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 29, 2021, 10:19 am
#496
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: living near Malaga
Programs: BA Gold , Mucci recipient. Coffee Drinker, Blue Sky Thinker
Posts: 2,112
Could someone clear something up for me and apologies if this has been covered many times in the past. Depression from lock down made me step away from Forums and I've tried scanning for answers but not found them
We were due to fly to Orlando in March this year booked at 355 using Amex 2-4-1 Companion voucher. The flights have just been cancelled.
We'd already decided we weren't going this year and going to delay until April 2022 (hopefully they'll be some normality by then), I remember before (months ago) someone mentioning that if a reward flight is cancelled you could move to another flight even without reward availability, is this still true and if so could we push it back a year or is that going to stretch it too far?
If it is possible do I just leave my current booking with the cancelled flights and then move them once the new flights are released?
Thanks
We were due to fly to Orlando in March this year booked at 355 using Amex 2-4-1 Companion voucher. The flights have just been cancelled.
We'd already decided we weren't going this year and going to delay until April 2022 (hopefully they'll be some normality by then), I remember before (months ago) someone mentioning that if a reward flight is cancelled you could move to another flight even without reward availability, is this still true and if so could we push it back a year or is that going to stretch it too far?
If it is possible do I just leave my current booking with the cancelled flights and then move them once the new flights are released?
Thanks
Your best option may be to take a refund and ready yourself to buy again as flights get released. If you used a 241 that should have been extended however if has ran out you could ask for a FTV which keeps it alive into 2023. The FTV is in the form of cash and avios and can be used to book the replacement flights ( over the phone ) saving the 241 voucher if applicable. FTV rebookings do need award availability though.
All the best..
Jan 29, 2021, 11:15 am
#497
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: 63,811
Curious one - have a LHR-JFK-LAX booking with BA on BA's flight numbers. The JFK-LAX sector has dropped out of the booking and when I look at EF it appears BA no longer codeshare on that JFK-LAX flight, but the AA flight is still running (at present) with seats available for purchase. Would that count as a cancelation in BA's eyes and thus allow me to move the entire booking or request a refund or will they eventually just move me to the AA flight number and argue it is not a cancelation?
Pilot37
Pilot37
Jan 29, 2021, 5:05 pm
#499
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: 63,811
Yes, a cancellation by BA always leads to a refund as a remedy and so the eVouchers will effectively become a cash refund back to your credit card.
Jan 30, 2021, 6:23 am
#500
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 28
BA have (obviously) cancelled my flight from SYD-LHR in F (booked into Z Class) for February 6th.
They are saying that I can't be rebooked onto QR services, either on February 6th, or any other date within the ticket's validity, and my only option is to take a refund of a FTV. Does anyone know if this is correct?
They are saying that I can't be rebooked onto QR services, either on February 6th, or any other date within the ticket's validity, and my only option is to take a refund of a FTV. Does anyone know if this is correct?
Jan 30, 2021, 8:01 am
#501
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: 63,811
BA have (obviously) cancelled my flight from SYD-LHR in F (booked into Z Class) for February 6th.
They are saying that I can't be rebooked onto QR services, either on February 6th, or any other date within the ticket's validity, and my only option is to take a refund of a FTV. Does anyone know if this is correct?
They are saying that I can't be rebooked onto QR services, either on February 6th, or any other date within the ticket's validity, and my only option is to take a refund of a FTV. Does anyone know if this is correct?
Jan 30, 2021, 8:28 am
#502
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,210
If I fly the outbound of a cash ticket and can't fly the return due to covid restrictions what do BA do? The return flight on QR is not cancelled but I would need to leave the country again after a few days so trying to avoid quarantine in a hotel. It was one of those £999 tickets so I assume non changeable.
Jan 30, 2021, 8:32 am
#503
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,967
If I fly the outbound of a cash ticket and can't fly the return due to covid restrictions what do BA do? The return flight on QR is not cancelled but I would need to leave the country again after a few days so trying to avoid quarantine in a hotel. It was one of those £999 tickets so I assume non changeable.
