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*
#4906
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: 63,802
Welcome to Flyertalk drjross, and welcome to the BA forum. What you have reported seems fully in line with policy - and is the experience of many other people in this thread - with the exception of this quote. Normally an FTV would need Avios availability, you can't force that availability by simply deploying an FTV. Now it's possible there is some special factor about your booking which hasn't been reported by anyone else, but it would be news to me. But the right to move to a new date is possible, however I very much doubt regular travel to Australia will be permitted for the foreseeable future.
#4907
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Posts: 63,802
As you have now worked out, if this is intended for travel to the USA you may want to be cautious about any further bookings until the situation becomes clearer.
#4908
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Yes, if you acceot this change you will have to pay the redeposit fee for further cancellation AND you lose the ability to move the trip to different dates altogether. So don't rush, leave it until nearer the time. You can leave it up to about 48 hours to departure if it is not a BA Holidays booking, before deciding what to do, however take some screen shots since if there are further changes MMB may start going blank for some or all details. Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum All the pieces.
#4909
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: 63,802
If you rebook to First on the same route within a few days of your original booking then it can be done in one change, ditto if you move to SEA (though i think they too have lost First). If you take the FTV then yes you can book in CW or even WTP or WT if you wish, and it doesn't need to be YVR. Any excess Avios should be refunded, and the cash retained for further FTV use (or returned if a small amount). But obviously if it's a pure Avios booking then you can simply get a full refund with a £35 redeposit charge.
#4910
Join Date: May 2014
Location: BRU
Programs: BA GGL, TK E (*G), ITA exec
Posts: 4,091
I'm very sorry to bother, or to repeat others questions, but I need some clarity as there are too many rules and exceptions and I'm starting to confuse things...
BA ticket BRU-LHR-MIA for middle February, with LHR-MIA on BA number / AA metal, J cabin, I class, no avios/guf involved.
AA cancelled the flights
IF I ask for a rebooking, for the same route and on BA codes/metal only, on a quite later date, say November, do I have to pay any fare difference... or as long there is I class available I'm good?
BA ticket BRU-LHR-MIA for middle February, with LHR-MIA on BA number / AA metal, J cabin, I class, no avios/guf involved.
AA cancelled the flights
IF I ask for a rebooking, for the same route and on BA codes/metal only, on a quite later date, say November, do I have to pay any fare difference... or as long there is I class available I'm good?
#4911
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Cheltenham
Programs: KLM Plat for Life , BA Gold, HH Silver, (Other half Diamond), IHG Gold
Posts: 2,398
Yes, if you acceot this change you will have to pay the redeposit fee for further cancellation AND you lose the ability to move the trip to different dates altogether. So don't rush, leave it until nearer the time. You can leave it up to about 48 hours to departure if it is not a BA Holidays booking, before deciding what to do, however take some screen shots since if there are further changes MMB may start going blank for some or all details. Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum All the pieces.
I learned this by experience and won’t repeat it again.
BA is a little naughty I feel as once cancelled or downgraded you can’t see your booking or seats so the temptation is to press the accept button to see what is going on . I have learned from this and don’t press the button now .
#4912
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: 63,802
A different answer to the above may apply if you had bought this from AA (001 ticket) and/or if the had AA flight numbers. It shouldn't do really, to respect JB principles, but I can see there are differences in approach.
#4913
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 7,237
I had a flight BER-JFK booked in 2019 for August 2020.
In May, I got a travel voucher fort that and immediately used that voucher to book another flight BER-MIA for March 2021 (now naive I was). The booking number DID NOT change. The new flight was a little more expensive so I added payment
What are my options now? Is this considered a 2019 booking (so not another voucher since it's after Feb 2021) or as a May 2020 booking (so I would get a voucher)?
I assume I would get a voucher over the full amount (first + second payment) right?
In May, I got a travel voucher fort that and immediately used that voucher to book another flight BER-MIA for March 2021 (now naive I was). The booking number DID NOT change. The new flight was a little more expensive so I added payment
What are my options now? Is this considered a 2019 booking (so not another voucher since it's after Feb 2021) or as a May 2020 booking (so I would get a voucher)?
