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Covid-19 BA Rebooking/Cancellation/Refund HELP & ADVICE *No Speculation etc*

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Old Mar 14, 2020, 4:58 pm
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Last edit by: corporate-wage-slave
BA Covid-19 Rebooking / Cancellation / Refund Help & Advice

If your flight is cancelled by BA:
Commercial booking: Your options are: cash refund OR Future Travel Voucher (FTV) OR rebooking OR Avios credit
Redemption booking: Your options are: full refund of cash and Avios OR FTV OR rebooking.
BA Holidays booking: You should be given a refund pro-actively.

If your flight is cancelled by BA - any flight in the PNR - you can get a full refund so long as you booked directly with BA. You can only get a refund by telephoning BA. Refunds are taking between a few hours to a few weeks to be repaid, depending on the sort of booking made. If you don't wish to travel you can opt for an FTV or eVoucher valid for travel until 30 April 2022, though flights more than 355 days away are not currently bookable - flights are enabled at 355 days before departure. Vouchers such as 2-4-1 are also thereby extended. You can do this even if the flight is operating. The best advice we can give is to delay opting for an eVoucher options until the last moment, since if BA cancel your flight you have more options. BA have also adjusted the Standard Customer Guidelines so that if BA cancel the flight you can be rebooked to anytime in 12 months after you originally bought the ticket, so long as there is space in the cabin - there is no need to have a fare bucket available or Avios availability. If you choose the Avios credit you will get between 108 to 126 Avios per GBP of your fare. Note older posts in this thread may now be inaccuarate since the current policy has been amended several times.
===
If your flight is not cancelled but you don't wish to travel
Commercial booking: If you are eligible for Buy with Confidence, you can have an FTV valid until April 2022. Rebooking may lead to a fare recalculation but no change fee.
Redemption booking: Your can do the normal Avios refund, with the redeposit fee capped at GBP 35 per person. Alternatively for the same fee you can rebook to new dates subject to availability. Alternatively you can have an FTV.
BA Holidays booking: You may be get a refund proactively, otherwise you are looking at an FTV for at least the flight component of your trip, maybe for all components.

If all of the flights in your booking are still scheduled and you don't wish to travel then you best wait until a few days before departure in case there is a cancellation. As you can see above, a cancellation gives you better options. You are in scope with Buy with Confidence if you are flying between now and completing travel before 31 August 2021, also if you bought your ticket after 3 March and due to complete all flights before September 2021. The BA web page on this is:
ba.com/confidence
===
Below are some of the options / workarounds being suggested in order to obtain a refund as opposed to a Future Travel Voucher, but they probably no longer work:

Refund of Cancelled Flights:
  • Call BA (no longer a requirement to be travelling in the next 72 hours, you may need to make repeated calls to get through). Telephone numbers are in this thread, but you can also find them on BA.com at the bottom left of the website, under Help and Contacts.

Paid Seating Refund:
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
  • Full refund of Avios and money paid
  • A new voucher issued, which has validity for 6 months (from the date of issue, i.e. when you request the 'refund')

Lloyds Upgrade Voucher Notes
  • Flights can be used within 12 months, so it will be good for travel up until the end 6 months plus 12 months if you book just before the new expiry
  • It's been advised to take the voucher instead of rebooking as it gives me more flexibility.
  • The original expiry date of the voucher was irrelevant because the booking was cancelled.
  • You must book within 6 months of the voucher being issued and the ticket has 12 months validity so you can change flights after, provided the new flights are within the 12 month window.
  • You won't receive any email, only the refund and the miles.
How to find out the status of your voucher and the amount it contains Future Travel Vouchers versus eVouchers
  • See posts 3052 and 3151 to understand the difference. FTVs cannot be used online (and are not really vouchers), whereas eVouchers, issued for simple bookings, can be used online.
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Covid-19 BA Rebooking/Cancellation/Refund HELP & ADVICE *No Speculation etc*

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Old Apr 28, 2020, 7:38 am
  #1831  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,758
I have used BA Avios to make a booking on CX. The flights are now cancelled, and I would like BA to refund the Avios and the "taxes". However, when I called the BA number for Finland, they picked up but were unable to help because it's an Avios booking. Then I called the Exec Club number in the UK, but apparently they don't take any calls at all, and want you to call the regular UK number. I did that only to listen to a tape telling me they don't take any calls.

