Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II : Disruption to BA operations on and around Mon 19 Sep
 

Or, "Planning ahead in order to avoid disruptions possibly being caused as a result of the funeral of the late Queen."
I am booked to fly from LHR on Monday 19th - the same day as the Queen's funeral. Although I have seen nothing official, yet, I couldn't help but think that even with the best will in the World, there will be some disruptions as a result of 'no fly zone' (perhaps) over London, during the ceremony, as well as the plethora of other 'knock-ons'. My dread is that my LHR-SJC (a single-flight-a-day destination) flight gets cancelled.
In an effort to avoid BA informing me on the day before (or worse, on the day) that I am being bounced to another flight, I thought that I could be proactive and get myself bounced onto another flight (assuming that there will be a problem with mine) to fly out on the day before. Note, my schedule at the destination would make a delay very annoying and awkward to rectify.
Forgive my paranoia, but I have been caught out previously, foreseeing a potential snag, in plenty of time to sort it, but being told BA's party line of, "everything is ok." - it wasn't!
Any experience of this?

See the comments on this thread from post 37 onwards. There may be some small number of delay but nothing significant.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...beth-ii-3.html

i am afraid if you wanted to do a change now prior to any general rebook policy (which I think is unlikely) or cancellation, it would be as per fare rules so not free.

There may be a few delays, and who knows, perhaps an hour late into SJC? I wouldn't worry about it. You just need to get to LHR in good time. There are many ways to the Bay area.

I think under normal circumstances all flights would be cancelled up until say 3pm. Given the current leadership, I doubt the death will even be marked.

What do you consider "normal" circumstances to be, and how do they differ from "normal" at present?

I recall flying out on the day of Diana's funeral (BA to VRN from LGW). At some point on that day there was a national 2 minutes silence which was pretty much our scheduled departure time.

Operationally at LGW that meant that not only were there no take-offs or landings allowed during that 2 mins silence, also no taxiing or other movements were allowed. Aircraft were prevented from starting taxiing in the ~20 minutes leading up to the 2 mins silence so that no aircraft would be "mid taxi". This meant that essentially all aircraft due to depart around that time where held at their gates until after the 2 minutes silence. IIRC, and our aircraft was about 2 hours delayed in taking off.

LHR and LGW (and other UK airports) may (or may) operate similar procedures this time.

I got caught out with a similar event due to flight suspensions because of a royal flypast a few years ago. ABZ to LHR got delayed and we missed the connection to SFO, got rerouted via DFW where the baggage went missing even though we had to collect and drop-off.

All entirely avoidable in my view, the flypast wasn't an ad-hoc happening, it was a royal birthday.

I suspect delays will be before and after the 19th, as foreign dignitaries and heads of state arrive and leave.

i don’t think there was any expectation of that regardless of what “leadership” was in place.

depends where they arrive. Other airports exist around London - and tbh are preferred for VIPs. For example, the US president will most likely use Stansted not LHR. Northolt and Brize could be used too.

the reality is all airports will be used, and this will include LHR and LGW given the number of heads of states.

If a delay can’t be tolerated, what would the OP do if there was a delay for another reason? They may wish to change flights anyway, but that will likely incur a change fee which BA is unlikely to waiver unless they know there will definitely be a delay/cancellation.

What do you mean by leadership? Liz Truss, John Holland-Kaye, Sean Doyle or someone else? I didn't know if that was meant to be a criticism of who runs the country or who runs the airport or airline.
Very few of us have experienced the death of our ruling monarch in the UK and air traffic was not a major consideration during the funeral of George Vi so I don't know what the UK protocol would be now.

I'm flying on the 19th too and am expecting it to be essentially business as usual in airline terms. Of course some ground traffic to/from Central London might be impacted.

I think most impacts will fall apon passengers booked into First class flying a couple of days before/after where invited world leaders and dignitaries might be getting priority (and their seats).

For example I fly BA to Bermuda on the 22nd, there are no available First class seats that week and only 3 flights on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd. Club is extremely limited too meaning people will be getting bumped if the Bermudan Premier and family are coming to the Funeral on the 19th as he/they would presumably want to fly home direct on BA.

I wondered about possible problems as we leave the USA on 19th arriving back very early on 20th but hopefully in that direction it will be fine.