Booking backup flights to Europe

[Daveller]

Sorry for asking a dumb question… Is it possible to ask EK to book back up flights for us?

 

[MELso]

Sorry for asking a dumb question… Is it possible to ask EK to book back up flights for us?

Negatory, squire. EK is only refunding bookings up to 31 March (EDIT - now 15 April). After that, everything's going to be peachy, apparently... Booking flights on other airlines is not something EK is in the habit of doing.

FWIW, I've caved and booked MEL-SIN on QF and CDG-HKG-MEL on AF and CX for mid-May and mid-June as classic rewards for 3 people as well as a (pricy, fee-free) fully refundable SIN-LHR-BCN cash fare on BA. Not a great use of points by traditional metrics but they do ensure that my planned May trip to Spain and France goes ahead. Hopefully, I won't need these flights though, and in these circumstances 6000 points per person as a cancellation fee is reasonable to give me peace of mind...

 

[clifford]

I'm looking at the reverse, backup flights FROM Europe.

I have a trip booked to AMS in May on TK, so outbound should be OK. Unfortunately, the return is via DXB, so this probably won't happen.

So I'm looking for alternatives from Europe in J or PE. The China Eastern flights via Xian are looking quite interesting at the moment.

But it's a matter of waiting and seeing. The only sensible option may be canceling for refund. Let's see.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I'm looking at the reverse, backup flights FROM Europe.

I have a trip booked to AMS in May on TK, so outbound should be OK. Unfortunately, the return is via DXB, so this probably won't happen.

So I'm looking for alternatives from Europe in J or PE. The China Eastern flights via Xian are looking quite interesting at the moment.

But it's a matter of waiting and seeing. The only sensible option may be canceling for refund. Let's see.

‘Not going to happen’ as in the flight will get cancelled, or ‘not going to happen’ as in you wouldn’t fly even if it was going?

 

[OATEK]

With events still creating huge uncertainty, we have booked a back-up alternative to our EK SIN-LGW-SIN journey in J for August/September.

We have booked SQ PE for SIN-LHR-SIN as a safer but less comfortable option.

All the bookings are refundable, less a small fee so if things improve in June/July we may elect to continue with EK. Time will tell.

 

[Port Power]

In the second half of last year, during a DSC promotion, I booked PER-LHR departing late June 2026, returning CDG-PER mid-August. All QF metal because of the DSC promotion. Whew! I now have no concerns at all that these flights will go ahead as planned, albeit via SIN to LHR due to the longer flight path. I did a dummy booking yesterday for the same route. The J price flying EK to LHR is still much the same as I paid last year. Of course, that is still a "pot luck" flight which may or may not go ahead. For the QF direct flight, the price was an additional $5,500 or so!! You pay for certainty.

 

[Vic]

It’s an aircraft carrier (or two).

Considering the US has not operated battleships since perhaps about 1991 when the Missouri went on it's farewell voyage.

 

[Vic]

I have a backup with Qantas SYD-YVR-LHR-xVIE-DXB-SYD. Return operated by Emrates Arrives back to Sydney on the Sunday morning, so could still make the birthday.
Having trouble deciding:

Used my back up last week. The flight from Vienna to Dubai was amazing. I was in the front section of an A380, economy, with 9 other people in 76 seats. Route was via Greece, over Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Operating aircraft was 3 hours late getting to Vienna.

Dubai Sydney was about 70% full - fair number of spare seats, but not free for all. Obviously moving Brisbane and other pax onto flights to SYD and MEL.

4 phone alerts in dubai about missiles.

I'm not sure it's worth while avoiding the ME airlines based on my experience.

 

[luckypierre]

We booked back up flights early on SIN to LHR return on fully refundable Swiss Airlines with a combination of LH PE outgoing and LX J return. It was only a few hundred SGD extra for fully refundable. Now, if purchasing similar tickets today, the refundable flex fares have a cancellation fee of 1000 SGD for PE and 1500 SGD for J. And I'm not sure those fees may apply for both directions. Times are certainly getting tough !!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We booked back up flights early on SIN to LHR return on fully refundable Swiss Airlines with a combination of LH PE outgoing and LX J return. It was only a few hundred SGD extra for fully refundable. Now, if purchasing similar tickets today, the refundable flex fares have a cancellation fee of 1000 SGD for PE and 1500 SGD for J. And I'm not sure those fees may apply for both directions. Times are certainly getting tough !!

Yup!

I posted that in another thread… LX/LH are introducing these fees in some markets because people are booking them as back-ups, and cancelling in the event their ME airline is still flying.

Fair enough as those airlines must have been losing $$ in lost revenue and catering and everything else to people doing that.

