In a move further angering prospective passengers, British Airways says they will not rebook passengers that are refused boarding of planes because of swine flu risk.

The airline says that this is just standard ticketing procedure and doesn’t involve any new policy.  Passengers with flexible first-class tickets will be rebooked but travelers in the cheap seats will have to turn to their travel insurance for reimbursement.

The Air Transport Users Council, a passenger advocacy group, is angered by BA’s attitude. “It is unworkable to expect travel insurance to cover it. We would have hoped there would have been a facility to rebook.” said a spokesperson for the group.

The Association of British Insurers is reportedly worried that the British Airways policy could open the floodgates for claims in the coming months as the incidence of swine flu increases.  They are currently engaged in discussions with the Department of Health over what to do about the situation.

British Airways intends to have medical staff available at boarding gates and is training staff on how to prevent passengers from boarding.  The system is arbitrary because a positive diagnosis of swine flu can actually take several days to confirm.

This raises concerns about whether or not travel insurance would actually cover a refused boarding if the passenger later failed to contract the disease.  Medical experts have said that of all the people who exhibit the symptoms of swine flu, only about 30% of them actually have the disease. The rest simply have severe colds.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quote.  For more information about this article please visit their web site.