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[msRavenswood]

Hey guys, I was wondering what happens if you need to change the date of your trip. Do they charge you for the alteration? What if you don't know the exact date of your next visit?

I'm asking because (and sorry to be the bearer of bad news) there's a volcano in Iceland which erupted today because of seismic activities the past week and if there's a bigger eruption there's a chance that ash is released into the sky.  There's no need to remind you what happened in 2010 when another volcano in Iceland erupted...

Anyway, I need to know, just in case... We have bought cancellation insurance but it doesn't cover cancellation because of meteorogical or climate events.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be alright! I have been following the issue closely since the beginning of this week and I was beyond disappointed that an eruption did occur eventually! A small one, but still an eruption... 

[DisneyRon]

With a little luck it'll take a while for Bardurbunga to burn a hole in the glacier it's under, right now there's about a third of a mile of ice over that vulcano, so it's not going anywhere just yet.
It's currently considered a minor eruption, the ash-cloud may stay relatively local as a result.
That will disrupt air traffic over and around Iceland, but not much beyond that.
You need a fairly substantial eruption to push the ash high enough to mess up airtraffic like Eyjafjallajokull did.

Even if it goes big, it'll take weeks for the ash to spread out, and they relaxed the rules a little, so a shutdown, should it happen, won't be anywhere near as big as it was back then. Areas with fairly light ash coverage will be exempt under the new rules.

As such, I wouldn't worry too much just yet. A lot of things need to go pretty wrong, pretty badly for your short hop from England to France to get cancelled.

Some additional reading as to why it may not end up as bad as in 2010 : http://gizmodo.com/why-icelands-volcano-eruption-probably-wont-be-a-trav-1625976331

[amee]

  we were keeping an eye on this also we are off in 6 weeks to dlrp flying from ireland lets all hope it just calms down and comes to nothing 

[msRavenswood]

Thank you for the information DisneyRon, I feel a bit relieved now! By the way, I'm flying from Greece to France. I wish I lived in the UK, I'd hop onto Eurostar and... 'Bonjour DLP'!   

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly for all of us Amee! 

[DisneyRon]

Thank you for the information DisneyRon, I feel a bit relieved now! By the way, I'm flying from Greece to France. I wish I lived in the UK, I'd hop onto Eurostar and... 'Bonjour DLP'!   

Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly for all of us Amee! 

No problem, happy to provide a little info where I can.

Your location will reduce the risk even further then, a few thousand kilometres of extra space to spread the ash out over makes quite a difference.

[DisneyRon]

a little follow-up from the Icelandic morning paper
http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2014/08/24/no_flight_disruption_expected/

Looks like it already calmed down a bit and actually stayed sub-glacial.
They did measure a fairly big tremor later, and they're keeping a close eye on the area.
http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2014/08/24/5_3_earthquake_occurred_in_the_bardarbunga/

With a little luck they're going to cancel the alert around noon today.

[msRavenswood]

a little follow-up from the Icelandic morning paper
http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2014/08/24/no_flight_disruption_expected/

Looks like it already calmed down a bit and actually stayed sub-glacial.
They did measure a fairly big tremor later, and they're keeping a close eye on the area.
http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2014/08/24/5_3_earthquake_occurred_in_the_bardarbunga/

With a little luck they're going to cancel the alert around noon today.

Good morning DisneyRon! Thank you for the update, I'm keeping an eye too on the official Iceland Met Office page. 

[DisneyRon]

Alert Status for the volcano has been changed from Red to Orange, there was no eruption yesterday, so the tremors they detected must have been something else, but they can't exclude an eruption in the near future.