How much of the BA schedule is going to be cut in November?

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• Simon A says:

  5 Nov5 November 21:58

  O/T but does anyone know if reward flights for Sept/Oct 2021 are fully released yet? I noticed a couple of weeks ago Business seats to Tokyo were super common, and now there’s basically zero availability. Surely they can’t have all been booked already?

  • ChrisC says:

    6 Nov6 November 00:07

    they only guarentee to release 2 rewards in club

    And yes to popular destinations they really do get booked as soon as they are appear

    they may release more but noone can say when they will do that

    • Simon A says:

      6 Nov6 November 00:26

      I get that, but 2 weeks ago all of september had 4+ seats on every flight in business, not just the latest released seats, now there isn’t a single outbound business seat at all. Not just a single date or seat type, but every date, every seat type. Surely that’s not right.

      • Jonathan says:

        6 Nov6 November 07:15

        Perfectly possible (indeed likely) that BA have cut award availability while they figure out their strategy for next year. They were clearly using reward flights as a means of generating cash-flow hence the pretty open availability & 50% sale etc.

        Now they’re entering a hibernation period of slashed schedules & furloughing staff it’s easier for them to pull cheap fares &!Avios to save the hassle of processing inevitable refunds/date changes etc.

      • Chris Heyes says:

        6 Nov6 November 12:42

        Simon A Once the dust settles you will find one of two scenarios happen The Avios rewards seats will be as low as their guarantees are set at and prices are raised to get enough revenue in.
        Or if no aptitude for flights a lot of Avios rewards seats will become available depends mainly how customers react in Business and first
        looking how HFP readers are reacting on here my guess is prices will sneak up and Avios availability will go down
        when i booked to Denver for Aug 21 it was showing 8 (yes 8) Business seats most days, same coming back from Phoenix end Aug 21, I’ve “NEVER” seen that many available
        Soon as Sept became bookable they had all but vanished
        it was as though BA had a IT glitch for 2 days only 8 a day then back to at most 4/6

        • Simon A says:

          11 Nov11 November 16:50

          Just to follow up here, flights were re-added en masse on Monday morning, and full availability for Sept and Oct were available again to book. Not quite sure what happened, when I asked the BA guy on a call when I was booking, he didn’t know, but possibly just back-end to-ing and fro-ing.

• Niall says:

  6 Nov6 November 01:36

  O/T Anyone know what the situation is with VAT refunds at Heathrow T5? Operating on a postal service only? Or can VAT refunds still be processed at the airport to card or in cash?

  • Tom says:

    6 Nov6 November 04:16

    Niall, the desk was open (and busy) as we passed through on the 4th November. I’m unable to comment on any changes now the U.K. is back in lock down.

    • Niall says:

      6 Nov6 November 08:24

      Thanks – will take stamps and envelopes with me just in case!

  • Tabitha says:

    6 Nov6 November 08:58

    Travelex are still offering cash and cc refunding as the normal validation services on behalf of U.K. Border Force. Go to the Travelex depts landslide desk first – they will advise if an airside inspection of goods is required. Situation is currently under review, but it’s operating as normal for the moment.

    • Niall says:

      6 Nov6 November 09:33

      Thanks Tabitha!

• Chris says:

  6 Nov6 November 07:57

  I had a flight from Berlin to Heathrow cancelled on Sunday. BA claim for “operational” reasons. As it was within 14 days, does this come under compensation within EU 261/2004? Any thoughts?

  • Rob says:

    6 Nov6 November 09:02

    No, due to covid exceptions.

    • Chris says:

      6 Nov6 November 09:18

      What are those covid exceptions though? Travel – notably business travel – has not been banned in Germany or the UK.

      • marcw says:

        6 Nov6 November 09:23

        Check EC261 clarification statement earlier this year. Airlines can cancel flights at short notice due to COVID-19 restrictions.

        • Chris says:

          6 Nov6 November 21:06

          Yes, I read those. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell whether they cancelled for “Covid” reasons or other “operational reasons”. It was a Sunday flight, so, given it is not peak business time, I suppose it’s understandable why it might have happened.

      • Nick says:

        6 Nov6 November 12:18

        The UK government told its citizens not to travel, starting 5 Nov and causing an immediate fall in demand, and you think it’s not exceptional circumstances?!

• NC says:

  6 Nov6 November 08:56

  I’ve had an avios flight cancelled in F. I was hoping to move the dates to next year (on dates when no avios seats are showing as available). I thought the rule was that when BA cancel an avios flight, I could re-book into any dates where a cash seat is available. However BA have just told me that this only applies where I’m looking to rebook for travel within 14 days of my current travel date. Is that right?

