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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 Mar 19, 2020, 9:51 am
  #601  
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
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Originally Posted by Cofyknsult
Could it be that BA has done this intentionally, hoping to find a way to NOT refund due to the circumstances ? You know me. Certified letter to BA immediately laying out what happened. Just in case...
Maybe you could have a look at the EC261 thread in the BA Forum Dashboard? You do not need to send a certified letter, you are fully protected by legislation and BA has no optionality on that point. You will get your refund. I would not assume anything by two different email wordings, BA's IT surprises no-one who has travelled on BA in the last 40 years or so.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 9:55 am
  #602  
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Originally Posted by wilsnunn
I am helping a family member who NEEDS to travel back to Singapore with their flights. They are booked to fly LHR-SIN on 24th March and SIN-LHR on 22nd April. Their flight on the 22nd April has been cancelled and they will just move onto the other currently still operating SIN-LHR service that day. MMB gives the option of changing the outbound flight too, ideally they want to fly on the 23rd and we only picked the 24th as it was significantly cheaper when we booked. I looked on BCD travel and there is no availability in WT (where they are booked) on the only remaining BA LHR-SIN flight (BA15) that day. The availability looks like this: Booking Class - Seat Availability: F - 7, A - 7, J - 9, C - 9, D - 9, R - 9, I - 9, W - 6

It seems that MMB will allow us to rebook onto this BA15 on the 23rd, but would it then fail later on as there is no avialability?
If a flight is cancelled and you want to rebook, the fare buckets are irrelevant, you just need space in the relevant cabin. Given that flights are not exactly full at the moment, I would suggest your family member just asks at LHR on the outbound to have the return moved to a date of their choice. It will only take a minute or two.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 10:03 am
  #603  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
I can't see when your flight is, but you are broadly OK to wait. If cancelled by the airline you can normally deal with refunds weeks or even months down the line.
That's very helpful, thanks - the flight is this Saturday 21st March, and like I say I am not in a rush for a refund, so I will hold off a week or two.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 10:17 am
  #604  
 
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
If a flight is cancelled and you want to rebook, the fare buckets are irrelevant, you just need space in the relevant cabin. Given that flights are not exactly full at the moment, I would suggest your family member just asks at LHR on the outbound to have the return moved to a date of their choice. It will only take a minute or two.
Thanks for that c-w-s, so does that mean that there should be no issue moving to the flight on the 23rd March using MMB (given that MMB seems to let me move it to then) even though it is showing no availability in WT using BCD Travel?
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 10:21 am
  #605  
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
If a flight is cancelled and you want to rebook, the fare buckets are irrelevant, you just need space in the relevant cabin. Given that flights are not exactly full at the moment, I would suggest your family member just asks at LHR on the outbound to have the return moved to a date of their choice. It will only take a minute or two.
f depends on how far ahead you are looking at rebooking if it's over 15 days from original you have to been booked in not just in same cabin but same class needs to be available not just the same cabin as for flight changes within 14 days, obviously no fare difference but still needs to by for example E class to E class rather than E class to W

Last edited by Hawk777; Mar 19, 2020 at 11:02 am
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 10:55 am
  #606  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Programs: BA GOLD
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My flight from MCO-LGW appeared as cancelled on MMB today and I rang the US Silver line got dealt with very quickly (by Manchester) and flights amended to MCO-MIA-LHR for same day travel on 31st March (or so I thought) and an email received advising of the changes. At no point during the conversation was it mentioned that there would be charges involved and now the booking has been updated a charge of £636.42 has appeared on one PNR and £387.42 on the other. Both PNR's on return journey are in J but one was outbound in J and one in Y. Will wait to see what if anything lands on my credit card - I understood that until my flight was offically cancelled there would be charges but not after it was showing cancelled.

Noticed that both BA Miami - Heathrow services have disappeared and we are booked on AA 38.

Last edited by Brighterside; Mar 19, 2020 at 11:10 am
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 10:57 am
  #607  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
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Avios 2-4-1 cancellation

There has been lots of criticism of the lack of automatic cash-refund option on an Avios 2-4-1 booking (post BA cancellation), which is understandable but I have a couple of questions:
1) Are there any benefits of the voucher over a cash refund? For example better re-booking availability in the future
2) Is there any possibility of being able to 'cash in' the voucher after this situation passes, on the basis that a cash refund should have been offered in the first place and it wasn't made easy enough to claim? I appreciate that this is somewhat speculative.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:20 am
  #608  
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
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I apologize if this is answered above - but the thread is now too long to read in total. I live in the USA and travel regularly across the Atlantic, and have a 'collection' of inter-locking outbounds and returns. The next flight I was due to take to Britain, in mid April, has just been cancelled. It is the return half of a LHR/ORD/LHR ticket, of which the outbound was in November.

