How much of the BA schedule is going to be cut in November?

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Over the last 48 hours, there have been a lot of rumours swirling around about the extent of the British Airways service cuts for November and early December.

Suffice it to say, it won’t look pretty. I haven’t written anything so far because there is a huge amount of speculation and not a lot of hard fact.

However, this email from Mark Muren, Head of Global Sales for BA, was just sent to the travel trade and is the first official word:

“Following the Government’s announcement of a new national lockdown for England last Saturday, we have been urgently reviewing our schedule for November. Our focus is on keeping crucial air links open, bringing home the thousands of customers currently abroad, transporting vital goods, and ensuring people who are permitted to travel in and out of the UK for work, education and other reasons stipulated by the UK Government, can continue to do so. We are doing everything in our power to best serve and support our customers, partners and colleagues during this challenging time.

In light of this announcement, we have taken the decision to implement a number of cancellations across our network. Policies are in place to ensure maximum flexibility for our customers. If a flight is cancelled, customers will be entitled to a refund as per our standard customer guidelines. Our ‘Book with Confidence’ policy continues to offer the ability to change a flight, date or destination or request a voucher for future travel.“

What is going to happen?

There was talk of the entire short haul schedule being scrapped and long haul becoming cargo only. There was also talk of the Government getting involved, allegedly because the airline – not unreasonably – didn’t see why it should run unprofitable services to keep the country open for business when it was not receiving state support.

It now appears that BA will reduce to a skeleton passenger service. It is not clear if the Government has agreed to underwrite some of these flights.

Some leisure routes will continue for a week or so to repatriate people as they come to the end of their holidays. Cargo flights will continue.

A report on Flyertalk from a BA employee states that all Gatwick long-haul leisure flights are suspended until 10th December.

EDIT: Turning Left for Less has published the following list of suspensions, which appears to be from internal BA systems and so likely to be fairly accurate. A BA employee in the comments below thinks that a couple may have changed. Routes not on this list, eg Dubai, are likely to continue for cargo reasons. This list does not include cities which had already been suspended prior to 5th November.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Simon says:

5 Nov5 November 21:48

Thank you for posting this, i just called BA on the USA number and rebooked my 100% avios flight to ANU from 10th dec to 11th. Act quick as the agent said early bird get the worm on the rebookings. Given we hadn’t had an email yet, it was smart to phone.
- Joshua says:
  
  7 Nov7 November 03:53
  
  You’re not the Kon Tiki Simon by any chance are you? If so… ahem, could you let emma know your address so i could possibly give you a phone to bring over…. Kind regards, Joshua 🙂
Simon A says:

5 Nov5 November 21:58

O/T but does anyone know if reward flights for Sept/Oct 2021 are fully released yet? I noticed a couple of weeks ago Business seats to Tokyo were super common, and now there’s basically zero availability. Surely they can’t have all been booked already?
- ChrisC says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 00:07
  
  they only guarentee to release 2 rewards in club
  
  And yes to popular destinations they really do get booked as soon as they are appear
  
  they may release more but noone can say when they will do that
  - Simon A says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 00:26
    
    I get that, but 2 weeks ago all of september had 4+ seats on every flight in business, not just the latest released seats, now there isn’t a single outbound business seat at all. Not just a single date or seat type, but every date, every seat type. Surely that’s not right.
    - Jonathan says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 07:15
      
      Perfectly possible (indeed likely) that BA have cut award availability while they figure out their strategy for next year. They were clearly using reward flights as a means of generating cash-flow hence the pretty open availability & 50% sale etc.
      
      Now they’re entering a hibernation period of slashed schedules & furloughing staff it’s easier for them to pull cheap fares &!Avios to save the hassle of processing inevitable refunds/date changes etc.
    - Chris Heyes says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 12:42
      
      Simon A Once the dust settles you will find one of two scenarios happen The Avios rewards seats will be as low as their guarantees are set at and prices are raised to get enough revenue in.
      Or if no aptitude for flights a lot of Avios rewards seats will become available depends mainly how customers react in Business and first
      looking how HFP readers are reacting on here my guess is prices will sneak up and Avios availability will go down
      when i booked to Denver for Aug 21 it was showing 8 (yes 8) Business seats most days, same coming back from Phoenix end Aug 21, I’ve “NEVER” seen that many available
      Soon as Sept became bookable they had all but vanished
      it was as though BA had a IT glitch for 2 days only 8 a day then back to at most 4/6
      - Simon A says:
        
        11 Nov11 November 16:50
        
        Just to follow up here, flights were re-added en masse on Monday morning, and full availability for Sept and Oct were available again to book. Not quite sure what happened, when I asked the BA guy on a call when I was booking, he didn’t know, but possibly just back-end to-ing and fro-ing.
Niall says:

6 Nov6 November 01:36

O/T Anyone know what the situation is with VAT refunds at Heathrow T5? Operating on a postal service only? Or can VAT refunds still be processed at the airport to card or in cash?
- Tom says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 04:16
  
  Niall, the desk was open (and busy) as we passed through on the 4th November. I’m unable to comment on any changes now the U.K. is back in lock down.
  - Niall says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 08:24
    
