Jan 1, 2021, 8:29 am
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
Sep 15, 2021, 11:47 am
#2491
Join Date: Sep 2018
Programs: BAEC Bronze
Posts: 467
Hopefully an "easy" one and sorry if it's already covered.
241 Redemption booked on 2 separate PNRs (in case this makes a difference) for Mid/Late Nov '21
Outbound "cancelled" today with a suggested alternative on same day, different flight number.
Inbound cancelled today also with no suggested alternative- which is no good to us.
We would now like to fly Oct /Nov '22 instead.
AIUI, we can get refund, or FTV or Rebooking, as long as cabin space available.
Rebooking seems easiest, and having read validity thread, as it stands we should be able to do this within 1 year of our outbound (which is what we want to do)
I assume we need to wait until 355 days before our "new" outbound flight? (I've seen mentions of dummy PNRs)
If waiting until T-355, Do I then need to call, or should I be able to do it on MMB?
As the inbound is on a separate PNR, I assume there will be no conflict of our inbound temporarily being before our outbound (though cancelled)
Companion voucher was due to expire April '22 (after the extension). If this is an issue, I understand cancelling for an FTV extends the voucher life, but makes the rebooking more limited and reliant on U class availability?
241 Redemption booked on 2 separate PNRs (in case this makes a difference) for Mid/Late Nov '21
Outbound "cancelled" today with a suggested alternative on same day, different flight number.
Inbound cancelled today also with no suggested alternative- which is no good to us.
We would now like to fly Oct /Nov '22 instead.
AIUI, we can get refund, or FTV or Rebooking, as long as cabin space available.
Rebooking seems easiest, and having read validity thread, as it stands we should be able to do this within 1 year of our outbound (which is what we want to do)
I assume we need to wait until 355 days before our "new" outbound flight? (I've seen mentions of dummy PNRs)
If waiting until T-355, Do I then need to call, or should I be able to do it on MMB?
As the inbound is on a separate PNR, I assume there will be no conflict of our inbound temporarily being before our outbound (though cancelled)
Companion voucher was due to expire April '22 (after the extension). If this is an issue, I understand cancelling for an FTV extends the voucher life, but makes the rebooking more limited and reliant on U class availability?
Sep 16, 2021, 4:33 am
#2492
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: AMS
Programs: BAEC Silver, Flying Blue Gold, TK M&S Nobody
Posts: 2,481
Anyone got a link to the rebooking policies regarding other carriers? Original LGW-AMS return has eventually turned into a LHR-AMS at 11:55 which doesn't work for us. There are no afternoon flights on 12/10, and the evening Heathrow flight is annoyingly late and would require changing car hire booking.
Best option is an LHR KL flight at 17:10 - but I've only seen reference to rebooking on LH?
Second option is flying from City, but to avoid ruinous one-way car hire would need to change the outbound too and come a day early. The online rebooking didn't give the right flight option, but I assume an agent can sort it?
Best option is an LHR KL flight at 17:10 - but I've only seen reference to rebooking on LH?
Second option is flying from City, but to avoid ruinous one-way car hire would need to change the outbound too and come a day early. The online rebooking didn't give the right flight option, but I assume an agent can sort it?
Sep 16, 2021, 5:47 am
#2493
Join Date: May 2015
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 281
Hopefully an "easy" one and sorry if it's already covered.
241 Redemption booked on 2 separate PNRs (in case this makes a difference) for Mid/Late Nov '21
Outbound "cancelled" today with a suggested alternative on same day, different flight number.
Inbound cancelled today also with no suggested alternative- which is no good to us.
We would now like to fly Oct /Nov '22 instead.
AIUI, we can get refund, or FTV or Rebooking, as long as cabin space available.
Rebooking seems easiest, and having read validity thread, as it stands we should be able to do this within 1 year of our outbound (which is what we want to do)
I assume we need to wait until 355 days before our "new" outbound flight? (I've seen mentions of dummy PNRs)
If waiting until T-355, Do I then need to call, or should I be able to do it on MMB?
As the inbound is on a separate PNR, I assume there will be no conflict of our inbound temporarily being before our outbound (though cancelled)
Companion voucher was due to expire April '22 (after the extension). If this is an issue, I understand cancelling for an FTV extends the voucher life, but makes the rebooking more limited and reliant on U class availability?
241 Redemption booked on 2 separate PNRs (in case this makes a difference) for Mid/Late Nov '21
Outbound "cancelled" today with a suggested alternative on same day, different flight number.
