UK and Ireland added to the United States travel ban

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• Stu N says:

  14 Mar14 March 18:43

  We were due to fly on Thursday to the US on a BA Holiday (flights plus car). Clearly not happening now. Anyone spoken to BA Holidays in this situation? Most of guidance is flight-only; we would take the voucher I think if that was best offer.

  Q is, do the package holiday regs help us re refunds as we are now prohibited from flying?

  • Allan says:

    14 Mar14 March 19:23

    As mentioned upthread they emailed me about 1 hour after the announcement saying it was going to all be refunded automatically. (New York with Flight + Hotel).

    • Stu N says:

      14 Mar14 March 20:52

      Thanks – when were you due to fly?

      We are on very good F deal, might ring You First early doors tomorrow and see if they will rebook us in the autumn. If not, good to know they are refunding.

• Gary says:

  14 Mar14 March 18:45

  What happens to 241 Vouchers. Are those flights cancelled and everything is returned?

• Metopes says:

  14 Mar14 March 18:49

  Trying to cancel a BA reward flight, need to enter the payment card but keeps saying it’s the incorrect card. 100% sure I have the right card. Obviously can’t get through on the phones, anyone had a similar issue?

  • Liz says:

    14 Mar14 March 19:03

    Yes I had the same issue yesterday. I ended up phoning and by a stroke of luck someone answered after about 10 mins. I knew I booked the flights on my BAPP as it was on my statements but when I was on the phone I remembered I had a fraud on my card last year so that was the number I originally booked with. Lots of us had frauds on our BAPP

• Hunter says:

  14 Mar14 March 18:49

  I was due to be going to Miami on 7th April, on a 241 voucher which would otherwise be expiring fairly soon. On the basis that I’ll now cancel the flights, any ideas on my chances of getting BA to extend the life of the voucher..?

  • Liz says:

    14 Mar14 March 19:08

    I cancelled my USA flight yesterday and was told to recontact the BAEC nearer the time of the expiry. Someone posted up yesterday they had submitted an online form and got their 241 extended so I did the same this morning. Still waiting to see if it gets extended.

    • Hunter says:

      14 Mar14 March 19:14

      Interesting, thanks. I’d be grateful if you could point me in the direction of the form…

      • Liz says:

        14 Mar14 March 19:35

        I did it through Help – Contact Us – Complaints & Claims – make a new claim – Avios & BAEC. Not sure if that was the correct way but that’s what I did.

    • Alan Wan says:

      14 Mar14 March 19:30

      I cancelled a 2-4-1 on Wednesday. Not bad the Avios or voucher re-credited yet. Assume I wouldn’t yet due to the volume…. did you get your Avios and Voucher back already?

      • Liz says:

        14 Mar14 March 19:38

        There was a technical issue with the Avios which he raised an issue with so I haven’t received them yet but the voucher was back in our account instantly and the flights removed from MMB.

• Chris says:

  14 Mar14 March 19:09

  A bit worried… I have a flight booked for 6th April from Athens to Buenos Aires via Madrid (Iberia) and I am on EU passport.

  What are your personal thoughts? Will I make it?

  • Shoestring says:

    14 Mar14 March 19:11

    highly unlikely as you have 2 stress points working against you, ie the different legs of the journey and the rules in force – plus not long for things to change (3 weeks or so)

    • Chris says:

      14 Mar14 March 19:36

      Oh dear… so much money down the drain…

      • Shoestring says:

        14 Mar14 March 19:44

        not necessarily: did you pay on a UK credit card (Section 75)?

        • Chris says:

          14 Mar14 March 20:21

          yes – but how can I make use of this? claiming that…?

        • Shoestring says:

          14 Mar14 March 20:34

          unfulfilled contract

          claim chargeback

        • Shoestring says:

          14 Mar14 March 21:02

          you do it by ringing the credit card co, no need to go legal on them

          ring them, explain the situation quickly then ask if they can chargeback what you’ve paid as the contract cannot be fulfilled

          the credit card cos hold back monies from the airlines as they know there will be a certain number of chargebacks

        • Chris says:

          14 Mar14 March 21:23

          Chargeback claim although the flight is not cancelled? Will it be enough to say that I won’t be going due to covid-19 issues and that is why I want my money back?

  • Marcw says:

    14 Mar14 March 19:38

    Challenging situation. Argentina will close to European flights… I thinks for 30 days. Wait until your flight is cancelled, then ask refund

  • Lady London says:

    14 Mar14 March 20:21

    No as it routes via Spain which is closed

    • marcw says:

      14 Mar14 March 20:52

      Spainish airport will be open and operating. Spanish airlines are required to cut capacity by 50%.

