Covid 19 Thoughts on the likely actions in the weeks to come

I hope the EU relaxes this “use it or lose it” on slots;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51809318

Sky News reporting: European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen says the EU will temporarily drop rules which say airlines must operate 80% of scheduled services to keep landing slots at airports

Now watch the LHR slots be dropped left, right and centre. I’d expect a number of VS aircraft to be parked up shortly across LHR and LGW.

TLV suspended until 1st April

[mitchja]

VS have now updated their current cancelation policy for March flights to now include any bookings made before March 4th :

No change fees for travel in March

To give you greater flexibility with your upcoming travel plans, we've introduced a flexible No change fees policy for all bookings made prior to 4th March 2020 for travel during March.

This means that if your plans do need to change, you can switch your flight to a later date with no penalty. Rebooked flights will be subject to availability and any difference in fare.

You can also choose to re-route on a Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Atlantic Codeshare flight to or from your original destination, or rebook to or from another destination.

Travel must be completed on or before 30th September 2020.

This policy applies to all routes in Virgin Atlantic’s international network, including services from London Heathrow, London Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow and Belfast airports, and tickets booked on our codeshare flights on transatlantic routes with our expanded joint venture partners; Delta, Air France and KLM. Your flight number will begin with the letters "VS".

To change your flight:

○ If you booked direct, please contact our customer center via our SMS messaging system on +44 (0) 7481 339184 (available 24/7) or 97634 from the US. If you are calling us from overseas please visit our contact us page.

○ If you booked through a travel agent or a third party, please contact them to discuss rebooking and refund options.

Finally common sense prevails! I do wonder if you changed your dates last week for an existing booking and paid the change fee whether they would refund this too you now?

As the WHO has now declared a pandemic, many travel insurance policies will no longer cover you if, god forbid, you catch Covid-19 while abroad or are forced to pay to change your travel plans.

Also, BA is expected to announce mass cancellations in the next 24 hours. VS will almost inevitably do the same.

And as cases continue to soar in Europe, Israel is unlikely to be the only country that effectively closes its borders.

All food for thought for anyone, like me, who until now was stubbornly refusing to change their plans.

Well, I have a JFK flight on Saturday and a return the following Friday.... let's see if I can make either of those flights....

Kuwait closing its airport from Friday

And India’s suspending all tourist visas from Friday, which can’t bode well for DEL & BOM flights.

Given the amount of through traffic I would expect BOM and DEL to be suspended from Friday.

US routes will survive but be severely cut down. As I said previously, expect to see a number of VS aircraft parked up very soon with covers on the engines.

[mitchja]

A further update from VS.

The window for upcoming flights now extended by 1 month to 30th April now:

Our flexible no change fees policy

To give you greater peace of mind with your upcoming travel plans, we've introduced a flexible no change fees policy

for bookings made before 4 March, for travel between 1 March and 30 April 2020 (including Flying Club redemption bookings). Travel can be rebooked between 9 March 2020 and 30 September 2020.

for bookings made between 1 March and 31 March, travel can be rebooked between 2 March 2020 and 30 September 2020.
This means that if your plans do need to change, you can switch your flight to a later date with no penalty. Rebooked flights will be subject to availability and any difference in fare.

You can also choose to re-route on a Virgin Atlantic or Virgin Atlantic Codeshare flight to or from your original destination, or rebook to or from another destination.

Travel must be completed on or before 30th September 2020.

This policy applies to all booking classes (including Economy Light) on all routes in Virgin Atlantic’s international network, and for tickets booked with us on our transatlantic codeshare flights with Delta, Air France and KLM. Your flight number will begin with the letters "VS". This also includes Flying Club redemption bookings.

To change your flight:

○ If you booked direct, please contact our customer center via our SMS messaging system on +44 (0) 7481 339184 (available 24/7) or 97634 from the US. If you are calling us from overseas please visit our contact us page.

If you booked through a travel agent or a third party, please contact them to discuss rebooking and refund options.

The US has now banned anyone who’s been to a Schengen country within 14 days of their arrival.

The UK, obviously, is not in Schengen (neither is ROI) but this’ll affect anyone planning an ex-EU or any Brits who’ve been to a Schengen country recently.

Travel options are rapidly diminishing.

Includes anyone who has travelled to the EU within the last 30 days.

An absolute disaster for AF KLM, Norwegian, LH and IAG. This will basically shut down TATL traffic for a period. Given the revenues it generates; a real nightmare.

