Passenger can't fly...options?

My wife, one of my sons and myself are due to fly to Orlando in October with BA. My wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and has been told she may not be able to fly due to the treatment she may receive. We will not know this for definate until tomorrow.
My wife is adament that this does not put a stop to our holiday and says that another one of my sons take here place, she will not hear of anything else.
If we do choose to continue our holiday, what is the possibility of BA changing the name/passenger details on the ticket under these circumstances. I can't find anything under T&C's and want to be prepared before I give them a call. Appreciate any advise.

TIA

it all depends on the type of ticket, generally discounted tickets are non transferable. Your travel insurance or possibly credit card should cover it though.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by BIGEYE
My wife, one of my sons and myself are due to fly to Orlando in October with BA. My wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and has been told she may not be able to fly due to the treatment she may receive. We will not know this for definate until tomorrow.
My wife is adament that this does not put a stop to our holiday and says that another one of my sons take here place, she will not hear of anything else.
If we do choose to continue our holiday, what is the possibility of BA changing the name/passenger details on the ticket under these circumstances. I can't find anything under T&C's and want to be prepared before I give them a call. Appreciate any advise.

TIA

[/quote]

Hi. We had to change our flights for our Florida holiday this year as we found out my wife was pregnant. We were flying with Virgin.

I would imagine BA are the same but we simply phoned Virgin up and told them the situation. We then had to get a medical letter from our GP (£20) and fax it to them. Once they had the confirmation they moved all our flights to next February free of charge.

I would hope that BA could do the same for you as it is a medical condition and not through choice. If that fails then they will be able to do a name change for a fee (£50 with Virgin).

Best of luck and i hope your wife makes a full and swift recovery.

Hi
Firstly sorry to hear of your wifes diagnosis and hope the treatment goes well and she makes a quick recovery.
One option when you see them today may be to ask if there would be any implications if you could have your holiday before she starts treatment. As it's only next month, there's a chance it may be feasible and imo would be a good way to charge her up a bit before you go. Oviously I know this is the ideal scenario and it may be that treatment must begin immediately, (or perhaps if you can bring your holiday forward ?). Failing that I'm sure there would be a way that you can change your ticket. Hers will definitely be covered under your insurance if it was unknown when the policy was taken out but it may be that to buy another ticket would be more than you paid if the prices have changed, obviously if you can do a name change it would mean the flight price would be the same.

Once you have seen them today it may be that you are better informed as to timescales etc and your options.

Good luck and please pass on our best wishes to your wife.

Sorry to learn of your wife's diagnosis and hope everything goes well for her with her treatment. I am sure that BA will be able to do something should you need to make changes.

sorry to hear of your wife's diagnosis and hope everything goes well with her treatment, I feel sure BA will be able to accommodate any changes

So sorry to hear your news - fingers crossed that everything will be fine.

Call BA Customer Services. I've always found them helpful with things like this.

When I was diagnosed I found it took about 10 days for the surgery to be organised and just I was beginning to feel better ( 2/3 weeks later) the chemo treatment started. We visited Florida between sessions 3 and 4 for 10 days and my medical team were insistent I should go. If your wife's team feel she cannot travel then I think you can appeal to BA and see what they say. If you have to cancel I would have thought your insurance would cover everything, however the bad news is your insurance company will remove all liability for the cancer for the future so your wife will travel with no cover on that front.

Will be thinking of her and if she wants a chat just contact me.

First, thanks for all the kind best wishes for my wife.

We were at hospital yesterday and got the test results. The cancer has not spread to anywhere else, and in the words of the doctor, this news doesn't get any better than that.

The date for her operation is 21st September, that is one month before we fly out. The doctor told us not to cancel anything until the post operation tests. If she she needs further treatment after the op, this may be delayed this until after our return.
I will keep everyone posted on our progress.

Thanks again for everyone's advice and well wished.

Glad to hear the news was a sgood as it could be. To be honest though I would check with with insurance company and airline on their policy as some will not let youu fly till 2/3 months after a general anaesthetic, regardless of how you wife feels. It is better to know now, imo than to wait and look forward to it, but have the hopes dashed last minute.

Looked at BA site and the longest time between operations and travel is 10 days. However, operations for this condition is not listed. Just to be on the safe side, I will request medical clearance to travel/fly from the hospital.

Hi Jim
It is always a good idea to get written clearance from the doctor for travel, but I can't imagine you will have any problems.
Good luck to your wife

That's great news Jim, however even with a letter from your wife's doctor - which I would regard as essential - the insurance company will not cover anthing applicable to the breast cancer. I travelled to France by car(!) with my surgeon's approval 4 weeks after a hysterectomy and the insurance company refused to cover me with anything in connection with that.

My wife returned home from hospital yesterday after her operation on Monday. The surgeon was very pleased how things went, she had all lymph glands removed and cancerous cells removed from breast. Follow up appointment next week, so I guess we will find out then if she will be able to travel in October.

Glad to hear the op went well, I'm sure she's getting lot's of tlc from yourself. Please pass on our best wishes to her and hope the news is good next week and she can travel in october.

I presume you have informed your insurance company?

Informed my travel insurance company today (free travel insurance is provided with my bank account). They will not cover anything relating to the breast cancer for this trip, but everything else will be covered. Any future trips, will be covered, all I will have to do is call them up and advise travel dates.

So pleased to hear that you can go ahead with your holiday plans and I hope that your wife is well on the road to recovery.

Thanks all for the wellwishes.

Hope all goes to plan, your wife will need this holiday, as will you, and I hope you enjoy this one, and many more together