British Airways drops Bangkok and other Asia routes for the winter

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• Simon says:

  9 Apr9 April 06:58

  I think it will take more then double Avios to tempt people back. Myself included. Horrendous experiences on most of my trips since I started flying again. Hit by IT issues like many others. And a friend came out to see us in valencia this week and the luggage followed the evening after. Not saying every flight has problems, but enough for me to switch carriers for future flights where possible. Double Avios or no double Avios.

• Frankie says:

  9 Apr9 April 07:17

  I have Bangkok club world booked with BA in January on an Amex 2 for 1 voucher. Am I entitled to a rebooking on another airline? And can I be proactive and call them now even though my booking isn’t yet showing as cancelled on the BA app? Thanks in advance for any replies.

  • Mark says:

    9 Apr9 April 07:30

    Yep you should have the option of rebooking on Qatar even though it’s 241 voucher. I called yesterday and they wouldn’t do anything until I have the cancellation email.

    • Frankie says:

      9 Apr9 April 07:34

      Thanks Mark. Could I ask for Thai airways so I rebook on a direct flight?

      • Mark says:

        9 Apr9 April 09:18

        More likely to get QR as they’d re one world, you might have. A bigger fight for Thai.

    • Paul Hickey says:

      9 Apr9 April 08:01

      Thanks for the note, you’ve saved me calling up prematurely. On the off chance, do you know how flexible they are in terms of changing dates / airports? We are in Leeds so have to slog to LHR but Q fly from MAN… we also want to wind up in Phuket, also a Q option.

      • yorkieflyer says:

        9 Apr9 April 10:14

        There is a 300 mile limit on nearby airports so MAN ok HKT no if the rules are followed

        • Paul Hickey says:

          9 Apr9 April 13:14

          Cheers

  • Rob says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:20

    Rhys was moved to Qatar and highly recommends it.

    • paul e says:

      9 Apr9 April 09:46

      @rob did he get that moved today? i spent more than an hour on the phone and they flatly refused to move anything yet. thanks in advance

      • Rob says:

        9 Apr9 April 12:06

        No, months ago, because we’ve just published his hotel reviews from the trip.

        • Paul E says:

          10 Apr10 April 03:40

          @rob thanks, I’ll check them out!

  • Chris says:

    11 Apr11 April 12:53

    Hi Frankie I am in the exact same position as you. I just want a full refund so I can book with another airline, I don’t trust BA anymore. I don’t want them to inform me of cancellation a week before departure. Is obvious that they know the flight is cancelled now because it’s not available to purchase anymore

• Peter says:

  9 Apr9 April 07:50

  I don’t want Avios I want proper service from BA.

• Jon says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:11

  @Graeme, @Paul E – I’m in Malaysia. Seems we have a little HfP contingent down in this part of the world! 😂

  I’m quite happy that BA no longer serves KL tbh, and having had various run-ins with them, once I’ve burned my Avios stash I’ll be doing my best to never again give them any more of my money. Would be great if Virgin came to KL instead.

  Having said that, in case this is useful to anyone else, and credit where it’s due to BA (or at least, the Avios team): I had CW flights HKG-LHR, booked ages ago using a Lloyds upgrade voucher, and repeatedly cancelled by BA. With the route cancelled (at the time) until May, I wanted to push back to December, and fully expected to have the usual UK/EU261 argument, because BA was (of course) doing their usual ploy of insisting that Avios seats have to be available for a re-route, and on top of that the ticket validity also expired in May – the day before the route was due to resume…

  Long story short, a couple of Avios seats opened up from Singapore on acceptable dates, so I suggested that so long as it didn’t cost me any extra, I’d be happy to take those rather than insist on my statutory right to new flights from Hong Kong. BA willingly agreed (slightly to my surprise! But I assume they calculated that swallowing the extra Avios/cash cost of sending me from SIN was better than releasing two revenue seats from HKG). Very happy with that, and a sensible pragmatic approach from BA. Saved us both an argument and perhaps another £10k bill for BA.

