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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
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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*

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Old Oct 16, 2020, 4:47 am
  #4216  
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: 63,830
Originally Posted by Lefly
I was unable to find the specific thread/post even using Google search, so my apologies if the question was already answered.

Ba cancelled a flight that was booked using and e-voucher + cash. I'm going to ask for a refund, but what I exactly should I get back?
The full value of e-voucher + cash put back on the original credit card used - or - only the cash part refunded to the CC and another e-voucher sent to me, with the same amount of the one used?
If BA cancelled the flight, then your eVoucher goes back to the source booking which generated the eVoucher, and so that gets refunded to the original form of payment. For the top up cash on the new booking, that too should go back to the original form of payment. I'm going to guess it may take a while for you to see this, due to the complexities involved.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 4:55 am
  #4217  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
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Originally Posted by Kwi
Is that correct? There are not many first flights out to Miami with reward space left after Q2 next year. I have reread the wiki at the top which says something about not needing reward space but I don't know if this applies to my book.
I think you have been correctly advised, but it depends on whether it is the case that your original booking - the one that gave the FTV - was in April 2020. If so then you can rebook without needing availability but you only have a year to do so from the original booking, hence April 2021, the one that was cancelled by BA. Now making a "maybe" booking is somewhat risky, less so with redemptions, but still the risk is that the clock runs out on you at some point, or BA will change their policies. My suspicion is that the USA will open up for travel in Q1 2021 so you could perhaps move into Q1 2021, but you may be best to wait until a few days to departure to see if BA will cancel the flight again, in wihch case you have slightly more flexibility. On the other hand FTVs are available under April 2022, and though you need availability for redemption space, it does buy you a lot more time. Moreover I don't think you can count on any route staying First, not even Miami, given the turmoll that is ongoing.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 5:57 am
  #4218  
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 457
Originally Posted by Starship73
Yesterday morning I bought 20K Avios to top up my stash as I was 17.5k Avios short for what I subsequently booked on BA.com (a long haul Club return to the Far East for two which was available off-peak outbound and peak for the return), taking advantage of the 50%-off for reward bookings.

However yesterday evening I noticed reward availability had appeared for a more convenient return date, which also happened to be off-peak therefore the Avios cost was reduced by 17.5k. I spoke to the call centre and they very helpfully cancelled my initial booking, refunding the Avios and cash, and then rebooked me onto my preferred itinerary.

So the upshot is, as it turned out, I could have made the booking I now have without purchasing the extra 20k Avios. The Ts and Cs say they will refund cash Avios purchases within 14 days as long as they have not been 'used'.

Complicating matters further is that after the Avios were refunded from the original booking and then slightly fewer were taken out again to make the new booking, our household account now shows over 20k Avios remaining but with myself holding just over 17k Avios and my wife holding just over 3k.

So the glass-half-full view is that I am 17.5k Avios better off than I was yesterday morning when I made the original booking, but I would nonetheless rather have the £335 back that I paid for the 20k Avios that I didn't end up needing.

The call centre said their system wouldn't allow them to refund the Avios purchase under these circumstances, but advised me to write to BA Customer Services via email explaining the situation and mentioning that the extra purchased Avios were only 'used' briefly but refunded during the 24h cooling off period. If you work on the basis of 'last in, last out' the 20k Avios I bought have not in fact been used as of now!

I suspect my email will either disappear into the ether or I'll receive the standard "no can do" response, but does anyone else have any experience of this scenario? This is not a complaint obviously as I got what I paid for ultimately, but just hoping they might look on this sympathetically!
Very satisfactory outcome here – customer services said they couldn't refund the 20k Avios as my account contained fewer than that (even though the household account had enough). So I offered to buy another 3k Avios to take me over 20k and they said that would work. They have now removed 20k Avios from my account and processed the refund of the £335. Excellent customer service - very happy.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 7:19 am
  #4219  
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: OW
Posts: 226
Does anyone know if the "redemption 241 booking cancelled by BA / 355 day rule" applies such that the return leg must be completed within 355 days (or is it just to outbound that must be flown by that date) - I assume it's the former? TIA
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 8:40 am
  #4220  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Dorchester, Dorset UK
Programs: BA Gold, BMI, ANA, HH Blue, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,068
How far in advance can one book?

