British Airways cancels BA1, London City to New York, and Beirut

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• Don says:

  12 Mar12 March 06:50

  Mr Trump has done the right thing. Open borders has helped spread this Wuhan flu. It’s in the U.K. because Mr Johnson has failed to close the borders quick enough or at the very least instigate some measures. I’m sure we have all seen the reports saying as recently as Monday ZERO checks and questioning was taking place for pax returning from Italy. That is disgraceful.

  It was reported on the BBC yesterday that temperature checks ARE effective at catching a lot of cases; which simply is not possible at Schengen borders. They have deliberately not taken measures to check even though in the treaties it is possible. Who cares what the Commission says, they’re happy to turn a blind eye to Germany and France. No country has even suspended Schengen which is not a terribly unusual measure if you look at NATO meetings in the past, this was often deployed to help ensure security.

  An Italian friend of mine from Uni is a Doc back in Italy, Edinburgh alumni. A big Rugby playing guy. He was sobbing on the phone at the situations he is dealing with in hospital in Italy where they simply don’t have the resources to deal with cases that in ordinary times would have a full level of care. There’s a similar thread on Twitter from a U.K. doc reposting what he has heard from Italy.

  A sledgehammer to crack a nut is the right strategy to protect your citizens for what is a temporary measure.

  • Waribai says:

    12 Mar12 March 07:13

    Any predictions about the outcome of the Cobra meeting at lunchtime?

    • Heathrow Flyer says:

      12 Mar12 March 07:25

      I predict school closures.

      You read it here first.

      • Shoestring says:

        12 Mar12 March 07:37

        you obvs weren’t reading the comments last night, when we discussed it

        my view is still that on balance they won’t announce immediate school closures because:
        – not necessary yet
        – spreads a certain panic
        – announcing a date such as midweek next week allows schools to set homework etc in a calm & measured way
        – they’re worried about ‘wear out’ factor with regard to moving into ‘Delay’ phase – ie non compliance after a few days/ couple of weeks – going too soon means ‘wear out’ day comes sooner, too
        – could follow the example of France, which has closed a few schools in defined areas where there is a higher risk, but most schools remain open as usual

        • Cat says:

          12 Mar12 March 07:57

          I’d be interested to to read that, Wednesday night is my babysitting night with my nieces, so I struggle to get my marking done and keep up with comments! Which article is that on?

          It is very, very likely that schools will be closed soon. Schools have been preparing for this for the last week. In our school, all departments now have bulk packs of work to hand to year 11 and year 13 (as their exams are imminent), just in case. We all have been instructed to make sure you can log in to the school system remotely. Our class lists and passwords are up to date on MyMaths.

          I can’t speak for all schools, but any halfway decent one that has their sh!t together will be prepared for this!

        • Heathrow Flyer says:

          12 Mar12 March 11:45

          Ireland has gone first.

          Still confident, Harry?

    • Will says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:30

      No idea of predictions but right now 200,000+ people are in Cheltenham over 4 days spending all day drinking together and staying together crammed into pubs until the early hours drinking, dancing and hugging.

      The arrived from all over the U.K. and Ireland and will return shortly.

      It’s quite unbelievable that it’s gone ahead, aside from a music festival it’s got to be the most person to person contact possible across 4 days due to the number of people and close proximity.

      Many residents are quite rightly outraged.

      • Andrew says:

        12 Mar12 March 08:50

        “Most person to person contact”?

        Doubt it. Students have had to be reminded that “quarantine” doesn’t mean killing time by going onto “Gander” or “Tander” and arranging sequential intimate liasons.

    • mr_jetlag says:

      12 Mar12 March 09:40

      School closures, WFH and ban on mass gatherings I think. No way will they close borders to Schengen unless they want Brexit nego’s to go nuclear

      • Lady London says:

        12 Mar12 March 14:49

        Personally I think the tax on EU citizens , the so-called NHS taxannounced by the chancellor yesterday was mean minded and will only aggravate retaliation.

  • Marcw says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:48

    Interestingly Italy was the only EU country to cancel all flights to from China.

    • maccymac says:

      12 Mar12 March 10:02

      Their situation might have been much worse if they hadn’t

• ChrisC says:

  12 Mar12 March 06:56

  I posted in the hotel offers thread earlier.

