Canceled Flights

I believe most of the cut backs are domesitic. If they do cancel an international flight, the airline will need to reaccommodate you - they will try for their own airline on a later day (most of the time). You need to stand your ground and ask to be put on another airline (provided there are seats).

Overall, I wouldn't worry about Intl flights. Plus summer is the high season for airlines to make money esp on the Intl flights.

Arnold is right on. The international flights are making money but it is the low usage domestic flight that are the problems. My personal opinion is that you would have very low risk.

I highly doubt this in particular becuase it is a flight to KLM's home airport. Maybe, maybe some second tier flights to Europe (like some of Continental's flights from NYC to smaller European cities such as Zurich or Lisbon) will get cut but not flights that go to hub airports.

If, on the off chance they do cancel your flight, they are required to either refund your full purchase price of place you on a flight to your destination on any available airline.

A little bit of a spin to the question...how about for people who have booked flights with air miles? How are those dealt with? We are flying Vancouver to Amsterdam too, with a stopover at Heathrow (wonderful!). With all the problems at T5 it got me wondering about our rights since we're booked with miles (with the changes in moving long haul, not sure if we'll even fly into T5). Thanks!

A ticket is a ticket is a ticket. They are required to refund you what you "paid" for it, whether miles or $, or rebook you. However, those with mileage tickets may be lower on the list for rebooking.

Thanks David. That's what I was wondering if we missed a connection or something (not at Heathrow!) happened. I had assumed we'd get our miles back, but didn't know how high up the list in terms of priority we'd be with them as we're using our Alaska miles on BA and unless things change drastically in our life, I don't see us flying much on BA!

Thanks for all your positive advice, I feel much better. I guess we all need to remember the old adage, 90% of the things you worry about never happen. Or is it that we all worry so much and thus save ourselves from disaster!
Mary

Actually a ticket bought with miles is not lower on the priority list - it is just like a normal ticket. In fact, if the ticket holder has status with the airline, this will trump almost all other tickets with the exception of folks who have first and business class tickets (based on status level of course).

We will be flying in business class, so that is probably better too! Thanks Arnold!

What I meant about lower on the list is that airlines will tend to (status for frequent flyers excepted) rebook the most expensive fare classes first and down to the bottom, which are the mileage tickets.

Jed, I can tell you from experience, that even if your first or business class ticket is paid for in miles, you're treated as a first or business class passenger. Afterall, you've been loyal to that airline or its partner and they want to keep you happy. You're already a good customer.

I've been on freebie tix where problems occur and they take care of all first and business class customers before anyone in coach.

Thanks for the feedback Frank! Now we just need to hope they have more of the T5 problems at Heathrow sorted out and that we have smooth flights. Like others said earlier in the post, most of the canceled flights will be more domestic unless specific problems come up. I do know that BA was rebooking people now that they've delayed the move of other flights to T5. Originally people were scheduled to fly into and out of T5, but now they will now have to transit from other terminals to catch their connection at T5 and won't have long enough to make that transit. We have 2.5 hours so IF we don't fly into T5(looks like we'll depart out of there regardless) we should still have time...

Here's hoping for a relatively smooth air travel season for everyone this summer...I know that may be asking a lot!