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British Airways cancelling flights to Northern Italy due to coronavirus

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Yesterday we ran a long article summarising the latest British Airways and Virgin Atlantic travel policies on coronavirus.

It was partly out of date before it went live, as the Italian Government published a law on Saturday night to place a quarter of the country under quarantine.

As of Sunday evening, British Airways has cancelled for Monday:

all flights to Venice

10/11 flights to Milan

the one flight to Bergamo

This is the new BA guidance for anyone with tickets to Italy.  I ran this in a separate article yesterday but wanted to repeat it here for the benefit of our email readers.

That said, if all flights are now cancelled, the guidance doesn’t make much difference!

Here are the rules:

Rules apply to anyone travelling to Milan, Venice, Turin, Bergamo, Bologna, Verona

If you are booked for travel until 4th April, you can rebook for free for dates up to 31st May

You can also request a diversion to Zurich or Geneva

Here is the new bit added during Sunday:

Anyone with tickets to Milan, Venice or Bergamo for travel by 4th April can now request a full refund


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2025)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

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There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (191)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Harpo says:

    Just checked my statement, concerned I’d overlooked this. My wife is supp on the WE and has been using it as her main card since Christmas. I’m relieved to report Jan and Feb earned 2 HSBC points/£.

  • NickAnon says:

    OT but regarding cancelled Virgin flight:
    Virgin have cancelled the LHR to HKG flight on 22nd May, and put us on the flight the following day. No reason given in the email, just a flight time change – of 24 hours!
    Booked with points and have a connection that will now be missed, what are my rights?

    • Rob says:

      No rights re the connection but you can have a full refund for your Virgin flight. Makes more sense to go a day earlier though.

    • Louise says:

      We had a virgin miles flight to vegas cancelled and put on a flight 24 hours later, I complained and they put me on a delta connecting flight the day i had booked for. I think they have to book you on another airline, Harry advised me at the time!

    • Lady London says:

      Remember if a change is made to even just one leg this may give you the right to cancel the whole thing for full refund or reschedule the whole thing.

  • Andrew says:

    Bits:-

    Amex, spend £100 at JLP opticians get £20 back.

    (JLP Opticians is a white label brand of Luxxotica who also run David Clulow Opticians)

  • BJ says:

    OT: Curve gone out of business??

    • Heathrow Flyer says:

      Where did you see this?

    • j says:

      Evidence? Or just pointless scaremongering?

    • Young L says:

      Their website has gone offline.

      • Heathrow Flyer says:

        Still working for me.

        • Rob says:

          Was totally fine for me when that comment went up. And, since it isn’t a transactional website, there would be no requirement to pull it immediately even if the company went down.

      • Anna says:

        Interestingly I was allowed to go over the £700 Curve/IHG limit this weekend so there may be some sort of glitch somewhere (need to keep an eye on IHG again for interest charges).

        • Joseph Heenan says:

          The £700 weekly limit seems to be working as usual this morning. (I’ve paid down my creation balance just in case though…)

        • WS says:

          O/T but any data points on HSBC premier credit card (non-WE) and revo top ups via curve? my HSBC statement and online banking don’t seem to show whether there are cash adv fees or interest charges so am not sure if those are treated as purchases

          • Craig says:

            i have had no problems on the non-WE premier credit card. tiny interest amount at the end of the month but no problem. i think it is treated as a cash advance but without the fee. pay it down every month and won’t cause you any issues

    • BJ says:

      Thanks all, just need a quick confirmation it was still working ok for others.

      • Anna says:

        Having said that, i’ve Just had a Curve transaction declined which then went through via Revolut, so who knows?

      • BlueHorizonuk says:

        Next time though maybe just ask ‘is Curve working for you’ instead of have they gone bust…..lol

        • BJ says:

          The thought crossed my mind but this way looks like it prompted more discussion and feedback so…

    • Graeme says:

      They’ve just responded to a message I sent within about half an hour, so the staff are still there!

      I have the option of changing from a Business Curve Legacy Black card to a Personal one. Curve say there’s no difference between the two – does anyone know of any?

  • Aston100 says:

    So if your destination country bans people from your own country due to h&s fears, but your own government has not issued any travel advisories and your airline is still flying there, is this grounds for s75 or is it a travel insurance claim?

    • Rob says:

      Very much depends on the wording of your travel insurance – certainly not a S75 issue. You could be left high and dry. However, very unlikely flights would continue under this scenario so only an issue if you are flying from a 3rd country (eg flying to Israel from somewhere else which is still allowed, but your UK passport will get you thrown out).

  • Qwertyknowsbest says:

    Just used my Curve. Source?

    • BJ says:

      Thanks, that’s what I was wondering. I’ve had a cash withdrawal, payment, new card verification, snd a support message all fail this morning. Perhaps they’ve pulled the plug on me.

      • Axel says:

        You need to upgrade your app, this happened to me last week. I saw that the app had self blocked from using internet

      • Lady London says:

        Did you do a first chip & pin transaction?

        • BJ says:

          Nope, got that nugget later in the comments from the real deal, but thanks 🙂

  • Robin N says:

    O/T – The Bahrain GP will now be held behind closed doors. I am able to cancel the f1 tickets and hotels for our trip however not sure how to go about cancelling the flights. Been calling BA but the call centers are so busy that I don’t even get to a hold queue.

    Anyone in the same situation? If no, any tips if this will be covered under travel insurance. Don’t think BA will help as there is advice against travel to Bahrain

    • Anna says:

      Are the flights cash/Avios? If cash you may struggle to cancel unless FO have said avoid Bahrain.

    • Mr(s) Entitled says:

      If it was booked as a package you might have a fighting chance, booked separately you have to hope you bought a belt and braces policy. You will need to read the T&C’s of your insurance. There is no definitive answer because policies vary.

    • David the 1st says:

      If you paid for the tickets on a credit card, could you claim the wasted travel costs as consequential losses under S-75?

      • Shoestring says:

        not if the flight goes ahead

        • David the 1st says:

          I was thinking of the race tickets on card. If the trip is not necessary, then surely the hotel and flights are consequential loss?

    • PJJ says:

      Indian Wells Tennis tournament starting this week has been cancelled

  • Keith says:

    Has anyone used Clubcard points to book Hilton Hotels?

    How does it work? Are you essentially issued a gift card you can use at checkout on any room of your choice including the lowest priced advance purchase room? Or are you offered a specific selection of rooms and rates you an use the clubcard points for (which may be more expensive than lowest advance rate)?

    Also would you be able to take advantage of your status benefits (Breakfast / Upgrade etc) if you booked in this way?

    Thanks

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      Alternative then to transfer to VA then into Hilton. Min 10k VA points though.

    • Lady London says:

      No benefits unless you are very lucky and on my last booking Tesco clubcard was only showing overpriced larger rooms when I found out later cheaper regularly priced rooms were available at the same time.

    • BJ says:

      @meta comments at 17.30 that hotels dott com is back now so Hilton may bd available again too.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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