Mind you if I were in TPA I'd rather be staying there than coming here, even though I did see the weather there yesterday PS - and this morning having just seen the Clearwater webcam.

Have a good flight

Update 19 Dec

The phone lines are very busy and are under severe pressure to deal with the amount of call volume that they are receiving.

Keep trying throughout the day and night as it diverts to BA USA phone lines after 8pm UK time.

Try on skype ( www.skype.com ) and well if you have a wifi connect by calling 1-800 247 9297 as this is also free on skype from UK (or anywhere for that matter)

Please be patient and the staff will eventually answer and you will get rebooked.

Please don not phone the lines just to ask questions such as "how long will the snow last?" (was one of the questions i got asked yesterday!!) and "why is my flight not operating??"

The taxiways and parking stands take a long time to clear and this cannot be done straight away, its a gradual process.

BA has stated that they will pay the following:

�200 per day for hotel accommodation if BA has been unable to make arrangements for you

�25 per day for food and drink (�12.50 per day for children 2-11 years)

�50 for transport to hotel accommodation and back to the airport

Keep your receipts and submit a pay and claim letter.

The address for customer relations is on ba.com but if you cannot find it, here it is:

BA customer relations (S506)
PO Box 5619
Sudbury
Suffolk
CO10 2PG

Please ensure you keep all receipts and that they are within the allowance shown.

The phone number are UK 0800 727 800 or USA 1-800 247 9297

Passengers were given a letter stating that "due to terminal restrictions and the current queue lengths" people were asked to leave the bulding and rebook by other means other than waiting at the airport, such as if you booked through a travel agent contact them directly or change your booking on ba.com / by calling the number above..

The best option is to contact your travel insurance company and take their advice, ask them how much they will cover you for.

Please check all means before travelling to the airport.

www.heathrowairport.com

www.gatwickairport.com

www.ba.com



Do not come to the airport if your flight is cancelled. There is no point. Stay in the warm.

Getting to the airport alone is difficult let alone trying to do rebooking at the airport.

There are no short haul flights operating for the rest of the day and the review will soon be completed for long haul flights after 1800, but remember, do not turn up at the airport if you are not booked on these flights as they are already booked and full.

There is no point turning up if you know your are not going to get on a flight.

Thank you. Yes, there are worse places to be stuck, but a bit of sun would be nice! Also, i've been Stateside for over 7 weeks now so am looking forward to some British grub and a bit of (real) sport on the telly.

It still says gate closes at 19.25 on my boarding pass, even though it's going to be after midnight when we take off. Should I go to the airport early?

Hello,

My husband I myself booked full fare economy tickets direct through the Quantas website to Sydney stopping over in Hong Kong at the rather exhorbatant cost of GBP 4,556 for the two of us, in order to get us to Australia home in time for Xmas.

Due to the adverse weather conditions at H'row yesterday (18th Dec) our flight on BA0025 to Hong Kong was cancelled. When we spoke to the Qantas respresentative today (Sunday) we were advised that the first available flight to Sydney was via Singapore on Thursday arriving late on Xmas day.

A rather rude and rather unhelpful call centre assistant made note of the fact that since BA was operating the first leg of our flight, it was their responsibility to find us alternate travel arrangements. If we were to cancel our flight altogether we would incur a PENALTY cost of GBP300 each!!!

Like others affected, we have resigned ourselves to the fact that our Xmas with family is not going to happen, given that our return back to the UK is not long after our newly advised arrival time.

We have travel insurance which we will claim the GBP600 'cancellation' fee, however , I am somewhat perplexed that we are being unfairly penalised due to conditions that are no fault of the airline and ourselves - force majure under the airline T&C's I believe. I would much rather have the full refund from the airline, as oppossed to the additional time and paperwork involved in filing an insurance claim.

Is this standard pratice in these circumstances?

Thanking you in advance.

Just thought I'd post this in case it gives people ideas for creating backup plans. I would preface this by saying that I know I am extremely fortunate to have access to lots of miles (on both BA and CX) and credit, which creates options that otherwise wouldn't exist.

Was supposed to be flying to BOM on Fri eve but after that flight was cancelled, along with the 139 on Sat morning I was waitlisted for and the 199 on Sat eve I had a confirmed seat on (1A :-(), have given up and am trying to get to HKG directly, which was the next stop on my itinerary. For various reasons it is really important I get to HKG.

I managed to secure a J-class redemption flight LHR-HKG on CX for 21/12 and on BA for 23/12. As of about an hour ago, BA still had availbility for both 23/12 and 24/12.

In addition, CX seems to have good J-class redemption availability on CDG-HKG for several days this week (also as of about an hour ago) and I have booked CDG-HKG for the evening of 22/12.

