Originally Posted by
Jon Baker
Trying to get the inlaws back from Melbourne - being advised by UK based travel agent that BA16 is going to continue to run (currently showing well into April) but just stopping in SIN for refueling (no passenger offload).
Anyone able to confirm is this is true?
Much appreciated.
It does not seem to be happening yet, but I'm sure both BA and the UK government are scrambling to work something out, given the number of people stranded in Australia and New Zealand (it appears to be 1,000s).
There were people earlier in the thread saying that they were surprised an alternative hadn't been worked out already, but they seem to be forgetting that liaising with foreign government entities, especially when public health measures are involved, can be quite time consuming.
It might take a bit longer to sort out but I suspect something will be worked out. There are apparently a lot of people caught up in Singapore transit ban, so there is an incentive to work something out, or requests for consular assistance will go through the roof from people who have run out funds.
Since most alternatives that you can book independently are very expensive and rapidly diminishing, the only available option may be to wait for a while and hope that BA, in cooperation with the British government, will work something out.
Alternatively, you could try and get on QF 1 (SYD-(DRW)-LHR) or QF 9 (PER-LHR) but last I looked at them, only full fare business class seats remained on either of the services, and the availability was disappearing already (you'll probably need to telephone Qantas to arrange for it, as booking online wasn't working out at all due to disappearing availability). There have been reports of MH flights via KUL available, so that might also be worth a look. That is, if you are in a hurry to get your in-laws back, and can afford to do so (QF flights are well over AUD 10,000 per person in business class, one way, and that is, if you can get them). If not, you might just want to wait.
We should also remember that most likely there are Australia/NZ citizens stuck in the UK and other parts of Europe, so UK/Australia/NZ might even try to negotiate something together. I am guessing something will be worked out in the end, whether it's going via elsewhere (for example, at a guess, something like refuel/crew change in KUL, for instance, or exemption from Singapore government for just refuel/crew change but no passenger drop-off or pick-up and all passengers staying on board).
Richardc77 who is active in this thread was supposed to fly SYD-LHR on BA 16 today but it didn't happen (only those who were allowed to transit or enter Singapore were allowed on, by the looks of it), and he'll be providing updates. You can keep an eye on this thread for developments.