British Airways agrees to pay for customers stuck in Italy to reach non-Italian airports

If you have any friends or relatives stuck in Italy, pass this on.

A revised BA travel advisory, issued at 1pm today, states that British Airways will now pay the costs of passengers who wish to leave Italy and pick up a British Airways flight elsewhere.

It also applies in reverse, to any Italian resident who is in the UK and unable to return home.

On the – unlikely – chance that you can get through to British Airways, you will be rebooked onto a flight to/from your choice of:

Zurich

Geneva

Grenoble

Innsbruck

Munich

Salzburg

Zagreb

Lyon

Nice

The wording states that:

“Advise the customer that British Airways will reimburse them for any public transport (train, express coach, local bus) costs to travel between the new gateway and their original departure/arrival point in Italy. Receipts will be required and send these through the Customer Relations form in ba.com.”

Given the near impossibility of reaching BA by telephone, I would be tempted to head off for one of the airports above anyway and get your ticket changed on arrival, even if it means you can’t fly for a day or so until a seat opens up.

Rebooking on Alitalia remains an option for passengers.

The full BA rules are here.