I purchased a "Book and upgrade with Avios" ticket for 2 adults on Feb 7 from ZRH to SFO, from premium economy to business class traveling on May 20 for total of $3419.22. When I checked the fare conditions, it said the avios was refundable and the base fare was also refundable upto 24 hrs before the first flight. Our travel plans changed, so I canceled the reservation online through the BA app on February 9 (less than 48 hrs later). I double checked the fare conditions and it still showed refundable for the cash portion of the fare. The app did not tell me how much money I would get back, just said that the cancellation would be processed, I got an email saying the same thing, without any details. Now. BA is telling me that we will get $41 back per ticket, since the cash portion is not refundable.
I cannot find the fare rules anywhere in the eticket. Is there any other place to look this up? The booking is gone from Manage My Booking, since it was canceled. Unfortunately, I did not take any screenshots of what I saw before I canceled the ticket.

Appreciate any help.

Hi,

generally speaking only the avios upgrade bit is refundable. The underlying base far in most cases are not unless you bought a fully flex economy ticket.
if I try just a dummy booking I've got the following in bold:
"Changes to your upgrades are subject to the rules of your base commercial fare. See Terms and Conditions below."
it also says the following:
"You can cancel this booking at any time up to 24 hours before outbound departure and receive Avios back, you may have to pay aservice fee."
and then in the Terms and Conditions sections the relevant part:
"Between the united states and area 2 for vln0c4m5 type fares cancellations any time ticket is non-refundable. Note - fare component is non-refundable"

If the ticket is fully flexible then in the Terms and Conditions you should see the following:
"Fare component is fully refundable"

The price you paid for two indicate it was not a fully flexible ticket, at least BA is charging that amount currently for two people on a one way ZRH to SFO ticket. The fully flex refundable currently for a one way ZRH to SFO using avios to upgrade from PE to CW is around $9000 for two. I suggest to call BA, they can look it up the exact information you are looking for and can tell you what was the ticket rule exactly.
However based on this I do believe that BA is correct and the refundable portion is just the taxes you have paid. The taxes on the ticket is around $100 but they will deduct the service fee as well, so without the e-ticket receipt, etc it is possible that the cash portion is just going to be $41 per person.
I'm not sure what to suggest other than call an explain that the website did not tell you how much is the cash refund is going to be so you would not cancel the flight if you would know this information upfront. However BA can stick to the Terms and Conditions and won't do anything. Also as there are no more avios seats left on that day the max I can imagine is they reinstate the PE booking.

Thanks for the detailed response. I created an account on expert flyer based on all the great posts here and checked the fares on the same day I booked. There is a 1192 base fare one way that has the fare rules that I recall seeing in Manage My Booking that we could cancel before departure. But since I didn't screenshot that page, I'm no longer sure .

Appreciate all the help.

"CANCELLATIONS

BEFORE DEPARTURE
CHARGE EUR 50.00.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
BEFORE DEPARTURE OF JOURNEY CHARGES APPLY PER
FARE COMPONENT TO ALL PASSENGER TYPES. INFANTS
WITHOUT A SEAT ARE NOT CHARGED THE FEE.
----------------------------------------------
WAIVED FOR DEATH OF A PASSENGER AND PASSENGERS
TRAVELLING COMPANIONS.
----------------------------------------------
IN CASE OF ANY NO SHOW WITHIN THE FARE COMPONENT
THIS FARE COMPONENT BECOMES NON REFUNDABLE.
-----------------------------------------------
REFUND PERMITTED WITHIN TICKET VALIDITY.
-------------------------------------------------
WHEN COMBINING NON-REFUNDABLE FARES WITH
REFUNDABLE FARES
1. THE AMOUNT PAID ON EACH REFUNDABLE FARE
COMPONENT IS REFUNDED
2. THE AMOUNT PAID ON EACH NON-REFUNDABLE FARE
COMPONENT WILL NOT BE REFUNDED.
3. WHEN COMBINING FARES CHARGE THE SUM OF THE
CANCELLATION FEES OF ALL CANCELLED FARE COMPONENTS
----------------------------------------------
REFUND OF UNUSED TAXES FEES AND CHARGES PAID TO
THIRD PARTIES PERMITTED. ASSOCIATED CARRIER
IMPOSED CHARGES ARE REFUNDABLE.
------------------------------------------------
ANY NON-REFUNDABLE AMOUNT FROM A PREVIOUS TICKET
REMAINS NON-REFUNDABLE FOLLOWING A CHANGE.
-----------------------------------------------
TICKET IS NOT TRANSFERABLE TO ANOTHER PERSON.

AFTER DEPARTURE
TICKET IS NON-REFUNDABLE.
NOTE - TEXT BELOW NOT VALIDATED FOR AUTOPRICING.
AFTER DEPATURE OF JOURNEY FARE COMPONENT IS NON-
REFUNDABLE.
---------------------------------------------- "

You're on the right track, but I would ask BA what your precise fare basis was, so you can make sure you're looking at the right one, then ask the agent to look up the rules on their side and see how they interpret them.