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Covid-19 and BA flight cancellations & rebooking: info & advice thread [*noise-free*]

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Old Feb 28, 2020, 9:30 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: LTN Phobia
WikiPost currently includes info on China inc Hong Kong, Singapore and Italy. As and when new/updated information becomes available, we would welcome your input in updating it.
Information resources (e.g. links of entry restrictions/quarantine requirements) are provided at the bottom of Wiki.


29 Feb 2020: List of routes with cancellations from 13 March to 28 March: PKX, PVG, HKG, SIN, LIN, ICN, VRN, BGY, BLQ, TRN, VCE.
(
In the case of PKX and PVG there are no services, for the other locations it's up to 50% of services.)

BA Book with Confidence Policy
BA have instigated a policy of bookings made on or after 3 March 2020 with zero change fees. Initially this policy will expire end of 31 16 March 2020. Details can be found in this thread: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ce-policy.html
Note.. despite the official start date of 3 March for this policy, at least one FT-er has advised that a booking on 2 March also attracted zero change fees.
BA has now expanded the book with confidence policy to expire 31 March 2020. Starting date of 3 March 2020 is unchanged.
China inc HKG
BA have cancelled all flights to PKX (Beijing/Peking) and PVG (Shanghai Pu Dong) "until 19 April 2020".

BA frequency to HKG has been reduced with effect from 13 February 2020 - see below for further details. From HKG, Cathay is running a heavily reduced schedule to mainland destinations until the end of March.

If you are due to fly to PKX, PVG and your flight is cancelled then you have refund, re-route and rebook options. BA can rebook on to several other airlines.
If you are due to fly to Hong Kong until 1st April you have refund and rebook options.
If you are transiting into mainland China you are also covered as above.
If you are transiting internationally (e.g. LHR-HKG-SYD) you are not able to move your flights, unless they are cancelled anyway.
The latest ba.com update was on 21 February 2020 at 1510.

More information on the advice of Her Majesty's Government about travel and health is on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website.
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

For the Special Administration Regions of Hong Kong and Macao:
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/hong-kong
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/macao

Summary from IATA of all travel restrictions due to Coronavirus as added to TIMATIC https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/int...1580226297.htm


.
HKG frequency reductions (as of 1330 on 21 February 2020, all dates inclusive).

LHR-HKG

From Thu 13.02.2020 to Mon 01.06.2020: BA31 cancelled. BA27 operates (380).

Exceptions:-
  • Tue 18.02.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (777).
  • Tue 10.03.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (777).
  • Mon 27.04.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Tue 28.04.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Wed 29.04.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Thu 30.04.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Mon 11.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Tue 12.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Mon 18.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Tue 19.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Sun 24.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Mon 25.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Tue 26.05.2020: BA27 cancelled. BA31 operates (380).
  • Mon 01.06.2020: BA31 cancelled. BA27 operates (777).
In addition, on Mon 08.06.2020: BA31 cancelled. BA27 operates (777).

HKG-LHR

From Fri 14.02.2020 to Tue 02.06.2020: BA32 cancelled. BA28 operates (380).

Exceptions:-
  • Wed 19.02.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (777).
  • Wed 11.03.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (777).
  • Sun 29.03.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Tue 28.04.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Wed 29.04.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Thu 30.04.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Fri 01.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Tue 12.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Wed 13.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Tue 19.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Wed 20.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Mon 25.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Tue 26.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Wed 27.05.2020: BA28 cancelled. BA32 operates (380).
  • Tue 02.06.2020: BA32 cancelled. BA28 operates (777).
In addition, on Tue 09.06.2020: BA32 cancelled. BA28 operates (777).

Note: Schedule changes take effect on Sun 29.03.2020 in both directions.

