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

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• Grant says:

  12 Mar12 March 10:05

  Rob / Rhys – whist there has been very good coverage of the constantly shifting position in respect of airline cancellation policies, might it be worth a round-up (and subsequent periodical updating) of the major hotel chains’ policies?

  • mr_jetlag says:

    12 Mar12 March 10:24

    +1. Also reduced requirements for status

• josh33 says:

  12 Mar12 March 11:02

  Very sad news about BA dropping Beirut, I’ve flown it twice monthly for the past 5 years and it’s always been packed full, including cargo.

• bill says:

  12 Mar12 March 11:09

  LOGANAIR is cancelling a number of its flights across its route network due to the impact of coronavirus.

  The airline said it has seen a reduction in advance bookings of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent as the severity of the outbreak has developed.

  Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said the “travelling public’s confidence has worsened” in recent days.

  The company expects to cancel one fifth of its planned flights in April and May.

  It has already cancelled around 700 flights so far, with more to come.

• Barbs says:

  12 Mar12 March 11:09

  If we pay our US holiday on an Amex Platinum, and then flights from the UK gets blocked as well, ir we were in the EU too close to the time of our holiday, would the insurance pay out?

  • Rob says:

    12 Mar12 March 11:35

    Definitely no to the 2nd part. I would be doubtful about the first part too. It is up to you to ensure you have the correct paperwork to enter a country, and in this case the correct paperwork is a US passport or certain sorts of visa. It is likely that your flight would be cancelled if there was a UK ban, however, meaning that you would be refunded anyway.

• Anna says:

  12 Mar12 March 12:38

  BJ not going to close schools apparently. That could come back to bite him…

  • Nick_C says:

    12 Mar12 March 13:25

    When they close the schools, some parents are going to have to take time off work. Many of these people will be working in essential services.

    • Shoestring says:

      12 Mar12 March 13:37

      10 minutes ago: [UK Ministers, officials, medical officers and the chief of the defence staff have arrived for the latest emergency Cobra meeting. The meeting is expected to confirm that the UK has officially moved from the contain to the delay phase as set out in a plan for tackling Covid-19.]

      Not much point in closing schools this week, IMV

    • Anna says:

      12 Mar12 March 14:02

      They will be, but other countries clearly think that this option will pay off in the long term.

      • Shoestring says:

        12 Mar12 March 14:47

        ouch! [new modelling from the University of Southampton showed that coronavirus could have infected 7.6million people in China alone, had the country not gone into lockdown.
        Researchers calculated that the estimated number of cases – 114,325 by Feb 29 – would have risen 67-fold, had draconian measures not been enacted to shut down transport systems, cut off cities, restrict social contact and quickly isolate suspected patients. A widespread quarantine came into effect in China from Jan 23, but the new figures show that if restrictions had been brought in three weeks earlier, cases could have been cut to fewer than 6,000…early intervention would have significantly limited the geographical spread of the disease]

    • BJ says:

      12 Mar12 March 16:09

      Like most things, it’s a trade off. The heart of the Covid-19 issue from a political perspective is do they prioritise the protection of the elderly or the economy, or do they try to strike a balance? What we see going on around the world at the moment are merely reflections of the different decisions politicians and political systems make in respect of this fundamental choice. The variation owes less to science and medicine, that are both well understood, than it does to politics. The one thing you can be sure of is that when all this is over and done and the blame game begins, the politicians will be first out the blocks pointing their fingers at the science and medical communities. Meanwhile, the media which as always in the UK is quick to whip up hysteria, will be blameless as always.

• Richard Akers says:

  12 Mar12 March 12:54

  O/T: with the virgin voucher from the credit card, do you have to phone up to use this?? i can only see the line item on my statement and can’t find a way to use when searching for redemptions on the virgin site.

  • Tom says:

    12 Mar12 March 13:00

    Yes, you need to phone to make the booking.

• Justin79 says:

  12 Mar12 March 13:15

  We have a booking for a holiday with Virgin to the US next week.
  One of our party lives in the Schengen zone and so despite the fact we are all travelling from the UK will not be able to travel as he has been in the schengen zone in the past 14 days.
  As it currently stands we can all rebook for the future but this isn’t that easy. Is he likely to get a refund of his costs from Virgin as he isn’t able to enter the US? And if so what does this mean for the rest of us on the booking? i.e. one of us would have been sharing a room so therefore the room would only be single occupancy?

  • TGLoyalty says:

    12 Mar12 March 17:09

    Have you been told you can’t all travel because 1 of your party has been in the area in the 14 days prior to your flight or just that he won’t be able to travel?

    not sure I understand the single occupancy question. The hotel won’t care if 1 is in the room instead of 2 but I guess it means slightly higher cost for the rest of you, if he can’t claim from his insurance?

    • Justin says:

      13 Mar13 March 00:07

      Nope only he can’t travel.
      So wondering if virgin should refund him only?

• Ra says:

  12 Mar12 March 14:20

  Does anyone know a number which BA actually answer? I know they are busy but I’ve been trying all day and get cut off every time. Website is no use as it just gives general information.

  • Anna says:

    12 Mar12 March 14:42

    There’s no guarantee of getting through on any number at the moment, they will be swamped. I don’t know what their social media responses are like at the moment. If I wanted to make any urgent changes to a booking I would go to my local airport and speak to BA staff there, though I know this wouldn’t be practicable for everyone.

    • Algor says:

      12 Mar12 March 16:02

      I had a problem not getting thorugh to BA, called number for First class despite having business class ticket.

      Agent replied in less than a minute and sorted me out.

  • Rob says:

    12 Mar12 March 14:53

    Generally the Gold line or the one for overseas customers.

  • Lady London says:

    12 Mar12 March 15:18

    Keep a record of your attempts to reach them just in case. @Colin MacKinnon’s idea of using Skype to call if possible was a good one for this.

    • BJ says:

      12 Mar12 March 15:35

      Another little tip I though of this morning after receiving my upgraded BAPP: keep old/cancelled cards (or at least the card details) in event you need to go online to change or cancel existing bookings. Card details are required for security and refunds so best to avoid any need for calls simply because we no longer have payment card details.

      • Polly says:

        12 Mar12 March 22:16

        We had refunds onto a cancelled card from 6 mths previously. They just sent me a statement showing the credit. I just called in and they refunded it. But like always keep old cards we booked LH flts on, just in case QR or foreign check in desks require it.

        • Lady London says:

          12 Mar12 March 23:35

          Hi Polly how’s your quarantine going?

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