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*
May 5, 2020, 6:24 am
#2041
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: 63,846
You would have to call up to get that fixed, since the system is unlikely to automatically Reaccom you to Heathrow. An agent should be able to rebook you and requeue your PNR for ticket re-issue.
Note that for quite a few dates from June onwards there are more LGW services than LHR, insofar as one can take the schedule at face value.
Note that for quite a few dates from June onwards there are more LGW services than LHR, insofar as one can take the schedule at face value.
May 5, 2020, 6:29 am
#2042
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
Remind me, if wanting to rebook on a voucher then you can book any time up till April 2022 but you're at the mercy of what the fare costs. If you decide to not accept a voucher and rebook, you can now do so in any fare bucket (within your ticketed cabin) but the trip must have started (or ended?) within 12 months of the original ticket issue date as opposed to the original ticket travel dates, right?
May 5, 2020, 6:30 am
#2043
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
You would have to call up to get that fixed, since the system is unlikely to automatically Reaccom you to Heathrow. An agent should be able to rebook you and requeue your PNR for ticket re-issue.
Note that for quite a few dates from June onwards there are more LGW services than LHR, insofar as one can take the schedule at face value.
Note that for quite a few dates from June onwards there are more LGW services than LHR, insofar as one can take the schedule at face value.
May 5, 2020, 6:40 am
#2044
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: 63,846
Remind me, if wanting to rebook on a voucher then you can book any time up till April 2022 but you're at the mercy of what the fare costs. If you decide to not accept a voucher and rebook, you can now do so in any fare bucket (within your ticketed cabin) but the trip must have started (or ended?) within 12 months of the original ticket issue date as opposed to the original ticket travel dates, right?
As I understand it the trip certainly needs to start within the 12 months from ticket issue (though some agents may give leeway on this unofficially) and possibly needs to end within that same 12 months too. However since the ticket would have to be reissued with a new date for the new outbound I am less sure on that point, since at the point of reissue the ticket presumably gains another 12 month until expiry.
May 5, 2020, 9:35 am
#2045
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
Yes. However you aren't entirely at the mercy of the fare on that route, since you can use the Future Travel Voucher on other routes or on BA Holidays.
As I understand it the trip certainly needs to start within the 12 months from ticket issue (though some agents may give leeway on this unofficially) and possibly needs to end within that same 12 months too. However since the ticket would have to be reissued with a new date for the new outbound I am less sure on that point, since at the point of reissue the ticket presumably gains another 12 month until expiry.
As I understand it the trip certainly needs to start within the 12 months from ticket issue (though some agents may give leeway on this unofficially) and possibly needs to end within that same 12 months too. However since the ticket would have to be reissued with a new date for the new outbound I am less sure on that point, since at the point of reissue the ticket presumably gains another 12 month until expiry.
May 6, 2020, 1:25 pm
#2046
Join Date: Aug 2018
Programs: BA GFL
Posts: 21
Avois Booking and 241
Does anyone know. I have a redemption booking using a 241. It’s off peak in CW.
When the flight is cancelled ... can I rebook for any date within a year (off peak or not) As long as any fare class is available in CW.. Will
i need to pay the additional avios if it’s a peak period.
thanks
When the flight is cancelled ... can I rebook for any date within a year (off peak or not) As long as any fare class is available in CW.. Will
i need to pay the additional avios if it’s a peak period.
thanks
May 6, 2020, 1:27 pm
#2047
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: 63,846
So long as it is the same route and BA have cancelled the original booking, you won't be asked to pay anything extra, Avios or cash.
May 6, 2020, 1:48 pm
#2048
Join Date: Sep 2000
Posts: 5,398
Does anyone know. I have a redemption booking using a 241. It’s off peak in CW.
When the flight is cancelled ... can I rebook for any date within a year (off peak or not) As long as any fare class is available in CW.. Will
i need to pay the additional avios if it’s a peak period.
thanks
When the flight is cancelled ... can I rebook for any date within a year (off peak or not) As long as any fare class is available in CW.. Will
i need to pay the additional avios if it’s a peak period.
thanks
May 6, 2020, 7:22 pm
#2049
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Silicon Valley
Programs: United 1P, BA Bronze
Posts: 13
Thank you very much to the members of Flyertalk, especially corporate-wage-slave, KARFA and the other experts. Following your advice, I successfully received a refund on a booking for travel in June/July. A very courteous member of staff from New Delhi facilitated this, after 20 minutes on hold.
The email notifications included a cancellation of one segment to EDI, and later a rebooking to a SFO->LHR flight, with class changed from First to Club. The aircraft was an A380, now a 787.
Some observations to get your comments on - I did not look at the booking details on the website, as I could not determine a way to do so without accepting the change/downgrade. In future, how would someone view their booking details, terms, fare code, price paid, or otherwise evaluate their options without accepting the change? If the change is accepted, how does that impact the ability to obtain a refund or voucher?
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
The email notifications included a cancellation of one segment to EDI, and later a rebooking to a SFO->LHR flight, with class changed from First to Club. The aircraft was an A380, now a 787.
Some observations to get your comments on - I did not look at the booking details on the website, as I could not determine a way to do so without accepting the change/downgrade. In future, how would someone view their booking details, terms, fare code, price paid, or otherwise evaluate their options without accepting the change? If the change is accepted, how does that impact the ability to obtain a refund or voucher?
