NEWS: BA closes Heathrow arrivals lounge, & BA’s August short haul schedule looking pretty healthy & e-voucher trial

BA closes the arrivals lounge at Heathrow

Less than two weeks after they reopened the Heathrow T5 arrivals lounge, BA have shut it again. I must admit I did think it was ambitious given that most users of the lounge are normally business travellers on their way to meetings from Asian and US flights that arrive in the early morning. Given that a) entry is restricted from the UK to the US and most of Asia, b) therefore there are not many flights and c) therefore few business travellers, it’s not surprising it was empty. Though I have to say well done to BA for trying to resume some sort of usual service.

I can’t see the lounge reopening until US flights start properly and given the current huge wave of new cases there, I don’t see that happening before mid-autumn. 

HT: Head for Points

BA’s e-vouchers for refunds trial

I have been writing for a while now about BA being able to give e-vouchers for refunds instead of the very complex voucher system they have in place now. Currently, you can only use vouchers by phone and for the named people on the bookings. In effect, vouchers now are just a copy of the original booking.  BA has just started a new trial on Twitter so if you need to get a refund voucher soon, this may be for you. They are only doing this with very simple bookings – one person on a simple cash one way or return booking. This means no Avios bookings, upgrades or vouchers used. In return, you should get a voucher that you can redeem online. Much better than having to queue on the phone!

You can find more about BA’s book with confidence policy which allows you to get a refund voucher in certain scenarios in this article. 

If any reader tries this, do let us know how you get on!

BA’s August short-haul schedule is looking pretty healthy!

Although BA have started to resume flights in July, it was less than they originally hoped for after the UK government brought in their disastrous quarantine policy only to exempt countries a few weeks later and to give FCO exemptions to a different set of countries!

Now that the dust has settled their schedules are looking a lot more healthy for August. There are more destinations returning to the schedule and higher frequencies. All The flights will operate at Heathrow until at least 9 September 2020.

Aberdeen – 16 x Weekly
Algiers – 3 x Weekly
Alicante – 13 x Weekly
Amsterdam – 17 x Weekly
Athens – 34 x Weekly
Barcelona – 39 x Weekly
Bari – 3 x Weekly
Basel – 6 x Weekly
Bastia – 1 x Weekly
Belfast City – 18 x Weekly
Berlin – 17 x Weekly
Bilbao – 6 x Weekly
Billund – 3 x Weekly
Bodrum – 1 x Weekly
Bologna – 12 x Weekly
Bordeaux – 5 x Weekly
Brindisi – 4 x Weekly
Brussels – Daily
Bucharest – 6 x Weekly
Budapest 8 x Weekly
Cagliari – 3 x Weekly
Catania – 4 x Weekly
Chania – 6 x Weekly
Corfu – 11 x Weekly
Copenhagen – 16 x Weekly
Dalaman – 5 x Weekly
Dublin – 17 x Weekly
Dubrovnik – Daily
Düsseldorf – 6 x Weekly
Edinburgh – 25 x Weekly
Faro – 19 x Weekly
Frankfurt – 5 x Weekly
Figari – 1 x Weekly
Funchal – 3 x Weekly
Geneva – 10 x Weekly
Genoa – 3 x Weekly
Gibraltar – 12 x Weekly
Glasgow – 19 x Weekly
Gothenburg – 6 x Weekly
Hamburg – 5 x Weekly
Hannover – 6 x Weekly
Heraklion – 5 x Weekly
Ibiza – 22 x Weekly
Inverness – 8 x Weekly
Istanbul – Daily
Jersey – 3 x Daily
Kalamata – 3 x Weekly
Kefalonia – 3 x Weekly
Kos – 3 x Weekly
Krakow – 5 x Weekly
Lanzarote – 3 x Weekly
Larnaca – 3 x Daily
Lisbon – 3 x Daily
Luxembourg – 6 x Weekly
Lyon – 5 x Weekly
Madrid – 17 x Weekly
Mahon – 5 x Weekly
Malaga – 25 x Weekly
Malta – 2 x Weekly
Manchester – 12 x Weekly
Marrakesh – 2 x Weekly
Marseille – 12 x Weekly
Milan Linate – 12 x Weekly
Milan Malpensa- 3 x Daily
Munich – 9 x Weekly
Mykonos – 8 x Weekly
Naples – 10 x Weekly
Newcastle – Daily
Newquay – 5 x Weekly
Nice – 26 x Weekly
Olbia – 5 x Weekly
Oslo – 8 x Weekly
Palermo – 5 x Weekly
Palma – 23 x Weekly
Paphos – 3 x Weekly
Paris – 14 x Weekly
Pisa – 11 x Weekly
Porto – 4 x Weekly
Prague – 10 x Weekly
Preveza – 4 x Weekly
Pristina – 1 x Weekly
Pula – 2 x Weekly
Reykjavik – 5 x Weekly
Rhodes – 4 x Weekly
Rome – 19 x Weekly
Salzburg – 2 x Weekly
Santorini – 6 x Weekly
Seville – 4 x Weekly
Sofia – Daily
Split – 9 x Weekly
Stockholm – 14 x Weekly
Tenerife – 6 x Weekly
Thessaloniki – 5 x Weekly
Toulouse – 10 x Weekly
Tirana – 5 x Weekly
Turin – 4 x Weekly
Valencia – 10 x Weekly
Venice – 2 x Daily
Verona – 6 x Weekly
Vienna – 5 x Weekly
Warsaw – 6 x Weekly
Zagreb – Daily
Zakynthos – 2 x Weekly
Zurich – 9 x Weekly

It is interesting to note that there are a significant number of flights to Portugal despite it not being on the FCO or quarantine exemption lists. Hopefully, this is a sign that the government will soon add them after it’s controversial decision to leave out Portugal in the initial lists. 

These flights are currently due to go from Heathrow. With almost all the oneworld airlines at Heathrow due to move into T5 soon, it will be interesting to see how the lounge access works. Currently, there is only one lounge open most of the time but I would expect that as other airlines arrive they may need to open more.

Watch out tomorrow for another BA flash sale.