The US Embassy, who charge a premium-rate of £1.20 per minute to speak to them, were entirely un-fucking-helpful. They won’t advise the airline as to what to do as it’s not in their jurisdiction, and they won’t assess my case over the phone. I’m having to go down to London on June the 14th (yep, some three weeks after I was supposed to fly - this is the earliest they can see me) to formally apply for a visa which will then take five days or so to process. Apparenly it’s at the discretion of American Airlines as to whether they’ll let me fly or not, and even if they do there’s no guarantee that at immigration I won’t be refused entry into the US.

They did give me the email for some department in the US who I can contact to try and expedite my case in some way, but I won’t hold out much hope.

To top this all off, and as seems to be standard procedure for airlines these days, they’re unwilling to let me re-book or offer anything on my flight. The cancellation fee is the full price of the ticket less tax, which comes to about £600. Great.