Jan 30, 2021, 10:29 am
#504
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: BAEC GGL
Posts: 843
I have a flight booked in late 2019, the first (outbound) two legs of which was flown in Feb 2020. The return legs got moved for Covid related reasons continuously and the flights were ultimately all cancelled by BA. I am now the proud owner of an FTV (and a check on Qantas shows a fictional flight to Mt Joli).
Questions:
Questions:
- I know how much was paid originally for the whole ticket, but how do I find out how much the FTV is worth?
- The FTV (emailed to me on 17 Jan 2021) says flights must be completed by 30 April 2022. The wiki on this thread says "now 30 April 2023". Is that retroactive in respect of already issued FTVs? How do I tell?
Jan 30, 2021, 10:33 am
#505
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: London
Programs: Mucci. Nothing else matters.
Posts: 38,644
ba.com says:
When does the voucher expire?
The voucher expires on 30 April 2023.
Your voucher can be used as payment, or part payment, for a new future booking. Your new trip booked using your voucher must be fully completed by 30 April 2023 (departure and return).
If you have an existing voucher with an expiry date prior to 30 April 2023, please note that your voucher will automatically be extended to 30 April 2023. Customers will be notified with new voucher details as soon as possible.
The voucher expires on 30 April 2023.
Your voucher can be used as payment, or part payment, for a new future booking. Your new trip booked using your voucher must be fully completed by 30 April 2023 (departure and return).
If you have an existing voucher with an expiry date prior to 30 April 2023, please note that your voucher will automatically be extended to 30 April 2023. Customers will be notified with new voucher details as soon as possible.
Jan 30, 2021, 10:37 am
#506
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,967
I have a flight booked in late 2019, the first (outbound) two legs of which was flown in Feb 2020. The return legs got moved for Covid related reasons continuously and the flights were ultimately all cancelled by BA. I am now the proud owner of an FTV (and a check on Qantas shows a fictional flight to Mt Joli).
Questions:
Questions:
- I know how much was paid originally for the whole ticket, but how do I find out how much the FTV is worth?
- The FTV (emailed to me on 17 Jan 2021) says flights must be completed by 30 April 2022. The wiki on this thread says "now 30 April 2023". Is that retroactive in respect of already issued FTVs? How do I tell?
Yes the very recent extension of FTVs to 2023 applies to all existing ones too.
Jan 30, 2021, 10:47 am
#507
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Programs: BA Silver, EY Gold, HH Diamond, IHG Plat
Posts: 12,210
Thank you KARFA. One more question. I have a Avios ticket where the outbound has been cancelled but the return is fine. Can I spilt the ticket and use the return now and outbound later?
Jan 30, 2021, 11:12 am
#508
Join Date: May 2016
Posts: 1,167
Yes it is, since there are no QR codeshares to SYD. You should also be offered a rebooking on BA if there are any services within 1 year of when you bought the ticket, otherwise it's refund or FTV.. On a redemption I wouldn't suggest FTV unless you have a Companion Voucher as well, and even then a refund is best. Flying between UK and Australia is currently a hypothetical concept for most people, and will be for a long time.
re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or,
re-routing at a later date at your convenience under comparable transport conditions, subject to the availability of seats.
reimbursement of your ticket
If the OP has the permission (which isnt easy to obtain) to enter Aus - then the OP should insist on rerouting?
Jan 30, 2021, 12:13 pm
#509
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: 63,811
Aren't BA are supposed to offer a choice (your choice) between:
re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or,
re-routing at a later date at your convenience under comparable transport conditions, subject to the availability of seats.
reimbursement of your ticket
If the OP has the permission (which isnt easy to obtain) to enter Aus - then the OP should insist on rerouting?
re-routing to your final destination at the earliest opportunity or,
re-routing at a later date at your convenience under comparable transport conditions, subject to the availability of seats.
reimbursement of your ticket
If the OP has the permission (which isnt easy to obtain) to enter Aus - then the OP should insist on rerouting?
Jan 30, 2021, 1:39 pm
#510
Ambassador, British Airways; FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Leeds, UK
Programs: BA GGL/CCR, GfL, HH Diamond
Posts: 42,967
I don’t think you can split it in to two one ways. Is there no availability for the date later on where you want to travel? You could get it reissued as the return sector only and refund the cancelled outbound.