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
May 2, 2022, 11:21 am
#3556
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 agent may well be correct, given how point of sale and codeshares work. If it is at all viable for the group of 4 to go, then you could split the reservation, get them through, reissued. And then magically there may be the final seat made available after it has gone through. It's not guaranteed, hence it's only worth doing in one passenger can go another way. If it's some way then you best not to rush into a bad solution, you only have one shot at this per change.
May 2, 2022, 11:58 am
#3557
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: SAV/HHH
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold (current GGL), HH Diamond
Posts: 1,293
Thanks for the reply c-w-s, we might end up splitting the PNR and several passengers cancelling (if not all),
I wish there was some way for me to see this availability, so I could review the options with the other passengers before I call.
One of the issues is that ATL is not the most convenient origin point for most of the group. It's either a 4-1/2 hour drive, or a separately booked flight to ATL with a rechecking of bags.
BA is suggesting our best alternatives are to fly ATL-MIA-LHR-ATH or ATL-PHL-LHR-ATH ... in which case the extra drive to ATL is a real pain considering that there are flights from much closer airports (SAV or CHS) to MIA and PHL. I've used the 300 mile rule to change origin in situations like this in the past, but I understand that because it is the second flight that is the cancelled flight, I can only change the destination.
I wish there was some way for me to see this availability, so I could review the options with the other passengers before I call.
One of the issues is that ATL is not the most convenient origin point for most of the group. It's either a 4-1/2 hour drive, or a separately booked flight to ATL with a rechecking of bags.
BA is suggesting our best alternatives are to fly ATL-MIA-LHR-ATH or ATL-PHL-LHR-ATH ... in which case the extra drive to ATL is a real pain considering that there are flights from much closer airports (SAV or CHS) to MIA and PHL. I've used the 300 mile rule to change origin in situations like this in the past, but I understand that because it is the second flight that is the cancelled flight, I can only change the destination.
May 2, 2022, 12:20 pm
#3558
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: SAV/HHH
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold (current GGL), HH Diamond
Posts: 1,293
Follow-up ... assuming there is a separate business class rebooking availability class on the code share, is it even relevant? Wouldn't the original routing (ATL-LHR-ATH) be considered an Atlantic Joint Business routing, and cancellation of the LHR-ATH segment allow for rebooking as ATL-ORD-ATH or ATL-PHL-ATH with the AA flight numbers instead of the BA codeshare flight numbrers?
May 2, 2022, 1:36 pm
#3559
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: England
Programs: BAEC Gold, UA Mileage Plus, Hotels.com Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Pizza Express Gold
Posts: 603
I think this is probably a simple one I'm overthinking, but would appreciate reassurance. We have a simple LHR-WAW return flight for a weekend in July, with the return now cancelled. The remaining BA flights are too early and the Finnair ones involve 4 hours in Helsinki, so we are planning to book a new return flight on LOT.
Can we get a refund for the return, leaving the outbound intact? If so, how is it calculated?
Thanks
Can we get a refund for the return, leaving the outbound intact? If so, how is it calculated?
Thanks
May 2, 2022, 1:49 pm
#3560
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,977
I think this is probably a simple one I'm overthinking, but would appreciate reassurance. We have a simple LHR-WAW return flight for a weekend in July, with the return now cancelled. The remaining BA flights are too early and the Finnair ones involve 4 hours in Helsinki, so we are planning to book a new return flight on LOT.
Can we get a refund for the return, leaving the outbound intact? If so, how is it calculated?
Thanks
Can we get a refund for the return, leaving the outbound intact? If so, how is it calculated?
Thanks
The refund would be sent off to for manual calculation. It's not really very easy to work out the value unfortunately, but assuming the booking value was split roughly equally between outbound and inbound you should expect to get around 40% back.
May 2, 2022, 1:54 pm
#3561
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
Follow-up ... assuming there is a separate business class rebooking availability class on the code share, is it even relevant? Wouldn't the original routing (ATL-LHR-ATH) be considered an Atlantic Joint Business routing, and cancellation of the LHR-ATH segment allow for rebooking as ATL-ORD-ATH or ATL-PHL-ATH with the AA flight numbers instead of the BA codeshare flight numbrers?
