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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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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 24, 2020, 5:43 am
  #916  
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Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 629
Originally Posted by Teamscoop
I wasn't really given a choice. It just says:

Next Steps
If you're happy to travel at the new flight time, you don't need to do anything. If you want to book an alternative flight, please go to Manage My Booking to see your options.


If I go to Manage my Booking, it says that I cannot cancel but to contact BA on the 'phone. Don't think I'll bother with that at the moment.

Ho Hum

TG
was it a cancellation and putting you on a new flight or just a schedule change and still same flight? If it's a schedule change and it's less than 120mins you get less options
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 5:46 am
  #917  
 
Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Southampton UK
Posts: 48
Originally Posted by Hawk777
was it a cancellation and putting you on a new flight or just a schedule change and still same flight? If it's a schedule change and it's less than 120mins you get less options
Yes, on further inspection, it was a schedule change 10:25 to 12:10. Hopefully this new 0295 flight is cancelled shortly....

Thanks

TS
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:09 am
  #918  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Programs: Virgin Atlantic
Posts: 3
Can't get any help from BA

Hey, have been tying to contact BA about my booking on April 6th to BOS for about three weeks.

No response from Twitter and can't get through on the phone. Have a succession of confusing e-mails from BA, some form holidays (booking included car hire) saying it is cancelled and a refund will be processed within 7 days (received 15th March) and some from BA telling me to make my meal selection and the flights are going ahead. MMB shows the inbound from BOS to LHR is cancelled but connections to MAN are both still flying.
Tried the work arounds to get a refund but they don't work.

Can anyone suggest any way of getting in touch with BA so I can get the refund?
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:33 am
  #919  
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Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 629
Originally Posted by Schoolflyer
Hey, have been tying to contact BA about my booking on April 6th to BOS for about three weeks.

No response from Twitter and can't get through on the phone. Have a succession of confusing e-mails from BA, some form holidays (booking included car hire) saying it is cancelled and a refund will be processed within 7 days (received 15th March) and some from BA telling me to make my meal selection and the flights are going ahead. MMB shows the inbound from BOS to LHR is cancelled but connections to MAN are both still flying.
Tried the work arounds to get a refund but they don't work.

Can anyone suggest any way of getting in touch with BA so I can get the refund?
are you trying to rebook to a date within the next 72 hours if so call as you are within 72 hours if not pls follow the ba guidelines and not contact till within 72 hours of travel
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:38 am
  #920  
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: 63,735
Originally Posted by Schoolflyer
Can anyone suggest any way of getting in touch with BA so I can get the refund?
You can regard that email of 15 March as authoritative. You don't need to do anything else, other than keep an eye on the original form of payment(s) to ensure the refund comes back in due course. The other emails can be explained by their round-robin process. So everyone with pending flights has had the meal email, and the other email about flights running was based on your flights being in Manage My Booking. It's difficult to do joined up thinking when there are a million travellers a week booked on services. So I would only call up if you don't get your refund in the next 2 weeks or so, and at a time when the Contact Centres are quiet. This forum will keep you posted on that. Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum.
corporate-wage-slave is online now  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 6:55 am
  #921  
 
Join Date: Jan 2020
Programs: British Airways
Posts: 55
Just to clarify - If my flight is cancelled and I want a full refund I should fill out this form?
https://www.britishairways.com/trave..._ticket_refund
I'll get a full refund? Just checking because the wording:
"- We are unable to calculate your refund total prior to processing your claim. The refund amount will be based on our fare rules and the total refunded is final and non-negotiable. On submission of this form you are agreeing to the refund total that we calculate."

When I go to MMB I only get an offer to change flights, or get a voucher. The new flight proposal is 10 hours later (not that I want to travel in April anymore!)

Thanks!

Last edited by CharlesWindsorClive1964; Mar 24, 2020 at 7:26 am
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 7:50 am
  #922  
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: BA Blue, IHG Spire, Marriott Gold
Posts: 396
Originally Posted by SimonAB
Our April 9th LHR-MAD was cancelled and rebooked to the flight about two hours later (go figure).

Anyway in the MMB page with the offers to accept change, rebook, or cancel and refund, the JavaScript hack worked and in theory a full cash refund is comming.

