Mar 19, 2020, 2:45 pm
Last edit by: Prospero
Latest official update, posted by BA refund helper on 16 August (post no 579)
Historic wiki updates:
There seems to be some confusion over the ‘vouchers’ for future travel so here is some clarity in the hope it proves helpful to others.
The ‘voucher number’ will be the customer’s existing ticket number. The process is no different to putting a booking on hold for medical reasons and the existing booking will be reused for future travel, with the ticket reissued following payment of any difference in fare. This is why it takes so long to receive confirmation as someone has to manually go into each booking (as you’ll imagine there are a lot!), remove the live flights, hold in a ghost flight and send the confirmation email to the customer. It is not an eVoucher that you would enter into ba.com for a discount off a brand new booking and new travel arrangements should NOT be made in this way.
Similarly, customers should NOT cancel their own bookings at any point in the voucher process. This will invalidate any eligibility for the voucher and process a fare rules refund.
When ready to rebook (and once the lines are a lot quieter!) customers will need to call to be rebooked as there is no facility to do this online at all and anything done online in this manner will be at the customer’s own expense since you won't be able to deploy the eVoucher's funds. The voucher is valid for travel completed (both outbound and inbound) by 30th April 2021.
There is no telephone service charge for using the eVoucher, you have to call up, but you won't have to pay an extra fee to make the booking in this scenario.
Historic wiki updates:
There seems to be some confusion over the ‘vouchers’ for future travel so here is some clarity in the hope it proves helpful to others.
The ‘voucher number’ will be the customer’s existing ticket number. The process is no different to putting a booking on hold for medical reasons and the existing booking will be reused for future travel, with the ticket reissued following payment of any difference in fare. This is why it takes so long to receive confirmation as someone has to manually go into each booking (as you’ll imagine there are a lot!), remove the live flights, hold in a ghost flight and send the confirmation email to the customer. It is not an eVoucher that you would enter into ba.com for a discount off a brand new booking and new travel arrangements should NOT be made in this way.
Similarly, customers should NOT cancel their own bookings at any point in the voucher process. This will invalidate any eligibility for the voucher and process a fare rules refund.
When ready to rebook (and once the lines are a lot quieter!) customers will need to call to be rebooked as there is no facility to do this online at all and anything done online in this manner will be at the customer’s own expense since you won't be able to deploy the eVoucher's funds. The voucher is valid for travel completed (both outbound and inbound) by 30th April 2021.
There is no telephone service charge for using the eVoucher, you have to call up, but you won't have to pay an extra fee to make the booking in this scenario.
Rebooking with e-voucher
May 20, 2020, 5:55 pm
#317
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May 20, 2020, 7:47 pm
#318
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 464
no rules haven't changed you have applied for a voucher for future travel and got that to use by 30 April 2022 but what is being mentioned above is if your new booking is say for 50000 Avios less and £500 in taxes and fees less you then get these credited back to you rather than another voucher
the voucher you have will be for the value of what paid for example if you used 75000pts and £350 that is the value of your voucher, you can use it for any booking in any class on any route. If it is a more expensive journey you pay the extra if it's less you get it refunded
the voucher you have will be for the value of what paid for example if you used 75000pts and £350 that is the value of your voucher, you can use it for any booking in any class on any route. If it is a more expensive journey you pay the extra if it's less you get it refunded
The original version of this was that the £400 in the example was a standard EMD which could be used online, but there are several reports of the EMD not being in the open eVoucher type and thus the £400 would need a call to the Contact Centre to use. I think you can choose your flight / Avios use in the usual way if you want to part pay (though the usual CWS warning applies that apart from the lowest band this is poor value for money), so you are not forced down one particular course of action, and you would see the return of the 20k Avios.
Just so I'm clear, say I have a FTV for £500 and 30000 Avios. I call up to make a booking worth £100. I understand that BA will issue a voucher for the remaining £400 and this will be a standard e-voucher that can be used for part payment online? In terms of the Avios, am I able to choose how many Avios I use when using the FTV? So, in this scenario I can choose to pay £100 and use 10000 Avios. Can this be done and do I get the 20000 remaining Avios credited back to my Exec account? Thanks.
May 21, 2020, 1:21 am
#319
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As we understand it, for redemptions Avios and spare cash are returned to the passenger's account and credit card respectively. However for commecial bookings - revenue bookings - these are retained in the FTV or maybe the similar instrument knwn as EMD, until there is only £20 left. The potential confusion is that if you Part Pay with Avios, it's still a commercial booking.
May 21, 2020, 6:19 am
#320
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 464
As we understand it, for redemptions Avios and spare cash are returned to the passenger's account and credit card respectively. However for commecial bookings - revenue bookings - these are retained in the FTV or maybe the similar instrument knwn as EMD, until there is only £20 left. The potential confusion is that if you Part Pay with Avios, it's still a commercial booking.