May 2, 2022, 2:07 pm
#3562
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: England
Programs: BAEC Gold, UA Mileage Plus, Hotels.com Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Platinum, Pizza Express Gold
Posts: 603
Yes that should be fine to do, but you will have to call to get the booking re-issued as a one way.
The refund would be sent off to for manual calculation. It's not really very easy to work out the value unfortunately, but assuming the booking value was split roughly equally between outbound and inbound you should expect to get around 40% back.
The refund would be sent off to for manual calculation. It's not really very easy to work out the value unfortunately, but assuming the booking value was split roughly equally between outbound and inbound you should expect to get around 40% back.
May 2, 2022, 2:12 pm
#3563
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Bath, Toronto, Hamburg, Seoul
Programs: BA Gold, *A Silver
Posts: 481
Question on a situation where there is one leg cancelled on a flight.
I am booked LHR to Stornoway (SYY) via GLA on the way out and EDI on the return in about three weeks. The EDI - LHR leg has been cancelled which shouldn't be too much of an issue because there's another flight an hour later, but for some reason the MMB won't give me any other options, it just says there are 'no options on that day' (or indeed, any other day). There is plenty of availability showing on those other EDI flights.
I don't want to cancel and rebook because the price has gone up dramatically. And of course complete failure to speak to anyone at BA to sort this out. Any ideas? In this situation what would happen if I just turn up at the airport for the first leg? If I really have to I'll book a cheap flight back from EDI separately, I just want a solution!
I am booked LHR to Stornoway (SYY) via GLA on the way out and EDI on the return in about three weeks. The EDI - LHR leg has been cancelled which shouldn't be too much of an issue because there's another flight an hour later, but for some reason the MMB won't give me any other options, it just says there are 'no options on that day' (or indeed, any other day). There is plenty of availability showing on those other EDI flights.
I don't want to cancel and rebook because the price has gone up dramatically. And of course complete failure to speak to anyone at BA to sort this out. Any ideas? In this situation what would happen if I just turn up at the airport for the first leg? If I really have to I'll book a cheap flight back from EDI separately, I just want a solution!
May 2, 2022, 2:13 pm
#3564
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,977
May 2, 2022, 2:15 pm
#3565
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,977
Question on a situation where there is one leg cancelled on a flight.
I am booked LHR to Stornoway (SYY) via GLA on the way out and EDI on the return in about three weeks. The EDI - LHR leg has been cancelled which shouldn't be too much of an issue because there's another flight an hour later, but for some reason the MMB won't give me any other options, it just says there are 'no options on that day' (or indeed, any other day). There is plenty of availability showing on those other EDI flights.
I don't want to cancel and rebook because the price has gone up dramatically. And of course complete failure to speak to anyone at BA to sort this out. Any ideas? In this situation what would happen if I just turn up at the airport for the first leg? If I really have to I'll book a cheap flight back from EDI separately, I just want a solution!
I am booked LHR to Stornoway (SYY) via GLA on the way out and EDI on the return in about three weeks. The EDI - LHR leg has been cancelled which shouldn't be too much of an issue because there's another flight an hour later, but for some reason the MMB won't give me any other options, it just says there are 'no options on that day' (or indeed, any other day). There is plenty of availability showing on those other EDI flights.
I don't want to cancel and rebook because the price has gone up dramatically. And of course complete failure to speak to anyone at BA to sort this out. Any ideas? In this situation what would happen if I just turn up at the airport for the first leg? If I really have to I'll book a cheap flight back from EDI separately, I just want a solution!
As long as BA are selling seats on those later flights you should be able to rebook on them. The disruption tool sometimes won't show them if the same selling class isn't available though so you would have to call to do the change I am afraid.
May 2, 2022, 2:18 pm
#3566
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Bath, Toronto, Hamburg, Seoul
Programs: BA Gold, *A Silver
Posts: 481
I would not advice just turning up, partly because you may find on the day there is no space.
