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*
#4771
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: London
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 328
Escalated to the supervisor who decided "on this occasion" to allow me to re-book for September.
#4772
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
Thanks. I called up today and had a bit of a battle with the agent, who insisted that the COVID guidance only applies to the cancelled flight, and the non-cancelled flight is subject to the 14-day rule.
Escalated to the supervisor who decided "on this occasion" to allow me to re-book for September.
Escalated to the supervisor who decided "on this occasion" to allow me to re-book for September.
glad you have it sorted
#4773
Join Date: Jul 2020
Programs: BA EC
Posts: 41
It is a source of great frustration that 8 months on this sort of thing still happens. How does it happen? The policy isn't particularly difficult to read and understand. I know we all like to have a bit of a laugh about it but it's just not right that you can still be told you're wrong when you ask to make changes in accordance with published policy. How many people don't have the benefit of the wisdom of people like KARFA and c-w-s to help guide them through the extra layer of complexity that is call centre staff who don't know the rules?
#4774
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: OW
Posts: 226
Has anyone managed to use an Avios FTV on AA (with the original booking being on BA metal)? Am being told this is not possible. TIA
#4775
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,990
any complications? basically the FTV is just stored value of avios and some cash (from the taxes/fees/charges) originally paid. you should be able to apply it to any new booking which you would have been able to make on ba.com.
#4776
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: OW
Posts: 226
Thanks, that's what I assumed also. Agent just saw that I wanted to book onto AA and didn't even ask which routing (o/w LAX-SFO) - original FTV was o/w LHR-DXB. Will try again...
#4778
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: 63,851
I'm also surprised, I thought that the Avios redemptions (as opposed to part pay with Avios) could be used on any relevent redemption, including non BA metal. However it is the case that commercial FTVs have to be used on BA marketed services, which would. for example, exclude rebooking onto AA in some scenarios.
#4779
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Middle of Nowhere
Programs: Lowly BAEC Bronze, VS, IHG Platinum, HHonors Gold, Hotels.com Gold
Posts: 231
I wonder if anyone can help me work out what to do in this situation? A while back I used a 2-4-1 to book a February trip to Montego Bay. Since booking, my brother has relocated to Barbados and we would now prefer to go to visit him (in March). There is availability on the dates we want to go.
I cannot make this change online, and when I try to cancel the avios booking online, I only get offered a voucher. Would the voucher include the 2-4-1, avios and cash on it so I could rebook as I choose? Or am I better off calling up to try to change the flights, or cancel over the phone?
Struggling to get my head around the new rules and haven't had time to keep up to date with all the developments to vouchers etc. Any help much appreciated.
Thank you!
I cannot make this change online, and when I try to cancel the avios booking online, I only get offered a voucher. Would the voucher include the 2-4-1, avios and cash on it so I could rebook as I choose? Or am I better off calling up to try to change the flights, or cancel over the phone?
Struggling to get my head around the new rules and haven't had time to keep up to date with all the developments to vouchers etc. Any help much appreciated.
Thank you!
#4780
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: 63,851
I cannot make this change online, and when I try to cancel the avios booking online, I only get offered a voucher. Would the voucher include the 2-4-1, avios and cash on it so I could rebook as I choose? Or am I better off calling up to try to change the flights, or cancel over the phone?
#4781
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Middle of Nowhere
Programs: Lowly BAEC Bronze, VS, IHG Platinum, HHonors Gold, Hotels.com Gold
Posts: 231
The FTV route is theoretically better, since you won't have to pay a redeposit fee of £35 per person. It would include the companion voucher, Avios and cash, see upthread and the wiki for more information, and yes that gives you the flexibility to shift to other locations so long as there is availability. The only slight issue is that though most FTVs are issued almost immediately - give it 10-20 minutes - there are circumstances where it can take longer. So you may want to balance that against calling an agent, paying the redeposit fee and getting it all resolved in one call. I don't believe agents can turn an Avios booking into a FTV immediately online and re-use it straight away, but by all means try that as you opening request, and then go the redeposit route if necessary.
Very much appreciated, cws!
Last edited by rhivolution; Nov 30, 2020 at 12:25 pm
#4782
Join Date: Nov 2020
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 9
Lopsided Change of Destination
Hello all! The return of a December trip to Gothenburg was cancelled, and I tried to rebook to Stockholm instead. I was told that because the outbound LHR-GOT is not cancelled (yet...) they can only rebook it as LHR-GOT, ARN-LHR rather than LHR-ARN-LHR. Is this right because I swear in the past I’ve been proactively offered a change on both legs even if only one had been cancelled.
#4783
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: 63,851
Hello all! The return of a December trip to Gothenburg was cancelled, and I tried to rebook to Stockholm instead. I was told that because the outbound LHR-GOT is not cancelled (yet...) they can only rebook it as LHR-GOT, ARN-LHR rather than LHR-ARN-LHR. Is this right because I swear in the past I’ve been proactively offered a change on both legs even if only one had been cancelled.
#4784
Join Date: Jun 2018
Programs: BA Gold, Delta Plat
Posts: 186
I am thinking about making a booking to TLV for April next year in WTP and upgrading to CW during booking. If I need to cancel and get a FTV do I have to rebook and use the cash and avios component at the same time? I am worried about getting stuck with a FTV where I must use the cash and avios at the same time which may not be so flexible.
#4785
Join Date: Nov 2020
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 9
The wording of the 300 mile rule does suggest to me that it applies only to cancelled flights, but I too have been able to move both legs in this scenario, so there may be some leeway even if it's not policy. I'd leave it if you can, to see if the LHR-GOT service goes the same way. But do check the fares / FTV option to see if you can make the move that way instead.