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*
Sep 22, 2020, 4:43 am
#3901
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 8
Thanks Karfa
I wonder whether the problem was the combination of re-route and date change that caused the issue. I was on hold for 20 mins, and the operator said they phoned the the business team for the exact t and c's
I wonder whether the problem was the combination of re-route and date change that caused the issue. I was on hold for 20 mins, and the operator said they phoned the the business team for the exact t and c's
Sep 22, 2020, 4:47 am
#3902
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,964
In the standard guidelines it does say for a cancelled flight "Reroute to an alternative gateway within 300 miles radius of the original point of origin or destination", Now the standard guidelines is limited to -3/+14 days changes but as I read it only the reroute part should be used in combination with the coronavirus guidelines, not other things like day limitations etc.
Sep 22, 2020, 4:58 am
#3903
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: 63,804
In the standard guidelines it does say for a cancelled flight "Reroute to an alternative gateway within 300 miles radius of the original point of origin or destination", Now the standard guidelines is limited to -3/+14 days changes but as I read it only the reroute part should be used in combination with the coronavirus guidelines, not other things like day limitations etc.
Acephalgic. welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum, I hope you get this resolved, but I feel obliged to repeat my advice to avoid "maybe" bookings. It is for sure that at some BA will end Buy with Confidence, and you may find yourself boxed into a booking which turns into something inflexible. Cash refunds, on the other hand, are very flexibile. If you are certain you will be travelling next year then that's fine, particularly if it is an Avios ticket. But if your 2-4-1 may expire in the middle of all of this, an FTV may be the better option.
Sep 22, 2020, 5:00 am
#3904
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 8
Thanks for you help, excellent as always.
I guess I will just try again.
I guess I will just try again.
Sep 23, 2020, 6:13 am
#3905
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: London
Programs: Mucci (Scirocco Sash), BAEC Gold, IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 864
A quick query if I may – I believe it’s correct that FTV vouchers received for flights can be applied to the cost of BA Holidays (which I think I read somewhere in this extensive thread!) – is the opposite true, i.e. does anyone know if a voucher received for a proactive cancellation of a BA Holidays booking (in this case for a hotel) can be applied to the cost of a flight only booking?
I see a very appealing rate for a hotel via BA Holidays, but given the continued uncertainty around travel/borders/quarantine etc there’s a more than 50% chance I would need to cancel – I would be comfortable with receiving credit back if I could use it for flights, as I know I will spend this.
I see a very appealing rate for a hotel via BA Holidays, but given the continued uncertainty around travel/borders/quarantine etc there’s a more than 50% chance I would need to cancel – I would be comfortable with receiving credit back if I could use it for flights, as I know I will spend this.
Sep 23, 2020, 7:06 am
#3906
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: 63,804
I see a very appealing rate for a hotel via BA Holidays, but given the continued uncertainty around travel/borders/quarantine etc there’s a more than 50% chance I would need to cancel – I would be comfortable with receiving credit back if I could use it for flights, as I know I will spend this.
7. The voucher provided can be used towards a new British Airways Holiday or British Airways flight only.
Sep 23, 2020, 7:19 am
#3907
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: London
Programs: Mucci (Scirocco Sash), BAEC Gold, IHG Diamond Ambassador
Posts: 864
Yes, the only proviso being that it has to be a new flight booking rather than (e.g.) adding sums to an existing booking. Plus it can't be for a redemption booking. Rule 7 of the T&Cs for Holiday bookings, with a similar clause 9 in FTVs from flight-only T&Cs:
Sep 23, 2020, 7:54 am
#3908
Join Date: Jan 2020
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 52
Called today to request a refund for a cancelled flight, spoke to Karen and she couldn’t have been more helpful. Money to be refunded within 7 days and the partial avios points have already been refunded.
Sep 23, 2020, 8:25 am
#3909
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: KUL (MY), ICN (KR), ZRH (CH) or OTP (RO) - or somewhere in between
Programs: OZ, JL
Posts: 241
BA ticket, CX metal: CX cancelled one leg; options?
