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*
#316
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: 63,720
Have a look at your insurance policy. The alternative to an eVoucher is a cancellation by you, according to the terms of your ticket, which often means only a small cash return. It may be that your insurer will accept that as your recovered losses. I can't recall an insurance policy that says you have to accept and travel on an arline's vouchers. But who knows what will be happening in a few days, I certainly don't know.
#317
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 4
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.
Thanks again.
#318
Suspended
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 860
I have the return leg of a LHR-JFK-LHR ticket for this week. I'd rather not fly the return as I imagine I'd struggle to get back to the US within the next few weeks/months.
I noticed the voucher page said that the voucher isn't applicable if you've already started your journey (which I have).
I tried changing my dates via the call center but they weren't able to confirm the fare difference (/price the change), leaving me in a bit of an awkward position as I get to <72 hours to departure.
Any idea what options I should have to try to retain the value of the JFK-LHR leg?
I noticed the voucher page said that the voucher isn't applicable if you've already started your journey (which I have).
I tried changing my dates via the call center but they weren't able to confirm the fare difference (/price the change), leaving me in a bit of an awkward position as I get to <72 hours to departure.
Any idea what options I should have to try to retain the value of the JFK-LHR leg?
#319
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 629
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.
#320
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: KSUX
Posts: 906
Thanks for the reply. Living in the US I booked the trip with AA but since the flight home was on BA metal I had to log into my BA account to select and pay for my seat through Manage My Bookings. I'll just wait til AA officially cancels my flight sometime this week then contact BA and go from there.
#321
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
YYY happens to be the IATA code for Mont Joli airport, and that was the stated "destination" of the placeholder itinerary that appeared in FlyingWelshie's CMT account.
#322
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: clue is in the nym
Programs: BA Gold, TP Gold, VS Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 826
Yes, there are several reports of this now and it's not entirely helpful. Unfortunately this will probably need a call, or the use of this offline form instead:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel..._ticket_refund
Because of the published Conditions of Carriage I think it is safe to use this form if it is an Avios booking and you're ok to pay the redeposit fee. Don't forget to take screenshots.
http://www.britishairways.com/travel..._ticket_refund
Because of the published Conditions of Carriage I think it is safe to use this form if it is an Avios booking and you're ok to pay the redeposit fee. Don't forget to take screenshots.
Current options:-
- Take the voucher.
- Try for hours to get through on the phone if you want to be refunded in cash.
- Wait and hope the flight is cancelled for an auto-refund.
#323
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Dorchester, Dorset UK
Programs: BA Gold, BMI, ANA, HH Blue, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,063
AA but with BA booking ref
Yesterday I contacted AA to change a flight from MIA to CUN, with a BA flight reference. They told me I had to contact BA as I booked it at same time as my TA flight. I can’t get through to BA. Have you any advice please
I tried MMB but it won’t allow me to rebook over 365 days away.
Apologies if wrong forum.
I tried MMB but it won’t allow me to rebook over 365 days away.
Apologies if wrong forum.
#324
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 629
Yesterday I contacted AA to change a flight from MIA to CUN, with a BA flight reference. They told me I had to contact BA as I booked it at same time as my TA flight. I can’t get through to BA. Have you any advice please
I tried MMB but it won’t allow me to rebook over 365 days away.
Apologies if wrong forum.
I tried MMB but it won’t allow me to rebook over 365 days away.
Apologies if wrong forum.
#325
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: clue is in the nym
Programs: BA Gold, TP Gold, VS Gold, Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 826
Don't think this has been asked, yet - 3 of us were booked on a BA Holiday Flight + Hotel deal GLA-LHR-HAM (to attend a football game) & return on 20th March returning 22nd March, a week or so ago our return flight HAM-LHR was cancelled so I managed to get us rebooked on a later flight with a decent connection @ LHR to get us back to GLA. Since then the match has been cancelled and Germany is going into lockdown so I'm thinking take the voucher, but, on the website it says - "If your holiday includes a non-changeable hotel and/or experience product and you wish to make a date change or apply for a voucher, the value of your original flights will be credited towards this. The amount paid for your original non-changeable hotel and/or experience reservation will be forfeited."
We were booked into the Renaissance but how do I find out if it's a "non-changeable" hotel or not?
We were booked into the Renaissance but how do I find out if it's a "non-changeable" hotel or not?
For all Marriott International hotels world-wide, we are implementing the following policies:
- For guests with existing reservations for any future arrival date, including reservations with pre-paid rates that are typically more restrictive, we will allow full changes or cancellation without a charge up to 24 hours prior to arrival,* as long as the change or cancellation is made by April 30, 2020. Please note that any changes to existing reservations will be subject to availability and any rate differences.
- For guests making new reservations for any future arrival date, including reservations with pre-paid rates, between today and April 30, 2020, we will allow the reservation to be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival date.* Please note that changes to the reservation will be subject to availability and any rate differences.
if hotels are booked via either travelscape or hotelbeds. (Two of the suppliers ba use to book hotels) they have just released force majeure policy on some destinations allowing cancellations on previous non refundable hotels for Ł35 cancel fee which goes to supplier not ba trying to keep some cash from you
#326
Join Date: Mar 2020
Programs: BA
Posts: 3
Thanks in advance — I've found this thread to be very helpful. Does anyone know how to re-book a flight to one of the allowed destination airports on ba.com? The only option I am getting is to rebook my flight (LHR → SAN) for another day/month/year. Of course, all flights to SAN are canceled so I would like to get to LAX. There are no other options to rebook. This is for next Wednesday (25 March), so I'm reluctant to join the phone queue for fear of getting told to #$*& off and wait for 72 hours before the scheduled flight. Any ideas? TIA
#327
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Dorchester, Dorset UK
Programs: BA Gold, BMI, ANA, HH Blue, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,063
I’m trying to rebook for November, which is not that far away. The problem is that I booked the original flight many months ago, so that time together with the next few months take me outside the limit.
#328
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Canary Wharf, London
Programs: MyWaitrose, IC Spire Ambassador, Hilton Diamond & BAEC Gold
Posts: 2,685
My flights for this week have been removed from MMB yesterday, and whilst I applied for a voucher last week, I've had no email. Should I be concerned? I don't want to wait till after the check in time and find something went wrong somewhere.
#329
Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 10,126
For those who have applied for the eVoucher......
My itinerary (first sector was Thursday 19th) has disappeared from MMB without any email (yet) from BA.
Assume I should just sit tight and that's it's being worked on?
My itinerary (first sector was Thursday 19th) has disappeared from MMB without any email (yet) from BA.
Assume I should just sit tight and that's it's being worked on?
#330
Join Date: Oct 2013
Programs: BA Gold, VS Gold, IHG Platinum, Hilton Gold, Hertz Presidents Circle.
Posts: 1,443
Absolutely, if you'd rather have the full amount in cash rather than as a voucher credit. As I understand it, for a cash booking cancellation options are possible right up until Check-In closes (normally 1 Hour before scheduled departure), although the cancellation deadline for Avios bookings (and 2-4-1) is, I think, when Check-In opens, i.e. 24 hours before departure.
I have a flight to Dubrovnik due on Wednesday which, due to self-isolation mandates I have no intention of taking, but I'm waiting to see whether BA pull it today/tomorrow before going for the voucher option.
I have a flight to Dubrovnik due on Wednesday which, due to self-isolation mandates I have no intention of taking, but I'm waiting to see whether BA pull it today/tomorrow before going for the voucher option.