The HfP chat thread – Wednesday 23rd December

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• Bigmaggot says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:42

  Barclaycard HH points appeared last night on time 🙂

• Anna says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:43

  @Lashious – you don’t seem to have checked back to see if anyone replied to you yesterday – you need to claim the money for your cancelled lights from the US Department on Transport. Fill in the very simple online form (it doesn’t like punctuation much so you may need to play around with it a bit) and that’s it, basically. We got our money back in about 6 weeks.

• TripRep says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:48

  This is a good move, overruling DJT.

  https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-virgin-ba-and-delta-say-uk-to-new-york-travellers-must-take-coronavirus-test-before-flying-12169887

  • southlondonphil says:

    23 Dec23 December 16:17

    No ‘overruling’ of the Orange Terror in that, I’m afraid – if you’re not exempt from the US travel ban under the specifics of the Presidential Proclamation from the Spring you’re STILL not getting into the US. If you do meet the requirements for an exemption, you now need proof of a negative Covid test before boarding.

• TripRep says:

  23 Dec23 December 08:50

  Singapore and Hong Kong ban UK pax

  https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/23/more-australians-stranded-as-singapore-and-hong-kong-ban-travellers-from-uk

  • Andrew says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:05

    Both announced yesterday morning

    • Nick_C says:

      23 Dec23 December 11:59

      Quite possibly, but not everyone will have seen the announcements. Thanks for posting TripRep.

• Ed says:

  23 Dec23 December 09:16

  I’m stranded in Italy and BA have said the first flight back to London is on the 7th Jan. They said reason for cancellation of my flight is Covid.

  Am I right in thinking they owe me a duty of care?

  • Anna says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:18

    Yes – and re-routing if there are other flights which can get you home before Jan 7th!

    • Ed says:

      23 Dec23 December 09:25

      Thanks. Any idea on what the duty of care would be? Am staying with relatives so no accommodation costs…

      • Charlieface says:

        23 Dec23 December 14:26

        Daily food expenses, and travel costs to/from airport and shops

  • Andy says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:59

    Did you speak to them this morning? I had return flights on the 1st and 7th (LIN-LHR) both cancelled yesterday. First BA flight shown for sale at the moment is on the 10th

    • Ed says:

      23 Dec23 December 10:20

      Yes earliest flight is now on the 10th, you’re right.

      Any ideas what the duty of care is?

      • Anna says:

        23 Dec23 December 10:51

        They would have to reimburse you for accommodation and food costs you incurred due to the cancellation, plus transport if you had to do something like get to a different airport from the original one. When were you supposed to be returning? Things are changing all the time but I’m sure there would be flights on other airlines, even if indirect (depending on when you left the UK for other countries’ current entry rules!).

        • Ed says:

          23 Dec23 December 11:00

          I was supposed to be returning this week so it’d be a delay of over 2 weeks.

          If they don’t offer re-routing on another carrier and just say the earliest they can fly me is the 10th am I good to book a hotel and claim 2 weeks’ worth of food and accommodation (this will be like £2k total I guess)? Do I need to tell BA before hand?

        • Nick says:

          23 Dec23 December 11:07

          You can’t claim accommodation costs if you’re not out of pocket – it’s deliberately reimbursement, NOT compensation. So if you’re staying and eating with relatives you won’t have any out-of-pocket expenses or receipts to submit.

          But yes, the way to do it is first to ask them to reroute you home. If they can’t/won’t, that’s when duty of care kicks in. I personally wouldn’t claim for 2 weeks without asking them to try getting me home first – they have arrangements with other airlines (e.g. KLM) that they can use for this. Note it is considered reasonable for you to be asked to get a train to another airport (e.g. flight from Genoa cancelled, they fly you from Milan, you get a train there) – in this case they would pay for the train. Only if there is no flight option would they pay for a fortnight’s hotel.

        • lgflyer says:

          23 Dec23 December 13:16

          You could try saying that you were planning to stay with relatives for a few days, but they would not be happy to host you for so long and you would rather move to an hotel. They might offer you some other flight instead of paying £1k for your accomodation.

      • Andy says:

        23 Dec23 December 13:11

        I see others have covered it already – one thing I would note is that it looks like both EasyJet and RyanAir are still operating flights to the UK this week and next (I’m just looking at Milan-London, but have heard from friends their flights from elsewhere in Italy are still operating). You might be better off getting a refund from BA and rebooking with one of those (many flights are sub 20£)

• Tim Rogers says:

  23 Dec23 December 09:34

  During the recent half price BA redemption sale, I made an LHR-YVR-LHR booking for February 2021 for two people AND used a two-for-one voucher.

  The outbound flight has been cancelled and I have been automatically rebooked to the following day.

  I know that this gives me a nice opportunity to reconsider my options, given that travelling to Canada in 2 months time seems unlikely!

  I know don’t want cash –  I won’t get 50% off again and I don’t have long to run on my 241 voucher – but I have a couple of questions:

  1) If I use EC261 to book to a different future date (say August):
    a) Will I be limited to only award availability? Or commercial too?
    b) Is there any limit on when I can travel? (i.e. how far away?)
  2) Is there any time limit for when I need to make my decision? (i.e. if I don’t accept the schedule change, could I wait until 48 hours before to pick my option?).
  3) Is there a better approach than picking a new date that I’m missing? (e.g. FTV, cash…)

  Thanks!

  • Rhys says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:58

    1a. no, if rebooking under Eu261 there’s no reason why BA should/is allowed to restrict to reward availability
    1b. BA likes to think there is a limit of 365 from when the original ticket was issued but there’s no real basis in EU261 why this shouldn’t be longer, although I’m not sure how flexible BA would be
    2. if the whole booking has been cancelled there isn’t a real time change. If part of the booking is still happening then obviously before then! Since you have been automatically rebooked I wouldn’t leave it too late.
    3. no – unless the original flights were on a peak date for example and your new preferred dates are off peak (so you could save some Avios). This is a moot point for you as the 50% saving is better.

    • Nick says:

      23 Dec23 December 11:10

      Rhys, for 1b, while I agree it shouldn’t be a reason to refuse, it’s actually an IATA restriction, not a BA one. Not really fair to keep blaming BA when they’re following a regulation they have to abide by as a condition of membership.

• GT says:

  23 Dec23 December 09:37

  Qatar seem to have significantly revised their ticket flexibility options as of 22 Dec. There is now no option to apply for a voucher or extend ticket validity for 2yrs. All date changes are now subject to revised fare calculation.

  On the plus side it seems to be possible to have a full refund without flights being cancelled ie. voluntary.

  ​​​​​​​Am I mis-reading this ?
  I wonder if this will apply to existing bookings.

  • Rhys says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:55

    We’re covering this tomorrow 🙂

  • Reeferman says:

    23 Dec23 December 10:08

    I cancelled my Qatar flights (BRU/CPT r.t) 3 months ago and am still waiting for the cash refund – which was agreed on the phone at the time. London office/phone lines now closed. Ticket is not live online, so presumably the refund is in the system.
    Have now started a S75 claim

• Peter K says:

  23 Dec23 December 09:40

  Yes you will get a referral bonus. They will also get one if they are eligible for one based on previous Amex ownership rules.

  • MarkH says:

    23 Dec23 December 09:58

    Perfect – thanks!

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