BA Holiday final payment - cautionary tale
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond *, IHG, Couples Romance Rewards
Posts: 2,294
BA Holiday final payment - cautionary tale
Firstly, not blaming BA here, it's my fault but hopefully this tale of woe will help others.
Had a final holiday payment due last Saturday. Was going to pay over the weekend but was in Rome (on another trip). Sunday morning 10am Rome time; two calls from Newcastle separated by 5 minutes. Wasn't able to pick up either. Voicemail on second call said 'we've cancelled your booking'.
Got through eventually. Holiday had been cancelled. Agent tried to transfer deposit to new booking but couldn't because hotel cancellation charges had been made.
Ended up losing nearly 1000 deposit - although rebooking the exact same holiday cost about the same amount as originally.
Moral of the story - with 3 weeks before final payment BA are being aggressive in cancelling holiday bookings with unpaid balances. Beware !
Had a final holiday payment due last Saturday. Was going to pay over the weekend but was in Rome (on another trip). Sunday morning 10am Rome time; two calls from Newcastle separated by 5 minutes. Wasn't able to pick up either. Voicemail on second call said 'we've cancelled your booking'.
Got through eventually. Holiday had been cancelled. Agent tried to transfer deposit to new booking but couldn't because hotel cancellation charges had been made.
Ended up losing nearly 1000 deposit - although rebooking the exact same holiday cost about the same amount as originally.
Moral of the story - with 3 weeks before final payment BA are being aggressive in cancelling holiday bookings with unpaid balances. Beware !
#3
Join Date: Jul 2014
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#4
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Different policies and over-arching legislation too. Was discussed here a week ir so ago ... the 2 calls aspect was raised there.
Here, I think >>> BA Holidays default cancellation turning into forced cancellation...
Here, I think >>> BA Holidays default cancellation turning into forced cancellation...
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond *, IHG, Couples Romance Rewards
Posts: 2,294
Different policies and over-arching legislation too. Was discussed here a week ir so ago ... the 2 calls aspect was raised there.
Here, I think >>> BA Holidays default cancellation turning into forced cancellation...
Here, I think >>> BA Holidays default cancellation turning into forced cancellation...
The thing you mention is BA cancelling flights and BA holidays cancelling the whole thing rather than make the effort to move you onto alternatives. They send a 'we're going to cancel the holiday' but in practice you seem to have some time to rebook. We had this for a dxb holiday coming up in October and were able to move flights quite easily.
Also we used UUA on avios for our outbound flight, the flight we were moved to didn't have availability when we looked but our UUA stuck through the rebooking so I guess having to have reward availability on the new flight was not an issue as some have reported.
#6
Join Date: Mar 2020
Programs: British Airways GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond & Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,602
Firstly, not blaming BA here, it's my fault but hopefully this tale of woe will help others.
Had a final holiday payment due last Saturday. Was going to pay over the weekend but was in Rome (on another trip). Sunday morning 10am Rome time; two calls from Newcastle separated by 5 minutes. Wasn't able to pick up either. Voicemail on second call said 'we've cancelled your booking'.
Got through eventually. Holiday had been cancelled. Agent tried to transfer deposit to new booking but couldn't because hotel cancellation charges had been made.
Ended up losing nearly 1000 deposit - although rebooking the exact same holiday cost about the same amount as originally.
Moral of the story - with 3 weeks before final payment BA are being aggressive in cancelling holiday bookings with unpaid balances. Beware !
Had a final holiday payment due last Saturday. Was going to pay over the weekend but was in Rome (on another trip). Sunday morning 10am Rome time; two calls from Newcastle separated by 5 minutes. Wasn't able to pick up either. Voicemail on second call said 'we've cancelled your booking'.
Got through eventually. Holiday had been cancelled. Agent tried to transfer deposit to new booking but couldn't because hotel cancellation charges had been made.
Ended up losing nearly 1000 deposit - although rebooking the exact same holiday cost about the same amount as originally.
Moral of the story - with 3 weeks before final payment BA are being aggressive in cancelling holiday bookings with unpaid balances. Beware !
#11
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Join Date: Jan 2002
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#12
Join Date: Nov 2017
Programs: BA, Hilton
Posts: 2,077
I might be missing something, but I don't see how having a card on file helps without a corresponding authorisation for the charge?
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)
#13
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There were some cases reported of pro-active BAH cancellations in the Rebooking thread. Customers can cancel if FCO advice changes after booking.
#14
Join Date: Jul 2005
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I might be missing something, but I don't see how having a card on file helps without a corresponding authorisation for the charge?
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)
I am surprised about the aggressive nature of the cancellations just the day after the deadline - would this be BAH policy or something governed by outside regulators?
#15
Join Date: Mar 2020
Programs: British Airways GGL/CCR, Hilton Diamond & Marriott Gold
Posts: 2,602
I might be missing something, but I don't see how having a card on file helps without a corresponding authorisation for the charge?
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)
While the OP might have been happy to have the card charged I don't see any way BA Holidays can know that and they'd risk an deluge of complaints if they did this as policy (e.g. people going overlimit and incurring fees, people who were happy to lose their deposit and now have to claim a refund, people who wanted to use another card etc)
Perhaps a genuine enhancement would be the ability to pre-authorise BAH taking the balance from a card on file at the payment due date? (tho there might be issues around CVV/CVC, not sure, I know these must not be stored)