LondonElite

In line with what we have been seeing, yes, I would imagine this is going to be cancelled.

paulaf

Impact of whole summer and autumn schedule in doubt if Prof Chris Whitty has his way if social distancing has to be in place for the rest of the year!

ahmetdouas

Prof Whitty himself said he’s only an advisor. Also the more people ignore advice, the less credibility the advice has. The roads are getting busier by the day even people I know started going to the office for the first time since this started.

He was taken out of context though, even Nicola said elderly need to be protected and football games with spectators etc will take months. I don’t expect there to be concerts in June, but when virus cases go way down hard to justify everything being shut.


also remember the government is acting very last minute so change things all the time, plans always change. I am planning that I should be able to fly to GR at some point in June without 14 day quarantine, but I won’t book until it’s announced by the government directly and not the media as it’s out of my hands.

BA is smart in allowing you to book flights as they have no idea if they operate or not but at least they manage expectations by making it flexible.

EU borders should be ok over the summer, and don’t forget June is over a month away and just over a month ago I was clubbing in London, things change really fast with the virus !

Keiran Newberry

I think, in terms of travel resumption, we need to be looking closer at the testing programs and the development of rapid tests. Because long before a vaccine, it's going to be some form of testing that will enable international travel again.

Or bleach. If you're Trump.

ahmetdouas

Airport tests?

I mean anyone EU can travel to Austria right now provided they have a less than 4 day old medical paper proving they are healthy (no corona positive?).

if hotels and bars open as planned 15 may will EU people missing a bar head over there ?

Let’s see how long it takes NHS to do mass testing on demand, I don’t think too many people would go to Harley street and pay for their own test just to fly.


even if things open BA is not expecting it’s flights to be packed, but they should have a minimum service to allow people who want to fly to travel if it is not banned!

Keiran Newberry

Yes, airport tests. For wider travel, a quick, accurate test will be one way to allow travel to resume, with less requirement for social distancing on board. Obviously the problem at the moment is its very accurate if you test positive, but has a high false negative rate. I think we'd possibly be looking at both an active infection test and an antibody test

ahmetdouas

government may be hesitant for antibody testing with people knowing the results because if they do it and so many people are immune (New York city reported over 20% yesterday) , their current Stay home policy would be torn to shreds and the airports will be packed with immune travellers wanting to fly.

i know I am not the only one with my credit card and booking reference voucher on standby locked and loaded !

LondonElite

The tests that EK has been doing have such a high false negative rate they are essentially completely useless. It is nice PR but not grounded in science.

Cris L

Patience!
Lockdown has been lifted, but some restrictions remain. June is a long time away still.

And I'm supposed to be flying back from Vietnam on 5th June to UK!

Keiran Newberry

But I don't envisage travel like this until lockdown has ended in some form anyway. And with an airport test, you'd not know you were immune until you got there. Besides, the government wants to roll out testing en-masse at some point anyway. And the indication from Matt Hancock last night was that would include both active infection and antibody tests

let_BAegones_be

I have flights at the end of June to Kalamata.

The flights are no longer bookable on BA.com but my booking is still showing fine in the app.

If they are cancelled, would BA allow me to change to any other date, not just to one with Avios seat availability?

KARFA

If rebooking you a date within -3/+14 days then you don’t need reward availability, just space in the cabin. If beyond that range you will need reward availability.

let_BAegones_be

Thanks. Do you know if it is set in stone or they may be flexible considering the current circumstances?

fransknorge

Of course, all those furloughed people, the one with lost incomes, the one who lose their jobs, the ones who lose a relatives or friends, are just waiting to know to be immune to spend money on a trip to Spain/Greece/Dubai.
And the government knows it and is hesitating to make tests that would be actually really helpful to get the economy started to prevent having airport overrun by all those jet-setters.
That does make sense.

KARFA

you can ask. I don’t know how likely they may be willing to be flexible tho so the answer may well be no.