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The HfP chat thread – Monday 21st December

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We have decided to run this daily chat thread on Head for Points during the coronavirus outbreak.

Historically, the daily ‘Bits’ articles were the de facto repository for random comments and questions.  With the news flow being lighter, we are running fewer ‘Bits’ articles.

The comments under this article are where you should post questions about travel and, indeed, anything else on your mind.  At this tricky time, and given that many of you are at home, we want the HfP community to have a place to chat.

Please only comment under the main articles on the site if your comment is directly related to the topic of the article.  This has long-term benefits as it keeps the commentary relevant for people who read those articles in the future.

Old chat threads are hidden from the HfP home page.  If you want to look for something in an old thread, click here.  This brings up all the articles in our ‘General’ category which includes the chat threads.

Comments (473)

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

  • Wollhouse says:

    A general question regarding rerouting after cancellation: IF I am successful in getting my cancelled BA Avios and 241 flights rerouted on Qatar, does this remain a BA ticket (with the right for me to choose to cancel for £35 fee) and normal BA rights if they cancel or does BA “buy” us entirely new tickets from Qatar so any cancellation options now fall into Qatar’s different policy? Basically, who is deemed to be the provider of a reroute is it still a BA booking with, say, Qatar flight numbers or a Qatar booking? Never had this happen before (and it may not as BA still refusing to reroute) and just not sure if flying with another carrier means I lose the £35 cancellation option?

    • Charlieface says:

      Normally it’s booked under the same PNR and has the same cancellation rights. But even if they had to book you a new ticket they would have to cover you if you wanted to cancel.

      • Nick says:

        BA would issue you a 125 ticket in this situation, so you’d remain under BA policy. Almost unheard of for them to be issuing as the agent of another airline.

        • Charlieface says:

          Correct, it would be the case though when you had to be rebooked on Easyjet or Ryanair, or maybe a train ticket.

          • Nick says:

            For clarity, when BA rebooks onto LNER trains, you still retain a BA ticket. There’s an intermediary company with IATA registration that sorts out payment through the standard clearing house. I don’t know about other trains.

          • Charlieface says:

            I know KL, AF and LH have interlines with European train companies, didn’t realise we’re so avant-garde over here, cool.

    • Wollhouse says:

      Thanks CF and Nick. Guess I’ll retry for that reroute

  • Sk123 says:

    Does BA fly to Izmir in the summer months? I’m somehow surprised it doesn’t have any flights.

    • ankomonkey says:

      I’m pretty sure the answer is no, but Turkish, Pegasus and possibly Sun Air fly Stansted-Izmir.

      • Sk123 says:

        Yes, thanks. I saw them when looking at carriers on Google Flights. I haven’t flown them before and with airlines going bust, I don’t know which ones would be safe to book.

  • BS says:

    Rob it might be useful if you had a sticky just detailing which borders have closed. This is fast moving and the news outlets don’t seem to have a simple list easily available….

  • N says:

    Looking at the W Abu Dhabi for the F1 next year. Dates either side of the event are available but the 5 nights are blocked out. Going in what’s happened in previous years, do these dates get released separately, later on in the year?

  • Micheal says:

    A quick question. I am thinking of booking WTP to Dubai next winter and UUA but BA haven’t confirmed club suites for that far ahead. If it turns out to be CW can I get my avios refunded and just go in WTP?

    • TGLoyalty says:

      No as they don’t guarantee the seat just that you will fly Club.

      • Gavin says:

        I thought that you can refund a UUA minus the usual £35 redeposit fee?

        • TGLoyalty says:

          I should have been clearer. No you can’t just have your Avios back because they changed plane/seat, it can happen right up to take off so it’s it’s never guaranteed.

          I’ve never reversed my upgrade but I believe you can go ask back to WTP. However, the booking has now moved class and your original booking class isn’t reserved.

          Therefore when you try to go back to your original WTP booking class if there’s no inventory they could reprice the ticket.

          I believe the upgrade fee is non refundable and you’d need to pay £35 to change the booking again.

          So the answer is maybe maybe not as they may charge you £35+Fare difference to go back to WTP if your original booking class is full.

  • martyn ford says:

    Goodness me, it must be Christmas. Due to an itinerary change I have just rung QR to cancel a booking of £1,000 paid in cash and £600 from a travel voucher generated by a voluntary cancellation on my part which triggered the Amex offer earlier in the year. After a bit of chat, I was granted a full cash refund on both parts of the booking. Whilst I love QR in the air, this is my first really positive experience with their CS.

