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
Jan 15, 2021, 3:28 am
#271
Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 27
Cancellation is £35 per person.
FTV will keep all your 241 voucher, whatever Avios you paid and cash component (taxes) you paid all in one place. You can use it for any redemption booking but will need redemption seats available.
The 50% discount will unlikely be carried over, particularly if you are looking to book beyond the sale period and any new redemption will be the full price avios, so you will need more avios to be debited from your account when you make the new booking with the FTV.
FTV will keep all your 241 voucher, whatever Avios you paid and cash component (taxes) you paid all in one place. You can use it for any redemption booking but will need redemption seats available.
The 50% discount will unlikely be carried over, particularly if you are looking to book beyond the sale period and any new redemption will be the full price avios, so you will need more avios to be debited from your account when you make the new booking with the FTV.
If the flight was an Avios redemption then you can always have a full refund, minus the £35 redeposit fee. That's no quibble, standard offering with Avios, nothing to do with Covid. I don't buy the "highly unlikely" bit, but in any event all a cancellation would save you is that £35 - there is no redeposit fee on BA cancellations. And you can avoid the £35 by going FTV, which also preserves the Companion Voucher validity to April 2022. But the redemption is well protected, thankfully.
The hotel is what it is, the cancellation conditions should have shown up at the time, and they would still apply. I would still ask BAH to see if they will refund that at just over 3 weeks to departure, there are reports of BAH doing this even though standalone bookings are not well protected. The cancellation conditions vary from hotel to hotel. So I would have another go at this nearer the time, and ideally have a list of options, I have heard of hotels with "no cancellation" clauses but actually very happy to accept a rebook to other dates.
The hotel is what it is, the cancellation conditions should have shown up at the time, and they would still apply. I would still ask BAH to see if they will refund that at just over 3 weeks to departure, there are reports of BAH doing this even though standalone bookings are not well protected. The cancellation conditions vary from hotel to hotel. So I would have another go at this nearer the time, and ideally have a list of options, I have heard of hotels with "no cancellation" clauses but actually very happy to accept a rebook to other dates.
Just received an email that the return flight has been cancelled by BA but not the outbound flight.
Where does that leave me in terms of what i can do/ask for?
Jan 15, 2021, 3:45 am
#274
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,830
Yes, it's a full refund. You can still ask for the Companion Voucher to be extended, if they won't do that then you can go FTV to keep it alive to April 2022 as mentioned upthread. However think carefully as to whether this is the best strategy.
Jan 15, 2021, 3:56 am
#275
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
Jan 15, 2021, 4:22 am
#276
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: London
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, BA Gold
Posts: 167
I had an Avios flight with the 50% off promotion to ICN in March.
The flight got cancelled, I would like to move to later in the year, but because the route is cancelled all year there are no BA flights to change it to.
Any way I can get them to rebook me on Qatar?
They only offered to either rebook on Qatar on the original dates or a refund.
Thanks
The flight got cancelled, I would like to move to later in the year, but because the route is cancelled all year there are no BA flights to change it to.
Any way I can get them to rebook me on Qatar?
They only offered to either rebook on Qatar on the original dates or a refund.
Thanks
Jan 15, 2021, 4:38 am
#277
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,830
The rebooking option to Qatar needs you to stick close to the original travel dates. So either you travel as planned, or rebook at a later date by paying more Avios, or you get a refund, or you ask for a FTV, which won't be sensible unless there was a Companion Voucher.
Jan 15, 2021, 6:10 am
#278
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold, Accor Live Limitless Gold, Hilton Honours Gold, Avis Preferred Plus
Posts: 1,807
Currently in Singapore, my SIN-LHR flight on 26 Feb has been cancelled. This ticket is an Avios ticket in CW booked during the 50% sale with an Amex 2-4-1. I changed the dates online (for £30 ish extra in taxes etc but no additional Avios).
As I understand it, the QR rebooking is not possible for this because it is a redemption - although if I tried, I may get lucky. However given the removal of Qatar from the self isolation exemption list, I may want to avoid this anyway.
If I want BA to reroute me as soon as possible then I assume that they will put me on the first flight available on BA which is BA0012 on 3 March. Then BA would be on the hook for my hotel from 26th Feb - 3rd Mar.
Otherwise I can rebook to any available BA SIN-LHR flight within ticket validity.
If this is correct then I may leave it for the moment and decide if I actually want to go back to the UK then or postpone it.
As I understand it, the QR rebooking is not possible for this because it is a redemption - although if I tried, I may get lucky. However given the removal of Qatar from the self isolation exemption list, I may want to avoid this anyway.
