Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[dajop]

Can be achieved via:
BA SYD-SIN-LHR then onto elsewhere
SQ Oz - SIN - Europe
KE/OZ Oz - ICN - Europe
CX Oz - HKG - Europe
QF SYD/PER - SIN - LHR then onto elsewhere

And that doesn't cover other carriers like Lufthansa, Air France etc who go into Asia.

Unnecessary routing and too long imo if you go via EZE.

Good luck getting seats though! Can’t speak for HKG or ICN but seats are spars ex-SIN. I haven’t looked today but yesterday I could only see availability of 12 seats on ExpertFlyer SIN-LHR/LGW for the next two weeks. SQ was similarly tight to FRa, CDg and ZRH but I did see a few LH flights with 3-4 seats available.

 

[Himeno]

There are so many other ways to achieve that without that ridiculous routing.

People did routing like that to get out of Europe when the Iceland volcano was causing airspace issues. Land to MAD, IB/QF to SYD via SCL.

 

[dajop]

The most direct route going in the wrong direction is via YVR on QF/BA. Leave SYD at 8:30pm arrive LHR 2:30pm. Not so bad. The other direction is not so good though.

 

[Disco]

How about JNB to LND or somewhere else in Europe. SA fly into a couple of places.

 

[Disco]

How about JNB to LHR or somewhere else in Europe. SA fly into a couple of places.

 

[LionKing]

How about JNB to LND or somewhere else in Europe. SA fly into a couple of places.

I have security reservations and concerns on transiting in South Africa.

 

[AuSammy]

I have security reservations and concerns on transiting in South Africa.

2011 spent 6weeks on various tours with local guides wandering South Africa, Zambia, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini. Never felt unsafe for a second.

[Edit: except for the obviously drunk taxi driver in Capetown- a wild ride - hotel to restaurant]

 

[SCM]

(b) same issue with chat… there’s apparently a countdown timer that starts at 10 or 20 minutes, works it’s way down to 5 minutes, then resets to 20. Solution: if you don’t get connected with a chat agent immediately, disconnect and reconnect. Continue doing this until an agent answers your chat (almost immediately). You might need to do this 50 times in rapid succession.

I can't even get to any countdown in queue, I have been trying for days, I've never seen anything other than "our live chat is experiencing a high volume of enquiries".

I guess I will keep trying until Monday, and if I still can't get in touch then, I will book something myself. According to EU261 if the airline is uncontactable, its fine to do this, and in fact even one day is enough to satisfy the criteria, but I will wait until the day of my flight just in case.

 

[JessicaTam]

[mod hat]
Once again it seems posters need reminding to keep to the topic of the thread. Any off topic content will result in the whole post being deleted.
[/mod hat]

 

[Drakecula]

I haven't been following news since we're now on holiday and not at risk of ME complications (at this point in time) due to Plan B now Plan A of going via HKG.

From our experience Cathay was fine traveling from SYD to LHR via HKG. I was expecting potential delays given I assumed more people would be going via Asia, but no issues.

So can recommend HKG as a transit point to get to Europe. I'll report back when we return.

 

[kpc]

I haven't been following news since we're now on holiday and not at risk of ME complications (at this point in time) due to Plan B now Plan A of going via HKG.

From our experience Cathay was fine traveling from SYD to LHR via HKG. I was expecting potential delays given I assumed more people would be going via Asia, but no issues.

So can recommend HKG as a transit point to get to Europe. I'll report back when we return.

As a Qf Plat, I love going to Europe via Hkg! Looking at you Cx Pier F

 

[SCM]

Good news Update

I have been re-clicking the live chat all day today, probably many hundreds of times (no exaggeration), I got through once with a 20m wait, but then I switched to my email app to get the booking reference, and when I switched back, it said disconnected (on man amateur hour), and I could not reconnect no matter what I did. That was around 4pm local time. After this I also disabled battery saving just in case.

Fast forward to now, almost 9pm, and a few hundred attempts later, I again get connected with a 17 minute wait, which shortly after jumps to 40 minutes, but then at about 28 minutes wait it actually connects.

I explain my situation, and then another long wait while the agent checks my booking (about 15m), then the agent proposed a SQ business class flight on the same day which was great, but then as I said that's fine, I think it must have become unavailable because the agent said, they can no longer book it, what about a day earlier, to which I said no since I already had accommodation and plans. Agent then offered CX flight a day later (than original) and again business, so that was good.

Overall, once I could talk to the agent, it was fine and no issue, they did not try to book me in economy or anything, but just getting to actually speak to the agent was mission impossible and took me many days.

If you do manage to make the queue, don't do anything, don't touch anything, just keep that window open and don't let your phone/laptop lock, even getting to this point is akin to winning a lottery.

 

[offshore171]

Any theories on what these two EK A380's are doing?

Surely, surely they aren't truly where the map is showing?

It's indicating they have passed over SE Iran, and flying right next to the heavily militarised Bandar Abbas and Qeshm island. At really low altitude too, about 2000ft. Basically MANPAD range.

No way they would do that.

GPS jamming perhaps?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Good news Update

I have been re-clicking the live chat all day today, probably many hundreds of times (no exaggeration), I got through once with a 20m wait, but then I switched to my email app to get the booking reference, and when I switched back, it said disconnected (on man amateur hour), and I could not reconnect no matter what I did. That was around 4pm local time. After this I also disabled battery saving just in case.

Fast forward to now, almost 9pm, and a few hundred attempts later, I again get connected with a 17 minute wait, which shortly after jumps to 40 minutes, but then at about 28 minutes wait it actually connects.

I explain my situation, and then another long wait while the agent checks my booking (about 15m), then the agent proposed a SQ business class flight on the same day which was great, but then as I said that's fine, I think it must have become unavailable because the agent said, they can no longer book it, what about a day earlier, to which I said no since I already had accommodation and plans. Agent then offered CX flight a day later (than original) and again business, so that was good.

Overall, once I could talk to the agent, it was fine and no issue, they did not try to book me in economy or anything, but just getting to actually speak to the agent was mission impossible and took me many days.

If you do manage to make the queue, don't do anything, don't touch anything, just keep that window open and don't let your phone/laptop lock, even getting to this point is akin to winning a lottery.

That is good news!

Well done and a good outcome!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

Any theories on what these two EK A380's are doing?

Surely, surely they aren't truly where the map is showing?

It's indicating they have passed over SE Iran, and flying right next to the heavily militarised Bandar Abbas and Qeshm island. At really low altitude too, about 2000ft. Basically MANPAD range.

No way they would do that.

GPS jamming perhaps?

View attachment 500326

Yes. Lots of glitches in the region at the moment; this is clearly one of them. The light green/yellow also indicates speed is slow enough to land, and obviously they weren’t landing in the strait. No one is using that airspace for commercial reasons.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I read this morning that the UAE is currently back to 44% of normal capacity across all airlines. Obviously quite a bit higher for Emirates and much lower for Etihad.

Qatar airspace remains generally closed, though I also caught this headline:


I know the Gulf countries are very sensitive to optics here and while my first thought was that while it’s good it’s not getting worse, I’m not sure describing conditions closing airspace and shutting the flag carrier down indefinitely as “stable” is particularly compelling. Feels more like they’re hunkering down and prepared to continue to ride it out. The longer the situation continues as is, the more interesting the contrast in approaches by Qatar and the UAE becomes (mindful Qatari airspace may well be trickier for various reasons all else being equal).