  • marcw says:

    Not a single word on the growing list of countries that ban UK passengers (and flights). “”On the biggest UK frequent traveller website.””

    • Andrew says:

      I guess it’s so fast moving, by the time the article is written the situation will have escalated further. I think it’s unlikely we will be able to leave the country until May now. And apparently about 15 days until the food shortages kick in.

    • Anna says:

      Anyone would think you’re happy about it marcw. I’m certain the next few days will see the same covid variant showing up pretty much all over the world – the only reason it’s now deemed a problem in the UK is that it’s been identified by gene sequencing at a relatively early stage.
      And, au contraire, there is already a thread on page 1 about flights to and from Switzerland being cancelled.

      • marcw says:

        Why would I be happy about it? No. We had an article about a door. But not a single word from the HfP team about the growing list of countries that ban UK passengers (comments yes, plenty, but not from HfP).
        The variant is already in other places, not just UK. The key is whether it’s a minority variant or growing exponentially. The UK Gov. is saying it’s totally out of control in SE England.

        • JackD says:

          Just no time for helpful info like that when we’ve got articles promoting day trips to Gibraltar to post!

        • TGLoyalty says:

          They want to enforce the stay at home it’s a problem message while they gather more actual information.

          What’s Rob going to do write a new article every 30 mins? Why not wait for the COBRA and EU meeting outcomes ?

          • Lady London says:

            Thank you for your rationality @TG.

          • memesweeper says:

            I would expect it to be added to the regular quarantine / travel corridor articles in due course. It’s perfectly possible we’ll see countries the UK gov allows us to travel to / from that will, in practice, ban entry and / or direct flights from the UK.

        • Alan says:

          As every packed train out of London in the hours before we went into Tier 4 will have left carrying multiple infected passengers and arrived with many more, I think it is now must be widespread across the UK and we will all be in Tier 4 by the new year.

    • Jill ( Kinkell) says:

      Aw,cmon! Give the guys a break! Robs in Dubai probably sweating how he’s going to get home. The others are trying to get some sort of Christmas break. Why not just assume the U.K. is out of bounds ? Happy Christmas. 🎄

      • Andrew says:

        And refer to the BBC News website for the latest updates on all this.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        That’s a problem for a weeks time.

      • Lady London says:

        more specifially, it’s not even Rob’s responsibility. Governments are the only accurate source of information and even they are dynamically changing / catching up.

        If the BBC, ITV, the Daily Mail, CNN and Bloomberg and De Algemebe Nederland (near you), other major news sources, who live by obtaining and publishing news, cant get the info…. well … really.

        IIRC you’re a researcher @marcw who’s lived across 3 countries at least. This is the time to use one’s own rational faculties which you are probably more gfted with than many. Where’s @Callum when you need him ?

        Meanwhile I’m following @TGLoyalty’s comments for a balanced view.

      • Rob says:

        Not concerned at all 🙂

    • Rhys says:

      Anyone who needs to get back should be checking official channels as this is a fast moving situation. Everyone else shouldn’t be travelling…..

    • Lady London says:

      see my comment above @marcw. anything we see here is a bonus not a requirement.

    • Anna says:

      In news about countries NOT banning UK travellers – Spain.

      • Nick says:

        There was no point writing an article last night to go live this morning as many countries weren’t ‘working’ on Sunday and the chance of additional restrictions coming on Monday was very high (and indeed has come true). It will be clearer by the end of today what the actual situation is… and I expect they’ll do a re-run of a ‘what to do if your flight is cancelled’ article. To ‘help’, BA has pushed out voucher comms today, politely suggesting to customers that they get a voucher online rather than bothering the call centre for a refund!

        I also expect health bodies all over Europe to be rushing to their test labs today. Is this new variant really only in the UK, or have we just got a better genome sequencing industry that’s spotted it first? Is Kent riddled because it’s closest to the continent? (For clarity, I don’t know the answers, but I do know a lot of scientists and if their European counterparts are anything like them, they’ll be rushing to assess it pronto!)

        • Lady London says:

          That was my thought about Kent. When I saw the dark red map where the new variant is it is shaped through Kent like an arrow pointing to France.

          I blamr the French 🙂

          • Ghosty says:

            Like the map on the Dads Army opening sequence.