Is there any way to reach a person at BA who could refund an Avios booking? Where should I call? Thanks!
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 7:45 am
  #1832  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Originally Posted by ffay005
I have used BA Avios to make a booking on CX. The flights are now cancelled, and I would like BA to refund the Avios and the "taxes". However, when I called the BA number for Finland, they picked up but were unable to help because it's an Avios booking. Then I called the Exec Club number in the UK, but apparently they don't take any calls at all, and want you to call the regular UK number. I did that only to listen to a tape telling me they don't take any calls
Avios bookings do have to be handled by Avios trained agents. It sounds like you had the right number on the last call - it would have been if the voice menu specially mentioned Avios - but indeed many people have reported that they are not allowed to join the queue during peak hours. Just keep trying, or alternatively ring off peak (early or late UK daytime). Some people report that Twitter direct messages do get a call back from BA.
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 7:51 am
  #1833  
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 62
New voucher policy (2 years to use it?)
Apologies if already posted but I just received this note from BA for a booking scheduled on 2nd June to Vienna (which was booked in December 2019)

We understand that you may have questions about your upcoming travel at the moment, and we wanted to reassure you that we’re working around the clock to help our customers.

You’re currently due to travel to Vienna on 02 June 2020, however due to the fast changing situation, we wanted to let you know that if you’d like to change the date or destination of your trip and you booked directly with BritishAirways - you can apply for a voucher online here. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken up until 30 April 2022.
It looks like the flight I am booked on is cancelled right up to 31st May (where they have gone to 1 flight per day on this route) so I suspect it will be cancelled at some point so I'm going to sit tight for now.
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 7:51 am
  #1834  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: HEL
Programs: AY Platinum, TK Elite, BT VIP, AA, BA, SK, DL, NT, WB + hotels
Posts: 8,758
Thanks, Corporate-wage-slave! I should have turned to FT in the first place. Browsing back, I found this post from Jetboys360:

Originally Posted by jetboys360
Positive BA experience, been calling the refund BA number (+442032500145) for the past three weeks with no luck. Decided to try the BA call centre in Bremen today +494215575767 for a refund on a cancelled flight, it took 7 minutes and received confirmation email as well
I called the Bremen number and got everything sorted by a very helpful agent. Listening to the menus and talking to the agent took 5.5 minutes only. Thanks Jetboy360!

The agent said the Avios will be returned within 24 hours, probably within 2 hours, and for the taxes, it would take 2–3 weeks.
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 7:56 am
  #1835  
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: San Miguel de Allende Mex
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 352
Thanks to whoever replied to my query yesterday. I am glad to say I got through to an agent on the Gold line almost immediately and she sorted out my refund with grace, charm and efficiency. A positive experience from BA!
londinense is offline  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 8:01 am
  #1836  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: living near Malaga
Programs: BA Gold , Mucci recipient. Coffee Drinker, Blue Sky Thinker
Posts: 2,112
What is the situation with Ba Holidays? I have two trips to Barbados (flight + hotel) & the Seychelles (flight + car) before the end of July and would consider switching dates. I presume things will be treated differently as hotel costs differ from season to season. Its a shame as happy to kick the Seychelles can down the road into 2021 as I bought it in the 241 sale @ £1250 pp in club.
sunshinebob is offline  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 11:12 am
  #1837  
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: London
Programs: Gold at BA, Hilton and Radisson.
Posts: 593
For a BA 125- Ticket containing exclusively Iberia Marketed flights, booked on 6th March for travel in July, am I right in thinking Book With Confidence & the Voucher route will not apply and standard rules do instead? Cheers!
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 11:46 am
  #1838  
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ
Programs: BA Gold/Marriott Gold/HH Diamond/IC Plat Amba
Posts: 5,992
Anyone had something like this happen? My inbound flights May.12 YYZ-LHR and May.13 LHR-MAN were cancelled. Phoned in for refund back to credit card and was told that it would have to go to India to have the refund amount calculated. Just out of curiosity I went in to MMB as it was still showing and it now shows the YYZ-LHR showing as Nov.11,2020 and no LHR -MAN flight. This just popped up and I never requested a change so is BA trying to avoid the refund here?
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 11:51 am
  #1839  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 7,464
Originally Posted by Crampedin13A
Anyone had something like this happen? My inbound flights May.12 YYZ-LHR and May.13 LHR-MAN were cancelled. Phoned in for refund back to credit card and was told that it would have to go to India to have the refund amount calculated. Just out of curiosity I went in to MMB as it was still showing and it now shows the YYZ-LHR showing as Nov.11,2020 and no LHR -MAN flight. This just popped up and I never requested a change so is BA trying to avoid the refund here?
This is very common. A dummy sector is put into the booking in order to keep the PNR live whilst the refund is worked on. Nothing to worry about, actually it is a positive to show that it is in some form of queue.
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rossmacd is offline  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 11:52 am
  #1840  
 
