ahmetdouas

doubtful they would cancel all flights for the upcoming several months when the situation changes day to day.

joking aside, if one is to book tickets for june/july/august right now they would probably get a huge bargain should they be willing to take the risk (well not much of a risk if you get a cash refund or a voucher), and making sure they book accommodation with free cancellation.

hungry

thanks Kona. Mines coverwise too. I made a mistake with the date though. I was looking at the date it was issued, not started. The policy actually ends two days after our outbound flight lol, so part way through the holiday.

I will renew it as soon as possible

mrpacifist

All flights to Asia seem zeroed out even in January, February and March 2021 on EF on my side - it's probably a glitch.

corporate-wage-slave

If there is a wave of cancellations it's quite normal to zero flights for a period, just to allow Contact Centres to move people from one flight to another. Zeroing can herald a cancellation but it's not the only reason by any means.

Brisbane Road

The problem is, with many views at the moment and posts on this thread, is that so many people are completely clouded by a short term view, because what we're dealing with what is such a new phenomenon. It's amazing to read some of the comments on here, that seem to completely skip any forward thinking timeline about the steps we're taking to reduce the problem. People jump to forward conclusions on the basis of purely what we know now.

You have the entire world working on solutions to this virus, and day by day that passes, governments around the world will have more in their armory to fight it. Let's take mid June as a starting point, as it's in the spirit of the thread. By mid June, the UK will have a massive testing capacity, contact and tracing policies that have been developed, a likelihood of antibody tests rolled out on a large scale too. This all before you consider the impact of the treatments that are being tested and developed, blood plasmas (google it) and other drugs that are undergoing clinical trials that have shown promising signs of reducing symptoms. All this while the NHS will be far better equipped with the ventilators and other equipment it needs not to become anywhere near overwhelmed (even though it hasn't yet and we're supposed to be in the midst of the peak).

Furthermore, this is before you consider that the virus is believed to have already infected many who didn't know it, effectively being asymptomatic, so you've already started to build up some immunity among communities and the lockdowns around the world has already weakened this virus' capability to reinfect.

I could probably go on. The reason we're in this situation in first place is because it caught nearly every country around the world off guard and lockdown was essentially our only short term solution to reduce infection. But we will learn as a society to live with this virus long before vaccination comes into play, using every tool we've got to fight it. We'll evolve into a world for a couple of years that learns to keep a lid on the virus and understands the risks associated with it living with us. But as long as we take the right precautions and we shield our most vulnerable, we'll be able to get back on our feet to some extent and get our economies and lives moving again.

Perhaps most countries won't be open up for travel by the summer yet, and perhaps you won't even want to travel, but one thing is for sure, we'll be in a far different place. So don't jump to any conclusions yet.

LondonElite

There are a lot of conclusions you jumped to in your second paragraph. I’m not so optimistic about any of that by June and, back on topic, I would expect a bare minimum of BA flights operating in May and June.

allturnleft

I am rising some optimism for July
I have a sort of hunch that as fast as this crisis appeared similarly it will dissolve

Brisbane Road

Because we simply had no other choice.No country in the world was properly prepared for this virus, and it's the only short term weapon you have to fight it and reduce it's spread.

subject2load

Hmm. Quite a hunch.

Do please get back to us on that.

LondonElite

At the moment, it is the ONLY effective weapon. There is really nothing else that can be done, and these measures must stay in place until it has died out, which is why non-essential travel will not be back for some time.

Brisbane Road

I wouldn't say jumping to conclusions. I've made no conclusions at all, it's simply what is happening around us in terms of what we're doing to combat the virus. It's just as easy to jump to a conclusion to say that we'll all be locked in with no or little prospect for summer travel for the next few months (as many have concluded on this thread), but that would also assume that we'll be in the same situation or a very similar situation that we are now, potentially not considering what work is going on in the meantime to try and battle this virus. It speaks to my point around human nature having judgement that is clouded by a short termist view when dealing with an unknown.

adrianlondon

I checked last Thursday and while BA had no flights, LH were flying ZRH-FRA-LHR for SFr.133 return for the next day's Friday-Sunday flights. I was checking out of curiosity rather than actually wanting to fly to London last weekend, but it's good to know options are there and reasonably priced.

Brisbane Road

Of course it is. But the UK government and many others around the world know isn't a solution that you can rely on for months on end. It's why some European countries and others around the world have begun the reopening process. It's simply not sustainable for a multitude of reasons.

We're going to have to adapt to live in a world where this virus lives with us, and what we're doing in terms of our science and fight against the virus in the meantime is to ensure that is a possibility. You just have to look at the NHS and the advancements we've made in terms of adding extra hospital beds (the Nightingales) to demonstrate an example of how quickly things can move. This will continue.

sammyg901

EF seems to have an issue currently - I'm seeing everything as zero but they are available on ba.com

stevie

I commend your optimism. However. The only tool we have right now is lock down. Sure lots of work being done but we can only contain the virus by isolating. A great job done so far my certain countries, more work to be done in others.
This a localised battle where conditions of battle in each country are at different stages. Each local needs to win their battle and then gradual controlled opening up seeing people go back to work and kids go back to school. Only then can international travel be even considered on a wider scale.
Talk of this virus going as quickly and it appeared and Summer leisure travel starting in June I find sad really, given the efforts by ordinary people to isolate to the massive commitments people on the front line have/do give.