What if our London flight is canceled?
 

I haven't seen any postings regarding what, if any, reparations are being made to passengers of canceled BA flights from/to London. We really weren't concerned about the cancellations over the holidays - that seemed to be a likely time for a terrorist strike. But with the most recent ones, we started to rethink our situation. We depart in 3 weeks and we're certainly NOT changing our plans - THAT would be un-American! But I'd like to at least be prepared for the worst and be informed of how these situations are being handled by BA. We did not purchase travel insurance with our booking - should I try to now? Try to do it with American Express? Your thoughts are appreciated!!!

I booked flights to Washington DC from London in November and travel on Feb 14th. I too am worried. Fortunately (so far) something made me change my mind to book with BA and I chose Virgin, otherwise I would have booked on the much cancelled flight BA 232.
I don't think that there will be much of a problem coming into the UK as all the flights cancelled so far have been going into the US (I think I'm right in saying).
The pilots are beginning to voice concern over the cancellations because they are for bizarre reasons according to them. Apparently one of the "terrorists" that had booked was in fact a Welshman and another was a 4 year old boy.
I really would have bought insurance because you are crazy to travel without it.
I really don't know what BA are offering in terms of accomodating passangers that have had their flights cancelled. One thing I expect is that my Virgin flight will be oversubscribed as I certainly would not book Air France, BA or Continental if I had a free choice today. I am not prepared to be bumped off on my way to DC, but who knows on the way home? Virgin are rather generous with their compensations, usually offering return tickets to any destination so I'm prepared for extra nights in DC!!!

AR, when a flight into the U.S. is cancelled, it may frequently involve cancelling a corresponding flight going back across because it leaves the carrier short the aircraft that would have made the flight. That said, these things have a way of working themselves out and your plan to be flexible and possibly even be in a position to take a bump sounds like a good strategy.

Travel insurance won't cover this.

BA has a codeshare relationship with American, so I'm sure they can re-route you on AA in the event of a cancellation. Also, I read something yesterday in which the government said there shouldn't be any more flight disruptions in the forseeable future. These cancellations are getting kind of bizarre, to say the least. I watched British and French officials react to the latest round, and they were clearly quite irritated.

The problem seems to be that US intelligence are very jumpy, and are ordering certain flights into the US to be cancelled. BA and government staff in the UK are starting to get quite irritated as many of these supposed threats clearly aren't so. Also, security at Heathrow is extremely tight. Luckily, BA is a very busy carrier with many flights daily to the US, so I can't see you being stuck at Heathrow for a week.

Travel insurance will not cover this, but having said that, you should NEVER travel without sufficient travel insurance. There's a lot more that can happen beyond security alerts.

Travel insurance is generally a waste of money if you are taking scheduled flights. It generally only pays out if you miss your outward flight, otherwise the insurer expects the airline to compensate you if anything goes wrong whilst you are in the hands of the airline. Although it is possible to miss your outward flight, generally most people make it. This is why I think travel insurance is a waste of money other that health insurance and also insurance for your valuables, if you travel with any.

I have no idea where you got the notion that changing plans is "unAmerican"..Bush does it all the time. If the flight is cancelled you'll be offered alternative arrangements without further financial hardship....at least for the transportation. Lodging, etc., in conjuction with waiting for an alternative flight, is not covered and the airlines will not offer it as a rule.

I can't see terrorists succumbing to brand-name loyalty, or in other words, other flights by other airlines won't be immune to this sort of thing.

I can suggest only that you leave enough room in your itinerary to accomodate delays, which of course could happen for other reasons (weather, air traffic controller strikes, etc. etc.)

Hi

Have you considered calling BA and asking them?

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I guess we'll just wing it!

Kate, you're right. There are worse things that can happen & the folks here seem to be split on opinions of travel insurance.

I guess I need to study further before forming my own opinion but I've always been of the mind that it is a waste - I always purchase my tickets and lodging with American Express because of their strict policy to not pay a vendor if there is an unresolved issue with the cardholder.

As far as health insurance goes, would I have NO coverage overseas? I don't mean for a visit to a clinic for cough medicine but something catostrophic?

"As far as health insurance goes, would I have NO coverage overseas? I don't mean for a visit to a clinic for cough medicine but something catostrophic?"

No one here can answer that question -- it depends on your own health policy. While some of them may pay for emergency treatment, even if outside the US, I don't think very many regular health insurance policies would pay for transportation back home due to illiness or accident whether you were able to travel by regular flights or if you required a special medical care flight. This is where travel health insurance is especially important. I believe American Express offers a travel health insurance policy which looks pretty good. (You mentioned that you use AmEx to book tickets and lodging so you would be able to purchase their travel health insurance.)