[AMcWhirter]

Reported this evening that BA is cancelling more flights this month owing to weak demand.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/coronavirus-british-airways-ryanair-cancel-flights-latest-a9370131.html

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-british-airways/british-airways-cancels-some-flights-to-united-states-as-coronavirus-hits-demand-idUKKBN20P2LQ

[kershcliff]

Arrived back from a week in Madeira yesterday, where no cases had been reported.

I was not particularly concerned about fellow passengers, but was wondering what checks the Cabin Crew had had.
After all they might have been on previous flights with affected passengers and were in close contact with all the entire passengers on our flight.

Don’t recollect seeing any signs at Manchester Airport on landing, but it was late and I might have missed them.
Having used the passport e gate, I went immediately to the WC and washed my hands.

Arrival at Manchester brilliant again as we arrived 10 minutes early and was in a taxi within 20 minutes of landing (having collected 2 suitcases from the carousel)

Security at departure on the previous Monday, took 45 minutes! (at lunchtime) This is spoiling what otherwise was a seamless departure.

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EasternPedlar

[K1ngston]

As many know I live in Phuket and work in Singapore which has been the arrangement for about 18 months now, well today I received notice that I cannot travel back to Phuket from Singapore without self quarantining myself for 14 days every time I return hone, which of course doesn’t work and now I have to look at alternative arrangements or (and this is the madness of it) fly through KL where Malaysia is not on the list for self quarantine rules …..

[MarcusGB]

There is a difficulty here for all travellers in the coming months.

Some Airlines are offering refunds or changes to your travel, others are not, as Mike O’leary stated when asked, stated bluntly “No”, on channel 4 news last eve.

Insurers state that the travel must be listed as The FCO “Do not travel advice”, which dos not currently have many countries listed, but here claims are widely rejected.
So what do the Airlines do, when they The Government advise all travel for some period of time?

I think at the very least, people have a right concern, especially travelling long haul to Asia to Australia, to delay or cancel travel, especially when near to the epicentre.

That there is a profoundly greater risk in Asia at this time. having flown recently to Australia end January 20, returning through Asia with Stopovers, you can see what lies ahead, very clearly, and IT IS coming this way.

The correct advice to travellers with Underlying conditions is Not to Travel,
But travelling into a major region of The World where the Virus in uncontrolled, really would contradict Medical advice, and perhaps Government levels of imposed restrictions, would be a sensible pr-cautionary event in the coming weeks.

Being a global health Emergency with such a developing Worldwide spread, we do not know exactly how it is passed on, the true incubation period, why people are re-infected when they have seen What is “Effective treatment” yet emerges again, a Vaccine a year away, we should have the right to cancel. To not do so, would be to endanger our health, and of others when we return.

The UK government need to state this clearly and concisely, So that travellers will be entitled to have refunds, or re-bookings, when they are medically advised not to travel. We must remember the numbers in various regions being so great the state of the virus hitting every aspect of life.
The death rate is around 3-7% in these areas, including Italy, and there is mass concern, with great doubt that some countries are releasing suppressed figures. inaccurate figures.

But given the current knowledge of what is ahead, and i have seen it in recent travels, a Right to postpone or a refund, on Health grounds.
It shows the decent Airlines of KLM, BA LH, offering refunds or credits for future travel, and the opposite- Ryanair that regardless want your cash, refuse to refund.

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K1ngston

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=992411][/postquote]

MarcusGB goes back to a point I made last week having spoken to a hotelier, who told me that they refunded and were super helpful at first when things started spiralling but they are less amenable to those who have since booked and then make the decision to cancel, I think this may well apply to the airlines..

I was supposed to be flying to Canberra next week from Singapore and I have been advised that Government Agencies will not see people who are visiting the country so I have curtailed and SQ who I was flying with were happy to rebook free of charge but not refund so I guess we need to be aware of these things

[DavidSmith2]

For me, the business travel issue is simple – my organization has cancelled all travel, probably to end April now. So that’s 4 trips I have had to pull out of. The complication is the personal travel at Easter at the beginning of April. I am currently scheduled to fly Accra-Istanbul-Milan-Rome-Tirana. Then after 3 days in Tirana I fly Tirana-Belgrade-Ljubljana. Then after 3 days in Ljubljana I fly Ljubljana-Istanbul-Accra.

That includes 3 airlines (Turkish, Alitalia and Serbia Air), and they all have different positions on cancellations, changes etc. I am looking at alternatives (mainly to avoid Italy), simplifications (omit Ljubljana) or cancellation, although I do not have any insurance cover as far as I can see.

For now, the airlines are not offering free cancellations (or cancelling flights themselves) that far ahead, and options for changes are limited.

So will just have to hold tight for a couple more weeks and see how things develop.

