Foreign Office advises against all non-essential overseas travel – full statement

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• Novice says:

  17 Mar17 March 17:36

  Is everyone having a hassle cancelling etc due to the fact that y’all book everything yourselves.

  I’m asking because although I have had a holiday cancelled I personally didn’t have to do anything. No calls etc for a full refund.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    17 Mar17 March 17:53

    Monese save 15% on £100 voucher
    15% off
    SHOP15

    • Alex W says:

      17 Mar17 March 20:09

      Thanks!

    • Alan says:

      17 Mar17 March 23:39

      Yeah saw that but already have £400 in M&S gift cards and not sure now is a sensible time to be stacking up more!

      • Alex Sm says:

        18 Mar18 March 22:38

        Amazon or other etailers – they are in high-demand these days!

  • Jack W says:

    17 Mar17 March 21:41

    Fairly painless for me. I had travel booked directly with brussels airlines (cash), virgin (miles redeemed on ANA metal), and Hilton (1 cash, 1 points booking).

    Brussels airlines had a self-service form on their website to confirm cancellation and get a refund.

    Hilton points bookings are self-service refundable on their website. The cash rate was nonrefundable but their policy changed due to the disruption. I contacted them on twitter DM and they refunded me within minutes (genuinely, minutes).

    The virgin redemption presents itself as being self-service cancellable, but there seems to be a glitch in the website. They’re asking customers not to get in contact until 72hrs before departure dates so I’m waiting until then.

    It’s not taken zero time, but it has been as easy as I could have hoped given the circumstances

• Annabel says:

  17 Mar17 March 20:05

  Sadly cancelled my Easter trip to Japan / Hong Kong 8 days ago and incurred some losses / Avios redeposit fees. Can I claim on my travel insurance ( Hsbc premier seem to include this ) now the FCO have advised against non essential travel? Or is it too bad I had already cancelled? Might be a silly question. Thank you in advance.

  • Lady London says:

    17 Mar17 March 20:27

    Your cancellation was not caused by the FCO announcement so I would say you are not covered.

  • Yan says:

    17 Mar17 March 21:46

    Hong Kong’s 14 day quarantine rule from anywhere would otherwise make your entry to HK impossible.

• Tanya says:

  17 Mar17 March 20:44

  We have flights booked with BA to fly to NY on the 9th April, we do not want a voucher or to rebook at this stage. Given the FO advice, can BA just leave these flights as ‘operational’ regardless of whether they take passengers? It seems to me that BA are trying to force passengers to take vouchers or rebook rather than cancel and offer full refunds.

  • Shoestring says:

    17 Mar17 March 20:50

    presumably yes if US citizens can fly, regardless of whether any are actually ticketed to fly & it’s just a cargo plane in reality

    I think BA might play tricky in this regard

    • Lady London says:

      17 Mar17 March 23:51

      If it’s not carrying passengers should it appear in a passenger timetable as flying?

      • stevenhp1987 says:

        18 Mar18 March 00:22

        They *can* carry passengers. If only a handful board the plane, the plane is operating, so no refund.

        I’m still awaiting for some cancellations and am dreading this happening…

        • Lady London says:

          18 Mar18 March 00:27

          Yes you could imagine how many flights this could apply to. However not on all routes! Cargo demand varies according to route.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Mar18 March 01:15

      Sounds like any US citizens flying back home might as well pick the biggest plane on their route and not bother to do any seat reservations! Sounds like it’s worth hoping a few rows of 3 or 4 seats might be available!

  • Lady London says:

    17 Mar17 March 23:49

    Yes because the longer BA leave it till they tell anyone it’s cancelled, the more chance passengers “self-cancel” and BA gets to keep cancellation fees and all fees those passengers paid for things like seat reservations.

    There’s also a chance the passengers can’t get through to BA on the phone to cancel. Or they try to get through and can’t get through so many times, that the flight departs and they haven’t been able to cancel. So BA can argue about refunding because technically the passenger is a no-show.

    Usefully, it seems that as from the past day or so, BA is no longer showing the button to cancel for a full refund any more on their website. Passengers are being directed to a button to request a voucher instead.

    This is all about clawing cash and not giving it back. The customer is fully entitled to cash back and it’s clear BA is taking deliberate steps to make this difficult.

    Would you take a voucher from a company that acts this way? They had better be careful. Companies that have begun to prevaricate about returning cash customers are fully entitled to receive back include many that subsequently have gone bust.

    I thought BA was trying to say we could book with confidence?

• David S says:

  17 Mar17 March 21:06

  In Cozumel and returning back to the UK in 6 days. So far BA is still flying to Mexico and since the FCO has not put Mexico on the list of places not to go, can’t change dates yet. Avios Lloyd’s voucher booking and no availability from Cancun for next 4 weeks. Is it worth changing to come back from Mexico city earlier or just enjoy the sun and keep the fingers crossed?

  • Shoestring says:

    17 Mar17 March 21:14

    up to you

    as far as I can see, the whole global airline industry is closing down apart from cargo + some citizens getting repatriated to their home country (international); and domestic flights for the next few months

    people have been left high & dry in certain countries when airlines have withdrawn services

    • Lady London says:

      18 Mar18 March 00:56

      Yes we’ve had a couple of posters who had to find a way to get home from Peru when flights were closing down completely.

      • Lady London says:

        18 Mar18 March 01:09

        *One of them was Paddington Bear!

  • meta says:

    17 Mar17 March 23:34

    FCO advisory is worldwide, so you need to check your insurance policy.

