BA really didn't make this easy for me, but it's now been resolved.
There is a bug in the system (possibly partners only) which means that the cancellation time is taken in BST which is then compared against local time for the flight. This means that if you're in the Americas and looking to cancel a flight within 24-30 hours before takeoff you will want to double check your Avios come back as I'm assuming the bug will remain in place for the time being. It also potentially means you can cancel within 24 hours so long as your flight is in Asia, but I wouldn't rely on that one.
After a cumulative 2 hours of waiting I managed to get through to someone in customer service who bumped me back to the main Executive Club line as I shouldn't have been put through to them in the first place.
The issue hadn't been looked into at all over the last month and the agent initially went through the usual rigmarole of telling me the Avios were not due because I cancelled within 24 hours. I had lost all patience by now and gave a pretty cold response which led to her speaking to a colleague for a while who discovered the issue which meant the Avios could now be refunded.
So, a win and thank you to the BA lurker on this forum. But wow, BA couldn't have made it much more painful if they'd hit me over the head with a baseball bat.
Last edited by EuropeanPete; Oct 18, 2017 at 9:12 am