I'm clearly not an experienced traveller with a question like this, but a BA flight I am loking at booking in October has a very short turnaround between landing from Leeds and departing to NYC - arrives 12.20pm and departs to NYC 1.55pm. What's your opinion on potential risks if the LBA flight is delayed and we have to rush between flights, as well as baggage being transferred in time ? Thanks in advance.
Would you be booking it all as one ticket or as separate bookings? There's no way I'd risk it on separate tickets (not least because pretty much every time I try to fly LBA-LHR BA cancels the flight! ) but at least if it were all one booking you would be protected and put onto the next flight without much hassle. If you're quite relaxed about potentially having to get a later flight and it wouldn't impact other plans (and it's all one ticket), it's not too big a deal. It's the sort of thing I might do if I was travelling by myself, but wouldn't book for family or friends who get stressed by travel if you see what I mean.
Thanks Joe. it would have been all one ticket - definitely not risking separate tickets. But in the end the short turnaround flight was only available to book on one date, and we decided to fly out a day earlier, so it became a moot point. Your last point I fully agree with; travelling by myself I would risk it, but not with a wife who panics when something is changed at the last minute.
Good to hear you've got it sorted. Yeah, it's interesting how different people respond to travel (particularly flying) even within the same family. Despite having been on ~1,000+ flights, my mum always finds the pre-departure stuff quite stressful and would certainly panic a bit about flight changes, but is absolutely fine the second the plane actually takes off. Whereas, unless I'm running late and it's a flight I really need to get, I just find checking in etc extremely dull - tbh I'd see having to switch flights as something slightly more interesting than the usual waiting.
Update on this, with a question. BA have stopped flying LBA to LHR, so have emailed to say that leg of our trip is cancelled, with no other information. Looks like I have a few options : find an alternative flight, from Manchester, and bear the additional costs of travel and parking, and change my current booking with BA. train to London and out to LHR - can't book so far in advance yet and no idea what capacity will be like, so riskier option. And BA have not explained what happens if I do this. I expect they would have to fully refund the avios used and taxes paid for those flights, as they cancelled. I have not tried to call them yet as it's not urgent. cancel the entire flight, and attempt to go through the refund process with BA. That's looking like my preferred option given the current world status. What would other people do ? Any tips on BA refunds ?
Hi John - hope you're well! Dealing with BA cancelling flights from LBA was basically my specialist skill (during non-COVID times) - but it was usually by text at 6am on day of travel, so at least you've got plenty of notice The big question I think is whether you actually want (or will be able) to travel or not. I'm not sure when exactly your flight is, but my personal inclination would probably be option 3 as well. I have no flights booked at the moment and no intention to book anything soon. I'm afraid I don't really have a silver bullet re BA refunds at the moment, apart from be as patient, persistent and friendly as possible. It's likely to be quite annoying, but as long as you are aware of that when you start, at least you are prepared. And, if it works out relatively easy, that's a bonus. Good luck! - let me know how it goes!
Thanks Joe. The flight is for October; we had optimistically thought that things may have been getting back to normal by then. Now I'm not certain at all. We are waiting to see how soon my wife (paramedic) gets notice of the annual leave dates she is allowed; if they fall on convenient dates next year then we might be able to change the flight dates for free.
Yes, looking at the current trends in the US, I think travel there in October is a tricky one. I imagine there will be flights of course and that NYC will be 'open' (albeit, hopefully, socially distanced), but whether it would be sensible to go and do all the usual things would depend a lot on your own risk profile. And then there's the potential issue of quarantine once you get back... Probably a lot more fun and less stress/hassle if you can make the dates work next year. Unless something changes rapidly, this summer I'll be sticking to pretty local breaks here in the UK renting nice self-catering places - which is something I genuinely love doing anyway, so hardly a problem.
Update on this, as I wanted to call out excellent service from BA. I contacted them via twitter, and after several direct messages they have organised a full cancellation, so avios and 241 vouchers back in my account, and the cash part of the trip is being refunded to our BA Amex card. Because they had cancelled the leeds to london part of the trip they had to do a simple cancel and refund, but I'm amazed at just how easy it was. The hard part now is working out if I can do anything in the next 12 months to use the voucher which expires first.
Great to hear it got sorted so easily John. Unfortunately, judging from the PM's press conference today, I would probably be looking next Spring or later if I were you.
