British Airways cancels BA1, London City to New York, and Beirut

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The A318, ‘all business class’ British Airways flight from London City Airport to New York JFK may have met its match.

The last flight (for a while) will be Wednesday 25th March, allowing British Airways to escape its EC261 compensation obligations by cancelling more than 14 days in advance.

In theory, the flight is set to return in September and tickets can still be purchased for the Autumn. Nothing is certain, of course, and we may have seen the end of it.

Of course, when I reviewed the flight last year I titled the first part “Review: Should British Airways scrap BA1, the ‘all business’ London City to New York service?“. I felt that the lack of property IFE and the 2×2 open seating was no longer good enough. The extension of Global Entry meant that the ability to clear immigration in Shannon was also becoming less of a draw, and Crossrail will soon make Heathrow a lot nearer to Canary Wharf.

British Airways drops Beirut

Talking of dropping flights, British Airways has dropped – permanently – flights to Beirut.

This is not linked to coronavirus, and indeed the cancellation does not take effect until 12th May.

As it happens, this is exactly the same time that British Airways gets back 12 daily slot pairs from Flybe. Beirut uses an ex-BMI A321 short-haul aircraft, albeit with proper business class seats, and this aircraft could cover a number of short-haul flights in the Flybe slots.

The economic situation in Lebanon has been troublesome for some time and it appears that the volume of passengers is no longer there to make the route viable. Royal Jordanian will remain a oneworld option via Amman.

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This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

John says:

12 Mar12 March 05:29

This is the newspiece of the day for aviation. The financial impact for LHG and AFKL will be immense.
- Marcw says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 08:52
  
  And IAG. BA has plenty of connections from all over Europe that travel to the US.
GRIM REAPER says:

12 Mar12 March 05:45

If I should die in the corner of some foreign field, think only this of me:

Ryanair don’t give refunds.
- Lady London says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 14:34
  
  Easyjet customers will lie with you.
  Still enforcing all fees and cancellation penalties in full. Schedule empty to Italy but no concessions whatsoever announced.
  
  So clearly the LCC’s are fighting keeping all their fees and the cost paid for existing bookings down to the last seat. They are going seat by seat, cancelling only what governments specifically tell them to, and keeping your money.
  - Lady London says:
    
    13 Mar13 March 00:01
    
    Update : this evening news of some loosening.
Beeker says:

12 Mar12 March 06:08

Woah!! It will be the UK soon when our cases sky rocket.
- Rhys says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:16
  
  The cat is already out of the bag in the US. 1000+ cases, 30+ deaths.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 06:26
    
    Real figure is likely significantly higher as the US has not been testing very many people/ million compared to Europe & Asia. Last figures I saw, Italy had tested 450/ million, UK 350/ million —USA: 5 people (five) per million of population.
    - JRC says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 07:26
      
      But why does it matter? It’s only a pussycat virus…
      - Shoestring says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 07:31
        
        it matters because it looks like flights to Europe will get cancelled shortly and we’ll miss our Easter hols out at our place in the sun
      - Alex Sm says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 09:02
        
        Easter is sunny enough in the UK too
      - Lady London says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 14:37
        
        So @Shoestring where is your place in the sun?
        🙂
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 07:43
      
      But you told everyone there was nothing to worry about?
      - Shoestring says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 07:50
        
        I pointed out that it’s a very mild virus/ infection for most people and principally affects seriously the 70+ demographic, particularly those with underlying health problems
        
        look at the UK deaths so far – I think I’m right in saying they’re *all* 70+ and *all* had underlying health problems (if not 100%, then close)
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 08:17
        
        There IS nothing to worry about if you catch it as a perfectly healthy person.
        
        However, as a population there IS something to worry about and the sad truth The main worry is the burden on the Health services and the loss of life that will cause plus the 70+ / immune suppressed population who are most at risk.
        
        ie I have nothing to worry about doesn’t mean I don’t worry about my 80 year old grandparents.
      - jack bloggo says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 08:42
        
        People seem to conveniently forgot that being “healty” doesn’t provide you immunity from convid-19 death.
        
        The doctor in china that died, the one who tried to raise concerns about it early on, seemed quite young, and i did not see reports of him having underlying medical issues.
      - TGLoyalty says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 08:48
        
        You have no idea what was going on. Young doesn’t mean completely healthy.
        
        Also by fine I mean very low risk. Lower risk than me going for a drive and being killed yet I get in my car every morning.
      - Shoestring says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 09:00
        
        he was fat, no exercise & a smoker
      - maccymac says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 09:58
        
        Discussing the mortality rate and demographics Covid-19 affects is not the whole story. We’ve moved beyond that and we need to look at the systemic effect Covid-19 will have.
        