  The number of qualifying points has also been reduced.

  Ambassador also get 3 months extension.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:15

    My spire target stays the same? Where did you see qualifying points have reduced?

    • Secret Squirrel says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:19

      Just read on IHG that the changes come into place in the next few weeks.
      Looks like I’ve hit my new year spire early, another 25k pts! 😍

    • ChrisC says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:47

      I got an email and there was a link to a page on the IHG website with the new lower qualifications

• BJ says:

  12 Mar12 March 06:57

  Great, and thanks … some points and miles news 🙂

• Tom says:

  12 Mar12 March 06:58

  Currently Spire, but doubt I’ll be staying with them this year..

• Mart says:

  12 Mar12 March 07:09

  We Are due to fly to Madrid from Manchester Sunday ,we got a email saying cancelled so we phoned for options and were then told it isn’t cancelled ?
  The flight is still there to book in business only not economy?
  We are due to fly to Rio from Madrid Tuesday to join a cruise ,cannot see this vacation running smoothly !

  • Polly says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:09

    Keep,us posted, sounds like a plan that could go very wrong…are you still sure you want to be on that cruise?

    • Mart says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:16

      Not really but will lose alot of hard earned cash , insurance doesn’t want to know

  • Waribai says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:59

    My mother is on a cruise round Portugal and Spain albeit no flying involved, sailed straight out of Southampton. She went because she didn’t want to lose the cash. Insurance certainly weren’t going to pay out. I think most people on board are ‘in the same boat’………

• Anna says:

  12 Mar12 March 07:10

  What about the literally millions of EU passport holders who live in the UK but may not have been to the Schengen zone for months? Also how will they know who has visited there recently?

  • Simon says:

    12 Mar12 March 07:18

    I assume that they’ll rely on the same approach as they use in the ESTA, with its bullet proof “have you committed moral turpitude… answering yes may prevent your entry” style.

  • meta says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:32

    Dual nationality is the way to go in times of coronavirus.

  • Rob says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:43

    I think you can safely assume all of your movements are tracked via passport swipes.

    • Matty says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:52

      I can confirm that they are on e-borders, it also tracks when you check in for flights and has full manifests. There is also a logic to it as UK scan passport for every entry whereas across the schengen area there are zero or limited checks so they would not know which countries someone had travelled through.

    • meta says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:58

      You go and come back to UK on let’s say your European passport or even better EU identity card then fly to US with you UK passport. Then if you fly on a different airline or take Eurostar, I doubt they will be able to track. Also there are still some people with old non-biometric passports…

      • Doug M says:

        12 Mar12 March 09:20

        Why would you do this? Regardless of personal view of elected politicians I try to respect rules of country I’m visiting. I’m hardly proud of any of the UK governments of recent times, regardless I would expect visitors to respect rules imposed.

        • meta says:

          12 Mar12 March 09:30

          I wouldn’t. I am just highlighting here that there are flaws in this policy and some people will inevitably exploit it.

      • Lady London says:

        12 Mar12 March 13:49

        Don’t get on it. I believe Eurostar is plugged into govt systems similar to airlines and that means the West basically has every step you took.

        Lie about anything to US Immigration Officer and it will affect the rest of your life. It’s bad enough already entering some ports there even totally legit and with excellent US travel history.

        Always assume data is shared now or ca be deeper researched across countries on demand. Even your phone records.

        • Lady London says:

          12 Mar12 March 13:53

          To be quite clear, there are no flaws @meta. Attempt to conceal anything from a US Immigration officer and you will be in a world of pain.

          Depending on the port they can actually be quite friendly if the rules allow them to be. If you have anything borderline disclosure is always best.

        • Anna says:

          12 Mar12 March 15:54

          Lol, I get so nervous when they ask me when I was last in the States in case I answer wrong and get banned for life! (As they know full well when you were last there it must be an attempt to catch you out).

