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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 Dec 6, 2020, 7:41 am
  #4831  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
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The BA (and IATA) protocol is that tickets are valid for one year after issue, or one year after the outbound has been flown. EC261 doesn't take any attention to this, it simply says either you fly as soon as possible, alternatively "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats." No mention of 1 year timelines, clear reference to passenger convenience. Being a redemption you can of course get a refund back to the Avios (and if BA cancelled you don't pay the £35 redeposit fee) and perhaps if you take the broad sweep here then at some point you will be able to get rebooked. If you wanted to insist on a March 2020 ticket being valid in May 2021 then it may get sticky. It's possible the agent will just rebook it without saying anything. I suspect the law is generally on your side here, in terms of May being OK, however BA will perhaps argue there are no redemption seats available on that flight. In other circumstances the policy is under 2 weeks any fare bucket, after 2 weeks it has to be the same fare bucket, and this was generally viewed as complying with EC261. So the easiest solution is to see if they will entertain May, but if not then go for the redeposit of Avios and keep watching.
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Old Dec 6, 2020, 2:31 pm
  #4832  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 796
Question about cancelled redemption flights being rebooked into revenue fare buckets, will the miles post in this kind of situation?
Pros and cons of using the BAEC number vs. oneworld partner programmes?
Many thanks!
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Old Dec 6, 2020, 2:44 pm
  #4833  
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You should assume you won't get a credit in that scenario, but bank errors in your favour sometimes happen. I don't think it makes much difference which card you use, but I don't actually know.
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Old Dec 6, 2020, 3:01 pm
  #4834  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,061
Originally Posted by rosenkavalier
Question about cancelled redemption flights being rebooked into revenue fare buckets, will the miles post in this kind of situation?
Pros and cons of using the BAEC number vs. oneworld partner programmes?
Many thanks!
Of course they’ve thought of this... it doesn’t actually book into revenue space, just that they create space for you out of that inventory. It won’t credit.
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Old Dec 6, 2020, 3:10 pm
  #4835  
 
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 796
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
You should assume you won't get a credit in that scenario, but bank errors in your favour sometimes happen. I don't think it makes much difference which card you use, but I don't actually know.
Originally Posted by Confus
Of course they’ve thought of this... it doesn’t actually book into revenue space, just that they create space for you out of that inventory. It won’t credit.
OK thanks for the info, I will see what happens.
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Old Dec 6, 2020, 3:11 pm
  #4836  
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
 
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Originally Posted by Confus
Of course they’ve thought of this... it doesn’t actually book into revenue space, just that they create space for you out of that inventory. It won’t credit.
Absolutely, they never get put in revenue selling classes and never credit TPs. If you are reading this BA there is no need to look at my account as this has never happened to me. Never!