Inbound cancelled today also with no suggested alternative- which is no good to us.
We would now like to fly Oct /Nov '22 instead.
AIUI, we can get refund, or FTV or Rebooking, as long as cabin space available.
Rebooking seems easiest, and having read validity thread, as it stands we should be able to do this within 1 year of our outbound (which is what we want to do)
I assume we need to wait until 355 days before our "new" outbound flight? (I've seen mentions of dummy PNRs)
If waiting until T-355, Do I then need to call, or should I be able to do it on MMB?
As the inbound is on a separate PNR, I assume there will be no conflict of our inbound temporarily being before our outbound (though cancelled)
Companion voucher was due to expire April '22 (after the extension). If this is an issue, I understand cancelling for an FTV extends the voucher life, but makes the rebooking more limited and reliant on U class availability?
My flight to JNB has been cancelled on the 1st December. I have been offered an earlier flight but now no longer want to go. I would like to re-book for late October 2022 but that is more than 355 days in advance. Will BA book a flight more than 355 days in advance if I call in or can I wait to cancel until the last minute. It is a 2-4-1 which expires Jan 2022 after the extension. I know that I can get a FTV but I would need to call in to get the flights.Thanks.
Sep 16, 2021, 6:15 am
#2494
Join Date: Oct 2019
Location: Dublin
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 52
Is it worth taking advantage of the voucher to rebook a holiday for cheaper? I have a BA holidays booking for late November and have only paid a deposit. I just priced up the trip again and it's £150 cheaper now. Should I request a voucher for my original booking and rebook to take advantage of the saving, or is it not worth the trouble?
Sep 16, 2021, 6:18 am
#2495
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 211
Is it worth taking advantage of the voucher to rebook a holiday for cheaper? I have a BA holidays booking for late November and have only paid a deposit. I just priced up the trip again and it's £150 cheaper now. Should I request a voucher for my original booking and rebook to take advantage of the saving, or is it not worth the trouble?
Request the voucher on your current booking. Make the new booking. When the voucher comes in email BAH asking them to apply it to the new booking.
The new booking has to be made after the voucher has been requested.
Sep 16, 2021, 6:44 am
#2497
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,977
Yes you can certainly request a FTV for a part flown booking. You won't get an evoucher, and instead you will get an offline FTV with no value shown in the FTV email. When you come to use it you will have to call to book, and it will probably have to be sent off for manual calculation.
Sep 16, 2021, 8:59 am
#2498
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: GLA
Programs: Chevalier de la Gallentrie - Knight of the Platinum Hair Brush, BA Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 1,389
I appreciate most of the cancellations are happening a good fe weeks out, but are BA still cancelling some of the US bound flights nearer to the time? I've got a BAH trip to the US with outbound leg on the BA173 (LHR-JFK) on October 20th, and back on the BA116 (JFK-LHR) on the 25th. Need to pay the remainder of the BAH trip on the 29th of September, so that's kind of my cut off for taking an FTV if they haven't cancelled before that point (and given there's still no signs of Joe opening up the US by that time, I don't see me being able to travel). Just wondering if it's still possible/likely that there will be more cancellations 3-4 weeks out, or if they ill usually be closer (and inside the 3 week BAH payment due window), in which case i'll just need to bite the FTV bullet?
Sep 16, 2021, 11:06 am
#2499
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London
Programs: BA GGL (for now) and Lifetime Gold, Marriott fan thanks to Bonvoy Moments
Posts: 5,115
Had a very helpful agent while trying to rebook a cancelled redemption flight - already moved and when that happened I traded a joker for a decent Avios refund (peak to off-peak) but…
had tried to rebook earlier in the week but the requested return date on Qatar was out of range
called back today and after agent called internally he was told
- no rerouting unless redemption ability
- ticket validity not 1 year from the rebooked flight date (tomorrow) but 1 year from when it was changed (mid-August)
I did query EU261 rebooking rights and possibly stupidly quipped that I’d sued BA twice before but I’d rather not have to try for the hat-trick and could I get it in writing why they were rejecting rebooking
Got a call back and due to use of the “S” word they couldn’t provide but going via online form would get to it to the right place. (And we had a good joke about where I’m flying with BA tomorrow and sunburn etc.)
