Last edit by: corporate-wage-slave
01 - 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 2023 (now extended from April 2022 including existing FTVs), 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. If you us,ed an FTV to pay for this now cancelled service then you can have a refund back to the FTV's original booking.
Online forms: manual process which may take many weeks
link to webform to claim a refund (UK) or link to webform to claim a refund (US)
Paid Seating Refund:
link to webform to claim a refund (UK)
02 - If your flight is not cancelled but you no longer wish to travel
Commercial booking: If you are eligible for Buy with Confidence, you can have an FTV valid until 31 August 2022 (this has been extended several times). Rebooking may lead to a fare recalculation but no change fee. Travel must be fully completed by this date.
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 30 April 2022, 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: https://ba.com/confidence
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
A full refund of Avios and money paid plus 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
03 - How to find out the status of your voucher and the amount it contains
Use the Qantas website and look back to your original PNR. Step by step guide by corporate-wage-slave
04 - Future Travel Vouchers versus eVouchers
FTVs cannot be used online (and are not really vouchers), whereas eVouchers, issued for simple bookings, can be used online.
BA are now issuing eVouchers directly in simple cases, and also proactively replacing existing FTVs with new eVouchers. These are usable online. Complex cases still get FTVs, which require a phone call to book. In both cases, you need to apply online through the Cancellation Options in MMB, and both will generate an email typically within a few minutes. This is how to tell the difference
1) eVouchers will get an email entitled "Your British Airways eVoucher"
This will then have a line like this and the online ability is mentioned in the email text:
Your eVoucher details
125-1234567890 / GBP48.87 / WAGE-SLAVE /
2) FTVs will get an email entitled "Your British Airways Future Travel Voucher"
The relevant line then shows:
Voucher code(s)
125-1234567890
It doesn't take much, by FT standards, to turn a booking too complicated for the automated eVoucher. POUGs, flight changes, TCP, seat payment, pay payment with Avios, UuA. 48 and 72 hour Hold bookings all stop it. But if you made a simple single or return booking, point to point, on BA.com and didn't change it, then you should get an eVoucher.
If you obtain an FTV, deploy it on a new booking which BA then cancels, then you can get a refund of the cash from the first booking that led to the FTV. Or an Avios refund without redeposit fees if it was a redemption.
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 2023 (now extended from April 2022 including existing FTVs), 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. If you us,ed an FTV to pay for this now cancelled service then you can have a refund back to the FTV's original booking.
Online forms: manual process which may take many weeks
link to webform to claim a refund (UK) or link to webform to claim a refund (US)
Paid Seating Refund:
link to webform to claim a refund (UK)
02 - If your flight is not cancelled but you no longer wish to travel
Commercial booking: If you are eligible for Buy with Confidence, you can have an FTV valid until 31 August 2022 (this has been extended several times). Rebooking may lead to a fare recalculation but no change fee. Travel must be fully completed by this date.
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 30 April 2022, 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: https://ba.com/confidence
Bookings made using Lloyds Upgrade Voucher
You should expect to receive:
A full refund of Avios and money paid plus 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.
03 - How to find out the status of your voucher and the amount it contains
Use the Qantas website and look back to your original PNR. Step by step guide by corporate-wage-slave
04 - Future Travel Vouchers versus eVouchers
FTVs cannot be used online (and are not really vouchers), whereas eVouchers, issued for simple bookings, can be used online.
BA are now issuing eVouchers directly in simple cases, and also proactively replacing existing FTVs with new eVouchers. These are usable online. Complex cases still get FTVs, which require a phone call to book. In both cases, you need to apply online through the Cancellation Options in MMB, and both will generate an email typically within a few minutes. This is how to tell the difference
1) eVouchers will get an email entitled "Your British Airways eVoucher"
This will then have a line like this and the online ability is mentioned in the email text:
Your eVoucher details
125-1234567890 / GBP48.87 / WAGE-SLAVE /
2) FTVs will get an email entitled "Your British Airways Future Travel Voucher"
The relevant line then shows:
Voucher code(s)
125-1234567890
It doesn't take much, by FT standards, to turn a booking too complicated for the automated eVoucher. POUGs, flight changes, TCP, seat payment, pay payment with Avios, UuA. 48 and 72 hour Hold bookings all stop it. But if you made a simple single or return booking, point to point, on BA.com and didn't change it, then you should get an eVoucher.