How far in advance can one book? One of my forthcoming Miami flights has been cancelled, allowing me to change the booking without cost. I’d like to change it to 12 months ahead, but that’s not possible online. Is it possible to do this by phone?
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 10:20 am
  #4221  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,830
Originally Posted by eh220160
Does anyone know if the "redemption 241 booking cancelled by BA / 355 day rule" applies such that the return leg must be completed within 355 days (or is it just to outbound that must be flown by that date) - I assume it's the former? TIA
There are three rules, which don't quite align. BA offers flights up to 355 days ahead. Tickets are valid for 365 days from issue date (which can be after the day of booking). If you have already flown one sector, the final sector cannot be more than 365 days after the first. Then there is a slightly squidgy variant if flights are cancelled when close to the deadline, where supervisors can give a bit of leeway. You may need to be more specific here.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 10:23 am
  #4222  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,830
Originally Posted by botham
How far in advance can one book? One of my forthcoming Miami flights has been cancelled, allowing me to change the booking without cost. I’d like to change it to 12 months ahead, but that’s not possible online. Is it possible to do this by phone?
It's 355 days ahead, by phone or online, there is a bodge available on some aspects on this to allow for open returns, but in terms of precise flight selection, you cannot book beyond 355 days no matter what. Moreover tickets are only valid for 365 days from the date of original issue.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 10:34 am
  #4223  
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Posts: 2,972
I do now need to alter a return ticket on BA Holiday.

Is +44 191 490 7901 the correct number?
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 10:54 am
  #4224  
 
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: North East
Posts: 207
Can I just clarify- if a recently made avios booking is cancelled by BA, one can re-book the trip to alternative dates without there necessarily being avios seats currently available on that day / route?
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 11:01 am
  #4225  
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Dorchester, Dorset UK
Programs: BA Gold, BMI, ANA, HH Blue, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,068
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
It's 355 days ahead, by phone or online, there is a bodge available on some aspects on this to allow for open returns, but in terms of precise flight selection, you cannot book beyond 355 days no matter what. Moreover tickets are only valid for 365 days from the date of original issue.
I have no viable option other than to seek a refund then. Thanks for your help.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 11:10 am
  #4226  
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: 63,830
Originally Posted by drmish1
Can I just clarify- if a recently made avios booking is cancelled by BA, one can re-book the trip to alternative dates without there necessarily being avios seats currently available on that day / route?
Yes, that's correct, within 365 days of the booking. See the wiki for more information.
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 11:32 am
  #4227  
 
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 858
Hi,

Return EDI-LHR-Denver bought last week in Avios sale for November 2020. The return DEN-LHR has now been cancelled. Other flights still scheduled.

I would like to rebook next year - perhaps April. Do I have to rebook before the first EDI-LHR flight departs? Obviously worried that if I don't turn up for it, then I may be marked as a "no show" and have the rest of the flights cancelled.

So do I have to tell BA I don't like the proposed flight changes, to avoid No Show. And do I have to tell them my alternative dates then, or can they hold an "open ticket" for me on the PNR for 355 days, or so.

Many thanks
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Old Oct 16, 2020, 1:18 pm
  #4228  
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: 63,830
Originally Posted by flygod
I would like to rebook next year - perhaps April. Do I have to rebook before the first EDI-LHR flight departs? Obviously worried that if I don't turn up for it, then I may be marked as a "no show" and have the rest of the flights cancelled.
Yes, you do need to contact BA before the first flight. You would be best to give alternative dates at that point, and I would suggest you give realistic dates given that BA's policies may change. However being an Avios redemption, with a good cancellation option open to you anyway, this perhaps less important, but clearly you would be at risk of a reversion to the previous 14 day guidelines. I think you are able to be taken off the flights, and then to provide dates later, but in addition to any policy changes, you are at the mercy of another agent reading all the PNR notes and understanding what is going on. Hence my advice to either claim the full refund in November or to provide realistic alternative dates, at least a few days before the original departure date of the first leg.
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Old Oct 17, 2020, 2:32 am
  #4229  
Kwi
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: London
Programs: BAEC - Blue AND Chief Taster for Walkers Crisps
Posts: 47
Thank you CWS.
Yes, the original booking was for late April 2020 (was booked in May 2019)
How to i let BA know that this is the case i i would not need any reward availability? Is there a T&C anywhere that i can look up?
Thank you for you help.
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Old Oct 17, 2020, 3:12 am
  #4230  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Aadvantage platinum; IHG Spire
Posts: 546
We had flights booked in February 2020 to fly in May 2020. The flights were cancelled and we took the voucher option rather than a refund.
Am I right in thinking we now have until April 2022 to use the voucher, or is it 12 months from the original outbound flight?
Donsyb is offline  


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