British Airways will no longer voluntarily refund your China or Hong Kong flights due to coronavirus

British Airways has made some surprising changes to its coronavirus policies.

Perhaps unfairly, I can’t help thinking that the airline is trying to avoid paying out refunds where it can help it.  (Lufthansa, apparently, is taking the same approach.)

As well as blocking refunds for passengers to Hong Kong and China on flights which are still operating, it is still holding out from refunding Seoul passengers.  Italian flights cannot be cancelled either.

Here are the changes which came in on Tuesday afternoon:

Hong Kong flights:

Until today, this was the policy: if you were booked to fly to Hong Kong before 1st June, British Airways would refund your flight or rebook you on a later flight, up to 1st August, at your request.

Here is the new policy (click to see it online):

If you are booked before 1st June on the remaining daily Hong Kong flight, you can no longer have a refund.

Your options are:

rebook on a later flight, up to 1st August, or

use the value of your ticket to buy a new British Airways flight to ANY destination at the current price (there is no guidance on what the date range is)

This is, of course, hugely unfair.  It was pretty much pot-luck whether you would have been booked on the cancelled flight or the one which remains.  One group is entitled to a refund, the other is not.

Shanghai and Beijing flights:

At present, Shanghai and Beijing flights are cancelled.  However, a limited service will resume from 19th April.

Until today, this was the policy: if you were booked to fly to Shanghai or Beijing before 1st June, British Airways would refund your flight or rebook you on a later flight, up to 1st August, at your request.  You could also accept a diversion to Hong Kong.

Here is the new policy (click to see it online):

If you are booked on one of the few Shanghai and Beijing flights scheduled to operate between 19th April and 1st June, you can no longer have a refund.

Your options are:

rebook on a later flight, up to 1st August, or

accept a diversion to Hong Kong, or

use the value of your ticket to buy a new British Airways flight to ANY destination at the current price (there is no guidance on what the date range is)

Again, this seems unfair.  It is pot luck as to whether, from 19th April, your Shanghai or Beijing flight is one of the few that will operate.

Italy:

British Airways has issued some – fairly half-hearted – guidelines for travellers to Italy.

This applies to anyone booked to Milan, Turin, Bologna, Venice, Bergamo and Verona.

If you are booked for travel to any of the above destinations before 2nd March, you can change your ticket for free to another date before 31st March.

Alternatively, you can switch to a Zurich or Geneva flight.  BA will not pay for any additional costs to get you into Italy, however.

No ticket refunds will be allowed.

The special advisories page of ba.com is here and has the latest information.  However, changes are usually published first on the BA Travel Trade pages here.

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