Originally Posted by
JessicaB
BA made a loss of 4 billion Euros in the last 6 months, and probably only have enough cash to keep going for another six months, hence going to a rights issue to raise more money. That's why they make it as difficult as possible for anyone to get a refund. In fairness anyone running the company would do this. They are hoping that people will not opt for a refund and have a voucher instead.
For sure - But it makes me wonder why they didn't elect to follow other airlines (e.g Finnair, SAS) and offer a % increase on the value of the voucher in the event the flight is cancelled. Even if a voucher was bumped by 10% (which I think is what Finnair % is) then I'd have been inclined to take a voucher on some of my cancelled flights, rather than elect for the cash refund. Even if 10% of people elected for an increased voucher, that's a lot of additional free cash flow. You also guarantee that money returns to BA, rather than drift off to a competitor when said individual comes to rebook (perhaps not such an issue for those of us members of BAEC, especially with status).
I don't like the difficulty to receive a refund, but yes from a commercial side it makes sense. I just think there are slightly better ways to go about it that's amicable for both airline and customer.