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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 Jul 26, 20, 12:48 am
  #3196  
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
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Booking a domestic AU flight in J using Avios since it's 30% fewer points vs QF.
If I have to cancel this ticket, under book with confidence I could get a FTV.
The FTV holds:
a. the value of the taxes and fees
b. the value of Avios points

Is that right? I would have a voucher for 12,500 points + A$40, that I could then use for any Avios redemption before April 2022?

Thanks
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Old Jul 26, 20, 12:53 am
  #3197  
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Originally Posted by shuuy
Booking a domestic AU flight in J using Avios since it's 30% fewer points vs QF.
If I have to cancel this ticket, under book with confidence I could get a FTV.
The FTV holds:
a. the value of the taxes and fees
b. the value of Avios points

Is that right? I would have a voucher for 12,500 points + A$40, that I could then use for any Avios redemption before April 2022?

Thanks
yes. Any FTV will hold the avios and cash you originally paid as avios and cash to be used up to April 2022
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Old Jul 26, 20, 4:07 am
  #3198  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
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So with the news today of mainland Spain being romoved from the list of Covid safe countries, this once again throws BA's schedules (and my plans for the 5th time) up in the air. So many AGP flights added recently, probably only to be removed again.

As the UK government now advise against all but non essential travel, does this in itself result in being able to receive a refund even if the flights aren't cancelled?

I fear yet another FTV😐

​​

Last edited by northeastflyer; Jul 26, 20 at 4:16 am
northeastflyer is offline  
Old Jul 26, 20, 5:23 am
  #3199  
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Originally Posted by northeastflyer
As the UK government now advise against all but non essential travel, does this in itself result in being able to receive a refund even if the flights aren't cancelled?

I fear yet another FTV😐​​
No, ABE isn't a refund trigger, but ABE could indeed lead to flight cancellations and hence a refund.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 6:03 am
  #3200  
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
No, ABE isn't a refund trigger, but ABE could indeed lead to flight cancellations and hence a refund.
Thanks. I was being overly optimistic.
​​​​​​.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 7:07 am
  #3201  
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
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Just called up BA to change my MAD trip to FRA, it’s under 3 weeks and they were more than happy to change over and I just paid the difference.

I was on hold for about an hour but as always the Newcastle call centre were absolutely superb!
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Old Jul 26, 20, 7:50 am
  #3202  
cwl
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Is the Book with Confidence policy for BA holiday reservations booked post 11th June to Spain still minimum 3 weeks to claim a voucher or change dates?

The Book with Confidence policy T & C page is unchanged although the travel news update at ba.com as at 11.41am today states a more liberal commercial policy may now be in place:

"If you no longer wish to travel to Spain from the UK, or travel from Spain to the UK, you can claim a voucher for future travel here. "

I have a Barcelona flight with linked car hire (therefore a "holiday") departing 20th August. Does this mean my last date to use the Book with Confidence guarantee for my reservation is this coming Thursday? Or can I sit it out in hope BA cancel the flight? Don't fancy risking losing the Book with confidence option in case flights don't get cancelled. I appreciate BA is still claiming flights to Spain will not be cancelled but I guess that is likely to be a changing situation especially to Barcelona with multi flights per day and Catalunya being the current Spanish Covid19 epicentre.

The reservation was made in the knowledge of the potential situation which has arisen in Spain and the limitations of the Book with Confidence guarantee. Just want to know what deadlines I'm working with to make a decision.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 7:55 am
  #3203  
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Originally Posted by cwl
Is the Book with Confidence policy for BA holiday reservations booked post 11th June to Spain still minimum 3 weeks to claim a voucher or change dates?
There have been 3 reports in this forum of BAH travellers, who would have departed today, being contacted by BAH and allowed refunds. If you are OK to change location I would call as soon as you can, but I can only imagine what BAH's helpdesk is looking like today. Otherwise perhaps call Wednesday.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 8:15 am
  #3204  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
There have been 3 reports in this forum of BAH travellers, who would have departed today, being contacted by BAH and allowed refunds. If you are OK to change location I would call as soon as you can, but I can only imagine what BAH's helpdesk is looking like today. Otherwise perhaps call Wednesday.
About 1 hour on hold for me, using the options to rebook and then pressing the option for a booking with car/holiday. I believe I could have asked for a FTV too.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 8:18 am
  #3205  
 
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Originally Posted by GateGuardian
Does anyone know if there's an optimal hour to call 1-877-767-7970? I'm based in Canada and trying to cancel my reward flight. I've called twice and it connects right away to someone, but it looks like it was diverted to another department. They just tell me to call the same 1-877 number, which was what I originally dialed.
Thanks.
Trying to do the same as you, currently on hold after calling 1-877-767-7970

The number in the email I got for one of my PNRs that had a cancelled segment (1-800-247-9297) just has a pre-recorded message that tells you to call the 877 number, and then hangs up.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 1:53 pm
  #3206  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
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Rebooking avios ticket due to cancelled flight

Hi folks, could really use some advice here.

