Richardc77

Myself and the wife are due to fly LHR to GVA in CE on one of our companion vouchers on March 5th to visit some friends for lunch and dinner that we had put off during Covid times.

Given what is going on at present (and that our hotels either end need to be cancelled 3 days out) would you carry on and hope that BA is flying to GVA (lack of BA catering doesn’t bother us) or would you cancel all and wait til Spring?

Interested ti hear what the consensus is…

corporate-wage-slave

I would go ahead. Obviously I'd have insurance for any big bills that I'd rather not tackle, and I'd also know when to bail out. But sometimes the fear of bad stuff gets stiffling whereas a pleasant evening by Lac Léman would be the perfect antidote.

Richardc77

I wonder if First Direct holiday insurance covers this? Will check

When you say “know when to bail out”, when would you do so?

sunshinebob

Sometimes you just need to press the "f**k it" button & go for things.
Have a great trip.

NickB

I have to say: I have an indirect flight reservation to NCE on KL that I meant to cancel a while ago as I booked a direct light on BA this coming week but, as I never got wrong to doing it, I am still holding on for now just in case this weekend's mayhem endures during the week.

Richardc77

Reports of “25,000 stranded people” might this not take a long time to clear backlog wise?

corporate-wage-slave

About 24 hours to clear that, all being well. BA used to shift up to 150,000 people a day pre pandemic. And I take numbers like that with a pinch of salt.

Knowing when to bail: at what point is the stay in GVA too short and/or the hassle so great that it's not worth it. Bear in mind that EC261 sets down that after 5 hours of delay you potentially are able to get compensation and rebooked back to where you started for a full refund if the trip no longer serves any purpose. So by implication with any air travel there is a 5 hour hassle factor priced into the process.

Richardc77

Ok great, so with Tuesday night my cut off for T5 Sofitel cancellation just need to keep an eye on how BA have recovered by then 👍

PUCCI GALORE

My Dear - I would go ahead. You have confirmed bookings so unless your flight is cancelled you are not likely to be denied boarding. They could stick people in middle seats - but I still think that this is an extreme decision and will be dropped as soon as they can. If you have travel insurance this is what it is for - but I doubt that you will have a problem. Enjoy your weekend - que sera sera

lhrsfo

I would book either cheap disposable tickets or refundable tickets, both as backups. LX and Easy have good frequencies and are much more reliable than BA.

ISTFlyer

Also not to mention that GVA is an important outstation with multiple daily frequencies. Maybe the outstation in Europe that BA flies the most at this time.
To be honest, they have 20 daily flights between London to Geneva on March 5 so I wouldn't be worried about BA not flying to GVA.

Phrastus

Not to diminish the means of transport in the Website's name but would it be possible to hold a train ride in reserve as a backup? I've ridden trains in Europe just often enough to (1) love them and (2) know very little about their logistics. Is a London-Switzerland train trip feasible if flights are completely SNAFU?

corporate-wage-slave

It is possible to do it in 7 to 8 hours, changing in Paris, and I guess it is an option to be considered, given it's centre to centre. Flying would be around 4 hours centre to centre, perhaps a little less if one lived dangerously. Flying is likely to be cheaper. So for a short break the rail route would probably struggle to be viable. Direct trains from St. Pancras to Geneva? Mmm, unfortunately a pipe dream, but it would theoretically be possible in under 6 hours, which would be more interesting perhaps.

kbooks66

Are significant delays still a concern? I have been in London for a week or so and am flying back to the States on Saturday. I had to break my ticket up into two. LHR to AMS on BA and AMS to DFW on AA.... there is a 3 hour stop in AMS, which I thought would be sufficient, but do I need to be concerned and think about alternative ways to get to AMS?

corporate-wage-slave

By buying separate reservations you take on a number of risks, notably weather. You are flying from the airport with probably the second worst weather record in March, to the airport with the worst weather record. Three hours is usually fine, and 80% of the time it will be a stress free exprience, so it depends on the implications to you if you had to buy a new ticket to DFW or not - many people can live with the 20% risk, others would be mortified by the prospect. It may be that your BA ticket can be moved for relatively little money via MMB, so long as it was a clean BA.com purchase for a commercial ticket. You probably need to look at the weather forecast on Thursday evening to see how things are going, until then weather forecasts won't be that accurate. The thing you can do at this point is consider what your Plan B would look like.