If you obtain an FTV, deploy it on a new booking which BA then cancels, then you can get a refund of the cash from the first booking that led to the FTV. Or an Avios refund without redeposit fees if it was a redemption.
BA Covid-19 Flight cancellations, rebooking, and refunds | Help and advice thread
#2386
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: living near Malaga
Programs: BA Gold , Mucci recipient. Coffee Drinker, Blue Sky Thinker
Posts: 2,112
What's the situation here?
Got a couple of SOF-USA runs in place.
BA have either cancelled the LHR-SOF / SOF-LHR sectors or changed them to a day before the USA-LHR / LHR-USA flights.
Happy to fly the ex-LHR flights (assuming I can get into the US) and may take the 160TP hit on losing the SOF flights.
What bothers me is that the original bookings were priced to include the SOF flights, and now I'm not getting them (well, unless all the other flights are shifted back a day).
Any comeback here?
Got a couple of SOF-USA runs in place.
BA have either cancelled the LHR-SOF / SOF-LHR sectors or changed them to a day before the USA-LHR / LHR-USA flights.
Happy to fly the ex-LHR flights (assuming I can get into the US) and may take the 160TP hit on losing the SOF flights.
What bothers me is that the original bookings were priced to include the SOF flights, and now I'm not getting them (well, unless all the other flights are shifted back a day).
Any comeback here?
#2387
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: near Heathrow
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL (OWE), SA LifePlat (*G), BD Gold to the end, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 2,914
You may be able to start from Heathrow AND keep those 160tp. Have a look at the ORIGINAL ROUTING CREDIT thread and call customer services asking if they will allow you to start/finish in the UK.
No harm asking but be prepared for a ‘no’.
#2388
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: UK
Posts: 400
I'm due to fly MAN-LHR-AUS at the beginning of October and as it stands I'll have to cancel due to the US border restrictions. I knew the risks when booked and I'll be eligible for an e-voucher if I cancel, but wanted to check whether I'll be eligible for a cash refund if BA cancel the LHR-AUS and AUS-LHR legs? That flight isn't currently operating and I wouldn't expect it to resume unless the US opens up.
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
#2389
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,987
I'm due to fly MAN-LHR-AUS at the beginning of October and as it stands I'll have to cancel due to the US border restrictions. I knew the risks when booked and I'll be eligible for an e-voucher if I cancel, but wanted to check whether I'll be eligible for a cash refund if BA cancel the LHR-AUS and AUS-LHR legs? That flight isn't currently operating and I wouldn't expect it to resume unless the US opens up.
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
#2391
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: UK
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 805
I'm due to fly MAN-LHR-AUS at the beginning of October and as it stands I'll have to cancel due to the US border restrictions. I knew the risks when booked and I'll be eligible for an e-voucher if I cancel, but wanted to check whether I'll be eligible for a cash refund if BA cancel the LHR-AUS and AUS-LHR legs? That flight isn't currently operating and I wouldn't expect it to resume unless the US opens up.
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
Happy to take the voucher/possibly rebook for early 2022 and knew that was a possibility when I booked in May, but want to understand my options,
You can take the FTV but be aware of maybe bookings as C-W-S always says
#2392
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,987
Great, thanks KARFA. Is the FTV also an option if BA cancel, or is it just the full refund or rebook options?
#2393
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 66
I finally got through to BA on Twitter about my case. They gave me a link and told me to request a receipt document that would have all information on it. Then sent me a voucher number that my voucher portion was refunded to. The receipt I got from my request didn't even mention the voucher code the person on Twitter gave me.
