Anonba

Was this not just because of voucher? In theory if you are eligible for voucher then you can be rebooked upto 2022.

babyg_wc

This original booking made in October 11th 2019 for June 20th 2020.

The flight was cancelled, and when i tried to rebook I was told the ticket validity was only for one year from when the ticket was issued - so i needed to rebook a date before October 11th 2020.

This no longer seems to be the case (at least for my cash booking), i can book any date until May 2021 so long as there are seats in the same class.

high.and.above

hey guys, a question if anybody had this happen. I bought a cash ticket in April 2020 to fly in January 2021,BA canceled the flight and rebooked/reissue the ticket for march 2021, now that we reissued the ticket, does the validity starts again from when BA reissued it( December 2020) till December 2021? I m asking that because in case there will be more flight cancelation I don't think we can rebook again before the original ticket expiry date and in case USA does not open up, I would like to rebook for later in the year

KARFA

This is a good question - hopefully one of our friendly BA insiders can clarify.

My understanding (which I admit may be wrong!) is that it will track back to the original ticket issue date rather than re-setting each time you do a change which requires a ticket re-issue. So for your example I would expect you can go no further than April 2021. I am not sure if it makes a difference whether the change is voluntary or involuntary - perhaps an involuntary change does reset the clock whereas a voluntary one does not?

If you go via the FTV route and make a new booking that does reset the clock, so your ticket issue date will be when you made the new booking using the FTV. If you rely on BWC, i.e. just do the voluntary change straight away to the new booking without going via the FTV then perhaps that is the same and resets the clock too?

Getafix

I had booked two tickets for Family members. Outbound flight last year. Return Flights cancelled during the first lockdown. Both rebooked online to a date beyond 1 year.

Wanted to change one to bring it earlier, was told no. Was told Online Error should not have happened. The Rebooked flight was cancelled and the first Agent I spoke to reissued the ticket.
So not a System Restriction.

Second ticket, nephew wanted to change to a travel few days early. Just told him to keep to it as was not sure whether they will do it or not.

Anonba

Earlier in the year yes there was an online error on ba.com that meant people were able to book past ticket validity. Otherwise ba.com wouldnt allow this.

Anonba

For an outbound flight whatever change you make ticket validity is that you can travel within one year from the date the ticket was booked. However for inbound flight, travel can be one year from the date of the outbound. Therefore if you changed outbound you can travel later on inbound.

sb1982

So, I booked a reward flight in October 2020, twice I have changed it (voluntarily), the first change new ticket had the same 125- number, after the second change, which was just a few days ago the new e-ticket has a completely different number. The flight was actually cancelled yesterday and when I asked BA (Twitter team) how far I can rebook into the future, they quoted me a year from the date of the new ticket number, not the original booking date - so I can rebook to March 2022.

Can anyone shed a light why on the second change the ticket number changed? Both times I changed, it was a simple date change online (no new destination, minor tax adjustment) - AND if anyone get's a new ticket number does that reset the validity for a year, as BA seem to have told me with reference to my specific reservation? This seems to have happened, but maybe BA were wrong in their advice to me..

kingcole974

I'm also in a similar position. Reward flights (F) booked to BNA last June for May 12th this year. Couple of months back BNA lost first and (as treating a parent to a first FIRST) we chose to route via ORD to keep F. Now the return has had a big change, which I was hoping for as May 12th likely to be too soon. Planned to rebook for July but of course out of the validity period.

Reluctantly accepted a change to May 28th which is at least the right side of potentially being allowed to travel from a UK perspective but less likely to be able to set foot in the USA and I won't have had both vaccines by this date.

I only accepted the change a couple of hours ago. Do I have any case at all for pushing for a July date? And if not, what happens if my new dates are cancelled as I would only have a couple of weeks of validity left.

Anonba

Ok to answer your first question the most likely reason was you were rebooked same booking class so the ticket was revalidated not reissued. Revalidation would update the itinerary but on the same e ticket.

For your second question:


Involuntary changes still occur under normal ticket validity rules so if you were rebooking due to cancelled flights ticket validity wouldnt be affected

**********

Ive also copied my answer from another thread to explain some of the wider discussion around ticket validity.




Normally reissues dont reset ticket validity.

So normally with a reissue your outbound flight still needs to be taken within year of purchasing the ticket. However as if the outbound is changed to later dates this extends when the date of inbound can be as it just needs to be within a year of the outbound flight.


If you took a voucher however and rebooked, voucher policy however is different compared to normal policy.


A rebook in the same booking is now possible outside normal ticket validity because of voucher policy. All that happens is if you call and choose dates outside of normal ticket validity the person you speak to can use voucher policy to effectively voucher it and in the same booking immediately rebook.


If it is done this way under voucher policy, that is effectively considered a new ticket and then yes ticket validity starts again from the date of reissue.


It is quite unusual because where it is applicable voucher policy allows you to rebook outside the normal scope of ticket validity.


This applies to voluntary changes with voucher policy applied.


********Involuntary changes still occur under normal ticket validity rules so if both your reissues were rebooking due to cancelled flights ticket validity wouldnt be affected

corporate-wage-slave

The ticket number will change if reissued., rather than being revalidated. But that doesn't change the core policy, so it's one year from orgiinal ticket issue for flight1, and one year from flight1 to the last flight. Some people have been able to push beyond that, for various reasons, but the policy is what you can rely on, rather than occasional exceptions that we see reported.

Anonba

Yes indeed mistakes dont make policy!

silverfc

Originally booked a 242 LHR - JNB in April 20 for travel in Feb 21…

When the 50% off Avios sale came around - was able to cancel the original booking, get a future travel voucher and rebook and then get a 50% refund of Avios. The agent did this in a few mins..

The Feb 21 flights were subsequently cancelled.

Through MMB, I was then able to reschedule the flights to Nov 21… e-ticket issued immediately!!

Not sure if I will be able to use them - but it’s a damn good option I do not want to lose until the last minute.

any attempt to change to a later date elicits the ‘no - more than 365 days etc’ message….

ErickW

old thread but what about the "general conditions of carriage" of British Airways?
Art. 3b on the ticket validity period clearly stipulates the following:3b1) Unless it says differently on the ticket, in these conditions of carriage, or in any tariffs which apply, a ticket is valid for travel for:

• one year from the date it is issued or
• one year from the date you first travelled using the ticket, as long as your first flight took place within a year of the ticket being issued.

3b2) If you are prevented from travelling within the validity period of a ticket because we could not confirm your reservation at the time you asked for it, we will:

• extend the validity period of the ticket or
• give you a voluntary fare refund.

so 3b2 seems in line with guidance and policies mentioned above in the thread.

Now the various BA customer services i(call centers) in Europe and in India are apparently not aware of those conditions of carriage which is what actually worries me.
Also BA curiously fails to highlight the extension option on the Flexible Booking page (book with confidence) in case a flight is cancelled. They only mention the full refund.

So yes it can and should be done at no cost. I succeeded many times until recently but it all depends on who you talk to as many agents seem to be ignorant of the option and once made aware will claim that the customer has to pay for any difference. Obviously not true as it would completely defeat the purpose. since a customer can just as well get the refund and rebook whatever suits him. Further, if any cost would incur that would have to be mention next to it.

To get the conditions simply browse the start a search on the web with these words: general conditions of carriage
Then obviously select British Airways in the list returned.
The current version as of today is from August 2020.Last updated:10 August 2020

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