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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
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
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 Mar 16, 2020, 4:24 pm
  #301  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 755
Originally Posted by zanderblue
Thanks guys.
i will call avios and insurer as soon as lines open and try and get through. I can’t cancel remaining flights online, so will probably pop across to talk to BA at terminal.
Good idea about using avios for flights. On the other hand I may just rent a car. I’ll keep you all posted............
update.......

Now back home in Aberdeenshire after 10 hour drive.
I talked to insurance first thing today who advised if I continued my travel to US, they would not cover me for medical. Obviously, we were not going to take any chances. Interestingly, they also said I was on my own dime to get home. I really struggle to see what they do cover.
We went across to ticket desk at LGW, the agent couldn’t get us on a flight to ABZ until tomorrow, so we rented a car and drove home. I also asked her to look at moving my dates on reservation to any days available to act at the very least as a placeholder until everything settles down. You’ve guessed it; nothing available in ‘U’ fare up until 1st August. She found some date for September, but system wouldn’t allow her to book them.
My insurer has since emailed me with an update that conflicts with the advice I was given this morning, which I had based my decision not to travel on.
I was on phone to Avios continuously on drive home and my calls were dropped after an hour on hold at every attempt.
I struggle to see how I am ever going to be able to salvage anything out this debacle.
Looks like I am back on the phone to Insurance and Avios tomorrow. Watch this space.
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:30 pm
  #302  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,791
Originally Posted by zanderblue
Looks like I am back on the phone to Insurance and Avios tomorrow. Watch this space.
Goodness. there were certainly seats available to Inverness. Hopefully you have a decent cup of tea to look forward to now. But what was the insurer's revised advice?
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:33 pm
  #303  
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Programs: BAEC (Gold) , Accor (Gold) , IHG
Posts: 684
Originally Posted by Tobias-UK
If you click on the red link in your reservation you will see that your flight isn't actually cancelled at this stage, although it almost certainly will cancel before the scheduled departure.

You should be able to rebook all the flights for a future date and likely without any additional charge. If you do not wish to do that you can request the voucher (see up-thread) for the full amount and use that for any future bookings to any BA destination.

If you are after a full cash refund then you will need to wait until any one of the flights in your reservation is actually cancelled. The link in MMB will show the cancelled flights in red but with a strike-through: BA0275 to Las Vegas
Apologies, but need to use this to qualify for ability to add a JPEG next... so if I may encourage the illuminati to consi6the above.,, then below would be appreciated....
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:39 pm
  #304  
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,331
How long do you have to rebook, once the flight is cancelled, before the default is a credit to your payment method?
mclachlan4321 is offline  
Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:42 pm
  #305  
 
Join Date: Feb 2014
Posts: 907
Originally Posted by jerry a. laska
In regards to FCO and other travel advice: All but essential.

For example:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa
Thank you!! I was thinking ABE was an organization! My error! Thank you again!
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:44 pm
  #306  
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,945
Originally Posted by mclachlan4321
How long do you have to rebook, once the flight is cancelled, before the default is a credit to your payment method?
Sorry, do you mean if your flight is cancelled and you ask for a full cash refund how long does it take?

the voucher relates more to where the flight isn’t cancelled but you don’t want to take the flight anymore.
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 4:57 pm
  #307  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: UK
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 755
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Goodness. there were certainly seats available to Inverness. Hopefully you have a decent cup of tea to look forward to now. But what was the insurer's revised advice?
our original booking was return back to ABZ and that is all that was offered. The agent was trying to help, but stressed that she was limited by the type of fare. I did check for avios availability, but here was none.
Email from insurance advised that if policy bought and trip booked before 13th March then normal policy cover would apply. But when I called, I was specifically advised that medical cover was not valid due to ABE announcement. I have since gone through the medical exclusions in the policy document and can’t see anything relevant. I may have missed it though. Let’s see what they say tomorrow...........
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:02 pm
  #308  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,791
Originally Posted by zanderblue
Email from insurance advised that if policy bought and trip booked before 13th March then normal policy cover would apply. But when I called, I was specifically advised that medical cover was not valid due to ABE announcement. I have since gone through the medical exclusions in the policy document and can’t see anything relevant. I may have missed it though. Let’s see what they say tomorrow...........
Maybe there is something in the general exclusions. At least one major insurer (M&S Bank) has on their website a note that though they advise respecting ABE and will cover cancellation costs, they would still cover people if they went ahead and travelled to an ABE location. M&S is actially an Aviva policy so it may not be the only exception.
https://bank.marksandspencer.com/pdf...navirusFAQ.pdf
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:07 pm
  #309  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 3
Originally Posted by samfrost93
Hi there,

I'm flying LHR -> MIA 22 April on BA1528 (operated by AA). This is outside of the 30 day US travel ban, yet I've just received an email from BA to say:



I'm a little bit confused as I'm outside the 30 day travel ban, and the flights are still available online.