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYZ
Programs: BA Gold/Marriott Gold/HH Diamond/IC Plat Amba
Posts: 5,992
Originally Posted by rossmacd
This is very common. A dummy sector is put into the booking in order to keep the PNR live whilst the refund is worked on. Nothing to worry about, actually it is a positive to show that it is in some form of queue.
Great. Thanks for your help.
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 12:53 pm
  #1841  
Moderator: Luxury Hotels and FlyerTalk Evangelist
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Palo Alto, California,USA
Posts: 17,858
Originally Posted by travellingowl
New voucher policy (2 years to use it?)
Apologies if already posted but I just received this note from BA for a booking scheduled on 2nd June to Vienna (which was booked in December 2019)



It looks like the flight I am booked on is cancelled right up to 31st May (where they have gone to 1 flight per day on this route) so I suspect it will be cancelled at some point so I'm going to sit tight for now.
I was going to ask the same question -- have vouchers now all been extended to be valid through 31 April 2022? It says so on the COVID note on the website, and if this is true it relieves a LOT of my problems.
RichardInSF is online now  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 1:09 pm
  #1842  
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Lincoln UK
Posts: 363
Will BA Holiday booking vouchers still be credited towards the cost of any non-refundable hotels? I have a BA Holiday booking with what I assume to be a non-refundable hotel in LAS (it doesn't mention it anywhere on the booking confirmation or in MMB).

Also, any idea how flexible BA are on destination? I assume rebooking CDG-YYZ / SFO-CDG as LHR-YYZ / SFO-LHR won't fly (cheeky I know, but it would persuade me to rebook rather than get a refund - at a cost to BA that is lower than if I were to rebook on a like for like basis)...
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Old Apr 28, 2020, 1:23 pm
  #1843  
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,996
Originally Posted by RichardInSF
I was going to ask the same question -- have vouchers now all been extended to be valid through 31 April 2022? It says so on the COVID note on the website, and if this is true it relieves a LOT of my problems.
Yes. The validity period of existing and new future travel vouchers is now extended. New travel booked using the voucher must be completed (outbound & inbound) by 30th April 2022
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KARFA is online now  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 1:23 pm
  #1844  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Programs: Iberia Plus
Posts: 33
On Saturday I contacted BA via twitter to get a refund on a AGP-LHR-NCL and return taking place in June. Everything went smoothly and today I got the refund on my credit card. Only four days.
nlclhc is offline  
Old Apr 28, 2020, 1:41 pm
  #1845  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,857
Originally Posted by RichardInSF
I was going to ask the same question -- have vouchers now all been extended to be valid through 31 April 2022? It says so on the COVID note on the website, and if this is true it relieves a LOT of my problems.
Originally Posted by KARFA
Yes. The validity period of existing and new future travel vouchers is now extended. New travel booked using the voucher must be completed (outbound & inbound) by 30th April 2022
And there is more information of this change in earlier posts from 28 April onwards There is also a summary of the changes in the wiki, but note also the Standard Customer Guidelines have also been amended, so a straightforward rebooking may be easier if you are able to complete travel before mid April 2021. Arguably that is the more radical change.
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