Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum. Past experience on this particular route tends to support the view that the cancellation will go on for longer than the current suspension, and it is possible that BA will drop the route altogether, as Virgin has already done. So I would give it a high chance that the return will be put in scope for the above guidance at some point, even if it's relatively short notice.

My return is also on June 16th (which is currently running, but may well be cancelled).

I would like to be prepared for a short notice cancellation and the possibility that I won�t travel on (a rebooked to el-al flight) on the 16th due to lack of availability. If the next available flight is the next day, or the day after, are BA responsible for duty of care (hotel, food etc?)

Is it better to be proactive and book a cheapo hotel with free cancellation myself and claim back from BA in case this happens?

At what point is BA going to decide it's better off indefinitely suspending this route (as per Virgin Atlantic's recent move)? There's not any sign of stability in the region, so airlines will need to constantly manage the risk. These ongoing route suspensions must cost BA both financially and in terms of the operational impact of dealing with rebookings. Plus it seems from the comments on this thread not many people want to fly in a short-haul configuration. When will BA decide the risk and operational issues aren't worth it and they would be better off using that capacity on other more stable routes? I guess there might be some political pressure to retain flights from a British airline, but I would think that BA should be focused on commercial viability above all else.

Yes BA would be potentially on the hook for Right to Care expenses if you are delayed overnight due to a lack of alternatives. However it's usually best to sort this out on the day, in fact if it happens you will usually get at least a day's notice anyway. I wouldn't overthink it given there are so many variables here.

Forgive me for following up again for more clarity, but I�m still a bit confused about the best way forward for me. My return BA flight has now been cancelled also of course. It seems I fell foul of being too quick to call BA before all the agents were made aware of the rebooking policy that seems to have become fully implemented a few hours after I called. So, to recap I booked a biz (approx �550) flight from Luton and a return to LHR (approx �300) on LY (13-23rd May) myself - there was no econ availability on the day left, and indeed all availability next week disappeared soon after I booked. So - should I call BA and explain the situation or just request the cost of my flights (or perhaps a reasonable approximation of what econ would be - �500 and eat the extra for the biz sector) via the website, and when is best to do this - now or after the date I would have flown with BA? Thank you so much for any further advice - kicking myself that in my panic I booked myself when waiting a few hours would have got me rebooked gratis (hopefully!).

Yes, it was kind of inevitable that El Al rebooking would happen, and was mentioned upthread. Where you are now is a bit complex. At the time you called you were not offered a rebook, if you call now you presumably will get that rebooking. I don't know if the El Al flight is refundable, but the ideal solution now is
- refund El Al, call BA, get rebooked on El Al, but that's subject to available services and booking classes on the various route
- get a full refund on the BA booking and accept your loss as the price of a secured flight
- run on with the basis that you were told "no rebooking possible" and see whether CEDR / MCOL lands in your favour - and I wouldn't say that is a certainty.
- make a complaint to BA Customer Relations - maybe get some Avios for the initial response, though to be fair BA did move more quickly on this one than on previous such occasions
I can't see the basis of BA paying for an economy ticket instead, other than via MCOL or CEDR, firstly it's a double hypothesis (if you could buy and had BA not moved position); secondly it's just not how BA would handle this sort of thing, they would normally say "we can give a refund, and you can submit a complaint".

Did you accept a refund from BA? Or a rebooking on a non-preferred route?

If so, sorry, but you cannot change it, and they won�t cover the cost of replacement flights.

I have not accepted a refund nor a rebooking. When i spoke to BA they said that I could not be rebooked on EL AL so I booked myself, the situation has since changed. So I am hoping that I might get refunded but this might be a long shot.

Ah ok.
I think refund from BA for your (separate) booking with El Al will be a non-starter.

I would:

• See if El Al offer a 24 hour cooling off (if you can cancel without penalty)
• See if BA can even offer you a seat on the El Al flight that you want -- only certain seat fare buckets are available.
• If both of the above are fine, you could go down that route.

Otherwise you may have to settle for accepting a refund from BA and chalking the difference in price up to experience.
Someone more knowledgeable than me might know more for your specific situation though.

Just make sure you only accept refund for the legs that have been cancelled if you go down this route, make sure they don't cancel your whole booking!

My LY flight is refundable (for a 130 fee which I'd happily swallow) but predictably having just spoke to BA there is absolutely no availability on LY for the next two weeks at all so that's a non-starter now. Looks like I will end up paying an extra 800 that I did not need to due to BA's call center teams not being up to date on their own policies, but at least I will make my trip. I shall make a complaint for the hope of a few avios but it seems the prevailing wisdom is that I won't be succesful for a claim to get a refund of what I spent on LY. Thanks to all for the advice.

Does that mean you will get compensated by BA?

No, there isn't compensation for downgrades anyway, just reimbursements under a particular formula. In this case I would expect a voluntary downgrade would permit a fare difference refund if there was no other way to fly but strictly speaking that isn't payable if the customer requests to be downgraded.

I would think: no.
As it is a voluntary downgrade, not involuntary.

Thank you
I have a club europe return flight to TLV which got cancelled.
The could not find any flights on the same dates but only for different dates, ELAL business class from Luton and ELAL return to Heathrow in Premium as there were no business available(in the class they were limited to- even though there were business seats available)
The agent said on the phone that I would be entitled to involuntary downgrade compensation as well as compesation for change of airport. Luton instead og Heathrow.
Is the agent correct?

Is another option to keep those BA flights for a future trip, on a date when BA think they will be operating?