Tobias-UK

Welcome to FlyerTalk Likes2fly, it’s good to see you here. I share your grievance, my wife and I both had GUF vouchers (4 in total) appear and disappear. I hadn’t notice these appear in my account, it was only after they were removed (with several other GUFs) that I noticed we’d received them.

BA have done themselves no favours in the way they have handled this, removing them without explanation is poor customer service, allowing others to benefit from these wrongly issued GUFs is also not showing the airline in good light in the eyes of those who were unable to use them.

At the end of the day you (and I!) did not actually earn these GUFs and so we can’t really complain that those wrongly issued GUFs have been taken back.

BA have handled this poorly, as always there are some winners and some losers.

Likes2fly

Yes but neither did my friends who are all benefitting from the error still. That’s also my frustration. That there is differential treatment regarding the vouchers issued in error. Which might I stress I was not aware of and did make plans surrounding.

I guess I wanted to add the information that BA are honouring those booked and denying those who haven’t. As I hadn’t seen this fact shared.

i have raised my annoyance with them personally but yet to get past the generalised response phase. Where I’m sure I’ll be met with the “tough luck” phase

Tobias-UK

I agree with you 100%. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do about it, we have no contractual right to the wrongly issued GUFs so we have no legal recourse. I think you will be proved right in your expectation and I too think BA’s final response will be “tough luck”.

It isn’t fair, but it’s easy to remove a GUF that hasn’t been used, it’s far more difficult to deal with the fall out with those that have been used had BA chosen to remove the GUFs from the booking.

And yes, it will leave a bitter taste to the mouths of those who have ‘lost out’.

RichieMc

I don’t get this annoyance that some others got lucky and got to keep already made bookings. Would you feel better if BA downgraded your mate’s booking? And what about people who have already flown using mistake vouchers? Does this get offset by a future voucher? Or do they have to pay a cash penalty?

Yes, this has been a mess from start to finish. But aside from people who had legit vouchers removed - and I assume these will eventually get reinstated - no one is any worse off and a few lucky souls are better off. It happens all the time that people get mistake avios and TPs on avios tickets and upgrades. I’m not annoyed when someone else gets this and I don’t.

Likes2fly

My annoyance is I’m given a voucher. I am none the wiser I shouldn’t have. I think I’ll use one for a holiday and the other for the travel with my friends. These plans are made. And then when I go to book the voucher is revoked. It’s not an error I’ve made but BA.

I think if BA are happy to honour some then they should honour all. Because it’s not a fair way to handle the problem. Or down grade them. Because if you don’t treat all of your customers the same and use comments like “tough luck” then it doesn’t come across as a fair company to fly with.

but as your message states that they are not going to be requesting anything back from those already used so why not ride out there mistake for everyone? I doubt there were many awarded this year that it will make an equal impact in comparison to upsetting their top customers? After the way they spoke to me on the phone they have definitely broken an element of trust in their capabilities as a company.

And I am worse off because had you said to me in January you have one GUF2 voucher I would not have used it on a holiday! I was meant to be using it for my upcoming Florida trip and now it’s disappeared as it wasn’t meant to be there. I only used it in February because there were 2.

I don’t think it’s my responsibility to double check the validity of rewards given to me. Especially 6 months after it having been there accessible for use. And my friends having used their’s with no issue whatsoever. That voucher to me personally had the value of £8,000 so that’s why I feel done over when all my friends are using their’s purely because they booked a week before me!

Splotly

Is it possible to extend a GUF2 by using it to make a booking to anywhere cheap before its expiry date and then subsequently changing it to where/when I want sometime after the expiry date (assuming passenger unchanged)? Or is that no good and the system will notice it expired?


(GGL team has already been kind enough to get me 2 extensions so the voucher is already almost 3 years old.)

firstlight

I think generally this might work for an unexpired voucher where the new flight is within a year of expiry date but it might be subject to discretion by BA and you've already had a lot of extensions so you might not get another. However others might have better news for you.

Flumps

Why do you assume that ?

Can I draw your attention to, for example, the OnBusiness debacle which has been ongoing for several months now with no communication and no indication it will be restored any time soon (or at all).

Can I draw your attention to BA's inability to get the screens in their lounges to display the same thing as the the screens at the gates in their own dedicated terminal at their home base.

Can I draw your attention to BA's constant refusal to pay out on clear-cut examples of EU261 claims and instead force people to go through mediation or the courts.

This list goes on on and on - these are just 3 fairly random examples of how this company behaves towards it's clients.

mmxbreaks

It's actually looking increasingly likely I'll be booking a Club Europe medium haul upgrade.
What are the rules for this, still requires I class for CE or will other fare codes suffice?
​​​​​​Thnx

Lefly

After having been forced to communicate through the GGL team, I'm still waiting to hear back from the BAEC team about my legit voucher disappearance.
I planned to use it together with the 2023 one to upgrade the whole family on a specific trip, and if it was already the moment to book it I would have been very, very annoyed, more than I already am...

RichieMc

Yes. You are one of the people who is worse off having had legit vouchers removed. I am glad you agree with me on this.

Likes2fly

Your attitude absolutely ruins this site. You seem to have a bee in your bonnet over these vouchers and not really understanding that to me in the moment that was a legitimate voucher that I too made plans around. So my issue and that of the other poster are exactly the same?

I feel like you personally don’t have any vouchers anyway just a VERY pushy opinion on them. That or you work for British Airways?

KARFA

I am not sure I am seeing the same intent in RichieMc's comments as you appear to be. That FT'er does clearly acknowledge several times that some people with legit vouchers - like yourself - have had them removed and quite clearly should have them reinstated. I am not sure why it is taking them so long to sort your case out as it does seem to be a clear case of error in removing them if you earned them at one of the tier point thresholds, but I hope it happens soon.

firstlight

Yes, you need I class. Given CE loads can vary I'm not sure how many I class tickets are typically made available per CE flight.

RichieMc

You are 100% correct that I don’t have any vouchers. I used 4 (all legitimately earned) in the last few months. I don’t work for BA (lawlz!) and have been critical of the handling of this, especially re those who I feel are being harmed by having legit vouchers removed, and still not reinstated. We just have differing views on this. No need for personal attacks.