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    18 Mar18 March 00:15

    “FCO has not put Mexico on the list of places not to go”

    The FCO has advised against ALL essential foreign travel. Mexico is a place abroad, therefore, it is advised not to go there.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Mar18 March 00:50

    The problem is that if flights from Mexico get pulled, is there any other country you could fly from that you could reach? Obviously that’s not the US unless you’ve not been in UK/Europe for 14 days. They could change the rules to make it impossible even so, though.

    I think I’d use the waiting time on the phone to British Airways to check flights will still be running, to review my insurance policy. Depending on the insurance policy, if I felt I wasn’t covered for a substantial forced extended stay, I think I’d seriously think about asking BA can they get you on a flight earlier.

    • Lady London says:

      18 Mar18 March 00:52

      *use Skype to save expenses on call to BA?

      • David S says:

        18 Mar18 March 15:13

        Hi
        Thanks for all the replies. Since this was a Lloyd’s upgrade voucher using avios, rang avios via Skype and after an hour holding, was told there was no availability for rewards, so they said they cant do anything about it.
        I then rang BA and they basically said that since it is an Avios booking, they cant do anything about it!!! I did try to say that the FCO has advised against all non essential travel, BA said computer systems No!!! They were happy to sell me 2 economy seats for £2800 instead. Rather disappointing that BA are not happy to help.

• Bagoly says:

  17 Mar17 March 21:12

  BTW – Last I remember, Rhys was in Oz on very cheap ticket.
  Has he got back/been stranded/will come back OK ?

  • Rob says:

    17 Mar17 March 21:21

    He’s back as of yesterday.

    • mvcvz says:

      17 Mar17 March 21:58

      Would still make infinitely more sense than you ever do.

      • Callum says:

        17 Mar17 March 22:38

        While he often drives me insane (especially with his ignorant virus rhetoric which is thankfully winding down as each passing day proves him wrong!), I must admit I’ve benefited more from their tips over the last year than I have from HfP itself…

      • ChrisBCN says:

        17 Mar17 March 22:43

        I agree Callum, the problem is that one has now devalued the other.

• Lady London says:

  18 Mar18 March 00:09

  Yes. That’s a point.

  Might also apply to @Shoestring’s comments above about BA potentially flying planes that are really just flying for cargo now, but apparently not cancelling the passenger bookings on that same aircraft. So possibly forcing passengers to cancel as that way BA can keep big chunks of passengers’ money.

  It would be interesting if BA is trying this approach as I thought airlines are supposed to deny you boarding if you can’t prove you will be allowed to enter the destination country? So does that mean that unless a passenger has travel insurance that would cover not being allowed onto a plane or across a border for this kind of reason, or cover if the FCO announces, they have to take the voucher as better than paying cancellation penalties?

  • stevenhp1987 says:

    18 Mar18 March 00:26

    Denying you to board is not the same and cancelling your ticket.

    You can buy a ticket to whatever country without a visa. Not getting a visa, and being denied boarding, does not mean you get a refund.

    Same rules, different situation. If the flight is not cancelled, you do not get a refund (unless it’s part of a package deal, e.g. BA Holidays, in which the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements 2018 apply, and you get a full refund)!

• Lady London says:

  18 Mar18 March 00:34

  @Tom does your insurance include a clause paying out if the Foreign Office / FCO advise against travel to your destination?

• J says:

  18 Mar18 March 03:14

  Hello some advice please. I am flying back to Berlin via London this Sunday from Bangkok. BA have cancelled the London to Berlin part, option to rebook is not giving me any available flights and just prompting option for a refund. On the Sunday there is no BA flight to Berlin I could make in time, there are flights available for Monday although very expensive and limited availability. Should BA let me book one of these and travel insurance cover a hotel at Heathrow? Or I have seen other options to get back to Berlin from Bangkok, e.g. Aeroflot via Moscow. As things are changing quickly I know there isn’t any sure option. Although probably easier to get back to Berlin if already in Europe. Thanks for any thoughts!

  • Charlieface says:

    18 Mar18 March 09:27

    EC261 says they must offer a reasonable rerouting on any available airline.

  • Lady London says:

    18 Mar18 March 13:18

    Are you on BA starting from Bangkok for your return leg going Bang-lon-berlin?

    BA is a European airline so under eu261 they must “reroute” you. This means you call them and request a replacement flight to get you to Berlin. You have to pay nothing, ever, for this. Call them now. Use Skype or similar so you are not running up phone charges for the very long time you may wait to get through possibly more than once.

    Get the replacement flight and until it departs eu261 also gives you ‘duty if care’. The airline is responsible for hotel nights needed till your new flight, also food and drink costs for mealtimes while you wait for new flight, also transport costs to and from hotel. All these will only be paid or reimbursed at the reasonable cost level for where you’re stuck.

    When BA tells you which flight ask them to provide accommodation for you for nights needed . If they are not reasonably prompt in doing this then you can get your own and claim reimbursement of that and the above expenses.

    If they can’t rebook you on their own flight in same day you can ask them to provide you a ticket on another airline. Again they should provide this at no cost to you. Whatever any alternative flight would cost. I’d go with what they can do for you – either their own flight or another airline – making it clear you need them ideally to provide you the needed hotel nights under eu261 or that you will be claiming costs back if they cannot arrange and pay it for you.

    Start calling them now.

    • J says:

      18 Mar18 March 15:28

      Thanks Charlieface and LadyLondon 🙂 really appreciate the advice! Yes it’s return leg to Berlin with BA so that applies.

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