Italy
BA has issued a Customer Guideline Update 1 for travel to the north of Italy, defined as:
LIN/MXP – Milan
TRN – Turin
BLQ – Bologna
VCE – Venice
BGY – Bergamo
VRN - Verona

Tickets issued by 24 February can be changed. If they are dated for original travel on 25 February – 02 March 2020, they can now be moved to 25 February – 31 March 2020. Alternatively changed to ZRH or GVA (note some of these services will be running very full at this time of the year). Refunds not allowed, redemptions are in scope for change.
Update: Travelling 29 Feb to 15 March can now change date of travel and postpone to up to the 3 Apr or change airport to Geneva or Zurich. Rredemptions included but refunds still not included

Further details:
Key Message
The following guidelines have been published to assist any customer who may wish to change their travel date for Northern Italy.
Advice for British Airways-125 ticketed customers whose BA, IB, AY or AA flight is still OPERATING

Rebook onto: British Airways or AJB

Airports affected - To/From
LIN/MXP – Milan
TRN – Turin
BLQ – Bologna
VCE – Venice
BGY – Bergamo
VRN - Verona

Tickets issued by: 24 February 2020
Ticket travel dates: 25 February – 02 March 2020
New travel dates: 25 February – 31 March 2020

Rebooking Allowance: Rebook into the same class as the original flight or lowest available in the same cabin

Change of gateway: Rebook onto a British Airways operated service to/from ZRH (Zurich) or GVA (Geneva) and London (any airport) into the same class as the original flight or lowest available in the same cabin. Must advise the customer that any consequential cost to travel between the original and the new Swiss gateway, e.g. surface transport, hotels, etc. are at their expense. Add a remark into the booking stating that you have advised this. Visas may also need to be checked to travel into Switzerland.

Origin/Destination/Stopover changes: Yes – as above
Refunds Allowed: No
Redemptions included: Yes
Available for Trade: Yes

Important Information
One involuntary ticket change allowed from the above options
Includes any connecting BA/Joint Business services on the same ticket
For customers on cancelled flights, please follow the standard customer guidelines >
· Adherence to commercial policies/standard customer guidelines remains entirely the responsibility of the user. BA reserves the right to withdraw guidelines at any time
Singapore
BA11 has been cancelled on March 15, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25, and corresponding returns on BA12 (the next day) have been cancelled.

Information Resources
Travel restrictions by country
IATA's central list of restrictions relating to Covid-19 is here:
https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/int...1580226297.htm

Australian government site for visit/transit restrictions for various countries after visiting certain countries (not just for Australians, as it lists countries visited/transited etc.). It includes information that is missing from IATA list too.
https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/

11 March 2020:
For people who are based in the US, the US CDC travel warning for Schengen zone has been updated to Level 3 "Avoid nonessential travel".
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices...navirus-europe

In addition, US Department of State have updated the global travel advisory to Level 3 "Reconsider Travel.
https://travel.state.gov/content/tra...ory-issue.html

This may affect your travel insurance cover (or enable you to claim back the cost of cancellation).






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Covid-19 and BA flight cancellations & rebooking: info & advice thread [*noise-free*]

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Old Feb 28, 2020, 9:26 am
  #1  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
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Covid-19 and BA flight cancellations & rebooking: info & advice thread [*noise-free*]

This thread has been launched after discussion with the BA Moderators (Mods).

BA has prepared contingency plans for flight cancellations, stemming from the impact of Covid-19 on demand. There are already separate threads covering the following areas, but more cancellations are expected on other routes. BA have informed investors that they are expecting a down-turn in business as a result of outbreak of Covid-19 in multiple markets.

For Hong Kong and China see here:
*Coronavirus : BA Suspends all flts to mainland China* +discussion on long haul flts

For South Korea / Seoul see here
South Korea Cancellation advice

For Singapore see here.
A380 removed from BA11

For Italy related cancellations see here:
Potential Impact of Coronavirus on flights to Milan & rest of Italy

Cancellations have been noted for PKX, PVG, HKG, SIN, LIN, VRN. IAG have stated: "Capacity on Italian routes for March has been significantly reduced through a combination of cancellations and change of aircraft gauge and further capacity reductions will be activated over the coming days. We also expect to make some capacity reductions across our wider short haul network. Short haul capacity is not being redeployed at this stage".

If your flight is cancelled, you are able to use the Standard Customer Guidelines (see post 2). If your flight is not cancelled, you need to see if there is a Customer Guideline specific to your route, which currently extends to north of Italy, Hong Kong and China only (though there are some additional guidelines for places like Taiwan and the Philippines for connecting passengers). See the threads above for more details.