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KARFA is offline  
Old Dec 6, 2020, 6:37 pm
  #4837  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Programs: Executive Club
Posts: 1,115
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
The BA (and IATA) protocol is that tickets are valid for one year after issue, or one year after the outbound has been flown. EC261 doesn't take any attention to this, it simply says either you fly as soon as possible, alternatively "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats." No mention of 1 year timelines, clear reference to passenger convenience. Being a redemption you can of course get a refund back to the Avios (and if BA cancelled you don't pay the £35 redeposit fee) and perhaps if you take the broad sweep here then at some point you will be able to get rebooked. If you wanted to insist on a March 2020 ticket being valid in May 2021 then it may get sticky. It's possible the agent will just rebook it without saying anything. I suspect the law is generally on your side here, in terms of May being OK, however BA will perhaps argue there are no redemption seats available on that flight. In other circumstances the policy is under 2 weeks any fare bucket, after 2 weeks it has to be the same fare bucket, and this was generally viewed as complying with EC261. So the easiest solution is to see if they will entertain May, but if not then go for the redeposit of Avios and keep watching.
Thank you. That's pretty much what I thought was the case, it's helpful to have someone with your expertise confirm I was on the right lines.
JessicaB is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 3:37 am
  #4838  
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 1,355
Just wondering though I think I know the answer, if I had a flight booked but there was a cancellation & I accepted a new flight, can I go back to BA & request a refund instead?
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Old Dec 7, 2020, 3:42 am
  #4839  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Originally Posted by andymcdonnell
Just wondering though I think I know the answer, if I had a flight booked but there was a cancellation & I accepted a new flight, can I go back to BA & request a refund instead?
Usually you can't do this, hence the oft repeated advice here to leave it until you are sure. Once you accept a new flight the booking reverts back to OKC and you need something else to happen such as another cancellation before you can do anything with it. You can go for the FTV, which in some circumsances may end up as an eVoucher.
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Old Dec 7, 2020, 3:43 am
  #4840  
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Originally Posted by andymcdonnell
Just wondering though I think I know the answer, if I had a flight booked but there was a cancellation & I accepted a new flight, can I go back to BA & request a refund instead?
no. You have one opportunity to decide what option you want to take after an involuntary change, and once you have chosen to accept the new flights you can’t go back and change your mind.
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KARFA is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 4:36 am
  #4841  
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Programs: Executive Club
Posts: 1,115
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
The BA (and IATA) protocol is that tickets are valid for one year after issue, or one year after the outbound has been flown. EC261 doesn't take any attention to this, it simply says either you fly as soon as possible, alternatively "re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger's convenience, subject to availability of seats." No mention of 1 year timelines, clear reference to passenger convenience. Being a redemption you can of course get a refund back to the Avios (and if BA cancelled you don't pay the £35 redeposit fee) and perhaps if you take the broad sweep here then at some point you will be able to get rebooked. If you wanted to insist on a March 2020 ticket being valid in May 2021 then it may get sticky. It's possible the agent will just rebook it without saying anything. I suspect the law is generally on your side here, in terms of May being OK, however BA will perhaps argue there are no redemption seats available on that flight. In other circumstances the policy is under 2 weeks any fare bucket, after 2 weeks it has to be the same fare bucket, and this was generally viewed as complying with EC261. So the easiest solution is to see if they will entertain May, but if not then go for the redeposit of Avios and keep watching.
Quick update I called and the guy I spoke to sounded reasonably new and a little confused put me on hold for ages but in the end he did it for May. Result.
JessicaB is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 4:49 am
  #4842  
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: OW
Posts: 226
Apologies if this has been asked/answered before - if I use a £99 e-voucher to book a new flight and pay an additional £1 in new cash and the flight is subsequently cancelled, and I request a full refund - will this be 99/1 or 100 in cash? Assuming it's the former? TIA
eh220160 is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 5:12 am
  #4843  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
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Posts: 63,821
Originally Posted by eh220160
Apologies if this has been asked/answered before - if I use a £99 e-voucher to book a new flight and pay an additional £1 in new cash and the flight is subsequently cancelled, and I request a full refund - will this be 99/1 or 100 in cash? Assuming it's the former? TIA
I think £99 goes back to the card that generated the eVoucher in the first place, and £1 goes to the card used in the new booking if that is different. If it's not, it's £100 to eVoucher credit card.
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corporate-wage-slave is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 5:16 am
  #4844  
 
Join Date: Nov 2017
Posts: 3,061
Originally Posted by eh220160
Apologies if this has been asked/answered before - if I use a £99 e-voucher to book a new flight and pay an additional £1 in new cash and the flight is subsequently cancelled, and I request a full refund - will this be 99/1 or 100 in cash? Assuming it's the former? TIA
You will have a choice of cash or a new voucher, but all for £100, not split. A cancelled flight does allow a full refund to original form of payment if you want, or you can take a voucher instead.

You would see two transactions on your card statement though, one for each of the payments.
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Confus is offline  
Old Dec 7, 2020, 10:27 am
  #4845  
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Join Date: Aug 2000
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Programs: Hilton, IHG - BA, GA, LH, QR, SV, TK
Posts: 17,008
Originally Posted by My_head_is_spinning
GGL India have just told me I need to rebook within 14 days of original date, or have the same booking class (not cabin) available.
Odd. Same thing happened to me last night. Even though I pushed back a little, the chap was adamant - the 14-day rule applied.

Even the next day there was some resistance from UK call-centre, but the agent sensibly went off to get advice from a supervisor.

But all's well... I'm now an R-class passenger on an I-class fare, and an agent in Didsbury is in a better position to help someone with a cancelled flight.


It's a little chilling though, the thought that those without that bit of knowledge giving them confidence to push back are very much disadvantaged.

"Manage My Booking" doesn't follow the guidelines and not all agents are sufficiently clued up to do so: the website isn't helpful either. It seems like a policy applied grudgingly.
IAN-UK is offline  


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