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*
Nov 7, 2020, 8:48 am
#4486
Join Date: Sep 2006
Programs: BA, LH, AF, TK
Posts: 213
Looking for advice for the following before I attempt to contact BA: Booked a one way redemption (2 adults and one infant on same PNR) from LHR-DME for the last week of November. BA have cancelled all Moscow flights until mid-December. Mother (Russian) and child (Russian/British) would like to return to Russia as close to the original booked date as possible. Father (British) needs a new Russian visa so now plans to fly mid December.
I assume that firstly I will have to split the booking onto separate PNRs. This is complicated by the fact that the infant is linked to the father in the booking and the mother has a different surname. Can BA change this if I provide them with the child's Russian birth certificate (and certified translation)?
Aeroflot flights to Moscow are still bookable this month and that may be the only easy alternative to BA as Russia still has banned most Europeans from entering. Are BA likely to allow this? The alternative would be to use the redemption flight on another occasion as it was booked during the sale and therefore a refund is not desirable.
I assume that firstly I will have to split the booking onto separate PNRs. This is complicated by the fact that the infant is linked to the father in the booking and the mother has a different surname. Can BA change this if I provide them with the child's Russian birth certificate (and certified translation)?
Aeroflot flights to Moscow are still bookable this month and that may be the only easy alternative to BA as Russia still has banned most Europeans from entering. Are BA likely to allow this? The alternative would be to use the redemption flight on another occasion as it was booked during the sale and therefore a refund is not desirable.
Nov 7, 2020, 8:55 am
#4487
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: 63,760
Looking for advice for the following before I attempt to contact BA: Booked a one way redemption (2 adults and one infant on same PNR) from LHR-DME for the last week of November. BA have cancelled all Moscow flights until mid-December. Mother (Russian) and child (Russian/British) would like to return to Russia as close to the original booked date as possible. Father (British) needs a new Russian visa so now plans to fly mid December.
I assume that firstly I will have to split the booking onto separate PNRs. This is complicated by the fact that the infant is linked to the father in the booking and the mother has a different surname. Can BA change this if I provide them with the child's Russian birth certificate (and certified translation)?
Aeroflot flights to Moscow are still bookable this month and that may be the only easy alternative to BA as Russia still has banned most Europeans from entering. Are BA likely to allow this? The alternative would be to use the redemption flight on another occasion as it was booked during the sale and therefore a refund is not desirable.
I assume that firstly I will have to split the booking onto separate PNRs. This is complicated by the fact that the infant is linked to the father in the booking and the mother has a different surname. Can BA change this if I provide them with the child's Russian birth certificate (and certified translation)?
Aeroflot flights to Moscow are still bookable this month and that may be the only easy alternative to BA as Russia still has banned most Europeans from entering. Are BA likely to allow this? The alternative would be to use the redemption flight on another occasion as it was booked during the sale and therefore a refund is not desirable.
Nov 8, 2020, 2:26 am
#4488
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: Aegean Airlines Silver, British Airways Gold, Virgin Atlantic Silver
Posts: 1,740
I have a December LHR-FARO cancellation (both outbound and inbound cancelled - was a simple cash booking in Economy outbound and Club Europe inbound).
Wanted to move my flights to April 2021 but most dates I choose it says no flights available even though BA is still selling multiple flights on those days. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong here?
Thanks FT
Wanted to move my flights to April 2021 but most dates I choose it says no flights available even though BA is still selling multiple flights on those days. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong here?
Thanks FT
I booked very cheap tickets in the last sale and am finding it very difficult to find any flights available to me. I can’t find my booking class online nor on my confirmation email.
any tips on how to do this please?
Nov 8, 2020, 2:30 am
#4489
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 368
Looking for advice: BA1417 on 2/12 and BA1420 on 5/12 both cancelled. I do that route frequently so would happily rebook for future dates, a few days later or months ahead, but BA agent has just said she can't do either because the ticket is now almost a year old and expires on 3/12 which, apparently, prevents her from rebooking (even though both sectors cancelled). Is it correct that she can't rebook for any future date and if so, what are my options? It's a travel agent booking made by an agent in the GCC.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:11 am
#4490
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: 63,760
i called BA and I was told that I could have a cash refund, voucher or book onto any FAO flights within 14 ays. Outside of 14 days I’d need the same fare buckets available.
I booked very cheap tickets in the last sale and am finding it very difficult to find any flights available to me. I can’t find my booking class online nor on my confirmation email.
any tips on how to do this please?
I booked very cheap tickets in the last sale and am finding it very difficult to find any flights available to me. I can’t find my booking class online nor on my confirmation email.
any tips on how to do this please?