Back to the planning board for many of the EU airlines.

Got a long weekend in Washington DC coming up in two weeks. Managed to pick up a good UC out/PE back deal but that low price means that the fare difference is making it prohibitively expensive to switch to other dates.

Who knows where we’ll be in two weeks. It could be that Trump will add the UK to the banned list. Or that most TATL flights will be cancelled by then. Or that the UK starts restricting movement. Or none of the above.

Right now the only certainty is that nothing is certain. But I suspect we should all be prepared to change or scrap any travel plans at short notice for the next few months because the situation’s changing daily.

Who knows where we’ll be in two weeks. It could be that Trump will add the UK to the banned list. Or that most TATL flights will be cancelled by then. Or that the UK starts restricting movement. Or none of the above.

Right now the only certainty is that nothing is certain. But I suspect we should all be prepared to change or scrap any travel plans at short notice for the next few months because the situation’s changing daily.

Agreed. As it stands, my next overseas holiday is to the US in September so I'm hoping things have improved and gone back to normal by then. As you say though, nothing is certain and it's a moving feast, though one thing that's certain is what we can and can't do in the short-term is increasingly out of our hands.

Flying to Vegas with VS on Tues 24 March for a two week stay

At the moment, no intention of cancelling but worried what the implications may be if travel is curtailed whilst I'm there

Looking at my flight, it seems pretty full in all classes, so wondering how often the seat-plan is updated?

Bit of a selfish question here, but with all the hard work that comes before it I would like to know others opinions on where they think I stand.

I'm currently AU, with renewal up at the end of April. I'm currently on 960 tier points for the membership year (most trips at the back of the bus), but with business travel all but stopped it's unlikely I'll get the required 40 points before the end of the cycle to renew.

Does anyone have any precedent of VS lowering the threshold for renewal? Obviously we've never been in such a situation before but interested to hear of others experiences.

Thanks

[mitchja]

Bit of a selfish question here, but with all the hard work that comes before it I would like to know others opinions on where they think I stand.

I'm currently AU, with renewal up at the end of April. I'm currently on 960 tier points for the membership year (most trips at the back of the bus), but with business travel all but stopped it's unlikely I'll get the required 40 points before the end of the cycle to renew.

Does anyone have any precedent of VS lowering the threshold for renewal? Obviously we've never been in such a situation before but interested to hear of others experiences.

Thanks

All you can really do is ring Flying Club and ask them. According to Business Traveller VS have not commented yet on altering their Flying Club policies.

Hilton has said this morning it’ll be reviewing the criteria required to re-qualify for elite status in due course.

I’d expect other hotel chains to follow suit; whether airlines do remains to be seen.

[mitchja]

Hilton has said this morning it’ll be reviewing the criteria required to re-qualify for elite status in due course.

I’d expect other hotel chains to follow suit; whether airlines do remains to be seen.

Emails received from both IHG and also Virgin Hotels last night pretty much saying the same along with more flexible cancelation polices for advance purchase rates for stays unto the end of April.

IHG also stated that anyone with Ambassador status (which I have) will now have this year status extended by a further 3 months. Spire earning threshold reduced by 25%. All Elite status locked in till the end of 2020.

Nothing so far though from the train companies either yet. LNER still sticking with the hard line advance ticket cancelation policy.

If I have to cancel my travel plans to FLL at the end of April (which is looking more likely now ), that involves an advance purchase return train fare and I will not be a happy bunny if they refuse a full refund or a date change on that

Lufthansa Group have cancelled 23,000 flights in April alone.

What are people's thoughts about this situation with flying to the USA.?
Do you think it will be extended to include travel from the UK?
We are due to fly to Orlando next Friday and have a feeling we won't be going I won't be cancelling unless I have to but I also work for the NHS so I am worried they may cancel our annual leave if things get bad. It says on the website that we can change our flights to another date but we already have another trip booked in September so don't really want to change to another date this year. do you think we will be able to get a refund?

[mitchja]

It’s very difficult to say as the situation is so fluid at the minute, however, I travel to Fort Lauderdale in just under 6 weeks at the end of April via JFK and I’m not cancelling anything until I absolutely have to.

Our next trip departs on Easter Monday (13/04) and whilst we have no plans to cancel, I dislike the “will we/won’t we” be able to go. I’d prefer to delay and at least feel in control rather than have travel plans potentially disrupted a few days before departure.

Presumably travel insurance covers the latest US travel ban? If people didn’t want to go, would a quick hop to France really grant a free pass?