Hi everyone. I mostly fly Star Alliance and I am not familiar with oneworld or British Airways. I hope the collective knowledge here might give me some advice/pointers.
I am supposed to fly from Taiwan back to Europe in late October (EU passport, alien resident of Taiwan). I was supposed to fly CX: TPE-HKG-ZRH, in business class (award ticket issued by British Airways). About a month ago CX notified me they cancelled the HKG-ZRH leg (but not the TPE-HKG leg). BA are not offering any alternatives, not even several days before or after the date I was supposed to fly, not even to other points in Europe (not necessarily ZRH). The only option BA are offering is a full refund of Avios and taxes, which is a non-starter for me as I need to get to Switzerland.
And now my question: since my ticket has not been cancelled for over a month now (it still shows as TPE-HKG-ZRH, with the second leg cancelled) do I have any chance to get CX (rather than BA) deal with me on the departure date? If I show up at check-in at TPE (with plenty of time before the departure time) for CX’s TPE-HKG flight, will CX take pity on me, take over the ticket and deal with the IRROPS, given we will be within the 24h before departure window? Any chance of CX flying me to HKG and then putting me on LX’s HKG-ZRH of the same date, given CX are code-sharing with LX on that flight?
Thanks for any hints.
And mods, please move this if there is a more appropriate thread.
I am supposed to fly from Taiwan back to Europe in late October (EU passport, alien resident of Taiwan). I was supposed to fly CX: TPE-HKG-ZRH, in business class (award ticket issued by British Airways). About a month ago CX notified me they cancelled the HKG-ZRH leg (but not the TPE-HKG leg). BA are not offering any alternatives, not even several days before or after the date I was supposed to fly, not even to other points in Europe (not necessarily ZRH). The only option BA are offering is a full refund of Avios and taxes, which is a non-starter for me as I need to get to Switzerland.
And now my question: since my ticket has not been cancelled for over a month now (it still shows as TPE-HKG-ZRH, with the second leg cancelled) do I have any chance to get CX (rather than BA) deal with me on the departure date? If I show up at check-in at TPE (with plenty of time before the departure time) for CX’s TPE-HKG flight, will CX take pity on me, take over the ticket and deal with the IRROPS, given we will be within the 24h before departure window? Any chance of CX flying me to HKG and then putting me on LX’s HKG-ZRH of the same date, given CX are code-sharing with LX on that flight?
Thanks for any hints.
And mods, please move this if there is a more appropriate thread.
Sep 23, 2020, 9:05 am
#3910
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: 63,804
And now my question: since my ticket has not been cancelled for over a month now (it still shows as TPE-HKG-ZRH, with the second leg cancelled) do I have any chance to get CX (rather than BA) deal with me on the departure date? If I show up at check-in at TPE (with plenty of time before the departure time) for CX’s TPE-HKG flight, will CX take pity on me, take over the ticket and deal with the IRROPS, given we will be within the 24h before departure window? Any chance of CX flying me to HKG and then putting me on LX’s HKG-ZRH of the same date, given CX are code-sharing with LX on that flight?
But yes, it's possible, but not certain that on the day the airport staff will reroute you via alternative airlines. Normally having a BA ticket will complicate matters since it would be a bold ground agent that agrees to reroute on a cancellation made long ago. In other words, to answer your question it is within the realms of being possible, but if you need assurance that you will fly that day then I'd say on balance it is unlikely. They are more likely to refer you to BA. At that point if you call BA then BA may indeed reroute via other oneworld airlines, but if you have been in dilalogue with BA about this already then the notes on your PNR could cause an issue.
Sep 23, 2020, 9:19 am
#3911
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: KUL (MY), ICN (KR), ZRH (CH) or OTP (RO) - or somewhere in between
Programs: OZ, JL
Posts: 241
Thanks a lot for your reply.
