Hi,

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, so apologies if not...

My parents are booked to travel LHR-JNB on April 18th (returning 6 weeks later) using a companion voucher. The voucher was extended automatically a couple of times during the pandemic, and would now be expiring in early May. In addition, they have several internal flights using Comair (so visible in MMB, but via a different booking ref).

Unfortunately, my dad had to be rushed to hospital 10 days ago for emergency heart surgery. Thankfully the surgery was a success, but he is in no way fit to fly, and has a medical certificate from the surgeon stating that my dad should not fly for at least 3 months and must seek a further opinion on his fitness to fly thereafter.

I contacted BA Customer Relations; the lady said we will need to cancel the flights (paying the 35ppp) and then contact them back to request an extension to the voucher, but that the extension being granted is not guaranteed. I had hoped they would be more sympathetic to the fact that my parents' are not "not flying" out of choice but rather as a result of an emergency major surgery, but that's the answer so far...

So my question here is: is anyone aware of any other route that could be taken to ensure that my parents could take these same flights but just later on when my dad is cleared to fly again? Any other contact numbers or e-mails? Any legislation applying to medical emergencies (clutching at straws...)

Looking at the news and traffic on various forums, I'm also vaguely hoping that with all the disruption BA might even cancel my parents' flights on the 18th, which would leave them in a much stronger position, but again...that's clutching at straws I fear.

Any thoughts/suggestions very much welcome.
Thanks a lot!