• Peter says:

  14 Mar14 March 19:34

  We are in Florida due to fly back from Tampa with BA next Friday, waiting to know what will happen.

  • Kerry says:

    16 Mar16 March 13:10

    We are in Orlando. Waiting for Virgin to confirm what’s happening.

• Brian ainger says:

  14 Mar14 March 19:37

  We are due to fly on monday to phoenix for a wedding that has now been cancelled, we were going to go anyway but are now in a difficult position, we booked with BA, but the outbound filght is with AA, at 9.30am moday before the lockdown, however we probably wont be able to get back on BA on the 2 april so we now dont want to go. A voucher is no good to us as we were going for the wedding which may be anytime in the future. I want a full refund but BA appear not to be offering this, their web site is absolutely rubbish, AIRBNB and the car rental company Rentalcars.com had specific detaiuls on the Corona virus and one click and the refunds were instant. So why are BA so poor, wont be booking with them again.

  • Shoestring says:

    14 Mar14 March 20:58

    they face an existential threat (going bust) & are trying to conserve cash

    • Brian ainger says:

      14 Mar14 March 21:12

      Agreed, but its my cash, and they cannot supply the service i paid for, give it back or pay me the same rate of interest a credit card charges !!!

      • Shoestring says:

        14 Mar14 March 23:25

        voucher is better than getting nothing

    • Alex Sm says:

      15 Mar15 March 11:42

      I can’t understand why hotels are so flexible on cancellations and refunds, why airlines are so stubborn. Everyone is is in the same boat now and they could be seen as making money on people’s troubles. We are not far from vandalism against airplanes, airports, hacking of airlines websites etc

  • Dravid74 says:

    14 Mar14 March 23:20

    you can use the voucher for other flights

  • Alex Sm says:

    15 Mar15 March 11:38

    Why did they cancel the wedding?

• Mark says:

  14 Mar14 March 19:56

  At present the US is reporting roughly 2x as many cases and deaths as the UK, with a population roughly 5x that of the UK. However as we know the level of testing in the US has been much much lower, so the chances are that they are under reporting (to a greater degree than most other countries) and that the real per capita figures may not be much different, or even perhaps higher in the US.

  So whilst it may well be the case that the ban is extended it is certainly possible that it may not be, especially if Trump sees it contributing to the economic damage, his beloved market indices, his reputation and chances of re-election.

  One is for sure it won’t simply go away, at least not until the US like everyone else has been through a period of significant pain.

  • Paul says:

    14 Mar14 March 22:00

    His presidency is toast .
    Other thoughts:
    The 737 max is nothing but an expensive paperweight and dead duck. Will never fly again.
    Johnson is on the ropes
    Policy of heard immunity in tatters. Being ignored by almost the entire private sector who have travel bans and working from home. Schools to stay open but Eton closed.
    It a tragedy for those who lose family. And difficult times lie ahead

    • Jimbo says:

      15 Mar15 March 00:37

      Eton is not closed. The boys were on short leave – which happens twice a half – and were due back in their houses this evening for roll-call.

    • Simon says:

      15 Mar15 March 06:58

      It is not a policy of herd immunity. It’s a policy to delay transmission. HI is just a side effect of the policy. The CMO and CSO didn’t describe it like that – it was someone else (from the Behavioural Science team).

      • Polly says:

        15 Mar15 March 08:34

        It is a policy for herd immunity, with the secret hopes that state funded elderly care costs will fall rapidly…..

        • Nori says:

          15 Mar15 March 10:50

          Finally somebody sees it the way it is.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Mar15 March 13:05

          +1
          What do you think of herd immunity @Polly?

          Coronavirus never been killed off in cats.
          Common cold mutates each year. So any immunity that may have been created in those who caught it, is probably only partial.

          Influenza ditto. Most years flu vaccines are only partially accurate as the virus has mutated between vaccine design and flu arrival.

          Some years flu vaccine has been close to completely ineffective as the wrong guess was made about which strains to build the vaccine for.

          However herd immunity and partial immunity has definitely helped in the above cases. Just not the sick, elderly and vulnerable.

          We still don’t know what problems people may be left with ongoing after the acute phase of their bout with the virus passes.

          Has anyone seen any info about how long the virus can survive outside the human body?

      • Anuj says:

        15 Mar15 March 14:03

        I looked at the behavioural science team and found their Twitter. They just seemed like a glorified marketing consultancy. Certainly didn’t inspire confidence in the government’s approach to me…

    • Bazza says:

      15 Mar15 March 07:19

      #turnbackthexlock up remain! Vote for Clinton! Hahaha

      • Alex Sm says:

        15 Mar15 March 09:31

        Jokes aside, but given that all of the current ones are in the high-risk group, we might have slightly (or completely) different set of candidates by November

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