• Patrick says:

  12 Mar12 March 07:14

  Trump manages to make yet another useless stupid move out of pure populism that will not help a single bit instead of focussing on research funding he cut or maybe helping hi citizens whose healthcare he took away.
  \Why on earth would limiting it to the Schengen area help? This is just a stab at open borders which he despises. Extremely sad (and dumb) as a policy

  • Anna says:

    12 Mar12 March 07:23

    I think some travel restrictions are helpful (on cruise ships for example) but I can’t really see that open borders within the EU are any more of a health risk than those between the different states of America!

  • Henry says:

    12 Mar12 March 07:32

    ‘Why on earth would limiting it to the Schengen area help?’
    You not seen Italy then?
    How is stopping people coming into America dumb when experts say that stopping the movement of people will help to reduce the infection curve?

    • Anna says:

      12 Mar12 March 07:43

      But how is someone travelling, say from Belgium to Florida any more of a risk than someone travelling to Florida from California? It seems a bit arbitrary (and political).

    • Andy says:

      12 Mar12 March 07:53

      But you can be an American citizen and fly Tyo Italy and come back to the US without any issues. It’s only residents of the Schengen area who aren’t allowed in. It makes no sense. They could travel to Ireland or the UK and get a flight from there if they wanted and that is fine…

      • Cat says:

        12 Mar12 March 08:10

        Why is anyone surprised it makes no sense. Trump is the president, and Pence is in charge of responding to this outbreak. Of course it makes no sense.

        • Shoestring says:

          12 Mar12 March 08:39

          well, it does make some sense – Schengen area citizens are penalised in terms of ability to travel to USA whereas US citizens are free to travel

          Australia has similar rules, ie look after your own citizens better

          and it *does* make sense to use this strategy to delay the transmission rate of Covid-19, you’re just not delaying it quite as well/ watertight as banning US citizens from flying into US from Europe as well

      • Will says:

        12 Mar12 March 08:14

        I’d assume there will be screening for anyone who’s returning.

        Europe, and I’m not excluding the U.K. from this, appears to have multiple local exponentially increasing clusters and no coherent plan to limit the spread. It’s hard to see how it can contain it in the same way China appears to have.

        That said I’ve no reason to believe it’s any better in the USA, they haven’t been testing out there rigorously so who knows what the lay if the land is?

        Failure to take this seriously early on has cost us a lot here.

  • AJA says:

    12 Mar12 March 09:59

    Could it be that Trump is misguidedly working on the fact that the number of infections is much higher in countries in the Schengen Area when compared to the currently reported numbers here in the UK and Ireland.?

    I am sure it’s only a matter of time before the UK and Ireland gets added to the ban.

    And what’s the difference between what he’s done and what happened initially when restrictions were only imposed on China but gradually got extended to more and more countries? It’s also not that different to the restrictions Israel imposed on certain EU countries before extending it worldwide (which was also a way of avoiding insulting it’s major ally, the US)?

    Also India yesterday arbitrarily revoked all foreign visas. Are you critical of that action too?

    I know Trump is reviled but at least he is finally reacting to the pandemic that some here described as a mild pussycat virus.

    • Spursdebs says:

      12 Mar12 March 10:16

      It wouldn’t matter if Trump cured cancer, stopped all wars and discovered a cure for latest virus, he will still be orange man bad to some.

  • Lady London says:

    12 Mar12 March 13:55

    It’s his patriotic sell and miraculously may ALS be a way of reopening trade negotiations to improve access and terms for the US.

• Anna says:

  12 Mar12 March 07:31

  OT but bits – I am still getting a seemingly unlimited flow from IHG-Curve-Revolut, though I am keeping it at £200 per day and paying off Creation as I go along!

  • Benilyn says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:21

    Do you keep it in Revolut? If so fine. If you take it out of Revolut, be careful, they will warn you. They did to me so have stopped 😥

  • TGLoyalty says:

    12 Mar12 March 08:39

    Why use curve? Or is it curve allowing it to be unlimited and IHg direct isn’t?

    The MCC is passed straight through so curve shouldn’t really make a difference.

    • Anna says:

      12 Mar12 March 08:54

      For some reason IHG itself and Curve seem to being treated as separate entities at the moment. But yes, I am going to complete this month’s donations to seagull welfare then have a break!

      • Lady London says:

        12 Mar12 March 23:57

        Or you might be better to carry on until you get any contact as recommencing after a gap may actually raise a flag in itself but unchanged behaviour may not.

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