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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 Sep 24, 2020, 12:26 pm
  #3931  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Silver, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 224
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 12:28 pm
  #3932  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Silver, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 224
Originally Posted by flashware
When was the original booking made?
End of January 2020
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 12:29 pm
  #3933  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 4,709
Originally Posted by Bartinbrook
End of January 2020
Most travel insurance policies (assuming you had an annual one in place or took one out shortly after booking) will still cover you as that was before it was declared a pandemic. If you got your policy after mid March then you're out of luck of course.
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 2:17 pm
  #3934  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 148
Sorry if I've missed this, but any sign of BA extending the voucher scheme to cover October flights?
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Old Sep 24, 2020, 2:22 pm
  #3935  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,799
Originally Posted by greenchicken
Sorry if I've missed this, but any sign of BA extending the voucher scheme to cover October flights?
No news yet, there are some rumours, that I've not been able to confirm, which suggests there will be an extension. However since there is a Sale on until 30 September it would be somewhat lacking in logic to announce an extension at the moment.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 6:30 am
  #3936  
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Posts: 25
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
No news yet, there are some rumours, that I've not been able to confirm, which suggests there will be an extension. However since there is a Sale on until 30 September it would be somewhat lacking in logic to announce an extension at the moment.
I imagine if you flight is in the first week of October you would see the logic though.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 6:38 am
  #3937  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 1,354
Not quite BA but part of a BA booking. Just got notification of a January JFK-LHR on AA cancelled. They appear to be only flying once daily which doesn’t bode well
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 10:52 am
  #3938  
 
Join Date: Dec 2014
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 140
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
No news yet, there are some rumours, that I've not been able to confirm, which suggests there will be an extension. However since there is a Sale on until 30 September it would be somewhat lacking in logic to announce an extension at the moment.
CWS I have a flight to LIN booked on the 1st that i want to move to next year. Moved it once already back in april at cost. They won't let me do it now because of FTV not being valid for Oct. However all flights BA574 have been cancelled since March and even Sept 30th is cancelled though annoyingly 1st is still listed. I'm worried they won't extend in time so maybe i should now count on it being cancelled in the next few days???

What do you think?
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 12:18 pm
  #3939  
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Silver, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 224
Originally Posted by Bartinbrook
Still no sign of Book with Confidence being extended beyond September and we’re rapidly approaching the end of the month.

I’ve a LHR – ORD booked for the end of October. I can’t enter the US according to the UK and US governments. BA are still operating that route and my particular flight each day. I don’t have insurance that will pay out for this, if the flight isn’t cancelled, so currently looks like a CW/WTP fare will go down the drain. Unless anyone knows otherwise?

Good news is that BA have just cancelled the outbound to ORD, so I can now get a refund.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 12:30 pm
  #3940  
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: 63,799
Originally Posted by SuitedandBooted
CWS I have a flight to LIN booked on the 1st that i want to move to next year. Moved it once already back in april at cost. They won't let me do it now because of FTV not being valid for Oct. However all flights BA574 have been cancelled since March and even Sept 30th is cancelled though annoyingly 1st is still listed. I'm worried they won't extend in time so maybe i should now count on it being cancelled in the next few days???
Crystal ball says maybe.

The reality is that if BA don't extend BWC - or something similar - they will get very few new bookings, and most of them will be for short term short hops. So my guess is that BWC will be extended, but perhaps fairly close to 30 September. So at the moment you have nothing to lose (assuming it's not an Avios booking) than wait until 1 October and then if nothing is announced, apply by telephone for a voluntary cancellation. This typically won't get much back. I am trying to work out why you didn't apply for an FTV in April, but I presume you shifted the flight in March.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 4:29 pm
  #3941  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Buckeye, AZ
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 241
MY BA288 PHX-LHR for Oct 27 was cancelled today. I know I can get voucher or refund, looking for an eVoucher, so should I call to ensure that I get the eVoucher rather than getting the FTV?
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 4:40 pm
  #3942  
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,951
Originally Posted by BXK_Oz
MY BA288 PHX-LHR for Oct 27 was cancelled today. I know I can get voucher or refund, looking for an eVoucher, so should I call to ensure that I get the eVoucher rather than getting the FTV?
Hi. So yes one option is a full refund and you would have to call for this.

The other option is a voucher, and if you click on cancel options on MMB or go here you can request a voucher here https://www.britishairways.com/trave...1&wfpId=covidn.

Whether you get an offline FTV which you have to call to use, or an evoucher which you can use online depends on your booking rather than how you request the voucher. Basically simple cash one way or return bookings which have not been previously changed may be issued as online evoucher, whereas reward bookings or cash bookings where you previously did any changes including upgrades (basically anything which needed a ticket reissue) is likely to be issued as an offline FTV which you need to call to use.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 5:53 pm
  #3943  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Buckeye, AZ
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 241
Originally Posted by KARFA
Hi. So yes one option is a full refund and you would have to call for this.

The other option is a voucher, and if you click on cancel options on MMB or go here you can request a voucher here https://www.britishairways.com/trave...1&wfpId=covidn.

Whether you get an offline FTV which you have to call to use, or an evoucher which you can use online depends on your booking rather than how you request the voucher. Basically simple cash one way or return bookings which have not been previously changed may be issued as online evoucher, whereas reward bookings or cash bookings where you previously did any changes including upgrades (basically anything which needed a ticket reissue) is likely to be issued as an offline FTV which you need to call to use.
Thank you for the information. I talked to the call center in India and was told I needed to wait until the new BWC was issued, then there would be more options available. The fact that the flight had been cancelled was of no consequence for them, just wait. Not sure if this was because my return flight is 11/04 on BA289. No need to argue with the call center as I know they are extremely busy.

Last edited by BXK_Oz; Sep 25, 2020 at 5:57 pm Reason: add information
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 6:28 pm
  #3944  
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,951
Originally Posted by BXK_Oz
Thank you for the information. I talked to the call center in India and was told I needed to wait until the new BWC was issued, then there would be more options available. The fact that the flight had been cancelled was of no consequence for them, just wait. Not sure if this was because my return flight is 11/04 on BA289. No need to argue with the call center as I know they are extremely busy.
I am afraid they are wrong. FTVs are available for:

- Bookings made prior to 3 March 2020 for travel up to 30 September 2020
- Bookings made between 3 March 2020 and 30 September 2020 for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021
- If your flight has been cancelled you are eligible for a voucher, regardless of your booking or travel dates.

Just apply online using the link I noted. There really is no benefit calling to do it, it will make no difference to whether you get a FTV or online evoucher.
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Old Sep 25, 2020, 6:44 pm
  #3945  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: Buckeye, AZ
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 241
Originally Posted by KARFA
I am afraid they are wrong. FTVs are available for:

- Bookings made prior to 3 March 2020 for travel up to 30 September 2020
- Bookings made between 3 March 2020 and 30 September 2020 for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021
- If your flight has been cancelled you are eligible for a voucher, regardless of your booking or travel dates.

Just apply online using the link I noted. There really is no benefit calling to do it, it will make no difference to whether you get a FTV or online evoucher.
Thank you again. Will apply for the voucher. New at all this and is good to be able to get the information needed to navigate this mess.
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