Tried to use the voucher online on a booking but got the error "Sorry, you can't use your eVoucher for this". Tried a couple of other dummy bookings on simple BA routes and same thing. So I asked the support person what the value of the voucher was and they couldn't tell me. They said you have to ring up to use vouchers. That's odd because my previous voucher I used online after BA emailed me a new code specifically saying it can be used online. So they've taken away that functionality again?
I get the impression they don't know what they're doing. I'll have to ring sales and get them to check the voucher code and then hopefully book some flights.
Tried to use the voucher online on a booking but got the error "Sorry, you can't use your eVoucher for this". Tried a couple of other dummy bookings on simple BA routes and same thing. So I asked the support person what the value of the voucher was and they couldn't tell me. They said you have to ring up to use vouchers. That's odd because my previous voucher I used online after BA emailed me a new code specifically saying it can be used online. So they've taken away that functionality again?
I get the impression they don't know what they're doing. I'll have to ring sales and get them to check the voucher code and then hopefully book some flights.
#2395
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,987
I finally got through to BA on Twitter about my case. They gave me a link and told me to request a receipt document that would have all information on it. Then sent me a voucher number that my voucher portion was refunded to. The receipt I got from my request didn't even mention the voucher code the person on Twitter gave me.
Tried to use the voucher online on a booking but got the error "Sorry, you can't use your eVoucher for this". Tried a couple of other dummy bookings on simple BA routes and same thing. So I asked the support person what the value of the voucher was and they couldn't tell me. They said you have to ring up to use vouchers. That's odd because my previous voucher I used online after BA emailed me a new code specifically saying it can be used online. So they've taken away that functionality again?
I get the impression they don't know what they're doing. I'll have to ring sales and get them to check the voucher code and then hopefully book some flights.
Tried to use the voucher online on a booking but got the error "Sorry, you can't use your eVoucher for this". Tried a couple of other dummy bookings on simple BA routes and same thing. So I asked the support person what the value of the voucher was and they couldn't tell me. They said you have to ring up to use vouchers. That's odd because my previous voucher I used online after BA emailed me a new code specifically saying it can be used online. So they've taken away that functionality again?
I get the impression they don't know what they're doing. I'll have to ring sales and get them to check the voucher code and then hopefully book some flights.
#2396
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Shoreham By Sea
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,334
Here's a new policy that was thrown at me today.
My 5 night trip to ANU departing on the 24th needed to change as BA cancelled the 24th flight. No issue moving me to the 23rd and the hotel was accommodating too, but initially BA told me I had to stay 6 nights as my flight home on the 29th had not changed. There was a flight on the 28th I wanted to be on.
After some push back from me, it was agreed I could change. The issue was no Avios availability on the return flight on the 28th.
My 5 night trip to ANU departing on the 24th needed to change as BA cancelled the 24th flight. No issue moving me to the 23rd and the hotel was accommodating too, but initially BA told me I had to stay 6 nights as my flight home on the 29th had not changed. There was a flight on the 28th I wanted to be on.
After some push back from me, it was agreed I could change. The issue was no Avios availability on the return flight on the 28th.
#2397
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,987
yes I think someone is trying to be far to literal with the rebooking policy there. if a flight is cancelled then the rebooking allowance applies to all flights on the booking not just only the one which has been cancelled.
#2398
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 66
some FTVs are issued as online evouchers and some as offline FTVs where you have to call in to use them. They can usually be distinguished as the email for the former states a value whereas the email for the latter doesn't. Reward bookings will always be issued as offline ones, and the more changes you have made the increased chance there is of getting an offline one for a cash booking. However, I would say the majority of my FTVs now are being issued as evouchers even when there are POUGs and other changes involved.
#2399
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Shoreham By Sea
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 1,334
Have there been many reports of Avios being awarded when a redemption is moved to a revenue fare?
#2400
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,987