        The UK has 6.6 intensive care beds per 100,000. Italy has almost double at 12.5 and Germany leads the way with 29.2. The UK generally has much fewer hospital beds than continental Europe. Furthermore, we were running at much higher bed occupancies than Italy and mainland Europe prior to Covid-19. We also have a much greater shortage of Doctors and specifically Intensivists compared to Europe.
        
        All it would take is a small spike in coronavirus cases and we could run into bother. A fraction of the cases seen in Italy could cause a greater negative effect on the NHS given our comparatively modest available resources . Lombardy is one of the most affluent regions in Italy and is understood to have advanced healthcare meeting best practice European standards and they are struggling.
        
        So I hope the government has established good escalation procedures. This may include deploying the military and mobile hospitals with intensive care beds, recalling all NHS staff from holiday and retirement. I hope, personally, that we start stopping flights from high risk areas and screen all arrivals at ports of entry. We cannot afford to add anymore to the case load that we already have and will just have to accept short term economic pain to prevent a long term disaster. I also hope that as the weather improves that Covid-19 fizzles out, although I understand their is no evidence currently that warm weather will help us.
      - Shoestring says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 11:34
        
        all good points – Lombardy’s age demographic is also meant to be older than UK’s, I think I saw 6 years older on average because the UK has had strong immigration of younger families in recent years
      - Cat says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 12:52
        
        Following on from what maccymac said – Germany’s mortality rate is currently at 0.19%, whereas Italy’s is at 6.64%.
    - Cat says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 07:43
      
      As of 09/03
      Italy 1005 / million
      UK 387 / million
      USA 26 / million
      - Polly says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 07:59
        
        That says it all, USA not testing enough, if at all….worrying.
      - Lyn says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 16:15
        
        As you say, Polly, they aren’t testing enough. Mostly because they still don’t have nearly enough test kits. But it is also partly because so many people don’t have any health insurance and also so many can’t afford to take any time off work because they won’t get paid.
    - Alex Sm says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 09:04
      
      They couldn’t risk a cancellation of the Super Tuesday. It’s very important and the irony is that all US pres candidates in the risk group! They might need a new set of candidates by November
    - Charlieface says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 09:23
      
      Yes, but the vast majority of Americans do not go abroad, whereas Europeans tend to move around much more.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 13:32
      
      The problem is that someone on here posts responses to people telling them not to worry when he knows NOTHING about their medical history
- BJ says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:51
  
  You should wish it were now, we will likely have loads of sick Americans heading to the UK in the hope that they will be cared for by the NHS free of charge. A pity Dominic cannot grow a pair like Trump, the UK should have been closed two weeks ago.
Shamrock says:

12 Mar12 March 06:16

“Trump blocks travel from Europe”

…is inaccurate.

Trump blocks travel from Schengen countries.

as UK *AND* IRELAND are excluded from this directive.
- Lux says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:20
  
  To be fair, Trump himself got lots of his policy wrong in his broadcast.
- Rhys says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:24
  
  It’s a headline that every major publication is using 🙂 could equally argue that “blocks travel” is incorrect as American citizens can still travel!
  - DarloTraveller says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 07:33
    
    That still doesn’t make the headline correct though, does it?
    - Rhys says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 07:35
      
      If you put all the nuance of the article into the headline it wouldn’t be a headline any more!
      - Brian says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 07:57
        
        How about ‘limits’?
      - MandS says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 10:32
        
        otherwise known as clickbait
      - TeessideTraveller says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 11:00
        
        So clickbait is fine? HFP is better than that.
      - Rhys says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 11:08
        
        It’s not click bait. “Europe” can mean the European continent, minus the British isles. It can mean the European Union. It can also mean the entire continental shelf.
        
        There is nothing misleading about using it in the headline here, and the article clearly goes on to specify exactly which parts we mean. A headline must be economic with words 🙂
        
        Besides, you try writing this stuff from your phone whilst driving through the Australian bush when you’re supposed to be on annual leave!
      - Lady London says:
        
        12 Mar12 March 14:40
        
        So Rhys you think we should feel *sorry* for you?
        🙂
- ChrisC says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:53
  
  As is any country that does not have open borders so Bulgaria and Romania are also exempt.
  - meta says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 07:46
    
    Croatia, Norway, etc.
    - ChrisC says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 08:45
      
      Norway is in Schengen.
- Alex Sm says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 09:05
  
  It’s very important – I was wondering about Ireland and no one mentioned it. Phew for now
Lux says:

12 Mar12 March 06:20

I’d say the president has gone made, but… etc

Re: Beirut – a loss, although not a complete surprise. It wasn’t unusual for the flight to hope over to Cyprus to overnight during times of civil unrest, which can’t have helped the business case.
Mr. AC says:

12 Mar12 March 06:26

The babybus flight is the only thing I strongly prefer about BA compared to Virgin from a product perspective. It’s relaxing, fun, great service, unrivaled amount of personal space, skips the often dreadful JFK immigration. I get an incredible amount of work done on that flight as well.