Nov 8, 2020, 3:16 am
#4491
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: 63,760
Looking for advice: BA1417 on 2/12 and BA1420 on 5/12 both cancelled. I do that route frequently so would happily rebook for future dates, a few days later or months ahead, but BA agent has just said she can't do either because the ticket is now almost a year old and expires on 3/12 which, apparently, prevents her from rebooking (even though both sectors cancelled). Is it correct that she can't rebook for any future date and if so, what are my options? It's a travel agent booking made by an agent in the GCC.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:23 am
#4492
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SFO/YYZ
Programs: AC 25K, AS MVP Gold, BA Bronze, UA Silver, Marriott Titanium, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 2,464
Why is BA forcing me to call them to cancel my Avios booking and get my miles back? When I try to cancel I get directed to the voucher page; I don't want a voucher. If their call volumes are so high, why are they making it worse on themselves by removing the redeposit flow from the website? I hope I won't have to fight with them about the 25 USD phone service fee when I finally get through.
Anyway, I suppose my question is (since I've been on hold for a long time and may need to give up), is there a way to access online the old flow to cancel an Avios booking with the redeposit fee, rather than this new voucher? I don't feel great taking space in the queue from people who may have travel imminently, but I need these Avios back to book something.
Anyway, I suppose my question is (since I've been on hold for a long time and may need to give up), is there a way to access online the old flow to cancel an Avios booking with the redeposit fee, rather than this new voucher? I don't feel great taking space in the queue from people who may have travel imminently, but I need these Avios back to book something.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:39 am
#4493
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: 63,760
Why is BA forcing me to call them to cancel my Avios booking and get my miles back? When I try to cancel I get directed to the voucher page; I don't want a voucher. If their call volumes are so high, why are they making it worse on themselves by removing the redeposit flow from the website? I hope I won't have to fight with them about the 25 USD phone service fee when I finally get through.
Anyway, I suppose my question is (since I've been on hold for a long time and may need to give up), is there a way to access online the old flow to cancel an Avios booking with the redeposit fee, rather than this new voucher? I don't feel great taking space in the queue from people who may have travel imminently, but I need these Avios back to book something.
Anyway, I suppose my question is (since I've been on hold for a long time and may need to give up), is there a way to access online the old flow to cancel an Avios booking with the redeposit fee, rather than this new voucher? I don't feel great taking space in the queue from people who may have travel imminently, but I need these Avios back to book something.
If the flight is cancelled by BA you get a full refund. If you don't want to travel on a flight not cancelled then you can get a refund minus the USD55 fee, so the general advice is to wait.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:41 am
#4494
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 176
BA2158 UVF-LGW 9th Nov cancelled?
I am on the above flight. BA app says it is cancelled. I have not (yet?) received an email and curiously when I log into my BA exec account via the website (i.e. not app) the booking looks fine. A dummy search whilst not logged in shows BA is still selling this flight. So it this a glitch with the app? Or should I be worried and calling BA? Any advice would be most welcome.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:46 am
#4495
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: 63,760
I am on the above flight. BA app says it is cancelled. I have not (yet?) received an email and curiously when I log into my BA exec account via the website (i.e. not app) the booking looks fine. A dummy search whilst not logged in shows BA is still selling this flight. So it this a glitch with the app? Or should I be worried and calling BA? Any advice would be most welcome.
ba.com/schedules
This is linked - albeit very indirectly - to DCS data, so it's likely to be correct, the other version, in the App, the Flight Status line. There have been a few cases of this happening, and it seems App cache related, what you see in the App isn't necessarily real time. If you finger down the panel you may be able to refresh the cache, or if you log out and re-enter. That said there are lots of cancellations at the moment, so you are right to keep checking. I doubt a longhaul will be cancelled at 24 hours unless there is another factor.
Nov 8, 2020, 4:05 am
#4496
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 176
Thank you CWS
It's not cancelled at the moment, and you can get that for sure tomorrow this time when you see if the outbound is departing to UVF. The best comsumer friendly place to check this is
ba.com/schedules
This is linked - albeit very indirectly - to DCS data, so it's likely to be correct, the other version, in the App, the Flight Status line. There have been a few cases of this happening, and it seems App cache related, what you see in the App isn't necessarily real time. If you finger down the panel you may be able to refresh the cache, or if you log out and re-enter. That said there are lots of cancellations at the moment, so you are right to keep checking. I doubt a longhaul will be cancelled at 24 hours unless there is another factor.
ba.com/schedules
This is linked - albeit very indirectly - to DCS data, so it's likely to be correct, the other version, in the App, the Flight Status line. There have been a few cases of this happening, and it seems App cache related, what you see in the App isn't necessarily real time. If you finger down the panel you may be able to refresh the cache, or if you log out and re-enter. That said there are lots of cancellations at the moment, so you are right to keep checking. I doubt a longhaul will be cancelled at 24 hours unless there is another factor.
