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

Old Mar 14, 20, 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*

Old May 23, 20, 4:03 am
  #2431  
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Originally Posted by bingobob777
Are rebookings still limited to 355 days out? Have a flights booked from Santorini-LHR-GLA and happy to move it 364 days out, but assume that will mean taking FTV and rebooking when flight becomes available?
Why not just do nothing and wait a few extra days?
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Old May 23, 20, 4:04 am
  #2432  
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Originally Posted by bingobob777
Are rebookings still limited to 355 days out? Have a flights booked from Santorini-LHR-GLA and happy to move it 364 days out, but assume that will mean taking FTV and rebooking when flight becomes available?
Yes, rebookings are limited to 355 days out.
You could wait 9 days without touching your booking and rebook when the flight is available unless your flights are confirmed and operating within the next 9 days.
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Old May 23, 20, 9:08 am
  #2433  
 
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Any examples of BA paying for hotels when their next flight back is several days later? (Know there’s different views on applicability of all EC261 provisions so what they’ve actually been doing is of interest)

thx
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Old May 23, 20, 9:11 am
  #2434  
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Originally Posted by lorcancoyle
Any examples of BA paying for hotels when their next flight back is several days later? (Know there’s different views on applicability of all EC261 provisions so what they’ve actually been doing is of interest)

thx
They are not paying for any accommodation or offering hotel stays for cancellation/changes which aren't last-minute.
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Old May 23, 20, 9:36 am
  #2435  
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Originally Posted by lorcancoyle
Any examples of BA paying for hotels when their next flight back is several days later? (Know there’s different views on applicability of all EC261 provisions so what they’ve actually been doing is of interest)

thx
there is no dispute about continued applicability of duty of care under EC261 regardless of the reason for cancellation/delay.

what are the details of the situation you are asking about?
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Old May 23, 20, 10:16 am
  #2436  
 
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Are there any contact numbers for BA which don’t involve an endless queue? I want to ask about a new booking and it seems the only number open is for refunds?
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Old May 23, 20, 10:19 am
  #2437  
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Originally Posted by BAeuro
Are there any contact numbers for BA which don’t involve an endless queue? I want to ask about a new booking and it seems the only number open is for refunds?
the general number. See my posts 2295 in the thread.
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Old May 23, 20, 11:00 am
  #2438  
 
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Originally Posted by KARFA
there is no dispute about continued applicability of duty of care under EC261 regardless of the reason for cancellation/delay.

what are the details of the situation you are asking about?
Thanks. Long weekend in Split booked as two separate tickets several months ago, outbound on the Friday and back on the Monday. Original outbound flight was a cash booking, LCY flight was cancelled so moved to LHR. Return is an Avios booking.

BA has now dropped frequency to just Friday and Sunday. Not much point going for 48 hours so (depending on Croatian entry restrictions at the time I might not be allowed in anyway) so I have a few possible options:
1) Cancel flights for travel voucher / Avios refund, write-off £400 on non-cancellable hotel (at the moment it's outside the window for future credit from hotels.com)
2) Push BA to rebook return flight on another carrier for the Monday per EC261
3) Accept next BA flight on the Friday, and push BA to pick-up the tab under duty of care.

Sadly my travel insurance excludes pandemics, they were smart back in December! Croatia may or may not get an exemption from the UK quarantine rules, but as I'm WFH anyway it doesn't make that much difference to me. Option 3 isn't that attractive for me, e.g. could end up in airport hotel etc., and even though I've now got more days of leave than I know what to with a full week in Split is probably overkill. Plus my personal view is that it would be a bit cheeky in the current environment to impose those costs on BA regardless of entitlement (YMMV!). I'm partly thinking of it as a way of leveraging rebooking to another carrier if they're not helpful with that option...

Thoughts definitely welcome
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Old May 23, 20, 11:09 am
  #2439  
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Originally Posted by lorcancoyle
BA has now dropped frequency to just Friday and Sunday. Not much point going for 48 hours so (depending on Croatian entry restrictions at the time I might not be allowed in anyway) so I have a few possible options:
1) Cancel flights for travel voucher / Avios refund, write-off £400 on non-cancellable hotel (at the moment it's outside the window for future credit from hotels.com)
2) Push BA to rebook return flight on another carrier for the Monday per EC261
3) Accept next BA flight on the Friday, and push BA to pick-up the tab under duty of care.
I doubt BA will agree to 3 before travel but after travel they would perhaps pick up the tab assuming it's a single PNR- and crucially there is another flight on that PNR (which isn't clear). There would be more pressure to do this if you tried 2 before travel, probably closer to departure - and I guess it would involve Lufthansa where there is a Guideline for re-routing, depending on the dates involved (which isn't clear). Also depending on the dates, it may be that there will be flexibiluty on the hotel, even if it's not a refund they may allow a rebooking when things have normalised, and this may fit into BA's schedule too.
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Old May 23, 20, 11:21 am
  #2440  
 
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Originally Posted by lorcancoyle
Thanks. Long weekend in Split booked as two separate tickets several months ago, outbound on the Friday and back on the Monday. Original outbound flight was a cash booking, LCY flight was cancelled so moved to LHR. Return is an Avios booking.