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
May 7, 2020, 1:37 am
#2050
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 138
I received a cancellation for a flight TLV-LHR-TLV and managed to reach a very helpful representative today who has sent it for processing.
The phone was answered after my 3rd try (prior two attempts gave me the we cannot take your call message).
I guess my ticket may be complicated as I made two different changes (both were date changes,for some reason she was unable to access the original ticket ID to confirm the refund amount - is that normal?)
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
She advised to wait 21 days to see the refund.
The phone was answered after my 3rd try (prior two attempts gave me the we cannot take your call message).
I guess my ticket may be complicated as I made two different changes (both were date changes,for some reason she was unable to access the original ticket ID to confirm the refund amount - is that normal?)
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
She advised to wait 21 days to see the refund.
May 7, 2020, 1:38 am
#2051
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
I received a cancellation for a flight TLV-LHR-TLV and managed to reach a very helpful representative today who has sent it for processing.
The phone was answered after my 3rd try (prior two attempts gave me the we cannot take your call message).
I guess my ticket may be complicated as I made two different changes (both were date changes,for some reason she was unable to access the original ticket ID to confirm the refund amount - is that normal?)
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
She advised to wait 21 days to see the refund.
The phone was answered after my 3rd try (prior two attempts gave me the we cannot take your call message).
I guess my ticket may be complicated as I made two different changes (both were date changes,for some reason she was unable to access the original ticket ID to confirm the refund amount - is that normal?)
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
She advised to wait 21 days to see the refund.
May 7, 2020, 1:43 am
#2052
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: 63,846
I guess my ticket may be complicated as I made two different changes (both were date changes,for some reason she was unable to access the original ticket ID to confirm the refund amount - is that normal?)
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
My question - for the two changes do I lose also get back to the two change fees or only the original price of the ticket?
May 7, 2020, 1:53 am
#2053
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: 63,846
Some observations to get your comments on - I did not look at the booking details on the website, as I could not determine a way to do so without accepting the change/downgrade. In future, how would someone view their booking details, terms, fare code, price paid, or otherwise evaluate their options without accepting the change? If the change is accepted, how does that impact the ability to obtain a refund or voucher?
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
As for the benefit of a Future Travel Voucher, then as a general rule if you have the choice between the FTV and cash, cash tends to win, not least because it's a surprisingly flexible financial instrument. The only advantages I can think of is that it preserves other vouchers such as 2-4-1; and if a refund were to trigger a forex charge on your credit card, and potentially another forex charge when you do the booking again, then the FTV will perhaps save money, The oher one I can think of is Avios potentially expiring. Or if you rank IAG's financial survival over your own. But you may perhaps think I am clutching at straws here.
May 7, 2020, 1:56 am
#2054
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
Thank you very much to the members of Flyertalk, especially corporate-wage-slave, KARFA and the other experts. Following your advice, I successfully received a refund on a booking for travel in June/July. A very courteous member of staff from New Delhi facilitated this, after 20 minutes on hold.
The email notifications included a cancellation of one segment to EDI, and later a rebooking to a SFO->LHR flight, with class changed from First to Club. The aircraft was an A380, now a 787.
Some observations to get your comments on - I did not look at the booking details on the website, as I could not determine a way to do so without accepting the change/downgrade. In future, how would someone view their booking details, terms, fare code, price paid, or otherwise evaluate their options without accepting the change? If the change is accepted, how does that impact the ability to obtain a refund or voucher?
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
The email notifications included a cancellation of one segment to EDI, and later a rebooking to a SFO->LHR flight, with class changed from First to Club. The aircraft was an A380, now a 787.
Some observations to get your comments on - I did not look at the booking details on the website, as I could not determine a way to do so without accepting the change/downgrade. In future, how would someone view their booking details, terms, fare code, price paid, or otherwise evaluate their options without accepting the change? If the change is accepted, how does that impact the ability to obtain a refund or voucher?
I was offered a voucher during the refund process for existing bookings with dates as noted in the wiki. What advantage would there be to this for the customer compared to a refund? It would of course be advantageous to BA.
I think once you get the disruption screen when trying to get to MMB, you can't get past that until you take some action online or on the phone to deal with the cancellation. You can still view the booking on other sites though such as Finnaor MMB or Qantas MMB.
If you accept a change now you effectively close off your ability to get a full refund, you are choosing to do a change rather than get a refund. The future travel voucher option still remains an option of course, but unless there are any further cancellations, and cancellation would be in accordance with the fare rules.
Once aspect where a future travel voucher could be better is for bookings involving a 241 and/or GUF. The voucher does seem to keep them alive for the term of the voucher (now up to April 2022), whereas cancel & refund may mean the 241 and GUF expires a lot sooner.
May 7, 2020, 2:35 am
#2055
Join Date: Mar 2020
Programs: BA Executive Club
Posts: 3
BA Holidays booking
I have a hotel and flight booking though BA Holidays to San Francisco this summer for which I have only paid the deposit. In order to be able to get a voucher does anyone know if I need to pay the balance or whether BA will issue a voucher for just the deposit amount? Thanks