Mar 14, 2020, 4:58 pm
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*
Aug 17, 2020, 2:45 am
#3556
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 447
I now got told that anything I rebook myself online is likely going to get cancelled "at some point" given it's outside ticket validity. I have about 4 or 5 double/triple-rebooked flights outstanding, all of which are outside the 12-month window - so let's hope that these are just empty threats!
Aug 17, 2020, 2:48 am
#3557
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
I now got told that anything I rebook myself online is likely going to get cancelled "at some point" given it's outside ticket validity. I have about 4 or 5 double/triple-rebooked flights outstanding, all of which are outside the 12-month window - so let's hope that these are just empty threats!
Aug 17, 2020, 3:19 am
#3558
Join Date: May 2020
Posts: 4
I now got told that anything I rebook myself online is likely going to get cancelled "at some point" given it's outside ticket validity. I have about 4 or 5 double/triple-rebooked flights outstanding, all of which are outside the 12-month window - so let's hope that these are just empty threats!
"Will travel vouchers that have already been redeemed be eligible for travel up until 30 April 2022 if you want to change your booking again? Yes. Travel vouchers that have already been redeemed can either be exchanged for another voucher valid for travel up to 30 April 2022 or, for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021, you can change your booking in line with our book with confidence commitment."
Aug 17, 2020, 4:44 am
#3559
Join Date: Jul 2020
Posts: 223
If you have further travel which an FTV can be used for, one way would be to buy a cash ticket online, and that will ticket straight away. Unfortunately if you are not ticketed you can only get BA for force that through at 48 hours to departure, usually if you call up they will say "ring back at 48 hours" since agents are not supposed to hassle the back office, and indeed that would overall be counter-productive to customers generally. So I think you live with that risk - if they ping you again then you can MCOL them accordingly. As for the customer service request, as I mentioned previously, that is best done after travel rather than before, not least because it's not clear how/when you will travel. Some people have been able to use Twitter or Facebook direct messaging to get attention to a problem.
Thanks for continued insight CWS,
Just got an email from BA saying "please contact us" - I've done so and they've said now I must pay £145 for both of passengers on the booking; this is due to prices going up since the ticket was sent to the back office. These flights have cost me almost double now and no ticketing in sight. I am currently on the phone and the customer agent is trying to contact the back office for me and is writing down notes I am doing this in protest as they have left me no other options. I am lucky that this agent understands the fact that this keeps happening. There is no way to get a flight ticketed that isn't imminent via the FTV.
Do you think I should add this onto my current customer service case and inevitable MCOL case?
Thanks a lot.
Last edited by newEUer; Aug 17, 2020 at 4:46 am Reason: forgot quote
Aug 17, 2020, 5:13 am
#3560
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: London, UK
Programs: Ronin - churn and burn
Posts: 701
When using the disruption recovery tool on an Avios booking it seems to be allowing me to extend the validity of my ticket (booked at T-355).
However, I'm struggling to find availability on the dates I want.
I've managed to get the ticket to work for a few random days, months after ticket validity.
What I'd really like though is to be able to see which specific days have rebooking space available.
I've tried matching up to avios availability but there seems to be no correlation at all.
In fact the few random dates I've found where rebooking is possible, have no avios availability.
Has anybody else had better luck with this?
However, I'm struggling to find availability on the dates I want.
I've managed to get the ticket to work for a few random days, months after ticket validity.
What I'd really like though is to be able to see which specific days have rebooking space available.
I've tried matching up to avios availability but there seems to be no correlation at all.
In fact the few random dates I've found where rebooking is possible, have no avios availability.
Has anybody else had better luck with this?
Seems weird to quote myself but just to let everyone know:
I managed to find dates that worked for me by refreshing and playing around with the MMB tool for a few days.
- I extended ticket validity on a 241
- switched from off-peak to peak free of charge
- created award space returning from JNB where there was none before
Once this was done I called to upgrade the outbound ex-LHR from Club to First since there was availability on this new date (5 F seats on a peak day!)
No issues around ticket validity when doing this.
I did try and get the £70 fee waived since it was within 24h of ticket issuance but no luck.
Still change in taxes meant that I was due an £8 refund, reducing the upgrade cost for 2pax to 25k Avios and £62.
Overall I'm happy with the result.
Aug 17, 2020, 5:52 am
#3561
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: UK
Posts: 261
Nope. Just wasted the last fifteen minutes on a chat. Point blank refusal to help. You must call. I'be been calling for the last two weeks and all I ever get is we're too busy please try later. If I ever get through and manage to change they will be the last flights I take with ba. So frustrated. I should be able to do this on line but their systems are so shambolic that I can't.
Aug 17, 2020, 10:24 am
#3562
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Milton Keynes
Programs: BA Blue
Posts: 373
Nope. Just wasted the last fifteen minutes on a chat. Point blank refusal to help. You must call. I'be been calling for the last two weeks and all I ever get is we're too busy please try later. If I ever get through and manage to change they will be the last flights I take with ba. So frustrated. I should be able to do this on line but their systems are so shambolic that I can't.
The one time I didn't get "we're too busy, please try later," I was on hold for 57 minutes, then got 3 ring tones before the line went dead.