If I want BA to reroute me as soon as possible then I assume that they will put me on the first flight available on BA which is BA0012 on 3 March. Then BA would be on the hook for my hotel from 26th Feb - 3rd Mar.
Otherwise I can rebook to any available BA SIN-LHR flight within ticket validity.
If this is correct then I may leave it for the moment and decide if I actually want to go back to the UK then or postpone it.
Jan 15, 2021, 7:03 am
#279
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,830
If I want BA to reroute me as soon as possible then I assume that they will put me on the first flight available on BA which is BA0012 on 3 March. Then BA would be on the hook for my hotel from 26th Feb - 3rd Mar.
Otherwise I can rebook to any available BA SIN-LHR flight within ticket validity.
Otherwise I can rebook to any available BA SIN-LHR flight within ticket validity.
Jan 15, 2021, 7:12 am
#280
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Denmark
Programs: TK Elite
Posts: 11,852
I can almost guarantee you that BA will refuse to reimburse SG hotel expenses from 26Feb to 3rd March.
Jan 15, 2021, 8:39 am
#281
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 86
I've read through the posts but cant find a clear answer, not urgent, but i want to be prepared.
We have 241 flights booked for our wedding (attempt number 2!) to Antigua at the end of April. I'm realistic that there is a high risk this may not happen (again!) and if we are unable to go due to BA cancellations - at what point do we have to rebook? Do we have to rebook before the departure of the original flight, or can this booking stay in limbo until we decide on the right date to try and reschedule? Can you only move to offpeak dates if original booking was offpeak or is it flexible? And if you move dates and then that gets cancelled also, do you still have the flexibility to move AGAIN in same class? Thanks!
We have 241 flights booked for our wedding (attempt number 2!) to Antigua at the end of April. I'm realistic that there is a high risk this may not happen (again!) and if we are unable to go due to BA cancellations - at what point do we have to rebook? Do we have to rebook before the departure of the original flight, or can this booking stay in limbo until we decide on the right date to try and reschedule? Can you only move to offpeak dates if original booking was offpeak or is it flexible? And if you move dates and then that gets cancelled also, do you still have the flexibility to move AGAIN in same class? Thanks!
Jan 15, 2021, 8:51 am
#282
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MSE
Programs: BA Silver, TK Elite, Marriott Lifetime Platinum, NEXUS/GE
Posts: 466
I have a BA Holidays booking in late February, in which both my LGW-BGI and BGI-LGW flights have been cancelled. (Looks to have been a number of leisure routes cancelled in that time frame today, per the February 2021 Flight Cancellations thread.)
Am I correct in understanding that, as this is a BAH booking, effectively my only real option here is a refund for the deposit already paid? (I'm sure I could theoretically have a FTV instead, but of course why would I?) In other words, I can't change the dates (or even to an ex-LHR flight) for free.
Am I correct in understanding that, as this is a BAH booking, effectively my only real option here is a refund for the deposit already paid? (I'm sure I could theoretically have a FTV instead, but of course why would I?) In other words, I can't change the dates (or even to an ex-LHR flight) for free.
Jan 15, 2021, 8:57 am
#283
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,830
Do we have to rebook before the departure of the original flight, or can this booking stay in limbo until we decide on the right date to try and reschedule? Can you only move to offpeak dates if original booking was offpeak or is it flexible? And if you move dates and then that gets cancelled also, do you still have the flexibility to move AGAIN in same class? Thanks!
Jan 15, 2021, 9:02 am
#284
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,830
Am I correct in understanding that, as this is a BAH booking, effectively my only real option here is a refund for the deposit already paid? (I'm sure I could theoretically have a FTV instead, but of course why would I?) In other words, I can't change the dates (or even to an ex-LHR flight) for free.
Jan 15, 2021, 9:20 am
#285
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: MSE
Programs: BA Silver, TK Elite, Marriott Lifetime Platinum, NEXUS/GE
Posts: 466
There may be a proactive refund winging its way to you already, yes. But you can rebook to another date if this hasn't started. The notional flight costs should be preserved, the hotel / car hire may be repriced. Beware of maybe bookings, cash in the bank is better than almost all the alternatives. I can't think of a value of an FTV unless there was some voucher attached to the booking. I think there was one obscure difference for those living in Argentina to avoid taxation on forex, but that's probably in the 0.1% area of concern. Be careful about "maybe" bookings.
Am I missing something on the "maybe" booking? I'm thinking, rather optimistically, of rebooking BGI sometime in late April, and it looks like the current sale goes for another couple of weeks. Between refunds for cancellations, and FTVs for anything else, why shouldn't I chuck BA a few hundred quid that I don't really need at the moment for a holiday that will "maybe" happen?