As long as BA are selling seats on those later flights you should be able to rebook on them. The disruption tool sometimes won't show them if the same selling class isn't available though so you would have to call to do the change I am afraid.
As long as BA are selling seats on those later flights you should be able to rebook on them. The disruption tool sometimes won't show them if the same selling class isn't available though so you would have to call to do the change I am afraid.
May 2, 2022, 4:09 pm
#3567
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: SAV/HHH
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold (current GGL), HH Diamond
Posts: 1,293
The agent may well be correct, given how point of sale and codeshares work. If it is at all viable for the group of 4 to go, then you could split the reservation, get them through, reissued. And then magically there may be the final seat made available after it has gone through. It's not guaranteed, hence it's only worth doing in one passenger can go another way. If it's some way then you best not to rush into a bad solution, you only have one shot at this per change.
I decided to check ExpertFlyer availability on the UK POS. This availability seems to match up with the options that the disruption change booking tool shows. Under both the AA and BA codes, availability for these flights is lower using the UK POS than the US POS.
My booking starts (and ends) in the US. It was booked via ba.com and paid for in USD. So, I would expect rebooking class availability should also be subject to availability in the US POS.
When I try to make any test bookings on ba.com, the availability that it is showing me definitely follows what I see in ExpertFlyer for the US POS, and availability for the disruption change booking tool follows the UK POS.
For some reason, flights like PHL-ATH and ORD-ATH have much higher availability in the US POS than UK POS.
I expect that if I get through to the UK GGL team tomorrow, they will use the correct POS without me having to explain all of this, and it will be a quick process (subject to the usual waiting on the system).
May 2, 2022, 5:05 pm
#3568
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 2,660
I may have stumbled across something interesting...regarding this mysterious "separate availability class for business class rebooking".
I decided to check ExpertFlyer availability on the UK POS. This availability seems to match up with the options that the disruption change booking tool shows. Under both the AA and BA codes, availability for these flights is lower using the UK POS than the US POS.
My booking starts (and ends) in the US. It was booked via ba.com and paid for in USD. So, I would expect rebooking class availability should also be subject to availability in the US POS.
When I try to make any test bookings on ba.com, the availability that it is showing me definitely follows what I see in ExpertFlyer for the US POS, and availability for the disruption change booking tool follows the UK POS.
For some reason, flights like PHL-ATH and ORD-ATH have much higher availability in the US POS than UK POS.
I expect that if I get through to the UK GGL team tomorrow, they will use the correct POS without me having to explain all of this, and it will be a quick process (subject to the usual waiting on the system).
I decided to check ExpertFlyer availability on the UK POS. This availability seems to match up with the options that the disruption change booking tool shows. Under both the AA and BA codes, availability for these flights is lower using the UK POS than the US POS.
My booking starts (and ends) in the US. It was booked via ba.com and paid for in USD. So, I would expect rebooking class availability should also be subject to availability in the US POS.
When I try to make any test bookings on ba.com, the availability that it is showing me definitely follows what I see in ExpertFlyer for the US POS, and availability for the disruption change booking tool follows the UK POS.
For some reason, flights like PHL-ATH and ORD-ATH have much higher availability in the US POS than UK POS.
I expect that if I get through to the UK GGL team tomorrow, they will use the correct POS without me having to explain all of this, and it will be a quick process (subject to the usual waiting on the system).
But yes there can definetely be different availability between codeshare/prime and different POS.
May 2, 2022, 6:00 pm
#3569
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: SAV/HHH
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold (current GGL), HH Diamond
Posts: 1,293
Since I purchased the booking via US POS, the same POS inventory should apply to any disruption rebooking.
That the online disruption rebooking tool derives its data from the UK POS for my bookings instead of USA POS would be in error.
May 2, 2022, 6:04 pm
#3570
Join Date: Aug 2004
Programs: AA (EP), Hilton (Diamond), Marriott Bonvoy (Titanium)
Posts: 8,937
In addition, I often see YQ/YR (fuel surcharges or "carrier-imposed fees") that are much higher on the outbound than the inbound.