I am getting increasingly bearish about LHR's ability to recover this week given that sub-zero temperatures rather than snow seem to be causing the current issues. So if the LHR CX flight on 21/12 is cancelled, I am planning to head to Paris early in the morning of 22/12. Business Premier tickets on the Eurostar are fully refundable up to 2 months after the departure date. I know that the trains are disrupted too, but I have a buffer of about 10 hours which I hope will be enough to get to Paris in time for the CX flight, and I expect having a Business Premier ticket will give me some degree of priority with Eurostar.

Of course, CDG may be disrupted itself on 22/12, in which case I will either try to get rebooked from CDG on CX, or else come back to London on 23/12 and try to get the BA flight- so I have booked another flexible Eurostar ticket back to London from Paris on the morning of 23/12. I should know what is happening to the CX flight from CDG in time to cancel my BA award flight on 23/12 without penalty if necessary. Similarly, in the event that my CX LHR-HKG flight on 21/12 runs, I will cancel my CDG-HKG flight in addition.

Sorry if this is too detailed and boring but just thought it might be helpful for someone.

Please Delete

I am due to fly AMS-LGW-EDI later this afternoon. At present, both flights are showing as operating. I would like to rebook, but will not know when until later in the week.

At present I'm being offered the chance to cancel/rebook.

If I just fail to check in/turn up, will I be able to rebook after the event?

No.
To start with this is the responsibility of the airline you have purchased a ticket from (i.e. Qantas) to make re-routing/rebooking/other arrangements. Operating carrier cannot be held responsible for a booking with another airline.
Secondly, if this is a full fare ticket (what is your booking class, is it Y? What does T&C say on your booking?) airline is not supposed to impose any sort of penalty for changing/cancelling your flight even after it has departed (it is called fully flexible for a reason).
Thirdly, there's an EC directive which applies to each and every flight departing from the EU which says that in case of cancellation you are entitled to a full refund with no penalties.
Have you put down the name of the operator who told you all these stories? I would strongly recommend sending a note to Qantas explaining your situation and asking to better train their employees.

UPD:I have just checked Qantas own website and, yes, they are supposed to give you a full refund for your flight irrespective of your fare type. Please refer them to section III article 90D (2) of Qantas International Passenger Rules and Fares Tariff.

Any advice on how to cancel my flight tomorrow? My inbound to London was cancelled yesterday. I tried for hours to cancel the whole booking on Ba.com and get a refund, but I kept getting a "technical difficulties" error screen. Once the original departure time passed, it would no longer let me try to cancel the booking online and directed me to call reservations. I held for 3 hours on the phone last night and two hours this morning, but haven't been able to get through. (I no longer like Lakme.) I hate to tie up a seat someone could use.

Is BA rebooking people on other OW carriers at the moment? I have found a flight on RJ to AMM on 23rd (whY only)/24th (whY and business)... then to IST on RJ, and I can make my own way back from there on Star Alliance.

I'm just trying to get back home before Christmas.

Once your flight is officially cancelled (and no sooner!!) they are obliged to offer you rebooking on a different carrier. Your flight needs to be officially cancelled though.

Also, if BA is confident that they themselves can fly you there on the 23rd, it has no obligation to rebook you on an other carrier for that day. I would be surprised if they rebooked you for that day now.

Last but not least, flying LHR-IST via AMM is a serious reroute and won't be considered a reasonable alternative.

BA has no seat until 25th, and neither does any other carriers that offer 'reasonable' connections, except for an LCC but I do not think BA would rebook on an LCC, would they?

My flight today has been cancelled and has been showing as such in Flight Arrivals and Departure for hours, but not showing up in MMB as cancelled yet. Neither have I received any notification. Some people would have left for LHR by now, so I expect there would be a chaos at T5.

BA should offer you a reroute but they need to be available and you should be able to contact them. The latter seems the biggest problem.

Maybe there are possibilities from LGW to AMS and onwards with KLM for instance? That sounds more logical.

I have a friend stuck in Frankfurt on a diverted SQ flight, destination LHR. He's been there 36hrs already, and SQ has put him up in a 5* hotel so he's actually pretty lucky, though obviously anxious to get to UK.

I see there's availability on tomorrow morning's BA FRA-LCY nonstop, and it seems that LCY flights have been operating OK. Do you think he should contemplate booking himself onto that, or just sit it out and be patient, since at least he's being comfortably accommodated? And what would you consider the odds of the flight actually running, vs being cancelled at the last minute?

Incorrect. EU Reg 264 is quite clear on that if you are delayed by 5 hours or more, the carrier must re-route you, even on alternate carriers and to other airports serving the same city, and pay for any extra transportation.


Article 6: Delay
Article 8: Right to reimbursement or re-routing.


Where did you see this? That would affect me directly since I'm on the 112 tomorrow.