British Airways cuts European flights by 18% due to coronavirus

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• marcw says:

  9 Mar9 March 11:59

  Rob, 80-20 slot rule is based on seasons, not on a monthly basis.

  • ChrisC says:

    9 Mar9 March 12:39

    And (relativly) easy to manage.

    If you have a route with multiple flights a day you can easily cancel flight 1 for a month then flight 2 and then flight 3. End result is that you have cancelled one flight a day but have protected the slots for all three.

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      9 Mar9 March 12:50

      On a slightly lighter note, Air Newzealand have just sold a LHR slot for an est 27 million $…🤩

  • Rob says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:01

    I know. And the season starts in the last week of March.

• Doug says:

  9 Mar9 March 13:29

  Back in December, I had a flight timing change in my Palermo flight in June. Back then I saw the red banner in booking page, but didn’t do any confirmation, but now I would like a refund, not risking being quarantined on the way back… Does BA restrict your refund to just a few weeks after a schedule change?

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    9 Mar9 March 13:59

    Doug,

    Palermo is Southern Italy. It’s only March.

    Stay strong. You might yet get to go.

    • Doug says:

      9 Mar9 March 14:07

      Yes, I do have other flight to South Africa, Portugal, Greece and Germany between now and June 🙂 I’m Italian national and I feel that this is not the best year to get there, maybe I can explore Sicily in 2021? I would rather cancel this and hold on these days off! Have not booked hotels or cars…

      • Lady London says:

        9 Mar9 March 17:21

        Go for it. Tell them you’ve only just noticed and weren’t notified. Then say you want a full refund. You should not accept any deductions if they try. I’d do it by phone and keep a record of date time and who you spoke to.

  • czechoslovakia says:

    9 Mar9 March 14:00

    I was successful cancelling a ticket this morning on the basis of a “recent” 1hr 2min time change email notification. Email was received 1st December. Took 25 minutes to get through and full refund promised in 7 days. There had been 2 prior changes and a re-route before that email, which the CSA noted, if that had any influence. None of the rerouting options today were “convenient”.

    • Doug says:

      9 Mar9 March 14:08

      Thanks, I guess calling is the best and only option.

      • Lady London says:

        10 Mar10 March 00:43

        Yes,. Even if you had seen a banner or something, they have to inform you individually and the onus is on them to prove you received, not on you to prove that you didn’t.

        Even if they had informed you by email, I’ve been informed of several cancellations in my life and for quite a few of them I honestly did not know what I wanted to do with the booking until quite close to the original flight date.

        So you may well not have received any information, and even if you did it’s perfectly reaasonable for you to struggle with deciding what your new plans will be. So call them when you’re ready. the only time to hurry is when you do really need an alternative to be arranged quickly – especially if others also cancelled may be chasing the same replacement flight.

• Mr(s) Entitled says:

  9 Mar9 March 13:57

  I’ve just got an email for 50% bonus Avios when purchasing through BA (aka – cash today please). Must be fun to be HfP right now. We could do with a rolling ticker on the home page!

  • Rob says:

    9 Mar9 March 14:58

    Good news – excellent page view figures. Bad news – minimal flight and hotel affiliate commission, reduced Google ad revenue and a low pipeline of directly sold ads …

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      9 Mar9 March 17:54

      At least you have the clicks. Imagine if your business was, I don’t, renting luggage!

  • Anna says:

    9 Mar9 March 16:13

    Should I buy now or ain’t and see if they go to 75%? (Shoestring, I’m not faffing around with Iberia before you suggest it! I suppose I could buy some and if there’s a better offer get the OH to do the same.

• Charlieface says:

  9 Mar9 March 14:02

  OT: Applied on 2 Nov for Virgin free CC when there was an extra 5000 points for £1k spend within 90 days. The third statement period rolled over on 4 Feb, which was the same day I finished the spend. I didn’t get the points. But I only received my card and registration code quite a few days after the application.
  Any suggestions how to go about complaining?

  • jc says:

    9 Mar9 March 19:55

    Phone the number on the back of your card and explain the problem?

• Matthew says:

  9 Mar9 March 14:19

  I have spoken to my MP’s office today, asking him to raise the slot waiver issue with the Minister. It is crazy for the financial health of an airline, and the environment to fly empty planes for the sake of slots retention. The Govt. should order the airports to allow this for say 6 months then review.

  • David the 1st says:

    9 Mar9 March 14:42

    Pretty certain I’ve seen a letter from the government to the slot company to request this already.

    https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2020/03/07/coronavirus-ghost-flights-heathrow/

    • Shoestring says:

      9 Mar9 March 19:40

      I read that with interest, a few hours ago – thanks

• ChrisC says:

  9 Mar9 March 15:02

  Just seen a post on flyer talk that the flybe slots have just been handed back to BA

  Another headache for them!

  https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/2012049-flybe-lhr-slots-returned-ba.html

  • Mark says:

    9 Mar9 March 15:44

    They’ll have plenty of spare aircraft to run short ghost flights if necessary… which I agree is crazy. Presumably there will be some kind of relaxation and then, as Rob says, we’ll see further cancellations.

    • Roberto says:

      9 Mar9 March 17:03

      Been running them already..
      Dont tell Greta….

    • Fenny says:

      9 Mar9 March 19:38

      Better off flying the smallest plane they can get away with.

• Paul Pogba says:

  9 Mar9 March 17:03

  Does anyone have any idea how low bookings have fallen in the industry? Fag packet math but after a few rough assumptions about (50% less spent on fuel, 20% less on staff, 30% less on landing fees and maintenance, etc) if sales are down 50% IAG will burn through their £4bn of cash in 14 months, if its 75% they’re raising cash in 5 months. At Virgin I *think* they have around 3 months until Shai Weiss has to ring Delta.

• BSI1978 says:

  9 Mar9 March 18:18

  Flights to Naples, and then train to Rome booked for this weekend.

  Presently neither destination captured by the no fly/travel rules however the rugby (reason we were going) has been cancelled.

  Chances of insurance covering the costs of the same?

  Realist in me would suggest slim to none…..

  • TGLoyalty says:

    9 Mar9 March 19:51

    Unless it was all a package I’d think Zero chance unfortunately. Perhaps enjoy some quiet time

  • Tony says:

    9 Mar9 March 21:41

    I think that may have just changed as of 9pm BST

    Italy now in lock down and apparently you need to justify the reasons for your visit.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51810673

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