paulaf

What are you referring to the lockdown or the travel ban?

bisonrav

As far as flying goes, the statistics say that it's actually a lot less risky than most activities, with a miniscule number of cases suspected or traced to flights. There are good reasons to support this observation with theory, notably the prevalence of aerosol propagation and the removal of viruses via HEPA filtering much faster than in other contexts. People get psychologically wound up by the idea of being in an enclosed space and rely on "common sense". Usually you get comments of the form "I haven't seen the numbers, but it's obvious...", followed by a non-sequitur. It's definitely the case that travelling to a place where there are almost no infections isn't a great idea, but people coming in here or going to other places really isn't an issue. It's all about psychology, the numbers don't back it up at all.

And BA? This is supposed to be a BA forum after all? I'd be booking my summer holiday flights for early December and looking for a free bounce to sometime in the school holidays. It's one of the best bets to nothing I've ever seen. Current policy allows free re-dating of cancelled flights up to ticket validity.

djtriggz

Managed to get a seat on the 12:45 LHR > 16:00 OSL on the 4th November!!
Then departing the following day at 15:00 on QR to DOH and then onto Jakarta
Has anybody transited through OSL recently? As officially you are meant to do a 10 day Quarantine.

JessicaB

I would suggest you play it safe and use a policy that provides cover even for places with Foreign Office advisories. I got my insurance through Battleface, I already confirmed that my existing travel insurance would cover me, but given the circumstances I took out a second policy with Battleface. It cost me about £130 for a month long trip.

JessicaB

Might work for a single work-age person or maybe a couple, but not for someone over 70, or someone travelling with kids.

ThatT1Feeling

I think that authorities won’t be checking at the airport, but assume that almost all personal travel insurance will effectively be invalid. I don’t know how business travel insurance works but we’ve already been told no travel, even for business.

robinfriday

Hi, in September I optimistically booked a flight to Alicante for the end of November which has of course been cancelled. I thought I could rebook to anytime in the next 12 months but on trying to rebook for next August it keeps coming up with no availability despite there being plenty if you try booking normally. I appreciate the actual fare is more expensive but I wouldnt expect that to be a reason. Any advice gratefully received.

corporate-wage-slave

Are you trying to do this online? If so then online it only shows availability for your bucket, whereas in reality you can ring up and get any available space in the cabin, subject to the ticket being valid (which it will be until September 2021). There is a note to that effect on BA.com/confidence and there is further guidance in the main Rebooking thread in this forum.

KARFA

yes you can rebook anytime up to 1 year from when you originally made the booking, and you just need space in the same cabin and not exact match of the same selling class. Sometimes the online tool doesn't handle this well so you may have to call to do it.

corporate-wage-slave

Having said that, BA is also asking people not to ring in unless travelling in the next 72 hours. If you do need to change flights then it is important to get in touch before departure to avoid being a no show. But if you can either sort yourself out online or you are travelling later in the week, you best leave it.

Loads of advice available and can be sought in the main Rebook thread.

robinfriday

KARFA, C-W-S,
Many thanks, just trying to avoid the phone!

PUCCI GALORE

The Lockdown in general and the Travel Ban in particular.

Nuferoni

Really sad to see countries announcing lockdowns and travel bans again. This will hurt the aviation industry a lot. Feels like in March again with airlines asking the passengers not to contact them unless their trip is within the next few days and so on... I had hoped that governments would have learned something from the previous lockdown (like coordinating measures with other countries)...

paulaf

Unfortunately I think the lockdown will go ahead and get voted through as Labour also back it, but lets hope you are right about the travel ban.

RoyalSwazi

Unless you are resident, immediate family (including boyfriend/girlfriend) or have official business you will be denied boarding at LHR, or turned around upon arrival in OSL.
https://www.udi.no/en/about-the-coro...er/#link-18312