So Teamscoop, if your original flight was actually cancelled, and you have the same MMB options, try the JS trick.
My flight to Porto has been cancelled and doesn't work for me, all i get is a call us to discuss your options! Which as my flight isn't within 72 hours I won't do but I'm currently not able to get a refund, voucher or anything!
Eskimoboy is offline  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:00 am
  #923  
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: 63,735
Originally Posted by CharlesWindsorClive1964
Just to clarify - If my flight is cancelled and I want a full refund I should fill out this form?
https://www.britishairways.com/trave..._ticket_refund
I'll get a full refund? Just checking because the wording:
If a flight is cancelled by BA, due to the EC261 protection you are covered for a full refund. Moreover EC261 clearly states that airlines cannot use small print to avoid their responsibilities. See the main EC261 thread for details. In practice BA will refund the full amount, and if they make a mistake then it can and will be corrected, despite that wording. As ever it is important to keep screenshots with timestamps.
corporate-wage-slave is online now  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:01 am
  #924  
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: 63,735
Originally Posted by Eskimoboy
My flight to Porto has been cancelled and doesn't work for me, all i get is a call us to discuss your options! Which as my flight isn't within 72 hours I won't do but I'm currently not able to get a refund, voucher or anything!
It's probably best to wait, but there are two alternative ways forward in the wiki.
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 8:38 am
  #925  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
Programs: Aadvantage platinum; IHG Spire
Posts: 544
Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
If you have had a cancellation, do a screenshot but don't pay the final payment. These are, in any case, being delayed until 3 weeks before travel. If you did actually want to travel fairly soon - perhaps to somewhere else - then that may be a reason to call up. Otherwise just sit tight. (At home).
CWS where can I see about the final payment dates being moved? We have a trip booked at the end of May which we would rather cancel than get a voucher which we would be unable to use in the next 12 months, however it still says final payment due 18 April on MMB.
Donsyb is offline  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:01 am
  #926  
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: 63,735
I haven't seen any official notice from BA Holidays but a number of reliable FTers posted this information in this forum recently after contracting BAH.
corporate-wage-slave is online now  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 9:07 am
  #927  
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Kamloops, BC
Programs: Air Canada-Aeroplan, NEXUS, E50K, Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite
Posts: 344
Hi there,

Normally an aeroplan/AC person. Was going to be flying on BA JNB-VFA r/t in less than 3 weeks.

The flight has been cancelled today. I see that they say you can be refunded the full amount which is preferable as being Canadian I dont have a lot of options with BA if I get the credit. I did however a few days ago submit for an eCredit but have not heard anything. Is there a way to cancel and get the refund now? I can't do it from the my bookings area and would not like to call as I'm not <72 hrs. The forms/links above have they worked? (I filled them out anyways). Thanks for the helps. Cheers

Last edited by canadianhockey91; Mar 24, 2020 at 9:12 am
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Old Mar 24, 2020, 11:19 am
  #928  
 
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 3,062
Originally Posted by willmatt
I found a workaround for cancelled flights to enable you to get a refund even if clicking on refund takes you to the voucher page.

It is similar to the JavaScript workaround already mentioned in relation to Avios bookings but it includes an extra step.
  • From your MMB page where the flight is shown as cancelled go into your browser's settings and disable JavaScript.
  • Click on the cancel and refund button.
  • Confirm that you now see the correct cash refund form and not the voucher refund form.
  • Turn JavaScript back on in your browser settings.
  • Click on the "Yes" radio button to select that you are a person in the booking.
  • When nothing happens press "Enter" on your keyboard. (This works in Firefox and Chrome)
  • The page refreshes and shows an error at the top of the page "email address invalid"
  • Click on the "Yes" radio button again and this time it will allow you to select the name of the traveller and complete the rest of the form.
Hope this works for others.
Tried this on Firefox and Chrome and clicking on the Yes radio button a second time does not allow selection of the traveler or show more of the form. Thanks anyway, guess I'll just call. One of these decades BA will fix their buggy website. It has been a disaster since the web was born.
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dhacker is offline  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 11:27 am
  #929  
 
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 3,062
Finally got it to work. My comments about the buggy website stand. Another example is the advance passenger info. Sometimes, but not always, if you have it already complete but try to edit, it presents a blank form. It is not that hard to test a site and write unit tests to maintain functionality as code is modified over time.

In any case, a huge thanks to willmatt!
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dhacker is offline  
Old Mar 24, 2020, 11:39 am
  #930  
 
Join Date: Mar 2020
Posts: 4
Voucher class

Hi all!
Move booked though an agent and BA are telling me to get the voucher from the agent and the agent are telling me to go to BA!
Anyone know who keeps the voucher and whom I can redeem it with?

should I get a voucher code?

do I have to use the voucher for the same class seat? (I booked premium economy, can I downgrade to economy when using my voucher?)

thanks all!!!
Ak1234 is offline  


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