          • ankomonkey says:

            I seem to remember earlier this year your comments often included bits of French, @LL. Maybe that was the beginning of this mutant virus. They got your PC/phone/tablet!

      • John says:

        Now banned

    • Mouse says:

      Might have been better to spend the time it took to write this snarky post using a search engine. Try here for the info: https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/coronavirus-travel-updates/

  • Rich says:

    Presumably these new restrictions on movement due to the new virus strain put airlines in a really sticky situation.

    We’re for example due to fly back from Austria next Monday after being here for a month, we’ve needed to travel between the two due to complicated medical reasons with our son.

    Austria are imposing a ban on passengers from the UK from tomorrow, but there’s no ban in the other direction.

    So in essence it’s likely our flight will be cancelled, but if BA really wanted to they could fly an empty plane to Austria or send a plane via another route, but they probably won’t.

    Correct me if I’m wrong, but airlines will either need to shoulder the cost of flying empty planes to banned destinations or pay EC261 for passengers travelling in the non-banned direction.

    • Andrew says:

      Probably “extraordinary circumstances” so possibly just duty of care. But if this continues past a week or so, the U.K. government will start putting on repatriation flights.

      • Charlieface says:

        Duty of care includes repatriation in any reasonable way possible.

      • Rich says:

        No doubt the airlines will claim that, but whether it will stand up when tested is another question in itself. I’m not sure a route being financially unviable counts as an ‘extraordinary circumstance’?

        My particular flight hasn’t been cancelled yet, but this is fast moving and I’m sure an EU announcement will be made soon, I’m sure BA are waiting for the outcome of that before taking action.

    • Lady London says:

      Trains are pretty OK coming back from Austria. Tedious but good trains throughout once you hit the main lines.

      I’d also look at Schengen internal flights to get me to points with really fast trains such as Paris or Bordeaux or Frankfurt (for Thalys from DUS), BRU, AMS etc. Then Eurostar.

      If transport really dries up then ferries will continue to run due cargo and are connectable enough by train.

      Also take a look at Driiveme.com and keep an eye on it as a chance of some interesting cross border £1 car rentals that would take you all a very good chunk of the journey in comfort. You can just kerp an eye and/or file your own alert.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        Eurotunnel and ferries have stopped operating for atleast 48 hours though.

        • Lady London says:

          Once it’s found that the new variant is in fact already in several other countries in Europe and probably elsewhere then things will calm down a bit.

          I am no scientist but the more hosts a virus passes through the more chance of mutations. Healthy people running around also transmit.

          • TGLoyalty says:

            I agree. I just meant moving to somewhere to get close to fast tunnel/ferry crossing might not be the wisest move right now. I’d just hold tight for a few days and see what happens.

          • TGLoyalty says:

            btw this isn’t the first mutation in the spike protein. And you’re absolutely right the virus will mutate as it passes through humans.

            This is why it’s extremely likely the vaccines will need to be adjusted periodically/yearly just like the flu one.

        • Lady London says:

          There will be access once the situation is assessed.

          Personally my advice to anyone not in the UK currently would be if you can, stay where you are for now.

          My sympathies to anyone in a more difficult situation – I am sure the hive mind of HfP will try to help if anyone posts looking for transport ideas.
          .

      • Rich says:

        Thanks for all of this. We’re thankfully in a position where we can stay here for as long as we need to and return once things have stabilised.

        I’m no scientist, but I really wouldn’t be surprised if the new strain is already circulating Europe and now that labs are looking out for it, we’ll get a clearer picture of what’s actually happening over the coming days. No need for rash decisions just yet. We’ll just sit it out.

        • Nick says:

          On the EU261 angle, I find it hard to imagine that any court would decide compensation is payable in this case… it’s very much ‘extraordinary circumstance’. Of course duty of care still applies, so keep any receipts, etc.

          But on the ‘empty one way’ thing, BA is doing exactly this for the next couple of days so that anyone who wants to come home can do so. After that, people who want to travel have had their chance, so the flights will be cancelled both ways. Move asap if you’re in the ‘want to come home’ bracket (but tbh I’d personally rather stay pretty much anywhere other than the UK right now).

          • Charlieface says:

            Well no, you don’t have to take an earlier flight if you don’t want.
            EC261 specifies they must fly you on any available flight on any airline, or another method if necessary.

    • pacman says:

      Book a flight from Bratislava, currently no ban on flights and Wizzair and Ryanair both fly to Luton and Stansted.

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