Very frustrating and should be able to be done online - which would also free up phone capacity.
Aug 17, 2020, 10:48 am
#3563
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: 63,846
I am very sorry about all of this but it is due to the back office being overloaded, it is presumably happening on a regular basis. The back office will presumably have no choice but to charge the extra or they can't ticket. I would pay under protest and make it clear that you will take steps to recover the sums caused by BA's process here. Once you are ticketed, send a short letter or email to Customer Relations asking for the refund of the excess sums, and invite them to do this refund in 16 days. They are unlikely to respond, but you need to do this stage before moving to MCOL. I would seek further advice here at that point.
Aug 17, 2020, 11:09 am
#3564
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 30
Can I check my understanding of how this is working?
Booked a first class out/business class return to Japan on 27th Dec 2019 for 23rd September to 13th October. This was using avios and a companion voucher.
BA cancelled the flight in July so rebooked for 1st October to the 17th October.
BA cancelled those flights today. That means under the current policy I have to to travel before the 27th Dec 2020 or I'll get refunded?
Booked a first class out/business class return to Japan on 27th Dec 2019 for 23rd September to 13th October. This was using avios and a companion voucher.
BA cancelled the flight in July so rebooked for 1st October to the 17th October.
BA cancelled those flights today. That means under the current policy I have to to travel before the 27th Dec 2020 or I'll get refunded?
Aug 17, 2020, 11:15 am
#3565
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
Can I check my understanding of how this is working?
Booked a first class out/business class return to Japan on 27th Dec 2019 for 23rd September to 13th October. This was using avios and a companion voucher.
BA cancelled the flight in July so rebooked for 1st October to the 17th October.
BA cancelled those flights today. That means under the current policy I have to to travel before the 27th Dec 2020 or I'll get refunded?
Booked a first class out/business class return to Japan on 27th Dec 2019 for 23rd September to 13th October. This was using avios and a companion voucher.
BA cancelled the flight in July so rebooked for 1st October to the 17th October.
BA cancelled those flights today. That means under the current policy I have to to travel before the 27th Dec 2020 or I'll get refunded?
Others options are full refund. Also I will mention future travel voucher only because it could be advantageous if your 241 would expire soon (which would be a problem if refunded). Using a FTV will keep your 241 alive for any booking up to April 2022.
Aug 17, 2020, 11:22 am
#3566
Join Date: Dec 2016
Posts: 30
In terms of dates available for you to rebook, then yes it is 1 year from when originally booked so 27 Dec 2020. Try if you can online as it may let you go to 2021. You don't need reward availability for the new dates.
Others options are full refund. Also I will mention future travel voucher only because it could be advantageous if your 241 would expire soon (which would be a problem if refunded). Using a FTV will keep your 241 alive for any booking up to April 2022.
Others options are full refund. Also I will mention future travel voucher only because it could be advantageous if your 241 would expire soon (which would be a problem if refunded). Using a FTV will keep your 241 alive for any booking up to April 2022.
Aug 17, 2020, 11:55 am
#3567
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 2,575
I would say this is a commercial booking, and the commercial team should be able to deploy it. If it can wait for a quieter time then that would be better (e.g. around 16 hrs Saturday onwards). In rebooking I would ask only for a cash fare, forget the Avios for the moment.
In hindsight you should have asked the agent(s) for the Avios component to be cancelled, nothing else, since that's easy to do (and you would have got your Avios back to your account), and then apply online for the FTV.
In hindsight you should have asked the agent(s) for the Avios component to be cancelled, nothing else, since that's easy to do (and you would have got your Avios back to your account), and then apply online for the FTV.
Good idea about removing the UUA first, my only worry would be currently ticketing is taking forever and the Avios space could be gone to do the UuA (or can you UuA without being ticketed?)
Aug 17, 2020, 12:31 pm
#3568
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: 63,846
UuA can - in fact usually are - issued separately to ticketing. So the current delays in the back office should not cause a problem to disappearing Avios space.
Aug 18, 2020, 1:10 am
#3569
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Berlin
Programs: BA Gold; Accor Plat; IHG Diamond-Amb; Meliá & HH & Marriott Gold
Posts: 5,450
I started with the Korean number and ended up in a long hold. I tried the London number and got the "too busy" message. I called Bremen on the dot of 09:00 and within a couple of minutes my refund request had been entered into the system.
EDITED TO ADD: Ten minutes later I received the confirmation email and could see that the (small) Avios part-payment had been refunded, so I can assume the chunky cash refund is also on its way.
Last edited by IMH; Aug 18, 2020 at 1:21 am
Aug 18, 2020, 7:44 am
#3570
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 104
I have a BA Hol booked Nov 2019 for travel commencing 02 Oct 20. Currently outside of FTV but its to France which is against FCO. Flights not cancelled. As it is a BA Hol will it be automatically cancelled and refunded or only if flight is cancelled? If they extend FTV beyond travel date of 30 Sep, I'm also concerned our non-refundable hotel part will not be included in voucher. I'm hoping the FCO advice against travel will trigger auto cancellation. Anyone have or had a similar situation? Thanks for your help/advice.