Actually, yes, I neglected to mention something: I asked BA to check FRA, AMS, CDG, MXP and FCO as other possible destinations, but not LHR. And I would like to avoid having to quarantine myself for 10 days on arrival at ZRH, just because I had to enter the UK for a few hours to claim luggage and then take a different flight on a separate ticket to ZRH...
BA do show Avios availability for HKG-LHR, but zero availability for LHR-ZRH, for example...
Actually, yes, I neglected to mention something: I asked BA to check FRA, AMS, CDG, MXP and FCO as other possible destinations, but not LHR. And I would like to avoid having to quarantine myself for 10 days on arrival at ZRH, just because I had to enter the UK for a few hours to claim luggage and then take a different flight on a separate ticket to ZRH...
BA do show Avios availability for HKG-LHR, but zero availability for LHR-ZRH, for example...
Sep 23, 2020, 9:32 am
#3912
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: 63,804
In essence BA only rebooks third party Avios redemptions into redemptions, almost never into commercial buckets, which they are prepared to do with BA redemptions.
Sep 23, 2020, 2:32 pm
#3913
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: London uk
Programs: *A Gold, BA Silver, Avis President, Hertz President circle
Posts: 2,804
I have 4 vouchers (redemption bookings) LHR-TLV
If I book tickets using these vouchers, can I once again cancel them to be put into new vouchers?
If yes, would the following work?
It seems likely TLV is going into a strict lock-down with flights being cancelled, so I would book these dates hoping BA will eventually cancel their flights and then be entitled to a full refund, thus not a voucher again
In the case they don't cancel I will cancel and be issued a voucher as I have now, so I can technically only gain from this gamble
Thanks for your thoughts and input.
If I book tickets using these vouchers, can I once again cancel them to be put into new vouchers?
If yes, would the following work?
It seems likely TLV is going into a strict lock-down with flights being cancelled, so I would book these dates hoping BA will eventually cancel their flights and then be entitled to a full refund, thus not a voucher again
In the case they don't cancel I will cancel and be issued a voucher as I have now, so I can technically only gain from this gamble
Thanks for your thoughts and input.
Sep 24, 2020, 12:05 am
#3914
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Switzerland
Programs: AY+ Platinum, SK Gold, BAEC Silver, airbaltic VIP, Radisson VIP
Posts: 6,530
Called yesterday about 3 pending refunds (it‘s been 4 weeks).
- 2 were actioned and should be back on my card within 7-10 days
- 1 was escalated due to mixed currencies
Incredibly helpful and friendly agent and no long hold times on the phone either.
- 2 were actioned and should be back on my card within 7-10 days
- 1 was escalated due to mixed currencies
Incredibly helpful and friendly agent and no long hold times on the phone either.
Sep 24, 2020, 6:56 am
#3915
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: London
Posts: 319
I've just spent the morning on the phone with BA. I am out in HRE in the middle of a LHR - HRE return on BA (via JNB without stopover, all one ticket), with the outbound taken in February. For the return in November, BA have cancelled their HRE- JNB segment of my return. They are refusing to reroute me (as there are no oneworld flights available, and any other flights are not policy). BA Customer Relations are saying there is nothing more they can do because of computer/policy restrictions. They are pushing heavily to refund me.
Am I entitled to re-routing? As I can't see a way of getting it out of BA, what would be the best way of doing this if so? Booking the cheapest like-for-like flight and claiming it back from them later?
The ticket was originally a dirt cheap WTP ticket that I upgraded with avios to CW. Getting a refund would get me around £200, around half of the cost of a new economy ticket, without the added excess baggage charges on top... Ideally any replacement would be in business both from a baggage and social distancing point of view.
Thanks
Am I entitled to re-routing? As I can't see a way of getting it out of BA, what would be the best way of doing this if so? Booking the cheapest like-for-like flight and claiming it back from them later?
The ticket was originally a dirt cheap WTP ticket that I upgraded with avios to CW. Getting a refund would get me around £200, around half of the cost of a new economy ticket, without the added excess baggage charges on top... Ideally any replacement would be in business both from a baggage and social distancing point of view.
Thanks