UK lifts Middle East travel warnings: what it means for your insurance and flights
- Sam
- Jun 19
- 2 min read
Yesterday, the Foreign Office decided to lift their travel warnings for much of the Middle East with the agreement of a memorandum of understanding towards lasting peace between the US and Iran.
This effectively reopens travel to, or via, the region for many of you who heed the Foreign Office warnings for "all but essential travel". This change in advice also re-validates your travel insurance policy, as a standard restriction within a travel insurance policy is that if the Foreign Office says do not go, we ain't covering you.
You may be thinking "pish, seems safe to me, travel insurance is useless anyway", I would partly agree having had none of my trip to the Philippines reimbursed to me by travel insurance, but it was a sticking point for a lot of people, so much so that Etihad announced last week that they were giving complimentary medical insurance to all international visitors arriving in Abu Dhabi on Etihad-operated flights.
One note on the Foreign Office website may pique your attention, "The situation remains unpredictable and attacks could resume at short notice." True, but that could be said about a lot of situations around the world, India and Pakistan, anyone?
I'll level with you, this current level of risk isn't going to stop us booking, or travelling through the region. If one was to determine every threat, however slim, as a reason not to travel, you'd never leave the confines of your own home. Please don't take this as me giving you permission to travel, to say, Yemen. Some places are just worth not taking the risk. But you're surrounded by risk on a daily basis, it's up to you to determine the likelihood of it actually occurring.
Enough of that, back to the real reason why you're here.
"Can I use my Avios again?"
For those who do want to travel to the region, British Airways suspended its services at the start of the war but has already set out when they'll return.
From 1 August:
Doha
From 1 October:
Riyadh
From 25 October:
Abu Dhabi
Amman
Bahrain
Dubai
Tel Aviv
British Airways has permanently cancelled Jeddah, and Virgin Atlantic has cancelled Riyadh.
For all of the above resumptions, they may not restart with their same pre-war frequencies. Expect those to ramp back up as time goes on.
Avios availability is strong in all cabins, including some availability during school holidays. Below you'll see availability calendars from our preferred award flight search Reward Flight Finder. The following colours denote availability: blue = economy, yellow = premium economy, purple = business, red = first.
With the clearing of the travel advice, we will look to bring you more content on some excellent deals flying Middle Eastern carriers, as they look to fill their planes back up with passengers, along with ways to use your points smartly travelling via the region.
Safe travels.
Sam
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