Mar 14, 2020, 4:58 pm
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:
Paid Seating Refund:
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
Lloyds Upgrade Voucher Notes
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.
- Online forms (Post #435 - corporate-wage-slave) - manual process which may take many weeks
Paid Seating Refund:
- https://www.britishairways.com/trave...ing_claim_form (Post #765 - travelhappypair)
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.
- Use the Qantas website and look back to your original PNR. Step by step guide in post 954
Covid-19 BA Rebooking/Cancellation/Refund HELP & ADVICE *No Speculation etc*
Mar 16, 2020, 2:52 am
#181
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: 63,803
If you mean Avios then if you cancel you will get your Avios back, and all but £35 of your cash. You need to do this at least 24 hours before the first departure.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:25 am
#182
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, VIPorter, Miles+Bonus Blue
Posts: 27
Hi all
I have a BA holidays booking to Berlin due to depart on Thursday 19/03 and return on Monday. For obvious reasons we no longer want to travel.
As it stands, out outbound LHR-TXL flight is still showing as operating, but the return (BA993 on 23/03) is showing as cancelled - however there is no option to cancel or amend the booking in manage my booking.
I am under the impression that as one flight is cancelled we should be able to cancel for a refund, rather than just claim a voucher for the flights and likely lose the hotel costs. Can anyone advise if this is correct - and how to do this?
Thanks - sorry if this has already been covered!
I have a BA holidays booking to Berlin due to depart on Thursday 19/03 and return on Monday. For obvious reasons we no longer want to travel.
As it stands, out outbound LHR-TXL flight is still showing as operating, but the return (BA993 on 23/03) is showing as cancelled - however there is no option to cancel or amend the booking in manage my booking.
I am under the impression that as one flight is cancelled we should be able to cancel for a refund, rather than just claim a voucher for the flights and likely lose the hotel costs. Can anyone advise if this is correct - and how to do this?
Thanks - sorry if this has already been covered!
Mar 16, 2020, 4:30 am
#183
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: 63,803
Correct, and it's disappointing that Cancellation Options are not showing on your booking. I'd imagine the queues for BA Holidays - you specifically need this number - are still busy but anecdotally the queues are coming down. So by all call, perhaps this afternoon / evening. Or watch your emails, some people have had proactive emails from BA Holidays where they have cancelled and refunded bookings directly.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:39 am
#184
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver, VIPorter, Miles+Bonus Blue
Posts: 27
Correct, and it's disappointing that Cancellation Options are not showing on your booking. I'd imagine the queues for BA Holidays - you specifically need this number - are still busy but anecdotally the queues are coming down. So by all call, perhaps this afternoon / evening. Or watch your emails, some people have had proactive emails from BA Holidays where they have cancelled and refunded bookings directly.
Interestingly, just after posting I did get an email from BA, but this only referenced the outbound flight which is operating, and only offered a link to claim for a voucher for future travel. There was no mention of the return flight being cancelled (the cancellation appeared over the weekend).
I have been trying to avoid calling - but having just done so, it’s unfortunately not possible to wait in a queue and I just get cut off (no status doesn’t help I guess).
In the absence of any other options, I’m planning on completing the voucher form and noting that I would like a full refund due to the flight cancellation... it’s either that or Twitter I guess.
Thanks again!
Mar 16, 2020, 4:40 am
#185
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,345
Just had this email from BA, unbelievable! No mention of a refund.
Your flight to Gran Canaria on 28 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, 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 - you can apply for a voucher onlinehere. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken within 12 months of your original date of departure.
Your flight to Gran Canaria on 28 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, 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 - you can apply for a voucher onlinehere. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken within 12 months of your original date of departure.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:45 am
#186
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
But this is simply in line with the current policy, so I'm not sure what is unbelievable about it?
Cancel-to-voucher is the current flexibility option if your flight is still operating. If at a later stage the flight is actually cancelled, you will have the opportunity to take a refund.
Cancel-to-voucher is the current flexibility option if your flight is still operating. If at a later stage the flight is actually cancelled, you will have the opportunity to take a refund.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:46 am
#187
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: 63,803
There is no place to put a note. I would only do the eVoucher if you want the eVoucher, otherwise you're confusing the system. Twitter is an option. My guess the queue times will shorten, there were reports yesterday afternoon of 20 minutes on hold.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:47 am
#188
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,345
But this is simply in line with the current policy, so I'm not sure what is unbelievable about it?
Cancel-to-voucher is the current flexibility option if your flight is still operating. If at a later stage the flight is actually cancelled, you will have the opportunity to take a refund.
Cancel-to-voucher is the current flexibility option if your flight is still operating. If at a later stage the flight is actually cancelled, you will have the opportunity to take a refund.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:48 am
#189
Join Date: Dec 2019
Location: Somerset
Programs: BA Gold, Mucci des Transports de Navette
Posts: 270
Just had this email from BA, unbelievable! No mention of a refund.
Your flight to Gran Canaria on 28 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, 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 - you can apply for a voucher onlinehere. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken within 12 months of your original date of departure.
Your flight to Gran Canaria on 28 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, 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 - you can apply for a voucher onlinehere. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken within 12 months of your original date of departure.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:49 am
#190
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
So wait for the flight to be cancelled before you do anything. That's advice that's been repeatedly given here already. Your flight is still almost two weeks away. Just as a week is said to be a long time in politics, at the moment a day is a long time in the airline industry.
Mar 16, 2020, 4:58 am
#191
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,345
So wait for the flight to be cancelled before you do anything. That's advice that's been repeatedly given here already. Your flight is still almost two weeks away. Just as a week is said to be a long time in politics, at the moment a day is a long time in the airline industry.
Mar 16, 2020, 5:01 am
#192
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: 63,803
The lockdown has started, well advertised too. I am overlooking the aircraft departure area of LGW, there are 2 BA, 2 easyJet and an Iberia Express jet all bound for various Spanish destinations which will all take off in the next few minutes. I think you best be patient, keep a gentle eye on the situation but not be minded to be concerned about this for at least another week or even longer.
Last edited by corporate-wage-slave; Mar 16, 2020 at 5:31 am
Mar 16, 2020, 5:02 am
#193
Join Date: Jul 2009
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Diamond
Posts: 7,765
My OSL-LHR flight on Saturday, before my connection to LAX, is now showing as cancelled and I should call BA.
What happens here?
Full refund, or do I still have to wait for the LAX flight to be cancelled, or take the voucher?
What happens here?
Full refund, or do I still have to wait for the LAX flight to be cancelled, or take the voucher?
Mar 16, 2020, 5:02 am
#194
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,347
Just had the email saying our flight to Miami is due to operate as normal, and offering the voucher if we want to change plans and switch to an alternate date or destination. This is an Amex 2-4-1 booking in F. Just wondering if there is any thought on whether the voucher would allow rebooking onto any flight, regardless of Avios availability, in which case it may be a better option than cancelling and taking the Avios back (don't think we'll be able to go due to the US travel ban)?
Mar 16, 2020, 5:03 am
#195
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 2,345
The lockdown has started, well advertised too. I am overlooking the aircraft departure area of LGW, there are 2 BA, 2 easyJet and an Iberia Express jet all bound for various Spanish destinations which will all take off in the next few minutes. I think you best be patient, keep a gentile eye on the situation but not be minded to be concerned about this for at least another week or even longer.