Kindly note. This thread is intended for direct discussion on the matter at hand and this thread will lose its value if it goes too far off topic, accepting that this is a difficult issue and there are multiple complexities. So anything connected directly to BA's cancellations and alternative travel options is definitely in scope. The following seem to me to be out of scope: discussion on the general risks of Covid-19, links with influenza, face masks, effectiveness of government measures, the politics of the disease, the wisdom or otherwise of flying at the moment. Mods will just delete anything in this area, so you best save your typing. I think there will be a general Covid-19 thread elsewhere in Flyertalk soon, which I will publicise as and when it happens; and there is a very well developed thread in the China forum.
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 9:27 am
  #2  
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Standard Customer Guidelines.
These apply for flights which BA have cancelled - typically you will get a text or email showing this, or a message showing on Manage My Booking.

Options open to you:
1) Refund - note if you have partly taken the flight then this will be a partial refund. If it's a full cancellation you should get back the direct costs, but if you already moved the flight for other reasons previously you may lose some components.
2) Rebooking - on alternative BA or IB flights within 3 days before or 14 days after - you just need space in the cabin. This also works for Joint business routes over the Atlantic and Siberia
3) Rebooking on BA or IB but outside the dates above - you need space in the fare bucket - ditto for AA and AY on Joint Business routes.
4) Rebooking on QR joint business routes - but this needs to be between 3 days before or after, you need space in the cabin.
5) Go to another gateway within 300 miles - so you can travel to Verona instead of Venice, for example. 3 days before or 14 days after rule applies

If the cancellation is for flights within 24 hours, BA Contact Centres can rebook to other IATA airlines that BA has a ticketing agreement with - that's a long list, but it includes most household names as well as oneworld airlines. It does not include easyJet, Ryanair or Jet2.

If you booked via a travel agents or an online travel agents (OTA) such as Expedia you will need to recover your refund via the agency, not via BA. However if you are within 24 hours of the first sector - or thereafter - you can ring BA on rebooking options.

Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; Feb 28, 2020 at 9:41 am
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 9:36 am
  #3  
 
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Thanks @corporate-wage-slave and the moderator team for setting up this thread, hopefully it will proofs helpful to everyone flying and we can keep it (particularly the wiki) updated as the situation changes.

Might also be worth linking the latest official UK Government health advice for anyone who finds they’ve already travelled to a region that has subsequently suffered significant outbreak which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavi...for-the-public
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Last edited by navylad; Feb 28, 2020 at 9:41 am
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 9:41 am
  #4  
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Thanks for starting this -- I will take the plunge and ask for advice here:

1. I booked tickets on 29 Jan for travel LIN-LHR on 28 Feb and LHR-MUC on 1 March, through RFS.
2. On 23 Feb, I was instructed by my company to cancel my personal travel to London and Munich, and to return to DXB asap. I paid the cancellation fees (27.50 CAD per segment) to cancel.

Can I re-instate these tickets to travel at the end of March?
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 10:19 am
  #5  
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Request for assistance:

I have picked some hard information from existing threads and copied it to Wiki, but I'm sure I'm missing some.

Could we request your cooperation in keeping Wiki up-to-date by posting any "hard information" (BA's rebooking policy for the specific route etc, where the flight isn't cancelled, flight cancellations, etc.) that isn't included in the Wiki please?

Please also help us to keep the information up to date by deleting the obsolete information as applicable, when new information becomes available. This is just as important, so that old information won't confuse people.

Time to all put some effort in, and help each other.

Thanks very much for your assistance and cooperation.

LTN Phobia
Moderator: BA forum

Last edited by LTN Phobia; Feb 28, 2020 at 10:50 am
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 10:43 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by BA Humbug
Thanks for starting this -- I will take the plunge and ask for advice here:

1. I booked tickets on 29 Jan for travel LIN-LHR on 28 Feb and LHR-MUC on 1 March, through RFS.
2. On 23 Feb, I was instructed by my company to cancel my personal travel to London and Munich, and to return to DXB asap. I paid the cancellation fees (27.50 CAD per segment) to cancel.