  • Chef says:

    6 Nov6 November 09:10

    They have advised you incorrectly, no Avios seats need to be available if BA cancel

    • NC says:

      6 Nov6 November 09:22

      Thanks – good to know I wasn’t going mad. HUACA worked.

• Jill (Kinkell) says:

  6 Nov6 November 09:39

  Thanks. Helpful list.I note ABZ, GLA , EDI don’t appear, but INV gets suspended until 16 Dec. How valued we are in the very north….trailing behind other locations by about a fortnight.

• Sam says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:01

  How likely is it that this list will be added to?

  Pleasantly surprised not to see BCN on there but I don’t want to count any chickens

  • ChrisBCN says:

    6 Nov6 November 10:34

    I’ve been monitoring the BCN flights for a while; they have been scheduling 5 or 6 flights a day, then cancelling most a couple of weeks before the date, leaving 1 or 2 running each day. I see for the next few weeks they are running 1 on most days.

    So, if your flight is up to and including the 24th Nov it looks like it will run.
    If your flight is 25th Nov to 6th Dec it won’t run.
    If your flight is 7th Dec or later, they haven’t pruned these yet so we don’t know.

    • Sam says:

      6 Nov6 November 11:13

      Sounds good, thanks for the info.

      I’m scheduled on 21st at the moment, with a Vueling flight from Gatwick as backup on the 22nd.

      I already had that booking moved from 11ish to 8:40 so I’m hopeful that that was the pruning.

      • Sam says:

        6 Nov6 November 11:16

        The BA one, no change from Vueling yet.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        6 Nov6 November 12:15

        I’d be worried about flying back to the UK if I were you, depending on how long you are staying of course! And don’t forget all the bars and restaurants are closed (except for take out). And there is the 10pm curfew which has just been extended to 23rd Nov.

        • Sam says:

          6 Nov6 November 13:16

          We’re moving, so getting back isn’t a concern.

          Only slight other concern is our hotel stay being cancelled while we look for an apartment, but shouldn’t be too big a problem.

      • ChrisBCN says:

        6 Nov6 November 13:58

        Great, I hope your move goes well! There’s actually a lot of places to rent right now (thanks to there being little demand for Airbnb flats) so you shouldn’t have too many problems. The idealista app is very good, if I’m not already telling you what you know.

    • Jonny O says:

      6 Nov6 November 14:26

      It is a very fluid situation. They just cancelled my BCN flight for Monday 9 November. only 3 days notice….

      • Lady London says:

        6 Nov6 November 22:20

        if they cancel your flight and you’ve given up your residence etc due your move then they are responsible for your accommodation and any extra meals transport to and from accomodation, until they can fly you. So if that happens ask them for this.

• Raisa says:

  6 Nov6 November 10:31

  My flight to YYZ for 5th December was cancelled yesterday… just trying to get home for Christmas!

• Valery Scott says:

  6 Nov6 November 11:14

  I had a BA flight to PDX booked with companion voucher & avios, the flight was cancelled as they dropped the route before it even started – my understanding was that if the flight was cancelled you which you’d booked as reward seats you could re book even if no reward seats available – will I be able to do this on another route as PDX no longer offered ?

  • Lady London says:

    6 Nov6 November 11:20

    yes. you could, technically, also ask to travel on Delta instead as you have the right to be rerouted on another airline. PDX is a Delta atronghold and if a Virgin Lounge gapowbs to be open you get access if on Delta in J upwards. SEA is generally the easiest close gateway.

    • Nick says:

      6 Nov6 November 12:21

      No, you won’t be put on Delta – you don’t have the right to demand you be put on any airline of your choosing. BA will, however, very happily route you to PDX on AA, with whom they have a joint business partnership across the North Atlantic. You can choose your routing if you want. Alternatively you can ask for SEA as an alternative, if you prefer.

      • Lady London says:

        6 Nov6 November 12:45

        PS having flown to Portland a number of times in recent years (and via SEA and via SFO and even consdered YVR)
        I’m fairly familiar with what the alternatives that have tbe closest resemblance to an originally booked direct flight timings departing and landng are going to be. It makes an enormous difference to land there direct.

        • John says:

          6 Nov6 November 18:07

          LHR -> YVR -> SEA was pretty good when I tried it, although I flew Air Canada, which has a decent business cabin.

          You go through US immigration at YVR, and the additional flight time didn’t seem too bad at all.

          (There were other considerations: The indirect flight got me the extra Star Alliance spend I needed to hit the next tier with United, and the flights were about 2/3 of the cost of going direct with BA or Virgin, which kept my employer happy…)

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