In April of this year, I booked a round trip JFK-LHR-JFK, using Avios and a Chase companion voucher, for travel this coming October. I just learned from BA that my outbound flight has been cancelled. That's fine with me, as I was wanting to reschedule this trip to next April, returning in May. My companion voucher would otherwise expire prior to the new dates, but my understanding from the Wiki is that in these circumstances, the voucher basically gets extended to my new travel dates. I also understood from the Wiki that in these circumstances I can rebook into any flight with seats available - there don't have to be seats available in the Avios fare bucket.

When I called BA to make the change, however, they are telling me that the above only applies if I rebook within the validity period of the original ticket, i.e. one year from when I booked the ticking in April 2020. Because my new dates are outside of the one-year validity period, they are limiting me to choosing new flights that have avios inventory available.

This doesn't seem consistent with what the wiki says, so I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something, the agent is wrong, or the rules have changed

Can anyone advise? Thank you!
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Old Jul 26, 20, 2:01 pm
  #3207  
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Originally Posted by jkirk
Hi folks, could really use some advice here.

In April of this year, I booked a round trip JFK-LHR-JFK, using Avios and a Chase companion voucher, for travel this coming October. I just learned from BA that my outbound flight has been cancelled. That's fine with me, as I was wanting to reschedule this trip to next April, returning in May. My companion voucher would otherwise expire prior to the new dates, but my understanding from the Wiki is that in these circumstances, the voucher basically gets extended to my new travel dates. I also understood from the Wiki that in these circumstances I can rebook into any flight with seats available - there don't have to be seats available in the Avios fare bucket.

When I called BA to make the change, however, they are telling me that the above only applies if I rebook within the validity period of the original ticket, i.e. one year from when I booked the ticking in April 2020. Because my new dates are outside of the one-year validity period, they are limiting me to choosing new flights that have avios inventory available.

This doesn't seem consistent with what the wiki says, so I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding something, the agent is wrong, or the rules have changed

Can anyone advise? Thank you!
There are two options here:

1. rebook as a result of a cancelled flight, in which case you can book regardless of reward availability on the same route, but it must be within ticket validity (1 year from when originally booked)

2. take a future travel voucher (flights don't need to be cancelled for this) which holds your cash, avios, and voucher which expires April 2022. You can book up to the expiry of April 2022 but you will need reward availability.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 2:54 pm
  #3208  
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 373
Originally Posted by KARFA
There are two options here:

1. rebook as a result of a cancelled flight, in which case you can book regardless of reward availability on the same route, but it must be within ticket validity (1 year from when originally booked)

2. take a future travel voucher (flights don't need to be cancelled for this) which holds your cash, avios, and voucher which expires April 2022. You can book up to the expiry of April 2022 but you will need reward availability.
Thanks very much.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 3:47 pm
  #3209  
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Originally Posted by Starship73
Apologies if this has been asked before: I have a longhaul flights-only booking made on BA.com departure date mid-September. BA has cancelled the flights. I'm not sure yet whether I want to rebook for next year or take a refund. What's the latest point I have to take action? Can I just leave the cancelled booking there for a couple of months before I decide? Thanks
May I please ask the same question? It's a bit more urgent in my case, because I was supposed to be flying on Tuesday evening.

The booking is a T class fare with a UuA to CW, so there could be some advantage to being able to rebook into CW without needing U class availability. But the situation in South Africa remains very uncertain, so I don't think that I could yet pick alternative dates to rebook to. There's an argument that as award availability remains plentiful and fares are lower than they were, I may not actually lose out by taking a full refund now and booking again from scratch when there's clarity about when I can go. But it would be nice to keep the flexibility if I can just leave things be for the moment and remain able to choose at a later date between either a rebook or a full refund, even after I have "no showed" for the cancelled flights.

So is this a decision that I must make before Tuesday evening?

In the light of what has happened in the last 24 hours, not having to burden the call centre with another phone call would be an additional benefit if I can just leave it for the moment.
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Old Jul 26, 20, 4:01 pm
  #3210  
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Originally Posted by Globaliser
So is this a decision that I must make before Tuesday evening?
I would say if you know your dates (and you don't) then rebook under the 1 year Guidance. If you have an expiring companion voucher then FTV may save it. If your flights are all operating as scheduled you have to go FTV unless it's a redemption or BAH. Otherwise if in doubt, cold hard cash - in a buyers' market - is worth more than the birds in the Bush.
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