China Southern Airlines-Cancelled flight to London Heathrow

[NotWhatItWasnt]

Subject: China Southern Airlines Cancelled my flight to London Heathrow Via Wuhan because of Corona Virus.

 

Hi Guys,
I need some advice on what to do next, I'm in Thailand and was due to fly back to the UK on February 9th from Bangkok  Suvarnabhumi, to Wuhan and then onto London Heathrow, this is now not possible due to the Corona Virus outbreak and Wuhan being quarantined.

 

I contacted my Travel Agent, though they seem more interested in getting me a refund & selling me a return flight home.

 

Questions I have,

 

Is it possible to get rerouted via  Guangzhou and from there to London Heathrow? (I flew from Heathrow into Guangzhou and then Bangkok on my outward flight) i.e Do airlines do this?

 

Are China Southern responsible for arranging my return flight or do they just have to refund me and I find and pay for my own flight back to the UK?

 

If the quarantine is lifted before my original return date of February 9th will my return ticket still be valid?

 

Would my travel insurance pay for the return ticket back to the UK?

 

Any answers and suggestions would be of great help and much appreciated.

 

TIA

 

 

[Lovethailandelite]

A refund is their sole obligation. No idea why you may think your travel insurance may pay for your flight home? Your refund will pay for it

[Nyezhov]

There are at least 3 direct flights per day via Thai or Eva for like $500, or Aeroflot one stop. WODR, have you ever made a plane reservation before? Try Skyscanner. You are welcome.

 

Im was scheduled to go Shanghia to LA on March 9th and cancelled it for a refund. Im going to hide until this blows over. I just bought a dozen 7-11 pineapple pies in case there is panic buying.

[KhunBENQ]

6 minutes ago, Nyezhov said:

There are at least 3 direct flights per day via Thai or Eva for like $500, or Aeroflot one stop. WODR, have you ever made a plane reservation before? Try Skyscanner. You are welcome.

And BA of course.

More than 10 onestop flights with Emirates to Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted.

So many more onestop flights with fairly decent airlines.

Departure/arrival times to your choice.

[Nyezhov]

3 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

And BA of course.

More than 10 onestop flights with Emirates to Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted.

So many more onestop flights with fairly decent airlines.

Departure/arrival times to your choice.

I found one once $349 to Frankfurt direct, I would spend two nights in an FKK), quick train to Amsterdam, then jump an English party flight for $100. Im sort of glad I cancelled my ticket out of china, for an exta $60 I'll come back here, fly to Blighty and go watch Millwall.

[tomazbodner]

1 hour ago, NotWhatItWasnt said:

Is it possible to get rerouted via  Guangzhou and from there to London Heathrow? (I flew from Heathrow into Guangzhou and then Bangkok on my outward flight) i.e Do airlines do this?

Some airlines do refunds, some change date, many try to reroute. It would be best to find your booking code and contact the airline directly. If airline agrees, you might be able to reroute. But as you bought ticket from an agent, they'll likely push you back to that agent.

 

1 hour ago, NotWhatItWasnt said:

Are China Southern responsible for arranging my return flight or do they just have to refund me and I find and pay for my own flight back to the UK?

Not sure what is written in your contract and what they are responsible for. But if they are willing to engage in conversation, and allow you to make amendment directly, perhaps all you need is going over to their office and finalise it. 02-677-7388, ask for Ms. Juthawan Panthugoon.

 

1 hour ago, NotWhatItWasnt said:

If the quarantine is lifted before my original return date of February 9th will my return ticket still be valid?

You can be absolutely calm now. The chances of this being resolved by February 9 are lower than an asteroid landing on your head.

 

1 hour ago, NotWhatItWasnt said:

Would my travel insurance pay for the return ticket back to the UK?

Unlikely. They would simply provide you a refund based on whatever it said in the contract. And they'll probably try to find every possible exclusion to avoid even paying that.

[Eindhoven]

18 hours ago, Lovethailandelite said:

A refund is their sole obligation. No idea why you may think your travel insurance may pay for your flight home? Your refund will pay for it

 

Why would you just make up an answer off the top of your head and then present it as fact?

 

Quote

3.What arrangements will we make for concerning passengers after cancellation or delay of a flight?

Where a flight has been cancelled, brought forward, delayed or route-changed, or fails to be connected or to provide relevant passengers with confirmed seats due to uncontrollable or unpredictable reasons not ascribable to China Southern Airlines, such as weather and air traffic control, we would take the following measures considering passengers’ reasonable demands:

Provide available seats of the follow-up flight to the affected passengers on our priority list;

Complete flight transfer procedures for relevant passengers with the consent of such passengers and related carriers;

If the cancellation or delay is ascribable to us for reasons like airplane maintenance and flight reallocation, we will take the following measures in addition to the two measures mentioned above: change the route of original tickets and arrange related passengers to take other flights and/or other carriers to the destination, or to the transit place, with refund but without supplement for the price gap for flight ticket, extra luggage charge and other service fees. 

 

https://www.csair.com/en/tourguide/faq/flight/hbqxybg.shtml

[NotWhatItWasnt]

Thanks for the helpful replies, I'll update tomorrow on how I get on

 

[NotWhatItWasnt]

Good news, got my flight rerouted and didn't cost me anything as stated in the CSA Facebook post.

 

Notice of China Southern Airlines Ticket Arrangement

 

Turns out the travel Agents (Mytrip also trading as gotogate.com ) were pulling a fast one by telling me that CSA were not rerouting anyone and only issuing refunds, then trying to get me to accept the refund and buy a new ticket off of them, all this despite my telling them about the facebook post and that I had received emails stating that not only was rerouting possible but also there was no charge to do so, one woman got arsey when I told her this insisting that Mytrip were receiving continuous updates from CSA saying that rerouting was not possible only refunds.  I offered to forward the emails but they were not interested, saying that they only did re bookings over the phone.

 

Thanks again tomazbodner & Eindhoven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[tifino]

why would you stay with CSA, and it's associated standard in ternal requiremnt to do a stopover in the airline home country

 

Whatr happens if, by the time of the Flight; that Heathrow has Banned all Flights from all of China!

@Nyezhov & @KhunBENQ have it already nailed... to TAA ... try another airline... 

 

is there some actual requiremnt - that the StopOver itself, is something you have as your Priority?

[tomazbodner]

They might have put him on another SkyTeam member flight to UK. He didn't state where they rerouted him. I was put on another airline when things went sour many times, but then again I buy tickets directly from airlines. Could have been Air France or KLM for all we know. His ticket would still have CZ flight number, just direct him to another airline counter to check-in.