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Old Jun 8, 2020, 7:58 am
  #1  
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24 hour hold or refunds?

I’m looking at buying a multi leg itinerary in J/C for November. It’s a mix of AA and BA operates flights. The price ($2400) is the price if I book on BA and $5400 if I book on AA.

if I book on BA.com is there a 24 hour hold and is there a 24 hour grace period to cancel if booked for any reason. This feature is offered if one books on AA.com.
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Old Jun 8, 2020, 8:12 am
  #2  
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BA.com have a 24 hour cooling off period, so you can make the reservation and call up and cancel within 24 hours without penalty. I would double check this is in place in your country of residence, but this is quite clear in the conditions of carriage / T&Cs as you complete the booking.

Your right to cancel within 24 hours

If you have booked directly with British Airways and you notice a mistake with your booking after you have paid for your ticket(s), you can cancel your flight booking and claim a full refund without penalty, up to 24 hours from when you make the original booking. Refunds under these circumstances can be requested by calling our contact centres, with the exception of Avios bookings, which can be managed online.
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...#cancellations
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Old Jun 8, 2020, 8:32 am
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Originally Posted by mikeyfly
BA.com have a 24 hour cooling off period, so you can make the reservation and call up and cancel within 24 hours without penalty. I would double check this is in place in your country of residence, but this is quite clear in the conditions of carriage / T&Cs as you complete the booking.



https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb...#cancellations
thanks for the info, helpful. If for some reason Covid has its way and getting into WAW or BUD (one of my possible flights is lhr-waw or lhr-bud) and I can't enter will BA refund me that leg?
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Old Jun 8, 2020, 8:38 am
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I guess that's more of a Q for the Covid Covid-19 BA Rebooking/Cancellation/Refund HELP & ADVICE *No Speculation etc* thread...
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Old Jun 8, 2020, 10:53 am
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Just to clarify the above a bit
- there is in many jurisdictions (but not all of them) an ability to pay £5 to £10 to hold a booking. This is known as a Hold Booking. The £5 to £10 is refunded if you confirm the final balance.
- there is, in some jurisdictions, the BA Holiday packages, involved flight + hire car or flight + hotel, this can involve making the final payment 3 weeks before travel. Even if you don't want a car or hotel, this can sometimes be cheaper than the flight booking. This is BA Holidays.
- in all jurisdictions (as far as I know) there is the ability to book a flight, pay for it (unlike AA's approach), then get a refund if you cancel within 24 hours. You can also amend without change fee in that 24 hours.

The first and last options can be combined, in many jurisdictions and in that order, to get potentially 95 hours to confirm.

Having said that at the moment you have to consider Buy with Confidence and Coronavirus Update 4, details in the thread above, which depends a bit on dates. Finally for those who want a booking but also want at least the option to pull out at the last minute (last 24 hours to be more precise) then this is a real benefit of Avios bookings, even for World Traveller flights, since the maximum loss would be £35.
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Old Jun 8, 2020, 11:59 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Just to clarify the above a bit
- there is in many jurisdictions (but not all of them) an ability to pay £5 to £10 to hold a booking. This is known as a Hold Booking. The £5 to £10 is refunded if you confirm the final balance.
- there is, in some jurisdictions, the BA Holiday packages, involved flight + hire car or flight + hotel, this can involve making the final payment 3 weeks before travel. Even if you don't want a car or hotel, this can sometimes be cheaper than the flight booking. This is BA Holidays.
- in all jurisdictions (as far as I know) there is the ability to book a flight, pay for it (unlike AA's approach), then get a refund if you cancel within 24 hours. You can also amend without change fee in that 24 hours.

The first and last options can be combined, in many jurisdictions and in that order, to get potentially 95 hours to confirm.

Having said that at the moment you have to consider Buy with Confidence and Coronavirus Update 4, details in the thread above, which depends a bit on dates. Finally for those who want a booking but also want at least the option to pull out at the last minute (last 24 hours to be more precise) then this is a real benefit of Avios bookings, even for World Traveller flights, since the maximum loss would be £35.
appreciate the tips thank you. I plan on buying this itinerary due the great J price of $2400. If for some reason Corona prohibits me from going to BUD in late November I will just ask BA to refund my lhr-bud leg and and stay in the UK and visit my family more. I'll need to change my bud-lhr-dfw return as well.
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Old Nov 15, 2021, 12:37 pm
  #7  
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Is it correct that the full refund under the 24 hour policy requires phoning the call centre? Trying to cancel on MMB but it seems to only want to give me a voucher.
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Old Nov 15, 2021, 12:47 pm
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Originally Posted by ijgordon
Is it correct that the full refund under the 24 hour policy requires phoning the call centre? Trying to cancel on MMB but it seems to only want to give me a voucher.

Hi,

Yes that is correct.

Regards

TBS
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Old Nov 15, 2021, 1:09 pm
  #9  
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Thanks. Dumb.
At least the hold time wasn't too terrible.
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Old Jun 16, 2023, 4:21 pm
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Originally Posted by corporate-wage-slave
Just to clarify the above a bit
- there is in many jurisdictions (but not all of them) an ability to pay £5 to £10 to hold a booking. This is known as a Hold Booking. The £5 to £10 is refunded if you confirm the final balance.
- there is, in some jurisdictions, the BA Holiday packages, involved flight + hire car or flight + hotel, this can involve making the final payment 3 weeks before travel. Even if you don't want a car or hotel, this can sometimes be cheaper than the flight booking. This is BA Holidays.
- in all jurisdictions (as far as I know) there is the ability to book a flight, pay for it (unlike AA's approach), then get a refund if you cancel within 24 hours. You can also amend without change fee in that 24 hours.

The first and last options can be combined, in many jurisdictions and in that order, to get potentially 95 hours to confirm.

Having said that at the moment you have to consider Buy with Confidence and Coronavirus Update 4, details in the thread above, which depends a bit on dates. Finally for those who want a booking but also want at least the option to pull out at the last minute (last 24 hours to be more precise) then this is a real benefit of Avios bookings, even for World Traveller flights, since the maximum loss would be £35.
Is it still the case one can combine the first and third options? That is, can one cancel after buying the held flight? This is for a UK departure but a CA or US POS (though fare is quoted in pounds).
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Old Jun 16, 2023, 4:37 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by futuramadramallama
Is it still the case one can combine the first and third options? That is, can one cancel after buying the held flight? This is for a UK departure but a CA or US POS (though fare is quoted in pounds).
Hold booking still applies - you can do a dummy booking to see if it is offered.

And 24 hours to fully cancel or amend without fee (but with any fare difference) also applies. Generally a fare quoted in pounds from the UK+ would be a UK POS, if booked on BA.com.
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