i.am.lost

Help needed please! I’ve been holidaying in Tasmania and was due on a 9am Virgin Australia flight to Sydney, before catching an onward BA business class flight to UK at 4:30pm (booked with Avios / 241).

Virgin Australia cancelled the domestic flight and every other flight on any airline today is fully booked or running too late to arrive on time. I’m rebooked on a direct Virgin Australia flight to Sydney in 2 days time. BA say they cannot rebook me for Sydney to UK as there’s no points availability in any cabin.

I can’t speak to my HSBC Premier travel insurance as only the medical claims is open 24/7 so I need to wait till UK morning to discuss options with them (before buying a new cash ticket for a few days later with another airline or BA). In the meantime, should I call BA again before my flight in 4 hours and do anything before departure time (eg cancel?) or do I just not turn up for it? Thanks if you are awake and can help!

R2

Sorry to hear about your situation, must be very stressful. Try to contact BA asap, they may be able to do something (they must have an office open somewhere, Australia?). The least preferred option is to no-show for your flight. Wish you luck.

scillyisles

I think the op has already spoken to BA who say there is no availability in any cabin gif Avios bookings presumably on the day when the op can get a flight from Tasmania to Sydney in 2 days time. I guess the op should ask BA on what days after they have availability- failing that then the op is going to have to look at other alternatives including paying for a flight back to the Uk from Sydney at short notice which is unlikely to be cheap. It will be interesting to see how HSBC Premier insurance deal with this as I don’t think they will stump the cost of a flight to the UK as a consequential loss.

Foofighter69

You can get in Y or W on BA16 to SIN on 21/2 or Y,W or J on 22/2 with avios. I cannot find any onward availability to LHR on BA.

However you could then fly SIN-DOH on QR with avios in Y on 23/2 at 10.55am. Nothing out of KUL. From DOH your options are unfortunately limited to cash right now - with Finnair approx £500 via HEL or QR £750 direct.

On the 22nd your cash options from SYD to LHR aren’t bad price-wise (£500-£600) but routings vary wildly. 30ish hours via TPE or AUH, or 35 hours via LAX (on AA).

There is also BA in Y, W or J out of PVG or PKX (Shanghai / Beijing) on 23/12 morning, but you’ll have to make your way to PVG from SYD/SIN which is probably too adventurous..

Then there’s HND (Haneda, Tokyo) to LHR on BA. in Y, W or J on 23/2.You’d have to get to HND from SYD which is available on QF with avios on 22/2.

Now the avios options above are on the basis that BA will let you change the date and zone for travel. I have had good experiences with them about date change on avios tickets on the day of departure (even though changes aren’t permitted within 24 hours of departure) but cannot remember when I last changed zones. In any case worth calling BA again and ask nicely..

Hope things work out for you.

corporate-wage-slave

I am at a loss here, other than to ask BA to release your booking and hope they will at least restore the Avios to your account. But I suspect they won't do so. Then the next question is whether HSBC covers redemption tickets in their policy or not. The OP is very unlucky here.

i.am.lost

Thanks for that detailed response, yes BA agent did say lack of SIN-LHR availability is the biggest issue for me. I’m trying to find creative routings now otherwise I think I will have to no-show for the flight and book a cash fare (CX looked reasonably priced) after I speak to insurance when they open.

Schultzois

Has OP/BA fully researched alternate routings using Avios? [edited to add that it looks that’s precisely what they’ve been trying on their own after talking to BA] I’m guessing that the Avios booking is partly used and also seemingly in only a few hours, so even Avios refund and booking a new ticket in a different way sounds off the table. Come to think of it, changes usually are not possible less than 24 hours ahead, but perhaps a sympathetic ear would make a change subject to availability.

Looking at the calendar it’s not good. Best thing I can think of is, if the passenger travels again to Sydney, to change to a date in the distant future.I’m seeing July 12 as about the soonest.

That’s at least a way to punt losing out on the Avios/value of ticket, and then try to sort out another plan from Sydney later this week.

Sorry, best I can think of.

It would work if you can find a date for a future trip from Sydney, and then perhaps consider buying a roundtrip to deal with the issue at hand today and then use the return later in conjunction with the rest of the redemption ticket. That’s probably what I’d be looking to do under the circumstances, but I’d also be sweating bullets and not very clear headed.

Foofighter69

I have edited my post above with a suggested routing on QF to HND on 22/2 and then BA to LHR on 23/2 - all with avios including J available on the HND-LHR leg. That’s your best bet.

Foofighter69

If you’re short of avios then Balance Booster is your better value friend.

Balance Booster

Schultzois

If OP makes it to HND with time for a stop, I’ll buy them a much needed drink as I’m in Tokyo.

Mwenenzi

Booking a separate domestic flight on the same day as a long haul flight with avios in J is calculated risk. Unfortunately the gamble lost this time. On a non partner airline a little worse.

Too many people think Australia = SYD.
Would be looking for other airports in AU for an avios award. Not just SYD. Look from BNE, MEL and/or ADL. MEL & BNE operate 24hrs a day (no curfew) so may be more choice. All have QR Qatar. And UL MH CX for some. If that needs a new purchased flight from Tassie (HBA?) on VA, QF or JQ so be it. Can just walk way from the VA Tassie-SYD flight. LHR-LGW-MAN etc for the UK destination. The more restrictions the harder it will be.
A map from the Great Circle Mapper - Great Circle Mapper

Cancelling is a lot better than a "no show". How late before the flight can you cancel?

Good luck !

Edit
Doing a little digging VA1531 HBA-SYD 09:45 11:35 was cancelled today
https://www.sydney-airport.net/syd-f...arrival=VA1531

Dorsetboy

Recent bad weather in SYD is going to throw a lot of spanners in the works for the next days as aircraft/crew get back to normal. Suggestion of ADL/BNE/MEL is very sensible, especially with QR flights from all. Look for Air New Zealand flights too and don’t limit yourself to QF/JQ/VA
Good luck and report back how it goes

LCY8737

Had a somewhat similar scenario to OP recently (thankfully not quite as far as SYD). In the end I bought a walk up fare back to London. The HSBC Premier travel insurance did pay for it, but only after some back and forth.

Maybe call BA again, specifically mentioning the conditions of carriage, section 3c4: If you need to change any aspect of your transportation because of events beyond your control, you must contact us as soon as possible. We will use reasonable efforts to transport you to your next stopover or final destination, without re-calculating the fare.

This will likely not impress the agent one bit (at least it didn't for me), but in the back of my head I had planned a small claims case against BA.

Koru Flyer

The OP suffered from one of those situations where different events collapse on each other. Combined one of the worst storms in SYD in a long time, lots of delays and canx, with low availability of domestic seats into SYD due to three Taylor Swift concerts.

It is really bad luck of events, and I hope they managed to get a sympathetic ear and find a way back, and with insurance later on.

One other aspect, is that the SYD BA airport office does answer its phone, and does have talented BA staff. It may be worth a phone call.

KF

Mwenenzi

If OP can't get from HBA to SYD, getting to MEL would be a small step. At least in a city with an international airport.
Due to Taylor Swift concerts hotel rooms in Sydney will be at a premium.