[Silversoho]

The situation in HK is much calmer. Virus growth rate is very slow and all is stabilizing.
There is limited but reliable access to Macau ( bus with some checks and questions both sides but OK).

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TupeloKid, GivingupBA

[Swissdiver]

Received a message today, with the following heading:

Bangkok Airways enhances its precaution and prevention measures for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pneumonia

Not sure adding “Pneumonia” will help… I would have understood the intent from a media, but from an airline, I don’t get it…

[EasternPedlar]

BA just cancelled my flight to Tirana later this month. Fortunately I escaped ‘unhurt’ as I had a cancellable hotel booking, but things could easily have been different.

Similar to DavidSmith 2 who has posted above, I have another trip booked to the Balkans in May, which includes flights on BA plus non-refundable flights on Croatia Airlines, and stays in some small boutique hotels. I hope nothing happens to unravel that trip, because then I will surely lose money. The smaller airlines and hotels may well not have the financial capacity to be generous with refunds.

I’m thinking that this might be a good time to lie low, and cut down on travel. Business is bound to suffer, so perhaps I can work on learning bridge! If travelling, better to stay with the more resilient players, especially where one has frequent traveller status. This will play havoc with travel budgets, though!

[DavidSmith2]

Hi Easternpedlar,

Did BA give you any specific reason for cancellation of your Tirana flight? I have heard they have cancelled all flights to Tirana for now. It seems a bit of a strange decision for a route which is not in the firing line for COVID yet.

[MartynSinclair]

Looking a little further ahead, to a time when travel without health worries may restart – I am monitoring through my own research and through my amazing TC, prices for travel to recommence mid year. I am also looking at current travel prices and availability for both hotels and flights.

I started off by looking at flights and hotels to Milan, a destination I am avoiding at the present, especially bearing in mind the latest news from Sky

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-italy-to-tell-people-not-to-enter-or-leave-regions-worst-hit-by-outbreak-11952487

What amazes me is the cost of flights (BA) and hotels (Bonvoy) appear show, business as usual. The Bulgari hotel for next week is showing a low rate of Euros 800 per night.

Looking further forward to July and August, when hopefully things will have settled a little, flights into the Far East are still showing higher than normal – although hotel bargains for HKG are showing plentiful.

I know the big turning point will be the warm weather or a vaccine, but plans for 2020, still need to be adjusted. Would be interested to see how the travel industry are going to encourage their customers and clients back into their ‘arms’. As a business I still need to plan.

As a side issue, i have a cruise to Scandinavia booked departing in ca. 9 weeks and on new British ‘supersized’ ship with 5,000 passengers + crew. Whilst this is a UK to UK cruise, I am not at all comfortable if there will be passengers flying in from virus hotspots even around Europe. We have discussed the position regarding flight changes, but has anyone got any current knowledge about cruise bookings over the next couple of months.

PS – please excuse the thread drift over to the impact of travel by cruise liner, but we can only have so many threads on this subject….

[TominScotland]

Martyn

It will be really interesting to see what happens regarding your cruise. My own view is that the cruise industry will be hit really badly in the short- to medium-, maybe even long-term by current events. I am not a cruiser (just a one-time voyager on QM2 and no wish to repeat) but it will take major inducements (ie. price) to persuade folk back to cruise ships. I understand that the cruise industry in the US is worth $53bn and yet Mr Trump does not want his cruisers back on dry land….

[FaroFlyer]

Martyn,

I shall also be very interested to hear. We have a Med cruise which we board in Barcelona in mid June. It has 3 calls in Italy and, it being MSC cruises, the main embarkation port, and restocking port, is Genoa. Followed by Naples and Messina.

Apologies for keeping off topic

[K1ngston]

Martyn et al, with all the horrendous press coverage of the 2/3 ships stuck in various ports with 100’s nay 1000’s of potential carriers why in heavens name would you ever consider getting on another boat? May I suggest a package tour to Wuhan which I believe is “great value” at the moment? In all seriousness you wouldn’t so why even consider on getting on a boat ever again? apologies for the continued drift of topic

[DavidSmith2]

Extending the cruise sub-topic, I think the issue is the modern model of bigger ships and more customers, with less individual space. This was also a recipe for problems and we have seen it many times with things like salmonella outbreaks on board cruise ships.

I very much hope this does not hasten the end of cruising and of ocean liners, but I do hope it ends the model of ‘build ’em bigger and squeeze ’em in’ which seems to have dominated the cruise industry for the last decade or so.

In a sightly less dramatic sense, the same applies to other ‘all inclusive’ holidays where hundreds or thousands of people are effectively coralled into a relatively small space, especially at mealtimes, with a buffet-style food service.

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Lydia

[Author]

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