 

[squid01]

I have booked via QFF: MEL>KUL>DOH on MH for very end of August. Then booked via VFF: DOH>MXP.

I can see MH have suspended all flights to Doha until at least mid June. Has anyone here had their MH flight to Doha cancelled and if so is QFF offering a re-route at all (perhaps on Emirates or something else)? Maybe a long shot as most people would have one ticket from Aus to Europe I imagine.

Just trying to work out potential avenues if that flight is still cancelled come late August so I can assess probabilities of being able to piece it all together again. All booked in J, would rather cancel then fly Y with our (then to be) six month old

 

[Ken1]

Last May I booked SYD-LHR with QR in J using Avios for travel this week. I started this thread back in early March when I had just booked backup flights with CX in PE in case QR weren't flying and at that stage I wasn't expecting to be flying with QR.

We were originally booked to fly on 24 April and I booked the CX flights for 2 days earlier on 22 April. When I saw that QR had scheduled a restart of SYD flights from 10 April I phoned QR and asked if I could have our QR booking changed to 22 April and that was done without any problems. At that stage I still wasn't very confident that we would be able to fly with QR but I now had both the CX and QR flights booked for the same date. I then regularly checked the dates QR were scheduled to fly SYD-DOH on FlightAware and FlightRadar24 and all have operated as scheduled. I was also checking QR7 DOH-LHR and it had been flying regularly well before SYD-DOH flights resumed.

By a week before I was feeling more confident that we could be able to fly with QR as we both would obviously prefer to fly in J in the QSuites and on Monday I cancelled the CX flights 2 days before the flights so we were then committed to QR. Check in at SYD opened 3.5 hours before departure and there were long queues so it looked like it was going to be a busy flight. Everything went smoothly and I asked while on board if it was also a busy flight in Y and he said that the DOH-SYD QR908 was about half full and that our QR909 back to DOH was a full flight. It seemed busy at DOH with lots of flights operating and the lounge was very busy and I was told that our QR7 DOH-LHR flight was also full.

We knew our travel insurance would not cover us while in transit at DOH but decided that since the airline would not risk their staff or aircraft or passengers we would go for it and are glad that we did as we enjoyed the QSuites and the whole experience.

 

[trblvb]

Last May I booked SYD-LHR with QR in J using Avios for travel this week. I started this thread back in early March when I had just booked backup flights with CX in PE in case QR weren't flying and at that stage I wasn't expecting to be flying with QR.

We were originally booked to fly on 24 April and I booked the CX flights for 2 days earlier on 22 April. When I saw that QR had scheduled a restart of SYD flights from 10 April I phoned QR and asked if I could have our QR booking changed to 22 April and that was done without any problems. At that stage I still wasn't very confident that we would be able to fly with QR but I now had both the CX and QR flights booked for the same date. I then regularly checked the dates QR were scheduled to fly SYD-DOH on FlightAware and FlightRadar24 and all have operated as scheduled. I was also checking QR7 DOH-LHR and it had been flying regularly well before SYD-DOH flights resumed.

By a week before I was feeling more confident that we could be able to fly with QR as we both would obviously prefer to fly in J in the QSuites and on Monday I cancelled the CX flights 2 days before the flights so we were then committed to QR. Check in at SYD opened 3.5 hours before departure and there were long queues so it looked like it was going to be a busy flight. Everything went smoothly and I asked while on board if it was also a busy flight in Y and he said that the DOH-SYD QR908 was about half full and that our QR909 back to DOH was a full flight. It seemed busy at DOH with lots of flights operating and the lounge was very busy and I was told that our QR7 DOH-LHR flight was also full.

We knew our travel insurance would not cover us while in transit at DOH but decided that since the airline would not risk their staff or aircraft or passengers we would go for it and are glad that we did as we enjoyed the QSuites and the whole experience.

We’re off to Europe from Melbourne next week in QSuites… can’t wait

 

[Forg]

To my mind, which is not necessarily that well informed, in the current climate there’s likely more chance of cancellation due to a lack of fuel than due to airspace over the desert being shut.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

To my mind, which is not necessarily that well informed, in the current climate there’s likely more chance of cancellation due to a lack of fuel than due to airspace over the desert being shut.

Not even a lack of fuel… just ‘more expensive’ fuel! Which ironically probably isn’t going to be as much of an issue for the ME3!

 

[Brissy1]

To my mind, which is not necessarily that well informed, in the current climate there’s likely more chance of cancellation due to a lack of fuel than due to airspace over the desert being shut.

Agree, I've been affected by consolidation into fewer flights.