KARFA

i think this is getting somewhat o/t. If you wish to argue that broadly speaking non refundable fares are inherently unfair it may be worth opening a thread on one of the general discussion boards.

Frequentflyer99

I accept that. It's only that the coincidence of timing of scrapping BWC at a time of multiple cancellations highlights the issue. But very happy to leave it there !

KARFA

i am not sure I see any coincidence.

why would it matter? If your flight is cancelled as noted several times now you are entitled to be rebooked free of charge or a full refund. There would have been no need to rely on BWC. BWC is much more relevant when your flight isn’t cancelled, so I am not sure I see any logic in your theory I am afraid.

corporate-wage-slave

Just to put on the reconrd what actually happened overnight.

As of today the main "changes to bookings" area of BA.com now has 2 panels, one for bookings on or before 7 June 2022, and another panel for bookings on 8 June and thereafter. More recent flights says go to Manage My Booking to make changes - which implies that there are change fees to amend the date of travel; whereas for legacy bookings there is a link to the BWC options (click here).

LBA_flyer

There is usually a check box to tick if you don't want a hotel for the full duration of the trip which brings up the calender to select the legth of stay required. In my past experience, this does not alway garner you the opportunity to pay deposit only, I'm not sure if its a website issue or you have to call up to do it, or there is a threshold to be met regaridng stay length.

FlightDetective

To answer your questions...

You book accommodation/car hire for less than the duration of the trip online. I booked one day of car hire to make it a BA Holiday for a 14 day trip to Australia and on a US trip, two nights in a hotel in San Francisco on a 6 night trip. It's quite simple to do, though I don't remember offhand how I did it, but it was quite straightforward.

On the second point, correct, the booking will cancel and you lose the deposit. It will not automatically debit the balance, all payments need to be made by you manually.

Yes, different cards are fine. For one booking I used my credit card for the deposit, a pre-paid Mastercard that work handed out for another, my debit card for two others, and four e-Vouchers.

In Manage My Booking, it has a big box saying the booking cost X, deposit paid is Y, and there is Z outstanding. An option to make a payment, either in the full outstanding amount or another amount, then you enter the card details of whatever card you like and off you go.

Jeedos

Shame; as others have said - BWC was a well rounded and popular policy. I will be a LOT (pun intended) more cautious before booking BA now.

Am I correct in assuming iberia still offer covid-19 cancellation cover.

corporate-wage-slave

I think this is more grey than black or white. Iberia allows people who are COVID positive to defer travel with an explicit policy on the matter here:
https://www.iberia.com/gb/en/covid-1...t-flexibility/
and it involves emailing in your positve test result.

BA doesn't have this policy online, but I suspect that in reality they will do the same, and indeed deny travel to anyone known to be positive. They will want to protect the crew for any further outbreaks, a relatively high proportion have been infected twice from what I've gathered elsewhere.

squawk

I just rearranged a flight that has been cancelled and needed a change of gateway (and therefore a call, as this is not handled by the online system). Both the Manchester and the Bremen call centres have messages saying that to reduce wait times and improve customer service, they are prioritising customer service calls over sales calls. One could of course lie about the reason you are calling to get through the menu system, but they're still very clearly discourage new sales on the phone.

KARFA

A question that I don't think has been asked so dar - if I have an existing ET booking and choose now to take a POUG, is it still covered by BWC once POUG'ed? My suspicion is yes it is, but I am guessing if I try and request a FTV it will reject as it would have a (re)ticketed date post 8 June.

corporate-wage-slave

I should point out that anything involving BWC or FTVs or eVouchers was and continues to be regarded as "change booking", since while this may look like a new booking from the customer's perspective, BA treats these as changed bookings.

LondonGlobalist

My experience with BA this year has been booking with the confidence the original flights will be changed or cancelled at least once without apology…

squawk

Good to know, thanks CWS.

The Manchester number cut me off after I listened to the automated messages and selected the right option to speak to someone to change my booking - I assume they were over-capacity. Instead of calling back I tried Bremen, and got through within a minute or so, and I was very impressed by agent there. Explained that due to a BA cancellation I wished to change both the departure gateway and date of the flight (Standard Customer Guideline 7), and they were both very knowledgeable and efficient in sorting this out. Positive feedback will be submitted - what's the best route to do this?

PGberkshire

https://www.britishairways.com/trave...er_compliments

Unless Gold, where you can submit a Golden Ticket

squawk

Thanks PGberkshire , that's very helpful. I'm a mere Silver, so no Golden tickets for me to distribute. A web form it will have to be!