-
Due to go to Israel on 26th October and, for obvious reasons, want to cancel my BA flights. BA are holding to the Business Class ticket cancellation terms which means I can’t get a refund and because I’ve had one change already I cannot change again. Seems mad that BA haven’t changed their policy in light of the destination being at war and the Israeli PM describing it as a ‘long and difficult war’. Any advice?
It’s been a fast moving situation over a weekend- give them a chance and I’m sure changes and leniency will follow in the next day or two.
VS have so far cancelled 2 days’ flights and temp rules state that you can change flights before the 11th as long as your new flight is before the 18th- it seems fairly obvious this is optimistic and will likely also change in the coming days.
Wait till FCO update travel advice and I’m sure that you will be fine
Still waiting for BA to announce their policy on Israel travel. Virgin have published their cancellation and rebooking policy twice now covering the period until October 28th. BA’s response despite the FCO ‘only essential travel’ warning is to advise us that they will charge a £350 cancellation fee on one of our business class tickets and no refund on the other. Are BA hoping travellers will claim on their travel insurance so they can keep the ticket revenue unlike Virgin? That could be seen to be taking advantage of a tragic situation.
How many more threads do we need on this…? https://www.headforpoints.com/forums/topic/israel-situation-ba-out-of-touch-again/
BA165 that was due to land in Tel Aviv at 15:05 was turned around to London due to rocket alarms at the airport when coming in for landing.
This makes me believe British Airways will make a statement soon about cancelling all flights to/from TLV for a while.
The Turkish airlines have also stopped servicing TLV which leaves basically only Israeli and charter airlines still flying.
Hopefully if they call off flights then they will amend the cancellation policy.
@Internet179 have you got back to the UK yet? In your post on Monday you and your family were stuck in Israel and facing a missed connection via Turkey.
Daily Telegraph live reporting quotes BA spokesperson as saying flights now suspended following the turnaround of a flight today
Hi Lyn
Yes thankfully we landed back in the UK safely yesterday. I ended up booking a new flight myself and have a case open with Pegasus trying to claim it back.
Worst case I’m okay with that being the cost of getting home safely.
Just after we landed in Turkey the government there announced they are stopping flights to/from Israel, so we were very lucky!
Quick update.
In spite of their ongoing and indefinite suspension of all flights to Israel due to the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas (and the threats of regional escalation), the airline is STILL refusing to refund Christmas flights so that their passengers can make alternative arrangements that do not, for example, involve taking their children into an active war-zone or placing hosting burdens on friends and family already personally impacted by the Hamas attacks earlier in October.
BA’s website now says they will refund flights for travel up to and including 21st Nov. Drip drip drip. However for most families, travelling over the Christmas period is something that needs booking or re-arranging well in advance, and BA know this. Other airlines, such as Virgin, have recognised this too but are offering full refunds for anyone with tickets to travel up to the end of Dec 2023.
Why is BA continuing to maltreat its customers? Sure for those who have already and quite reasonably decided that Israel is no longer an appropriate Christmas family holiday destination they offer a bit more flexibility?
BA’s ‘wait and see’ policy serves only their bottom line and leaves numerous customers, including my family, hung out to dry… unable to make any alternative holiday arrangements due to BA holding on to their money for as long as they can possibly get away with it.
While BA’s initial indecision could be generously put down to caution or incompetence, the longer this goes on the more cynical it looks and the harder it is to defend.
This is what travel insurance is for.
Most will pay if you cancel your holiday because the FCDO advice changes (which it has). Check your policy, and confirm cancellation costs will be covered.
From BAs point of view: you have booked a non-refundable flight. If the flight runs and you choose not to travel, you may well not get a refund (Ryanair and COVID made this very clear, BA was more generous by offering vouchers). If the flight is cancelled (which it very well may be) you will get a refund, rerouting, or rerouting at your convenience. BA may well wait until 14 days before the flight before deciding this.@Frequentflyer42 – sorry, but I think some personal responsibility is called for. Armed conflict in the middle east is hardly a new occurrence. Surely nobody would book a trip to Israel in the same way that you would to, say, Spain, and expect the airline to take the financial hit should the situation escalate.
I hope things calm a little by Xmas and you’ll be able to take your trip.
BA is a business and fully intends to resume its flights to Tel Aviv once it is deemed safe to do so. Whether that’s in a fortnight or next year, who knows, but it’s harsh to blame BA for acting in a rational manner and holding you to your contract until the situation is clearer. Your choice not to travel is also understandable, but that’s the trade off for buying cheap non refundable tickets. You don’t get to make voluntary cancellations or changes for free.
What is the position of your travel insurance provider?
OK. Thanks for the replies. Firstly, I think my initial post was probably too strongly worded and came across as a rant against BA. My apologies, the tone wasn’t right and that probably rubbed a few up the wrong way. I think I am just massively frustrated by the situation and that at least is not BA’s fault. I am not trying to hang everything on BA, in spite of how things may have come across, but I am very disappointed that they are not being more flexible.
@points_worrier: Thanks for seeing the actual issue through the heat and for the most constructive reply so far. Important to start any insurance claims asap as unfortunately travel insurance companies can also drag their feet (like mine is doing at the moment – I don’t have a clear reply from them about this yet either).Seems BA are hoping their customers will be forced to pursue matters with travel insurance providers before BA feel obliged to complete any Xmas refunds. Travel insurance claims can also be slow to process though and will not be a solution for everyone, so I still think BA could and should do better (even if that makes me a minority on this forum!).
@ Scott: Not sure exactly what you mean by ‘some personal responsibility is called for’? Now that war has broken out my personal responsibility is to make sure I don’t travel to Israel with my family this Christmas and that I recover as much of our annual holiday budget as I can in the process.
Of course there was/is always going to be a greater risk of fresh conflict breaking out in Israel than say Spain, but in the event that things ‘escalated’, as you put it, I just expected BA to be a bit more understanding/flexible – that’s all. Maybe I was over-critical of BA in my initial post – and if I was, I didn’t mean to offend anyone here.
Just for the record, for me at least this is not just a ‘situation escalating’, it is a whole new dimension to the conflict that no one was expecting. Despite the conflict having rumbled on in the background in recent years, there has not been any large-scale war with Gaza since 2014.
Since 2014 we’ve been visiting family in Israel annually and not once had to change travel plans because of the conflict. Perhaps we’ve been lucky, but for pretty much the last decade you could visit Israel in very much the same way you could visit Spain – the news headlines don’t always reflect the reality on the ground.
Anyway, I also hope it calms down very quickly for the sake of everyone involved on both sides – our family visit is clearly irrelevant in the broader picture of the suffering in the region.
@JDB: I do get how BA, like many other businesses, exist primarily for their shareholders, but there is a balance to be struck with customer service and I think they have got the balance wrong in this case. Virgin, also a business, have acknowledged that some customers will need to cancel their Christmas flights now that war has broken out and they are already offering refunds even though they fully expect to be flying again in time. If they can do this for their customers, why can’t BA do it for theirs?I just thought it would have been nicer if a giant corporation could refund a small family their plane fare so they can make alternative Xmas arrangements for their kids. Didn’t expect that to be so controversial. Goes to show how important tone is, so apologies again from my side if the initial post came across more as a rant, but I stand by the content.
@The Savage Squirrel: They are ‘assessing my request’ and will get back to me. I’ll update once I have more some from their side, but I’m not overly hopefully at this stage that they will process a refund any faster than BA ☹.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