I assume I would get a voucher over the full amount (first + second payment) right?
#4914
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Cheltenham
Programs: KLM Plat for Life , BA Gold, HH Silver, (Other half Diamond), IHG Gold
Posts: 2,398
We had a AMS JNB AMS for four of us in club world cash booking made in March 2019 for January 2020 . We were going to have a weekend in Amsterdam before flying back to London . One of our party was not well on the return flight so we cancelled the last segment at the airport , they kindly said we could use it at a later time . It was rebooked for March 2020 but cancelled and moved to July then moved again to last weekend . Again the flight was cancelled and we could not have gone . I rang BA and was rather surprised that they were good enough to move it to August next year , well outside the one year rule . So it can be done . Ticketed fine .
#4915
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: KLM, BA Silver, Etihad
Posts: 918
Hi,
Yesterday I received notification that both our outward and inward flight LHR to EZE were being changed.
They have hanged them to go vis Sao Paulo which is a big no no for me; we want direct flights.
The flights aren't until June '21 - from what I have read here its a case of not pressing accept and just sitting tight? Maybe by June the direct flights would be re-instated?
Yesterday I received notification that both our outward and inward flight LHR to EZE were being changed.
They have hanged them to go vis Sao Paulo which is a big no no for me; we want direct flights.
The flights aren't until June '21 - from what I have read here its a case of not pressing accept and just sitting tight? Maybe by June the direct flights would be re-instated?
#4916
Join Date: Mar 2020
Location: DUB/ABZ/GLA
Programs: Aer Club Silver | BAEC Bronze | ALL Silver | Sixt Platinum
Posts: 277
Hi,
Yesterday I received notification that both our outward and inward flight LHR to EZE were being changed.
They have hanged them to go vis Sao Paulo which is a big no no for me; we want direct flights.
The flights aren't until June '21 - from what I have read here its a case of not pressing accept and just sitting tight? Maybe by June the direct flights would be re-instated?
Yesterday I received notification that both our outward and inward flight LHR to EZE were being changed.
They have hanged them to go vis Sao Paulo which is a big no no for me; we want direct flights.
The flights aren't until June '21 - from what I have read here its a case of not pressing accept and just sitting tight? Maybe by June the direct flights would be re-instated?
Highly unlikely that they'll change them back to a direct flight.
As far as I'm aware, I don't think any other airline goes direct from LHR.
Edit: I believe the LHR-GRU-EZE service starts March 28. So if you want direct, you'll have to go before then.
#4917
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2018
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Programs: TK Elite Plus,BAEC GGL,ITA Executive, AFKL Gold,QR Gold,HH Diamond,Bonvoy Gold,ALL Gold
Posts: 14,186
Unless there is a significant increase in demand for Argentina, I don't think BA would re-instate direct flights to Buenos Aires this summer. Daily via GRU makes sense if there isn't demand. Also, Aerolineas Argentinas is not flying to London so still, BA is the most convenient option as you don't need to change aircraft; I assume that within the 1h wait in GRU, you would be asked to stay onboard.
#4918
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: KLM, BA Silver, Etihad
Posts: 918
Unless there is a significant increase in demand for Argentina, I don't think BA would re-instate direct flights to Buenos Aires this summer. Daily via GRU makes sense if there isn't demand. Also, Aerolineas Argentinas is not flying to London so still, BA is the most convenient option as you don't need to change aircraft; I assume that within the 1h wait in GRU, you would be asked to stay onboard.
If I pause too long then the good seats will go too :-(
#4919
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: 63,802
#4920
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: KLM, BA Silver, Etihad
Posts: 918
It's a BA holiday as we added a hotel. I've emailed the guy there to see if he can categorically tell me what the transfer situation will be; if we do stay on the tarmac it will be an easier swing with my other half. Not great as its the talk offs and landings she dislikes the most.