Middle East Airspace Diversions/Cancellations

[Princess Fiona]

A tiny glimmer of hope maybe ?
From The New York Times today

 

[Pushka]

Interesting, as a side note… the war is completely of Fox News’ hope page! The top stories are LaGuardia, an upcoming SCOTUS ruling on mail-in ballot papers, and other stories panning the Democrats.

Make of it what you will, but often once war goes off the front page were set for a protracted battle

Na. That’s the limit of the US attention span. It’s not happen within USA so hard to keep traction.

 

[Princess Fiona]

Na. That’s the limit of the US attention span. It’s not happen within USA so hard to keep traction.

FWIW it’s absolutely front page news on the NYT and has been since the start.
Not all US media is the same as Fox.

 

[justinbrett]

FWIW it’s absolutely front page news on the NYT and has been since the start.
Not all US media is the same as Fox.

Although it is actually on the front of Fox News right now. 4th story.

 

[Rembrandt]

A tiny glimmer of hope maybe ?
From The New York Times today
View attachment 501498

Lets hope so. Qatar would have to have re-assurance from Iran that they will no longer be a target...

 

[Le_Champion]

Although it is actually on the front of Fox News right now. 4th story.

Fox News not highlighting it as a main story more or less reflects how much of a cough show this is for the US

 

[justinbrett]

Fox News not highlighting it as a main story more or less reflects how much of a cough show this is for the US

I think the LGA crash with fatalities deserves top billing at the moment.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Fox News not highlighting it as a main story more or less reflects how much of a cough show this is for the US

It's a cough show for Iran but it hasn't hurt the US much. If anything the US profits from higher oil prices since they are net energy producers and exporters now.

 

[frodo]

Had a QR itinerary with the first flight which was meant to be on 27/3.
Refund request was submitted on 15/3 but yet to receive the payment, not surprising I guess given the volume of requests they must be receiving.

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

As a matter of interest @FlyingKangaroo , look the route up here. Does it show for your VA coded flight (I think it would have a QR code as well, so should show up?)

Qatar Airways

Qatar Airways flight status app

fs.qatarairways.com

Thanks for this --- I knew SYD-DOH was cancelled on the 28th, but the DOH-CDG that still appeared in both my VA and QR apps as scheduled yesterday shows here as cancelled. Though it's possible that happened in the last ~18 hours.

Oh dear

This was the same issue I had… that the payment surcharge would not be returned.

As a one off this might be a small sum to you, but they are doing this to thousands of passengers.

I see VA has now changed their fees and refunds page to subtly remove the text that ‘credit card fees and surcharges will not be returned unless you are entitled to a refund under ACL’.

I believe - despite removal of the words - that you would still be entitled to this refund. In a round about way they make a very subtle reference to it saying ‘you will be entitled to a refund of the full purchase price’ in cases where VA cancels your flight (which they have done here).

I think it’s a disgrace that they don’t refund this… which could amount to tens of thousands of dollars across all affected pax.

100% agree that it adds up and fast. It's a non-trivial windfall for VA and any other company, no question, not least for the many, many flights cancelled during the current airspace closures.

Alas, my view (as a boring lawyer myself and despite trying to push for what I knew would at best be treated as a courtesy exception) is that it's unfortunately legal given our current landscape, and their legal teams would have been across these decisions. It's an "optional" service in addition to the "total purchase price" and they'll argue you chose it and that it's for a service that was indeed provided regardless of eventual flight cancellation --- the service of initially processing the payment. That the amount is almost certainly higher than what's actually charged to VA by those processors or that VA may well have agreements with those processors to refund the surcharge to VA when a transaction is refunded is unfortunately not relevant to the pax.

Their consumer guarantees still mention it at the bottom of the page as well: https://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/policies/legal/guarantees/.

It should be changed, and I'd like to see surcharges done away with entirely as the best way to achieve it and as is the case in many other countries, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks for this --- I knew SYD-DOH was cancelled on the 28th, but the DOH-CDG that still appeared in both my VA and QR apps as scheduled yesterday shows here as cancelled. Though it's possible that happened in the last ~18 hours.

So, QR are cancelling my forthcoming flight ex SIN rolling 5 days prior.

The above was based on that schedule page. However, my TA was informed by QR yesterday morning that my flight on the 31st had been cancelled - 2 days before it was due to show on the schedule page (and today it only shows up to the 30th).

Looking at alternatives yesterday and today - @MEL_Traveller will get back about that.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The above was based on that schedule page. However, my TA was informed by QR yesterday morning that my flight on the 31st had been cancelled - 2 days before it was due to show on the schedule page (and today it only shows up to the 30th).

Looking at alternatives yesterday and today - @MEL_Traveller will get back about that.

Time would seem to be of the essence here? Available options for rebooking are going by the minute… not days!

 

[RooFlyer]

Time would seem to be of the essence here? Available options for rebooking are going by the minute… not days!

Not really. They had an immediate look, but with my particular 'framing' itinerary that the new flights have to fit into (award seats to/from Singapore, and a cruise to catch in the Canary Islands) schedule is the main problem, not availability. We went through this exercise when I was first looking at back-up flights so they knew what would fit - hardly any! The ideal would have been that TK had availability but, no, of course.

I'm relaxed with my existing TK back-up.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not really. They had an immediate look, but with my particular 'framing' itinerary that the new flights have to fit into (award seats to/from Singapore, and a cruise to catch in the Canary Islands) schedule is the main problem, not availability. We went through this exercise when I was first looking at back-up flights so they knew what would fit - hardly any! The ideal would have been that TK had availability but, no, of course.

I'm relaxed with my existing TK back-up.

I did a search SIN-MAD, there were flights on KE and LX for example that would connect with the QF flight.. just not sure if those airlines are in the interline list for immediate flights? The MU, CZ, CA flights would require an overnight in SIN