Can I re-instate these tickets to travel at the end of March?
If they have been cancelled, I am fairly sure the answer is no. Had you changed them to the March dates then that's in the Customer Guidelines for LIN-LHR at least, so that could have been done, but not LHR-MUC unless it was the same PNR. Having said that, the chances of finding more RFS availability is probably going to be fairly good!
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 10:45 am
  #7  
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I will also put this in the Wiki, but IATA's list of Covid-19 travel restrictions, by country, is here. It's right up to date by the looks of it. At the moment the only European continent countries with restrictions are Poland, the Russian Federation and Turkey.

https://www.iatatravelcentre.com/int...1580226297.htm
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 11:30 am
  #8  
 
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Can't quite figure out where in the wiki it belongs(if at all), but BA17 LHR-ICN on March 13th is cancelled. I bet there are more Seoul cancellations, someone with the appropriate resources should be able to find out.
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 12:08 pm
  #9  
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So just to be on the safe side: a redemption on JL metal (NRT-FRA) using Avios is cancellable without penalties up to 24 h before departure, am I correct ?
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 12:11 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by fransknorge
So just to be on the safe side: a redemption on JL metal (NRT-FRA) using Avios is cancellable without penalties up to 24 h before departure, am I correct ?
Hi,

Yes that is correct.

Regards

TBS
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 12:58 pm
  #11  
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club, easyJet and Ryanair
 
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Originally Posted by fransknorge
So just to be on the safe side: a redemption on JL metal (NRT-FRA) using Avios is cancellable without penalties up to 24 h before departure, am I correct ?
Isn't there a Ł35 fee (per passenger) for cancelling award bookings?
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 1:05 pm
  #12  
 
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I have a flight booked to Seoul- South Korea on 20 March 2020 and BA cancelled the flights between 13 - 28 March 2020 every other day, but I was not lucky enough to cancel mine. So people who have booked flights to Seoul on 19 March 2020 and 21 March 2020 are entitled to a full refund or to re-book to a later date free of charges ( and free of stress) etc, but I am not entitled to any of these as I was just told tonight by someone at Customer service - British Airways. How is that fair for people like me who did not book the flights in the chosen days? And why there is not any flexibility for us, just for others ( the lucky ones) , since we are all customers with equal rights and we are all under the same unfortunate circumstances?
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 1:18 pm
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Londoner0507
I have a flight booked to Seoul- South Korea on 20 March 2020 and BA cancelled the flights between 13 - 28 March 2020 every other day, but I was not lucky enough to cancel mine. So people who have booked flights to Seoul on 19 March 2020 and 21 March 2020 are entitled to a full refund or to re-book to a later date free of charges ( and free of stress) etc, but I am not entitled to any of these as I was just told tonight by someone at Customer service - British Airways. How is that fair for people like me who did not book the flights in the chosen days? And why there is not any flexibility for us, just for others ( the lucky ones) , since we are all customers with equal rights and we are all under the same unfortunate circumstances?
because unfortunately your flight is operating and their is no government advice to to travel so icn so unfortunately the normal policy applies to you for the others they have no flight to go on if they wanted to can either have refund or different date flight
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 3:14 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by Londoner0507
I have a flight booked to Seoul- South Korea on 20 March 2020 and BA cancelled the flights between 13 - 28 March 2020 every other day, but I was not lucky enough to cancel mine.
Let me welcome you to Flyertalk Londoner0507 and to the BA forum. Unfortunately this doesn't appear to have worked for you in that BA cancelled the service to reduce their financial exposure, rather than due to necessity. I can see this looks really bad from your perspective, and it would have been good if they had at least some rebooking option. But that doesn't appear to be the case here. I can only suggest hainging on to see if there are further cancellations.
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Old Feb 28, 2020, 3:25 pm
  #15  
 
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Apologies if I missed this fact pattern, but what's the policy for AA booked under BA number? In this case, JFK-MXP on AA (booked under BA number), then BA LHR-JFK back.
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