    Thanks – will take stamps and envelopes with me just in case!
- Tabitha says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 08:58
  
  Travelex are still offering cash and cc refunding as the normal validation services on behalf of U.K. Border Force. Go to the Travelex depts landslide desk first – they will advise if an airside inspection of goods is required. Situation is currently under review, but it’s operating as normal for the moment.
  - Niall says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 09:33
    
    Thanks Tabitha!
Chris says:

6 Nov6 November 07:57

I had a flight from Berlin to Heathrow cancelled on Sunday. BA claim for “operational” reasons. As it was within 14 days, does this come under compensation within EU 261/2004? Any thoughts?
- Rob says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 09:02
  
  No, due to covid exceptions.
  - Chris says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 09:18
    
    What are those covid exceptions though? Travel – notably business travel – has not been banned in Germany or the UK.
    - marcw says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 09:23
      
      Check EC261 clarification statement earlier this year. Airlines can cancel flights at short notice due to COVID-19 restrictions.
      - Chris says:
        
        6 Nov6 November 21:06
        
        Yes, I read those. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell whether they cancelled for “Covid” reasons or other “operational reasons”. It was a Sunday flight, so, given it is not peak business time, I suppose it’s understandable why it might have happened.
    - Nick says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 12:18
      
      The UK government told its citizens not to travel, starting 5 Nov and causing an immediate fall in demand, and you think it’s not exceptional circumstances?!
- Sukes says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 14:13
  
  Chris see section 3.4 of https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/legislation/c20201830.pdf for legal guidance on EC 261 + compensation + covid.
  
  EU261 compensation rights have not been suspended as some like to claim. However it remains that compensation is not due where cancellation is caused by “‘extraordinary circumstances’ that could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.” Clearly there are multiple situations where cancellations linked to Covid, directly or indirectly, could fall into this bracket.
  
  You have nothing to lose by asking BA for the full details of why your flight was cancelled. If you think they are shirking their EU261 compensation responsibility you can make formal complaint to BA and if still unsatisfied you can take their response to CEDR for dispute resolution.
NC says:

6 Nov6 November 08:56

I’ve had an avios flight cancelled in F. I was hoping to move the dates to next year (on dates when no avios seats are showing as available). I thought the rule was that when BA cancel an avios flight, I could re-book into any dates where a cash seat is available. However BA have just told me that this only applies where I’m looking to rebook for travel within 14 days of my current travel date. Is that right?
- Chef says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 09:10
  
  They have advised you incorrectly, no Avios seats need to be available if BA cancel
  - NC says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 09:22
    
    Thanks – good to know I wasn’t going mad. HUACA worked.
Jill (Kinkell) says:

6 Nov6 November 09:39

Thanks. Helpful list.I note ABZ, GLA , EDI don’t appear, but INV gets suspended until 16 Dec. How valued we are in the very north….trailing behind other locations by about a fortnight.
Sam says:

6 Nov6 November 10:01

How likely is it that this list will be added to?

Pleasantly surprised not to see BCN on there but I don’t want to count any chickens
- ChrisBCN says:
  
  6 Nov6 November 10:34
  
  I’ve been monitoring the BCN flights for a while; they have been scheduling 5 or 6 flights a day, then cancelling most a couple of weeks before the date, leaving 1 or 2 running each day. I see for the next few weeks they are running 1 on most days.
  
  So, if your flight is up to and including the 24th Nov it looks like it will run.
  If your flight is 25th Nov to 6th Dec it won’t run.
  If your flight is 7th Dec or later, they haven’t pruned these yet so we don’t know.
  - Sam says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 11:13
    
    Sounds good, thanks for the info.
    
    I’m scheduled on 21st at the moment, with a Vueling flight from Gatwick as backup on the 22nd.
    
    I already had that booking moved from 11ish to 8:40 so I’m hopeful that that was the pruning.
    - Sam says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 11:16
      
      The BA one, no change from Vueling yet.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 12:15
      
      I’d be worried about flying back to the UK if I were you, depending on how long you are staying of course! And don’t forget all the bars and restaurants are closed (except for take out). And there is the 10pm curfew which has just been extended to 23rd Nov.
      - Sam says:
        
        6 Nov6 November 13:16
        
        We’re moving, so getting back isn’t a concern.
        
        Only slight other concern is our hotel stay being cancelled while we look for an apartment, but shouldn’t be too big a problem.
    - ChrisBCN says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 13:58
      
      Great, I hope your move goes well! There’s actually a lot of places to rent right now (thanks to there being little demand for Airbnb flats) so you shouldn’t have too many problems. The idealista app is very good, if I’m not already telling you what you know.
  - Jonny O says:
    
    6 Nov6 November 14:26
    
    It is a very fluid situation. They just cancelled my BCN flight for Monday 9 November. only 3 days notice….
    - Lady London says:
      
      6 Nov6 November 22:20
      
      if they cancel your flight and you’ve given up your residence etc due your move then they are responsible for your accommodation and any extra meals transport to and from accomodation, until they can fly you. So if that happens ask them for this.
Raisa says:

6 Nov6 November 10:31

My flight to YYZ for 5th December was cancelled yesterday… just trying to get home for Christmas!