Originally Posted by
db10
Following up from my question a few weeks ago:
Although I hadn't heard anything back from BA, I noticed that my seat selection for the WTP leg had been refunded, and then 2 credits of £102.50 had been made to my account.
I requested an update about my claim and I had the following reply (without clarification of how this amount had been calculated):Thank you for your request for a refund.
The refund was processed for GBP 102.50 to VI card ending in XXXX on XXSep25
Reading the advice above about UK261 / Mennens / Avios bookings, I was additionally expecting Avios to be refunded? Have I misunderstood?
What is the best course of action from here?
For reference, I paid 135,000 Avios + 2 Barclays Cabin Upgrade Vouchers + £608.92 total fees and surcharges (£323.42 government / airport etc and £285.50 carrier imposed surcharge).
Thank you!
You're entitled to downgrade reimbursement of 75% of the 'fare paid'. The reimbursement of the seat selection fee is separate and additional to that.
With any kind of upgrade voucher it gets somewhat messy to calculate what the 'fare paid' is, since you can't be given back 75% of a voucher! The best method is generally to work out how many Avios the voucher(s) saved you and calculate things as if you hadn't used it.
The cash amount you paid sounds unusual - usually redemptions are charged round amounts due to Reward Flight Saver. Are you quoting the amount you paid, or the amount the e-ticket receipt says the taxes & fees add up to? If this was an RFS booking then in my view, the 'fare paid' includes the entirety of the RFS fee for the relevant flight (since this has no direct relationship with the actual taxes) - which would be £152.50 p/p so £305 total.
If it really was a non-RFS redemption then based on current figures you would have paid around £171 p/p for the Carrier Surcharge on the inbound flight. A total of £285.50 for both passengers (or p/p in both directions) sounds too low to be correct to me. Perhaps I am missing something?
Anyway, the end result is that you get 75% of the Avios paid, which would be 42.5k p/p for an off-peak W redemption, plus 75% of the Carrier Surcharge or RFS fee. If we assume the latter to be £171 then the total reimbursement due for both of you would be
63,750 Avios + £256.50.
If it's been more than 8 weeks since you submitted your original claim (your previous post was on 13 Sep) then you can proceed straight to CEDR. If not then get BA to confirm that this is their final position or if not, to confirm what they are reimbursing you.
In any CEDR claim you can only claim for cash, not remedies in kind (e.g. Avios). Therefore I would suggest claiming for the Avios based on the public purchase price of 1.7-1.8p each (
https://www.avios.com/collect-avios/buy/purchase/). If BA want to settle the case they'll still usually offer you the Avios part in kind.