I’ll stick with BA even if it’s cancelled while the Avios game stays good, but I’ll be very sad.

Maybe I’ll book a flight on it for autumn in case it gives them any sort of signal…
Tony says:

12 Mar12 March 06:26

IHG have reduced their Elite Qualification requirements by 25% for this year – Gold is now 7 nights, Platinum 30 nights and Spire 55 nights. https://www.ihg.com/content/gb/en/customer-care/travel-advisory
Hope Hilton and the others follow this lead.
- ChrisC says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:56
  
  I posted in the hotel offers thread earlier.
  
  The number of qualifying points has also been reduced.
  
  Ambassador also get 3 months extension.
  - Secret Squirrel says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 08:15
    
    My spire target stays the same? Where did you see qualifying points have reduced?
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 08:19
      
      Just read on IHG that the changes come into place in the next few weeks.
      Looks like I’ve hit my new year spire early, another 25k pts! 😍
    - ChrisC says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 08:47
      
      I got an email and there was a link to a page on the IHG website with the new lower qualifications
- BJ says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:57
  
  Great, and thanks … some points and miles news 🙂
- Tom says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:58
  
  Currently Spire, but doubt I’ll be staying with them this year..
- Alex W says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 07:35
  
  Thanks for the heads up! 55k points needed for Spire now instead of 75k. I might be able to make that now even though Revolut is game over.
Shoestring says:

12 Mar12 March 06:37

As there’s no passport stamp for EU passport holders arriving in UK/ Ireland, I wonder if these 2 countries will see an influx of the former re-positioning themselves for ex-UK flights to the US?

As long as they remember to get different PNRs.

But would the problem be BA’s/ Aer Lingus’? ie if somebody is turned back at US passport control, is it the airlines who are forced to pay for the return flight?
- Zoe says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 06:44
  
  Not sure if Switzerland is impacted by this? My daughter lives there and is booked on Swiss to Miami in just over a week. Her friend who is UK based has a flight on Norwegian to met her there. It seems increasingly likely that their trip will be impacted.
  - Shoestring says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 06:47
    
    yep Switzerland is in the Schengen area so is included in the ban
  - Lux says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 06:49
    
    “The travel ban from Europe only includes countries in the Schengen Area that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border controls. The countries in the Schengen Area are: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
    
    The restrictions do not apply to American residents or to travel from the UK. Most immediate family members of US citizens are exempt.”
  - Carl says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 06:52
    
    Yes Switzerland is included in the ban. My daughter also lives there and I’ve planned a surprise holiday to the US with her next month, No idea what’s going to happen now
    - Your daughter says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 07:59
      
      Thanks Daddy!!!
- Paul says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 07:04
  
  If you are on ex EU ticket you won’t get past doc check at LHR or be allowed to board in the EU.
  If your travel originated in the UK then no one can tell where you came from before hand. It’s utterly flawed policy but it appeals to his base most of who don’t have a passport and can’t find the USA on a map let alone appreciate the intricacies of The EU.
- BJ says:
  
  12 Mar12 March 07:05
  
  So you think the US immigration officers are are going to be persuaded that every Schengen passport holder presenting themselves at a US border has been living in the UK or Ireland for the last three months? Who knows exactly what they can see when scanning those passports, probably more info than we imagine.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 08:21
    
    Since the RFID chip is read only (or it can be erased and reprogrammed) just what was put on it when your passport was issued.
    
    They won’t be able to tell anything.
    - BJ says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 09:02
      
      Thanks, always wondered about that. However, isn’t Homeland Security tracking movements of everybody via PNR and wouldn’t that be available to immigration?
    - Shoestring says:
      
      12 Mar12 March 09:03
      
      but can’t Immigration cross-reference your passport number against other databases?
  - SteveD says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 09:02
    
    I suspect they are still trying to fill in the details in Washington. The policy’s clearly been rushed out based on a populist political attempt at misdirection so the US electorate have someone else to blame. This is not exactly a surprise.
    
    Once the DHS have worked out how they intend to apply the rules we’ll have a better idea of the impact on specific travel plans. MrsD was hoping to spend Easter in NYC – we’re obviously watching this closely. They may decide it applies to Schengen flights OR Schengen residents – to avoid that you’d have to lie on your ESTA…
  - Lady London says:
    
    12 Mar12 March 14:43
    
    Quite. See my other comments. Don’t even try it.