Has the policy changed again in the last few days? My head is spinning a bit - but no urgency and it’s definitely first world problems!
had tried to rebook earlier in the week but the requested return date on Qatar was out of range
called back today and after agent called internally he was told
- no rerouting unless redemption ability
- ticket validity not 1 year from the rebooked flight date (tomorrow) but 1 year from when it was changed (mid-August)
I did query EU261 rebooking rights and possibly stupidly quipped that I’d sued BA twice before but I’d rather not have to try for the hat-trick and could I get it in writing why they were rejecting rebooking
Got a call back and due to use of the “S” word they couldn’t provide but going via online form would get to it to the right place. (And we had a good joke about where I’m flying with BA tomorrow and sunburn etc.)
Has the policy changed again in the last few days? My head is spinning a bit - but no urgency and it’s definitely first world problems!
Sep 16, 2021, 11:12 am
#2500
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: BA Executive Club
Posts: 182
Had a very helpful agent while trying to rebook a cancelled redemption flight - already moved and when that happened I traded a joker for a decent Avios refund (peak to off-peak) but…
had tried to rebook earlier in the week but the requested return date on Qatar was out of range
called back today and after agent called internally he was told
- no rerouting unless redemption ability
- ticket validity not 1 year from the rebooked flight date (tomorrow) but 1 year from when it was changed (mid-August)...Has the policy changed again in the last few days? My head is spinning a bit - but no urgency and it’s definitely first world problems!
had tried to rebook earlier in the week but the requested return date on Qatar was out of range
called back today and after agent called internally he was told
- no rerouting unless redemption ability
- ticket validity not 1 year from the rebooked flight date (tomorrow) but 1 year from when it was changed (mid-August)...Has the policy changed again in the last few days? My head is spinning a bit - but no urgency and it’s definitely first world problems!
Bob
Sep 16, 2021, 11:24 am
#2501
Join Date: Aug 2021
Programs: BA, AA, UA, VS, DL, EI, Hilton, Marriot
Posts: 67
In the Ticket Validity thread it was stated by Anonba that around 24th August? a revision to 8th July policy was revoked by BA. Given how long it took some agents to get up to speed with the new Ticket Validity Policy is history repeating itself?
Sep 16, 2021, 12:25 pm
#2502
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Tyrone,EU
Programs: Avios Hunter
Posts: 2,812
I've had a MIA-DUB avios EI flight booked with BA cancelled. I'll have to ring up to rebook as it was an avios booking on EI metal.
I'd prefer to reroute MIA-PHL-DUB on AA instead of MIA-LHR-DUB. Looking at the relevant page I see for EI, BA says that they will only offer to re-route on BA, and not on one world. Is that still the policy in covid times ?
I'd prefer to reroute MIA-PHL-DUB on AA instead of MIA-LHR-DUB. Looking at the relevant page I see for EI, BA says that they will only offer to re-route on BA, and not on one world. Is that still the policy in covid times ?
Sep 16, 2021, 1:39 pm
#2503
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: London
Programs: KLM, BA Silver, Etihad
Posts: 918
I was supposed to be going to Chicago tomorrow but we have rebooked for the third time for March 22.
Slightly concerned I keep getting messages about flying tomorrow and that I can still check in on MMB even though next years flights are in there too
Slightly concerned I keep getting messages about flying tomorrow and that I can still check in on MMB even though next years flights are in there too
Sep 16, 2021, 2:10 pm
#2504
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 158
I finally got my voucher and rebooked over the phone a few days ago as it was a FTV and used it for the deposit. The agent at the time said we wouldn’t get a booking confirmation until we paid something towards the balance other than the voucher.
I checked the booking online and the full balance is showing with £0 showing against the deposit rather than the £200 that should be showing?
Does the voucher show immediately when you book by phone or does it need time to be applied?
I checked the booking online and the full balance is showing with £0 showing against the deposit rather than the £200 that should be showing?
Does the voucher show immediately when you book by phone or does it need time to be applied?
Sep 16, 2021, 2:47 pm
#2505
Join Date: May 2018
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 320
I finally got my voucher and rebooked over the phone a few days ago as it was a FTV and used it for the deposit. The agent at the time said we wouldn’t get a booking confirmation until we paid something towards the balance other than the voucher.
I checked the booking online and the full balance is showing with £0 showing against the deposit rather than the £200 that should be showing?
Does the voucher show immediately when you book by phone or does it need time to be applied?
I checked the booking online and the full balance is showing with £0 showing against the deposit rather than the £200 that should be showing?
Does the voucher show immediately when you book by phone or does it need time to be applied?