On trip illness – would BA move our flight FOC?

[ExpatInBerlin]

This may be a stupid question, if so please forgive me as I’m not feeling my best. In Gothenburg for the weekend and was having a lovely time until I woke up at 2am feeling unwell and have been up all night/morning since with what is either a bad case of food poisoning or an allergic reaction. We are due to fly back to LHR tonight at 19:20 but I’m not sure I’ll make it as currently can’t leave the bathroom. The Radisson kindly agreed to a late checkout of 1pm but at this rate we may need to book an extra night and fly back tomorrow.

We are on non-flexible CE tickets, is there any chance that if we call BA and ask to move us onto on of tomorrow’s flights they would do it as a goodwill gesture? Or should we just pay the change fare and claim on travel insurance (AXA via Amex Plat if it makes any difference) and if so, would we need a doctor’s note for that? OH has gone to find a pharmacy to see if there’s anything they can prescribe over the counter. Any words of advice would be much appreciated, we’re fortunate that neither of us had ever fallen ill on a trip before so this is new territory for us.

[JDB]

@ExpatInBerlin – I’m sorry to hear this; not what you need on a weekend away. BA is very inconsistent on this sort of thing. They do occasionally help, but it depends who you get and their greater concern is contagion rather than your personal wellbeing but that’s a slightly dangerous lever to pull… If they say no, for insurance you will almost certainly need a doctor’s note to say that you aren’t fit to travel. You are best to call your insurer’s claims line and ask what you need to do (ie in case they have a preferred medical supplier) and what they will cover before incurring any costs you aren’t willing to bear personally.

[ExpatInBerlin]

@JDB thank you, it is certainly not ideal but just grateful that it’s (hopefully) nothing serious, that we can afford to pay for any necessary changes and relatively speaking aren’t too far away from home. I hadn’t even thought to call AXA (I blame the dehydration) so thank you, I will do that now and check what the process is for this sort of thing in Sweden. Radisson have just extended us further to a 4pm checkout as a goodwill gesture which is a relief.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Why are your CE tickets non changeable?

Avios or a BA Holiday?

If the latter then email the duty office and they will phone you back. BA hols can be more flexible than BA flight only.

Even if an avios booking call BAEC and explain. You never know until you ask.

[SamG]

https://www.britishairways.com/travel-partner-connect/policies/self-service/illness-pre-and-mid-travel

BA does have a policy and will push your flight out FOC. You’ll need something from a Dr to confirm the illness and that you’re OK to fly but you can find plenty of online Dr who could do this for you

Extra hotel etc should be covered by your travel insurance

Hope you feel better soon

[Deek]

Earlier this year I got ill the night before my flight from Cairo, called BA to check my options and they moved it immediately FOC. They didn’t even ask for a doctors note, but this is probably not the norm. Claimed the extra hotel night via Amex Plat insurance.

[ExpatInBerlin]

Thanks all, this is all very helpful for future reference. The tickets weren’t non-changeable, I think when I wrote that on little sleep I meant to say that as they weren’t fully flex tickets I would need to pay the flight change costs. I called AXA and they advised that to claim any additional accommodation/flight change costs I would need a medical report from a doctor confirming I wasn’t fit to fly and that I would need to be seen in person, it couldn’t be a telephone/video call. The adviser looked on his system and said they couldn’t see any out of hours clinics open on Sundays in Gothenburg so I would need to go to an A&E. I thought it might be a better use of time to try and sleep it off and take the pharmacy meds so we could make our original flight, which we did. Fortunately I wasn’t travelling solo and had the benefit of fast track security and the lounge, so I didn’t have to carry any bags and there was minimal standing arond time. I slept on every leg of the journey and was very relieved when the cab dropped us back from LHR. I’m still recovering from whatever it was but it’s a relief to be doing so at home.