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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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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.
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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
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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 Jan 1, 2021, 7:37 am
  #5281  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: London, UK
Programs: BA Gold; Marriott Plat
Posts: 147
I have a BAH booking to Gibraltar in just over 3 weeks time and being in Tier 4 I'm wondering what my options are. Ideally I would like to reschedule. If I understand correctly I would need to claim a FTV at least 3 weeks before. If I don't do this, and the flights operate, do I have any other options or would I lose the full value?
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Old Jan 1, 2021, 7:51 am
  #5282  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 804
Originally Posted by ajbrowc
I have a BAH booking to Gibraltar in just over 3 weeks time and being in Tier 4 I'm wondering what my options are. Ideally I would like to reschedule. If I understand correctly I would need to claim a FTV at least 3 weeks before. If I don't do this, and the flights operate, do I have any other options or would I lose the full value?
Just check the terms and conditions since it depends on what kind of booking and when you booked it. If the flight is cancelled, then you have all options on the table including refund.
However if the flight still goes, FTV will be your best option since you are cancelling in effect.
You can reschedule but depends on your tickets T&Cs since currently there is free rebooking however the difference in price will have to be paid by you.
The current rebooking T&Cs are
You can change the dates and destination of your booking without incurring a change fee, although you will need to pay any difference in price (applies to bookings made from 3 March 2020 onwards for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021). Change booking Terms and Conditions

The current FTV T&Cs as far as I can see is
Flight only bookings can be exchanged up to the close of check-in. Date changes and voucher exchanges requested for flight + hotel and flight + car package bookings must be made a minimum of three weeks before departure if booking after 11 June 2020. If you booked a package between 3 March and 11 June 2020 for travel up to 31 December 2020 48 hours’ notice applies and if travelling between 1 January and 31 August 2021 three weeks’ notice applies. If you booked before 3 March 2020 for travel up to 28 February 2021, three weeks notice applies. In the event that the UK government introduce a new quarantine requirement when returning from your booked destination, you can give notice within 7 days of the government announcement, or the day of your outward departure (must be requested before flight check-in closes), if sooner. This supersedes the notice periods stated and applies only to the booking and travel dates shown above.”
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Old Jan 1, 2021, 8:36 am
  #5283  
Moderator: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges and Environmentally Friendly Travel
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: London, UK
Posts: 22,212
As this thread has grown very lengthy since it was launched in March 2020, a fresh replacement has now been set up. This thread has been a tremendously useful point of reference during its time, and at the beginning of 2021 it is clear there will be an ongoing need for a community help desk for some months to come. You can find the new thread linked below:

BA Covid-19 Flight cancellations, rebooking, and refunds | Help and advice thread

Prospero
Moderator: BA forum
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