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
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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*
#2491
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Bristol
Programs: Lowest of the low
Posts: 25
At the time of booking, we paid for our BA flights (LHR-SIN) and Garuda (SIN-DPS) in full so we could use our Avios to book seats together. Having contacted our TA today to find out what our options are (ideally postpone until similar time next year), they advise any flight changes will incur £350 pp fee + any fare differences. Is this right? If so, guess we will need to wait until -355 days to be able to book the flights and know what the difference in fare will be (we booked in a sale)
Thanks in advance for your advice.
FG
Thanks in advance for your advice.
FG
#2492
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Executive Club (Silver), Le Club Accor (Silver)
Posts: 680
Quick question - my incredibly cheap OSL-LHR one way on 28 June has finally been cancelled and I understand from this thread I can rebook to different dates. Given inbound tourism to Norway now looks unlikely to restart this summer, is it possible to change the route to include a country more likely to be open? There's no option to do this in MMB so I assume I'd need to call? Upthread there's reference to a 350 mile cordon, which would bring Stockholm and Gothenburg into play. Is this hard and fast or could I ask for something else? Could I ask for the reverse direction i.e. LHR-ARN without paying any difference? I'm not interested in a voucher or refund... I'm keen to rebook for a specific date and keep my fingers crossed we can fly!
easyJet's policy is to rebook to any date / flight / route on their network which is incredibly generous and means I've got a number of "wild card" flights ready to form round trips.
easyJet's policy is to rebook to any date / flight / route on their network which is incredibly generous and means I've got a number of "wild card" flights ready to form round trips.
#2493
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 82
i have just had my flights to stockholm cancelled for the 20th June, as thinking of rebooking for later date did dummy check for different dates 4th July to 9th says no availability but if i change my booking on Manage your booking there is availability is it just Ba system is not catching up or are these new flights not really available
#2494
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
Thanks again! The booking was made two weeks ago so the pre 3 March issue wouldn't apply. I may just sit tight and then select a new flight in a couple of weeks from now via Manage my booking. I imagine this will remain an option until the original departure date unless BA email send another email pressing me to make a choice. I can also monitor availability in the meantime and make the change if availability of my preferred option might be an issue.
#2495
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
Just spoken to the Travel Agent, who now advises no admin fee is payable to postpone until next year (FTV) - which is good news - although they have advised that should the flight be cancelled we would still be liable for any fare differences for future flight bookings. I thought that BA were rebooking seats, up to 12 months from the original departure date, without charging any fare differences if flights were cancelled. Have I got this wrong, or is this only the case for flights booked direct with BA? Thanks for any advice.
#2496
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
Quick question - my incredibly cheap OSL-LHR one way on 28 June has finally been cancelled and I understand from this thread I can rebook to different dates. Given inbound tourism to Norway now looks unlikely to restart this summer, is it possible to change the route to include a country more likely to be open? There's no option to do this in MMB so I assume I'd need to call? Upthread there's reference to a 350 mile cordon, which would bring Stockholm and Gothenburg into play. Is this hard and fast or could I ask for something else? Could I ask for the reverse direction i.e. LHR-ARN without paying any difference? I'm not interested in a voucher or refund... I'm keen to rebook for a specific date and keep my fingers crossed we can fly!
easyJet's policy is to rebook to any date / flight / route on their network which is incredibly generous and means I've got a number of "wild card" flights ready to form round trips.
easyJet's policy is to rebook to any date / flight / route on their network which is incredibly generous and means I've got a number of "wild card" flights ready to form round trips.
#2497
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
i have just had my flights to stockholm cancelled for the 20th June, as thinking of rebooking for later date did dummy check for different dates 4th July to 9th says no availability but if i change my booking on Manage your booking there is availability is it just Ba system is not catching up or are these new flights not really available
#2498
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 82
I am not sure I understand this, usually MMB fails to show availability on dummy bookings which are visible in BA.com, so the opposite to your question, whereas right now I can book flights on multiple services on the dates you mentioned. Feel free to clarify but it would probably be quicker just to call BA.
#2499
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 82
I am not sure I understand this, usually MMB fails to show availability on dummy bookings which are visible in BA.com, so the opposite to your question, whereas right now I can book flights on multiple services on the dates you mentioned. Feel free to clarify but it would probably be quicker just to call BA.
#2500
Join Date: Apr 2019
Location: Bristol
Programs: Lowest of the low
Posts: 25
Flights are 20 Jul BA11, 25 Jul GA843, 8 Aug GA842 and 8 Aug BA12.
Appreciate LHR-SIN due to resume (limited) from Monday, so not cancelled, but one of our options is to delay postponing our holiday (and getting a FTV) until nearer the departure date, just in case the flight(s) is/are cancelled. The only benefit I see of this is if BA would book our seats for a future date without any fare difference payable if the flight was cancelled. I’m concerned there may be a big difference in fare prices even though we’d be going similar time of year (Early July 2021) hence why looking at ‘options’.
How close to departure could we postpone our flights and obtain a FTV?
FG
#2501
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Executive Club (Silver), Le Club Accor (Silver)
Posts: 680
Great stuff, thank you for the speedy response.
#2502
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Cambridge, UK
Programs: BAEC Silver, IHG Platinum
Posts: 1,367
I've just been told that my flight to TFS in July has been cancelled - as expected - I'm happy to rebook later in the year but I'm not yet in a position to commit to a new date. I have no problem taking the refund as a voucher as I fly BA 3-4 times a year so I'm sure it will get used but I just wanted to check that if I book a new flight for less than the voucher value and remaining credit can be carried over?
My next challenge will be getting a refund for the hotel....
My next challenge will be getting a refund for the hotel....
#2503
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Yorkshire
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 355
We had a BA holiday (Flight+Hotel) booking due to depart on 19/6/20 which I had to call to cancel just now, flights were on EI metal (BA codeshare) LBA>DUB>EWR>DUB>LBA. Despite LBA being closed EI have not cancelled the flights. I had only paid a £400 deposit which was due for final payment tomorrow. Called up and got a FTV sorted out in 12 minutes from dialing to hanging up by a very helpful agent who informed me it would take 10-14 days to be processed. refund not possible due to flights still operating even though she said the LBA>DUB flights were showing no availability.
#2504
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
I've just been told that my flight to TFS in July has been cancelled - as expected - I'm happy to rebook later in the year but I'm not yet in a position to commit to a new date. I have no problem taking the refund as a voucher as I fly BA 3-4 times a year so I'm sure it will get used but I just wanted to check that if I book a new flight for less than the voucher value and remaining credit can be carried over?
My next challenge will be getting a refund for the hotel....
My next challenge will be getting a refund for the hotel....
#2505
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
About 2 hours before departure to be safe, it could be a little later (redemptions would have to be the day before however). This assumes the free rebook policy continues - 14 days was previously allowed - and note that with a cancellation you get the Avios credit as well as the FTV, cash and rebook options. I doubt in that route Avios would be good idea so only look at that if you do other Avios worthwhile routes. It also assumes you can contact BA in time. If it's the first flight cancelled then there is no panic, you have 6 years to claim your cash. In reality BA seem to cancel about 3 or 4 weeks out and a few at two weeks out. so 10 days before departure would be a good time to review this.