Originally Posted by
flarmip
When a flight is cancelled, compensation entitlement is unaffected by taking a refund. Compensation remains payable if the flight was cancelled for reasons that don't constitute exceptional circumstances. That's in contrast to the situation with delayed flights, where you must actually experience the delay to qualify for compensation.
With the big exception (which cannot apply in this situation) when BA offters to reroute you on to another service within a minus one hour departure time to plus two hour arrival time window. For BA services that really can only apply to EDI, GLA, GVA, BHD at certain points of the day, or the use of other airlines, notably EI to DUB, IB to MAD, KLM to AMS and LH to FRA.