Will a refund be an equitable 50% of the cost of the ticket? And I had used Avios to upgrade this sector from J to F - presumably those would just be put back into my account? Rescheduling seems a dumb option for now, as who knows when life will become normal - but I have an instinctive wariness about the refund road on a part-flown ticket. Should I be concerned or not?
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:23 am
  #609  
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Originally Posted by Christopher Powell
There has been lots of criticism of the lack of automatic cash-refund option on an Avios 2-4-1 booking (post BA cancellation), which is understandable but I have a couple of questions:
1) Are there any benefits of the voucher over a cash refund? For example better re-booking availability in the future
2) Is there any possibility of being able to 'cash in' the voucher after this situation passes, on the basis that a cash refund should have been offered in the first place and it wasn't made easy enough to claim? I appreciate that this is somewhat speculative.
no and no.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:23 am
  #610  
 
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 156
Originally Posted by Hawk777
f depends on how far ahead you are looking at rebooking if it's over 15 days from original you have to been booked in not just in same cabin but same class needs to be available not just the same cabin as for flight changes within 14 days, obviously no fare difference but still needs to by for example E class to E class rather than E class to W

Ah that explains my issue. Cant really see any point in rebooking within 14 days though as unlikely to fly lol Dont ssuppose a change of origin airport is possible either?
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:25 am
  #611  
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Originally Posted by DominicB
Will a refund be an equitable 50% of the cost of the ticket? And I had used Avios to upgrade this sector from J to F - presumably those would just be put back into my account? Rescheduling seems a dumb option for now, as who knows when life will become normal - but I have an instinctive wariness about the refund road on a part-flown ticket. Should I be concerned or not?
It's a part refund, but it's not necessarily a neat 50% to cover what you have already flown, it depends on the underlying fare basis. Nor is it just allocating a single ticket cost against what you have flown (so often nothing back). If you had the same fare basis on each leg, then it would be about 50%, with some variation due to differences in taxes and airport charges.
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:29 am
  #612  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Lincoln UK/BKK
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
If a flight is cancelled and you want to rebook, the fare buckets are irrelevant, you just need space in the relevant cabin.
Apologies if this has been covered. Is the above relevant to Avios booking as well? And would rebooking options include connecting flights to a BA service that is running because cancelled flight is a one a day service?
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:39 am
  #613  
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Originally Posted by manymany
Apologies if this has been covered. Is the above relevant to Avios booking as well? And would rebooking options include connecting flights to a BA service that is running because cancelled flight is a one a day service?
yes as long as rebooking within 14 days if rebooking after 14 days you have to be rebooked in same class or lower not just same cabin so therefor Avios availability would be needed
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:40 am
  #614  
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Originally Posted by Sam Lewis
Ah that explains my issue. Cant really see any point in rebooking within 14 days though as unlikely to fly lol Dont ssuppose a change of origin airport is possible either?
depending on when looking at going I'd be surprised if the fare bucket you are in isn't available unless of course you are looking for August or similar times. Doesn't matter if fare is higher than what you paid you just need same fare code
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Old Mar 19, 2020, 11:49 am
  #615  
 
Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: UK, GR, TW, CN
Programs: Flying Blue (KL/AF) Platinum, CX MPC Silver
Posts: 11
Received an email from BA early this morning advising return leg of our flight cancelled.
BA Website directs cancel & refunds flight(s) to the voucher page. No refund option.
Tried calling all morning to query - gave up and just proceeded with the voucher option.
This afternoon received an email saying outbound cancelled and rebooked on "best alternative" - which is the original flight.
Called again to query and got through after 40 odd minutes.
Told not to worry just "system" trying to rebook and both sectors cancelled but as I chose the voucher (only option) no refund possible.
Just received an email confirming changes to the timing and routing outbound and they look forward to welcoming us on board!
I really don't want to clog up the phone lines but seems I need to call again. Anyone else experiencing similar?
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