British Airways has rejigged its Middle East flying again in a big way

British Airways has moved a big chunk of its Middle East schedule around again over the past few days, and I know a number of you were trying to target Dubai with your Avios this winter, so sorry in advance for being the bearer of bad news if you haven't heard already.

Because BA keeps setting dates and then changing them, treat this as where things stand today rather than gospel.

• Dubai is still coming back from 25 October, but as once a day instead of three flights a day. The plan at present is that the route will increase to twice daily from December, and then to three daily at the end of March.

• Doha is now suspended until 1 September. This restart has already moved from 1 July, and then 1 August.

• Abu Dhabi was due back 25 October, and is now planned to return 10 January

• Bahrain was also due to return 25 October, but has now be pencilled in to return from 28 March.

• Riyadh was already pushed back to 1 October.

• Tel Aviv and Amman are scheduled to return 25 October.

• Jeddah isn't coming back. The last flight was in April and BA has confirmed the route is gone.

Thank you to @LondonAirTravel on Twitter for the information.

If your flight is cancelled

I want to bring your attention to an interesting part of the BA website called "Travel Partner Connect", specifically the Travel Alerts section. This is a part of the website intended for ticketing agents and the like, but there is some useful information you and I can scrape from it in the event of disrupted service, as this is where BA will publish this information.

Here we can find rebooking advice for the Middle East, where BA will prioritise rebooking you onto Qatar Airways if your eventual destination was to Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates. You will be booked into the same cabin, unless you have booked a business class ticket and there is no business class availability, then they can rebook you into Qatar First Class.

If you were booked on a connecting itinerary which involves a BA flight to the Middle East before connecting onwards to Asia or Oceania, then there are more airlines you can be rebooked onto:

• Air France

• Lufthansa

• Swiss

• Iberia

• Scandinavian

• Austrian Airlines

• Brussels Airlines

• American Airlines

• Finnair

• Bangkok Airways

• Malaysia Airlines - Until 30 Sep 2026

• Turkish Airlines – Until 31 Oct 2026

• Cathay Pacific – Until 30 Sep 2026

• Oman Air – Until 31 Oct 2026

• Royal Jordanian - Until 31 Oct 2026

If you have been effected by the changes and no longer wish to travel, you are able to get a full refund on your ticket. The rebooking and refund rules also apply to Avios tickets.

Lastly, if you have booked a connecting flight as two separate tickets (as some of you will have done using your Avios) with one of them BA to/from London, then BA will only assist you with their leg of your journey.

My thoughts

Trust me, BA are not trying to be difficult, they're just trying to return to a semblance of normality. Unfortunately, the risks associated with the region are making it difficult for non-Gulf carriers to return.

Gulf airlines are continuing to fly and are able to adapt their plans much more rapidly at short notice, so my advice to you is if you do need to travel to or through the region is to book Qatar, Emirates, Etihad, Saudia etc as there is a much higher chance of your future travel being unaffected.

If you do book a European carrier to the Gulf region, I would say continue to expect some disruption, as I do not think this is the last rejig that we'll see.

I'd be hopeful that Tel Aviv and Amman will return to normal as planned.

Sam

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