cancelled my FRA-HKG flight and re-routed me via MUC. This gave me the right to request a refund, which I have now received. Had I initially booked us to fly via MUC, we would have lost the money!

    • Mark says:

      25 Feb25 February 22:55

      Lucky escape… We were in the same position but decided to go, and just cut down the time planned in HK. To be honest, if you practice good hygiene and try to avoid close contact with others you’d be unlucky to pick anything up. Masks are next to useless though, especially through the airport when you have to keep pulling it down to show your face.

      Our flight back from HK to FRA was probably no more than 20% full – only 9 of the 36 upper deck seats occupied. A bit of a godsend with LH’s long haul business class seats – even if you know your neighbour, climbing over them to get out in the middle of the night I found far more awkward than Club World.

      • Alan says:

        26 Feb26 February 13:06

        Masks are useless anyway with regards preventing you catching anything unless FFP3 standard. If symptomatic and coughing and spluttering they may slightly help reduce spread but only if not touched.

      • Polly says:

        27 Feb27 February 07:05

        Ours was packed both cabins, from Phuket to ARN yesterday. J full, hadn’t seen that in a while. No temps taken anywhere, a few masks in sight. Enjoyed Aurora lounge in Arn for 3 and half hours, v comfortable place to hang out.

  • Mark says:

    25 Feb25 February 22:41

    Yes, tell me about it… We had a grand total of three flights cancelled between HK and Vietnam, all on low cost carriers (there aren’t too many direct options were we wanted to go). So no rerouting, just an email to say sorry you’re flight is cancelled, in one case with less than 24 hours notice. In large part simply down to a lack of Chinese tourists who normally make up a large proportion of travellers on those flights – when you find yourself on an A320 with a grand total of 14 passengers you just know that isn’t going to last!

    Half of HKG airport now closed, including concourses and lounges we used less than a week and a half ago.

• S says:

  25 Feb25 February 22:40

  OT: I have booked an avios redemption from London to Las Vegas. I’ve decided that I want to stay for a week longer and also visit DC. Can I call them up and change my return flight to leave a week later and from DC instead of Vegas, given there’s an Avios seat available?

  • Mark says:

    25 Feb25 February 22:43

    Yes, if there is redemption availability. You’ll have to pay the £35 change fee, but should get some avoid back as DC is in a lower band.

    • Mark says:

      26 Feb26 February 18:27

      Apologies – I hadn’t realised downgrading a band isn’t possible as a change. Cancel and rebook may work just as well though, esp if it is possible for an agent to immediately rebook you using the outbound availability freed up by cancelling your existing booking (worth checking first if no new availability).

  • pauldb says:

    26 Feb26 February 05:47

    No – you can your route but you can’t change band, and DC is a lower band. If there’s outbound availability you can just cancel and rebook the whole thing. Otherwise can you make a longer-band inbound work: Florida, Atlanta, Charleston, Nashville, etc.

• Seoul Worry says:

  26 Feb26 February 01:06

  I can’t see the new policy on the links… anything about South Korea? I am due to fly there on Friday!

  • Rob says:

    26 Feb26 February 08:04

    No

• Bails from Oz says:

  26 Feb26 February 07:19

  Who defines unfair around here?
  Why should someone who purchased an unrefundable fare expect any refund at all if the airline is running that flight?
  Isn’t that what travel insurance is meant to cover.

  • James 1 says:

    26 Feb26 February 13:18

    Well, the lottery on whether you get a refund or not suggests to me they haven’t done this for fairness.

  • Oh! Matron! says:

    26 Feb26 February 13:22

    If I pay for a service and I don’t get it, then…..

    • F99 says:

      26 Feb26 February 16:11

      If your flight hasn’t been cancelled, then the service you’ve paid for is still available for you

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