Could someone please provide some advice? I don't want to change hotel dates if it's possible we can still fly at the moment.
we are booked GLW-LHR-MIA departing on 31st March and have not received any correspondence from BA other than informing me that my 31st March GLW -LHR is currently still due to depart but I can apply for a voucher. The LHR - MIA is highlighted in red but stating that the flight is still going ahead. Weird or what? I’m hoping that Mr Trumps UK - USA ban due to come into force tomorrow will include all USA airports.
Issy64 is offline  
Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:08 pm
  #310  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 4
Hello all, firstly a significant thanks to those helping on this thread. So valuable.

We have a trip to Orlando leaving LGW on the 25th March. No direct flights are available now it seems, so as per this thread I assume it will be cancelled and I should hold out for the refund rather than take the voucher. This trip goes on to Bahamas, then back to LHR. Again, because of the help on this thread I now know that the refund will apply to all legs.

However, in the same telephone call where we booked the flights, we also booked hotels. These are under a different reference number. I assume this is because the hotel booking started from the 30th March rather than the 25th (we sorted separate accommodation for the first 5 nights). There are two hotels in this BA booking - one in Orlando and then one in the Bahamas.

When the flight is cancelled I will call BA asking that the hotels are refunded too as they were all booked in the same call. If they refuse I have two options - insurance or vouchers. If I were to take the latter, would I be right in thinking I should have until 48 hours before the 30th March to do this? My slight concern is that the flight only gets cancelled within 48 hours of departure, and then BA will claim I am too late for the voucher for the hotel on the separate reference.

Thanks in advance.
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:29 pm
  #311  
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: 63,791
Originally Posted by Feath
When the flight is cancelled I will call BA asking that the hotels are refunded too as they were all booked in the same call. If they refuse I have two options - insurance or vouchers. If I were to take the latter, would I be right in thinking I should have until 48 hours before the 30th March to do this? My slight concern is that the flight only gets cancelled within 48 hours of departure, and then BA will claim I am too late for the voucher for the hotel on the separate reference.
That sounds to me that you have linked travel, but not package travel. Now linked travel means that BA is not responsible for failures by the supplier (hotel) so you have weaker protection there. I suspect that may end up as an insurance claim, but it's just possible that BA's contract with the hotel allows for a refund of some sort. I would claim the PNR for the hotels at T-48, and then for the flight PNR near to departure. Hopefully between the hotels, BA, your insurers you won't be left too much out of pocket. Welcome to Flyertalk and the BA forum.
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:31 pm
  #312  
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: 63,791
Originally Posted by Issy64
we are booked GLW-LHR-MIA departing on 31st March and have not received any correspondence from BA other than informing me that my 31st March GLW -LHR is currently still due to depart but I can apply for a voucher. The LHR - MIA is highlighted in red but stating that the flight is still going ahead. Weird or what? I’m hoping that Mr Trumps UK - USA ban due to come into force tomorrow will include all USA airports.
Apply for the voucher at the last moment (2 hours if a flight only revenue ticket) however I have a feeling the MIA service will be maintained, BA will presumably combine Orlando and Tampa customers on to that service. Welcome to Flyertalk and the BA forum.
corporate-wage-slave is offline  
Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:37 pm
  #313  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: LHR
Programs: Accor PLT,Thai Silver, HH Dia, SPG Titanium (LT Gold), Aegean Gold, BA Silver
Posts: 5,119
Once you accept the voucher do you get an email to confirm the action and typically how long does it take to be received?
ExpatSomchai is offline  
Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:37 pm
  #314  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 3
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Apply for the voucher at the last moment (2 hours if a flight only revenue ticket) however I have a feeling the MIA service will be maintained, BA will presumably combine Orlando and Tampa customers on to that service.
thank you for the welcome.

thanks CWS but I’m hoping not. I really don’t want a voucher that’s only valid for one year. No one knows how long COVID-19 is going to last and when we will be free to travel again. Also samfrost93 received a cancellation email for their Miami flight with full refund.
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Old Mar 16, 2020, 5:41 pm
  #315  
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: 63,791
Originally Posted by ExpatSomchai
Once you accept the voucher do you get an email to confirm the action and typically how long does it take to be received?
No, not immediately and I don't think anyone has reported an eVoucher email from BA yet. See upthread for the longer version.
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corporate-wage-slave is offline  


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