BWC ends at midnight tonight (7-JUN)
 

Just seen on HfP Instagram feed that bookings made after midnight tonight will NOT be covered by the Booking With Confidence policy

More info on their site: https://www.headforpoints.com/2022/0...ee-ends-today/

Pity. I really liked the voucher idea.

I view this as a bit of a misstep, as I know a load of non-frequent flyers who have booked repeatedly with BA instead of a LCC because of this policy... and the simplicity of the cancellation

I supposed they must have run the numbers...

Not surprised as Virgin announced changes to their policy last week andd to be honest BWC and other similar policies couldn't go on forever.

You know, I love Book With Confidence and have been booking virtually all my travel through BA because of it. Not only has it been a good policy, but it all works really well from a technical standpoint with BA, which can't be said for other airlines. Until the pandemic, I had never cancelled a flight - being a leisure traveller, I book when I am definitely going. It has been a godsend in the last two years though, protecting my money very well, so that I have lost nothing when airlines and Governments have changed the rules.

While I was initially sad to read this, it's no big deal as there's only a few months left until 30 September anyway and as I book ahead I'm already booking further out than that. Everything within the window is already booked, so it's no big deal personally.

Would have loved it to stay permanently though... but now, instead, I am using BA Holidays to make deposits and pay it closer in. Something I'd also never ever used or done before the pandemic... it's actually very handy to pay off expensive business class flights, even if it does have to have a car or hotel added for at least one day.

My way of doing that is to pay on BA Amex and then transfer the balance to a 0% card and pay it off over a few months. I have three credit cards that seem to offer a 0% transfer every month and I just dip in to one of those if I book something that's a touch on the pricey side.

Shame they didn't follow the US airlines:

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...1/default.aspx

https://news.aa.com/news/news-detail...8/default.aspx

• No more change fees. Change fees for all domestic and short-haul international flying on Premium Cabin fares and most Main Cabin fares will be eliminated.
• Fly standby for free. All customers will have the ability to fly standby on earlier flights for the same destination on the same day at no charge starting Oct. 1, 2020.
• More to Basic Economy. Basic Economy fares now come with the ability to tailor your travel experience including upgrades, Preferred and Main Cabin Extra seats, priority boarding and same-day flight changes.
• American will also allow customers to keep the full value of their original tickets if they change their travel plans prior to the scheduled travel. Although customers will have to pay the fare difference for a new flight, customers will not lose their ticket value if the new flight is less expensive. For example, if a customer paid $500 for their flight and change to a flight that costs $300, American will give the customer a $200 voucher to use for a future trip.

why?

At the most basic level, you can’t keep money in limbo forever

Fear not. It will be replaced by the ‘book and we won’t ticket’ policy. Should only take eight months to solve. ;) One is in a Victor Meldrew mood today.

Oh how I wish we had a BA credit card here in the Republic of Ireland! I earn almost all my Avios from flying and don't think about how many I could be earning. Time to move to the UK... :)

Great strategy you have there though, I'll certainly have to keep that in mind in future as that's a smart way to do it and avoids the extra cost of a hotel or car hire that may not be required. Thanks for sharing that!

It's a shame it couldn't be kept on in some form - even if slightly more restrictive or with less validity if they really wanted to tone it down.

Even if for a small fee, say an extra £10 on a booking to add the flexibility of BwC now that they've just about got the e-Vouchers working pretty well. Not like they'd be losing money from it and as a selling point it would set them apart from the rest of the pack.

Wonder how much they earn from keeping all the money from cancelled flights vs the money they lose from bookings that don't materialise in the first place because they're no different to anyone else so why pay more if you're going to lose it all.

Perhaps they cannot go on together but this one had its own termination built-in, in so far as it did not apply to flights beyond September. BA could have left it to die of its own death rather than kill it early, especially as we are not out of the woods with cancellation problems and being strict with pax on cancellation policies when the airline is forced to cancel flights far more than normal is not a good look.

Short haul has "Select" fares you can book via TAs (expedia sell them) that you can book for a modest uncharge

What Lufty is currently doing is asking you to pay an extra £100 or so each way on Business tickets in return for the right to cancel for a £250 each way fee.

So, for example, a £900 one-way non-refundable ticket can also be bought for £1,000 and you’d get £750 back if you cancelled.

I don’t know how popular this is but it’s a happy medium I think.