-in-all comparable to paying the cancel/redeposit fee on the original redemption which was the intent all along).
May 21, 2020, 7:10 am
#321
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That was mentioned some weeks ago in the main Rebook thread as one valid course of action, though I can't recall anyone actually doing this. One possibility would be to book LHR-MAN with the minimum cash component for sometime next year, hopefully get the remaining Avios back, then see what happens in reality when you cancel LHR-MAN next year. But I guess it would be better to make a booking of some description which would be useful.. The cancel/redeposit fee is capped at a maximum of £35 per person, it can be less than that.
May 21, 2020, 7:13 am
#322
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 464
That was mentioned some weeks ago in the main Rebook thread as one valid course of action, though I can't recall anyone actually doing this. One possibility would be to book LHR-MAN with the minimum cash component for sometime next year, hopefully get the remaining Avios back, then see what happens in reality when you cancel LHR-MAN next year. But I guess it would be better to make a booking of some description which would be useful.. The cancel/redeposit fee is capped at a maximum of £35 per person, it can be less than that.
May 25, 2020, 2:52 pm
#323
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Has anybody managed to use a voucher in their name to pay for a booking that includes other people in addition to themselves?
I have 6 vouchers from cancelled flights that I would have been the only traveller on, with being able to use 3 vouchers on one booking I'm thinking at some point before April 22 a family holiday might be nice... Would they let me use the value of the 3 vouchers against the total cost of the booking which included wife and kids?
I have 6 vouchers from cancelled flights that I would have been the only traveller on, with being able to use 3 vouchers on one booking I'm thinking at some point before April 22 a family holiday might be nice... Would they let me use the value of the 3 vouchers against the total cost of the booking which included wife and kids?
May 26, 2020, 7:36 am
#324
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Got the answer myself... Vouchers not transferable.
I tried to explain they're not being transfered if I'm the lead on the booking and travelling with my family but they were having none of it.
Seems a pretty crappy way to treat your customers who have taken vouchers as a leap faith rather than cash refund to be honest (Don't know why I'm surprised). I also contrast it with Legoland in Denmark who offered a voucher for the full cost of the stay, valid for a full 3 years, can be used in the shop, to book accommodation, to buy tickets as they just send a gift card to the value of the booking.
I tried to explain they're not being transfered if I'm the lead on the booking and travelling with my family but they were having none of it.
Seems a pretty crappy way to treat your customers who have taken vouchers as a leap faith rather than cash refund to be honest (Don't know why I'm surprised). I also contrast it with Legoland in Denmark who offered a voucher for the full cost of the stay, valid for a full 3 years, can be used in the shop, to book accommodation, to buy tickets as they just send a gift card to the value of the booking.
May 26, 2020, 11:00 am
#325
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 14
voucher booking
so i have a booking for 15/07/20 to orlando and i have decided to take a voucher .so its a flight only booking for 5 adults an 2 children for the value of £4000 when i rebook for next year can use it for flights ,car and airport hotel and also is the voucher for phone bookins only many thanks.
May 26, 2020, 11:31 am
#326
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so i have a booking for 15/07/20 to orlando and i have decided to take a voucher .so its a flight only booking for 5 adults an 2 children for the value of £4000 when i rebook for next year can use it for flights ,car and airport hotel and also is the voucher for phone bookins only many thanks.
to answer your questions, yes you can only use it on the phone, and yes you can put it towards a BA holiday booking.
May 26, 2020, 11:55 am
#327
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 14
the reason i took the voucher was there are ten of us on the booking and we had to book asap because of school and work .we found the dates and prices that suited us all but they need to be booked asap so rather than wait maybe into august for our refund assuming it does get cancelled .so i went for the voucher we looked at tui and virgin they couldnt get anwhere near the BA price.
May 26, 2020, 12:57 pm
#328
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the reason i took the voucher was there are ten of us on the booking and we had to book asap because of school and work .we found the dates and prices that suited us all but they need to be booked asap so rather than wait maybe into august for our refund assuming it does get cancelled .so i went for the voucher we looked at tui and virgin they couldnt get anwhere near the BA price.
anyway, hopefully your voucher comes soon - the wait times for them seem much reduced now.
May 26, 2020, 2:36 pm
#330
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why didn't you wait as you were advised to do? if you had a cancellation you could have got a full refund and then you would have been fully flexible in your new booking. i am not sure why the rush to act?
to answer your questions, yes you can only use it on the phone, and yes you can put it towards a BA holiday booking.
to answer your questions, yes you can only use it on the phone, and yes you can put it towards a BA holiday booking.