BA has now dropped frequency to just Friday and Sunday. Not much point going for 48 hours so (depending on Croatian entry restrictions at the time I might not be allowed in anyway) so I have a few possible options:
1) Cancel flights for travel voucher / Avios refund, write-off £400 on non-cancellable hotel (at the moment it's outside the window for future credit from hotels.com)
2) Push BA to rebook return flight on another carrier for the Monday per EC261
3) Accept next BA flight on the Friday, and push BA to pick-up the tab under duty of care.

Sadly my travel insurance excludes pandemics, they were smart back in December! Croatia may or may not get an exemption from the UK quarantine rules, but as I'm WFH anyway it doesn't make that much difference to me. Option 3 isn't that attractive for me, e.g. could end up in airport hotel etc., and even though I've now got more days of leave than I know what to with a full week in Split is probably overkill. Plus my personal view is that it would be a bit cheeky in the current environment to impose those costs on BA regardless of entitlement (YMMV!). I'm partly thinking of it as a way of leveraging rebooking to another carrier if they're not helpful with that option...

Thoughts definitely welcome
When are you going? If it’s in June you may find that other flight options are limited - EasyJet and Lufthansa / Austrian are cancelled on that route until towards the end of the month, likewise WizzAir.

There’s plenty to do in the area if you end up there for a week. Not in Split itself perhaps but the surrounding islands and towns. Also, the UNESCO world heritage city of Trogir is much closer to Split airport than Split itself is. Being stuck there for a couple of days wouldn’t be a bad thing!
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Old May 23, 20, 11:50 am
  #2441  
 
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Thanks to BA Helper for the assistance with my refund. Less than 48 hours as promised.
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Old May 23, 20, 11:50 am
  #2442  
 
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Originally Posted by ISTFlyer
They are not paying for any accommodation or offering hotel stays for cancellation/changes which aren't last-minute.
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
I doubt BA will agree to 3 before travel but after travel they would perhaps pick up the tab assuming it's a single PNR- and crucially there is another flight on that PNR (which isn't clear). There would be more pressure to do this if you tried 2 before travel, probably closer to departure - and I guess it would involve Lufthansa where there is a Guideline for re-routing, depending on the dates involved (which isn't clear). Also depending on the dates, it may be that there will be flexibiluty on the hotel, even if it's not a refund they may allow a rebooking when things have normalised, and this may fit into BA's schedule too.
Thanks. 1 is definitely preferred if I can get some credit with the hotel. It's still ~4 weeks away so a bit of a time before I need to commit one way or the other.
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Old May 23, 20, 11:57 am
  #2443  
 
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Originally Posted by volar
When are you going? If it’s in June you may find that other flight options are limited - EasyJet and Lufthansa / Austrian are cancelled on that route until towards the end of the month, likewise WizzAir.

There’s plenty to do in the area if you end up there for a week. Not in Split itself perhaps but the surrounding islands and towns. Also, the UNESCO world heritage city of Trogir is much closer to Split airport than Split itself is. Being stuck there for a couple of days wouldn’t be a bad thing!
Yes, a few options coming up on Google Flights but not that many airlines. And just because some are bookable doesn't mean they'll operate! Croatia Airlines or Tui direct would be easiest (wouldn't be keen on Wizz), a few Eurowings options and lots of SAS too.

Had made a resolution this year to visit more European countries I hadn't been to, it is easy to get seduced by more exotic long-haul destinations. At this rate I'll be lucky to visit the Scilly Isles...
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Old May 23, 20, 12:35 pm
  #2444  
 
Join Date: Jan 2017
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Originally Posted by lorcancoyle
Yes, a few options coming up on Google Flights but not that many airlines. And just because some are bookable doesn't mean they'll operate! Croatia Airlines or Tui direct would be easiest (wouldn't be keen on Wizz), a few Eurowings options and lots of SAS too.

Had made a resolution this year to visit more European countries I hadn't been to, it is easy to get seduced by more exotic long-haul destinations. At this rate I'll be lucky to visit the Scilly Isles...
Hopefully your trip to Dalmatia will go ahead. I have a home there so I’m permitted to enter the country, But struggling with flights as you are. Croatia is generally opening up to tourists with a plan to have borders more normal by mid-June. An online pre-registration system for tourists goes live on 28th May although it remains to be seen when the UK will be added to the list of acceptable countries. More information is at https://www.koronavirus.hr/
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Old May 23, 20, 12:44 pm
  #2445  
 
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Originally Posted by volar
Hopefully your trip to Dalmatia will go ahead. I have a home there so I’m permitted to enter the country, But struggling with flights as you are. Croatia is generally opening up to tourists with a plan to have borders more normal by mid-June. An online pre-registration system for tourists goes live on 28th May although it remains to be seen when the UK will be added to the list of acceptable countries. More information is at https://www.koronavirus.hr/
ah, interesting. Will take a look
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