Nov 8, 2020, 10:28 am
#4497
Join Date: Jan 2005
Programs: Aegean Airlines Silver, British Airways Gold, Virgin Atlantic Silver
Posts: 1,740
If you have had a cancellation then in fact the Customer Guidance allows for a one year rebooking period, starting from the time of the original booking, and regardless of fare bucket. So it may just be easiest to ring again and see if you get an agent more familiar with the guidance. If the flight is cancelled it may be tricky to find your booking class, but it may show on a "more information" hyperlink on the flight details. And you can use Expertflyer for help finding that bucket, or just ask here with some date ranges and someone will check for you. But that should not be necessary, the 14 day rule has been expanded to 1 year. I would only ring if you have specific dates in mind, which are viable, so making a maybe booking in say February would not be sensible in my view.
Nov 8, 2020, 2:13 pm
#4498
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 796
if I understand correctly, under the former, there are 10 options to rebook when BA cancels a flight, each with its own restrictions and criteria, including the ability to rebook onto any other airline. I assume this is applied to situations when a flight is cancelled shortly before departure for any number of reasons. The latter is specifically for flights that have been cancelled due to Covid and rebooking is restricted to only other BA flights.
This is my understanding after reading the Trade Support website.
Am I understanding the text correctly?
Nov 8, 2020, 2:40 pm
#4499
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,918
i have a question regarding the difference between General Customer Guidelines and Covid Principle Guidelines and when they are applied:
if I understand correctly, under the former, there are 10 options to rebook when BA cancels a flight, each with its own restrictions and criteria, including the ability to rebook onto any other airline. I assume this is applied to situations when a flight is cancelled shortly before departure for any number of reasons. The latter is specifically for flights that have been cancelled due to Covid and rebooking is restricted to only other BA flights.
This is my understanding after reading the Trade Support website.
Am I understanding the text correctly?
if I understand correctly, under the former, there are 10 options to rebook when BA cancels a flight, each with its own restrictions and criteria, including the ability to rebook onto any other airline. I assume this is applied to situations when a flight is cancelled shortly before departure for any number of reasons. The latter is specifically for flights that have been cancelled due to Covid and rebooking is restricted to only other BA flights.
This is my understanding after reading the Trade Support website.
Am I understanding the text correctly?
I don't think coronavirus specific guidelines are stricter when it comes to rebooking on other airlines. In fact there are a number of additional coronavirus guidelines - many route/region specific - which allow rebooking on to other airlines including some non partner and non oneworld ones. Also bear in mind standard guidelines still apply, they are merely supplemented by the coronavirus general and country specific guidelines at the moment, not replaced by them.
EDIT: also to add some detail about the question cws was responding to. The extended booking allowance for rebooking up to ticket validity without regard to same selling class availability is for BA cancelled flights only and for rebooking on the same route on BA flights. This is well beyond standard guidelines which would only allow rebooking -3/+14 days from the original cancelled BA flight without regard to same selling class availability.
Nov 8, 2020, 3:55 pm
#4500
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 796
As you noted that the option to rebook on to any other airline under standard guidelines is only within 24hrs of original cancelled flight though. Beyond that timeframe it is much more restrictive when it comes to use of other airlines.
I don't think coronavirus specific guidelines are stricter when it comes to rebooking on other airlines. In fact there are a number of additional coronavirus guidelines - many route/region specific - which allow rebooking on to other airlines including some non partner and non oneworld ones. Also bear in mind standard guidelines still apply, they are merely supplemented by the coronavirus general and country specific guidelines at the moment, not replaced by them.
EDIT: also to add some detail about the question cws was responding to. The extended booking allowance for rebooking up to ticket validity without regard to same selling class availability is for BA cancelled flights only and for rebooking on the same route on BA flights. This is well beyond standard guidelines which would only allow rebooking -3/+14 days from the original cancelled BA flight without regard to same selling class availability.
I don't think coronavirus specific guidelines are stricter when it comes to rebooking on other airlines. In fact there are a number of additional coronavirus guidelines - many route/region specific - which allow rebooking on to other airlines including some non partner and non oneworld ones. Also bear in mind standard guidelines still apply, they are merely supplemented by the coronavirus general and country specific guidelines at the moment, not replaced by them.
EDIT: also to add some detail about the question cws was responding to. The extended booking allowance for rebooking up to ticket validity without regard to same selling class availability is for BA cancelled flights only and for rebooking on the same route on BA flights. This is well beyond standard guidelines which would only allow rebooking -3/+14 days from the original cancelled BA flight without regard to same selling class availability.
considering we are not supposed to call >72h before originally scheduled departure to request changes, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference to wait another 2 days to call within 24h...