  Usually the requirement is that any change of city has to be within 300 miles, but evidently BA is sometimes willing to waive this if it’s the difference between using revenue and Avios seats.

  Hope that might help someone!

  • paul e says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:18

    @Jon i’m on the phone to them now and they are not being very helpful (surprise surprise) but i’m not giving up. i’m awaiting to speak to a manager

    • numpty says:

      9 Apr9 April 08:25

      @ Paul – it can take BA a few days to confirm with their staff the rebooking procedure. So initially there can be some confusion (on BAs part, not ours!)

  • numpty says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:22

    To reinforce Jon’s comments, a BA cancellation can be a good thing! Although I do prefer direct flights.
    BA will set up a procedure for how to rebook, probably with QR. Don’t take the refund!!
    When KL was cancelled I had a 241 (in 50% Avios sale) which I was able to rebook, according to FT they should have booked me on to MAS, but I got QR.
    Flight was then booked into an I Fare Class. The flight was then rebooked due to Malaysian entry rules (and I was able to use a QR flight time change as the excuse for a further date change), this time in Fare Class R. End result is that on Sunday I will be flying EDI to KUL in a mix of QR aircraft and business seats (787-8, 777 Q Suite, 777 old seat and A380).
    If anyone gets booked onto QR but can’t choose seats, then try MMB on MAS or RJ websites.

• Andy says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:13

  Well that is very annoying! All booked for December with BA. And while they might allow rebooking with QR I can imagine it might be a bit of a bun fight with all the BA passengers to rebook

  • James Harper says:

    9 Apr9 April 15:35

    Perhaps that’s why Qatar are operating two of their at least four DOH-BKK services with the A380!

    • Graeme says:

      10 Apr10 April 00:35

      That’s due to their A350 problems. I said a long time ago to expect anything East of Doha to be rare for BA service – and here it starts.

      Living in Asia, with family in Yorkshire and now with the QR Avios arrangements (cash and Mike’s fares in particular) I’m giving any money to AY or QR for the rest of my time here.

• Harry T says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:19

  Double Avios for new bookings only doesn’t strike me as a great way to retain business, as anyone with pre-existing bookings is likely to be pretty annoyed. I doubt BA are going to attract new business with a double Avios promotion that most ordinary people won’t care about, so perhaps they should focus on making their places arrive and leave on time so they can retain their existing customer base!

• Dannii says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:24

  We had flights with BA booked for Feb 22 and they were cancelled. We intended to re book for Jan 23.
  I’m gutted as we have 2for1 vouchers to use so I doubt they will allow this with Qatar.
  It’s the only route we accrued them for.

• SamG says:

  9 Apr9 April 08:31

  There isn’t a specific rebooking policy in place yet and the generic rebook to QR policy doesn’t stretch this far. So if you haven’t called yet you’ll find it easier to wait a few days

  • paul e says:

    9 Apr9 April 08:40

    @samg this is kind of what i’ve been told having been on the phone to BA for an hour. no agreements in place. they kept trying to persuade me to take a refund but i of course refused. they could give no indication as to when any such agreements might be in place…

    • David S says:

      9 Apr9 April 09:25

      As a word of warning on refunds. Just got my refund back in March for a 241 booking to BKK. BA redeposited my 241 into my account on 31st March with a validity date of 4th April 2022 (Yes 2022) and BAEC have refused to extend the date. Great customer service I don’t think.

  • Lady London says:

    9 Apr9 April 16:54

    It doesn’t matter how you paid for your seats eg on a 241, in a promo or in a sale whose dates have long ago passed ,what you have is a seat with full rights under 261 if BA cancels a flight. They have to reroute each seat regardless if that’s your choice. And 261 overrides anything BA says or wants. You can choose to rebook on any date you choose as convenient to you and 261 overrides any rubbish from BA trying to force you into a refund instead.

    Your rerouting rights are more valuable.

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