British Airways will refund ALL flights to 31st May for a voucher – but should you say no?

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• KINGB says:

  16 Mar16 March 21:17

  I feel bad for many of you with holidays book and hope that it all gets sorted soon and the outcome you want is achieved.

  I’ve a domestic EDI-LHR-EDI booking that got cancelled by BA for work at the end of the month. I should have taken the refund but my work had not cancelled my schedules at the time so I re-booked my travel EDI-LCY-EDI. Noticed that there was a reduction in avios and tier points but not fussed about it.

  Now today work have cleared all my schedules and meetings due to this virus and now im regretting not cancelling the booking and I don’t want the voucher. I paid cash so I may just wait it out and if there isnt any option in getting my money back i’ll just get the voucher

• janie says:

  16 Mar16 March 22:12

  Due to fly to Canada end of May , holding out for a refund for now rather than collecting the voucher but I booked through Expedia, paying on BA Amex. Will I still get a full refund through Expedia if that’s BA’s direct policy? Flights cost £1900 each so am keen to get the cash rather than a voucher.

  • Lady London says:

    17 Mar17 March 22:59

    You have to deal with Expedia as that’s where you bought your ticket.

• Aman says:

  16 Mar16 March 22:16

  BA have cancelled my LHR>OSL flight, and seems to be only visible on the app. When I visit their site and select cancel my booking, it automatically redirects me to a future voucher landing page and doesn’t give me the option for a refund.

  Anyone in the same boat?

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Mar16 March 22:18

    loads!

    • Shoestring says:

      16 Mar16 March 22:20

      what I’d like to know is, in the cancelled flight scenario, what happens if you take no action, ie do not select voucher or alternative flight?

      BA can’t keep your money/ points

      • Aman says:

        16 Mar16 March 22:23

        It seems they’re now flaunting 261… especially for a flight they have cancelled.

        It was a reward redemption – 25500 avios + 51 so interested to know what the voucher would reflect

        • Lady London says:

          17 Mar17 March 22:19

          or even “flouting” 🙂

• Enrique says:

  16 Mar16 March 22:26

  Hi!

  I requested my voucher 2 days ago and I am still waiting for it. Does anybody know how long it normally takes?

  Thanks!

  • Spursdebs says:

    17 Mar17 March 04:16

    Trouble is it’s not normal times! Mine took few days some people’s are instant. I had to phone up
    But that was several weeks ago before the shut down.

• Elizabeth Harris says:

  16 Mar16 March 22:29

  We have two issues. 1. On 21st Feb British Airways cancelled our April 13th flight to Beijing. We completed a refund request form and received an email on 3rd March saying that the refund request was being processed. that message is still on our frequent flyer page. We sent a follow up request for information about this and today received an email asking for more information as they could not find us on the system.
  2. We have flights booked for Salzburg on 28th March. FCO say that no flights will happen after today, BA have today said that our flight will take place and offered vouchers. I think this is a scam to get us to accept vouchers today so that they do not have to refund. I agree with your advice to others to wait a few more days. However the above experience does not inspire confidence in the airline at all.

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Mar16 March 22:38

    ‘Your flight to Salzburg on 28 March 2020 is currently due to depart as planned, however due to the fast changing situation, we wanted to let you know that if you’d like to change the date or destination of your trip – you can apply for a voucher online here. This can be redeemed against future travel, for flights taken within 12 months of your original date of departure.’

    yep – sneaky wording

    just wait for the cancellation email in a few days

    • Elizabeth Harris says:

      16 Mar16 March 22:51

      Thanks for that Shoestring. I see flights are scheduled for tomorrow even though FCO say that Austria will not allow entry. We wait and see.

      • Novice says:

        16 Mar16 March 23:29

        I keep thinking Trailfinders have been good because according to an email from them this morning, they are calling everyone up themselves based on priority as in order of departure date and refunded/cancelling everyone’s holiday in March/April.

        So they are taking the hassle out of it. I always believe the measure of a company’s service is when things go wrong.

        I’m happy that I don’t have to do anything. Already it’s going to be first year in a decade where I don’t get to holiday twice a year.

        • Spursdebs says:

          17 Mar17 March 04:23

          I agree, Trailfinders have been really good. My first cruise around Japan was cancelled, I then rebooked for Norway they used the money I had already paid on cancelled cruise for new cruise before I had received actual refund, they also used the 25% discount cruise credit before it was officially issued.
          They called me Friday to update me, bizarrely my May cruise to Norway is still going ahead at the moment, but won’t be surprised if it’s cancelled or if we decide to postpone.
          I’m not worrying about that yet, I can cancel up to 48 hrs before departure.

    • Lady London says:

      17 Mar17 March 22:31

      very weasel worded.

      Can we book with confidence in an airline that is being so sleazy as to communicate with customers in this way?

      I thought we should cut BA a bit of slack right now. But it seems they are being actively dishonest and trying to deceive customers about their rights.

      – The FCO says “nothing’s flying”. So then British Airways emails all the passengers on flights they know are cancelled implying that the customer cannot exercise their right to a full cash refund? sleazy, sleazy.

      – And from working perfectly and refunding all cash and avios from a booking using avios at the touch of a button, BA’s system has been now been changed so there is no button to click that will give the customer a refund? That took effort.

      Can we book with confidence with British Airways when they treat their customers so sneakily?

• KINGB says:

  17 Mar17 March 00:25

  I wonder what would happen to domestic flying! Any cancellations?

• Matt says:

  17 Mar17 March 06:46

  Requested my voucher on Friday evening, still haven’t received it, due to fly at the weekend! Please advise?

• Chris says:

  17 Mar17 March 07:56

  Hi, after some advice and not able to find it on a feed yet. With regard to the BA offer of a voucher. If I accept this what will I receive given that the booking was made using Avios and a companion voucher. Will I get the equivalent value in a voucher or something else?

  Am keen to understand as I cannot rebook the flight to a later date as will not let me go beyond the companion voucher expiry which is April.

  • Alan says:

    17 Mar17 March 08:18

    Chris, I believe companion vouchers have been extended for six months.

    • Chris says:

      17 Mar17 March 10:57

      Thanks Alan. Unfortunately this does not appear to be the case if looking to change a flight through manage my flight which I was hoping would be a nice simple way of doing this. Only recognised the original expiry date.

  • Jon says:

    17 Mar17 March 09:49

    I had the exact same scenario, I called yesterday at 6am. Waited 90 minutes and then cancelled myself paying 80 quid fee for two people.

    They have refunded the remaining tax and fees as cash and the avios and companion voucher are back in my account. I didn’t want to risk the voucher refund option.

    My 241 expires at the end of April, waiting to see if the 6 month extension becomes an official policy.

    • Chris says:

      17 Mar17 March 10:59

      Jon, sounds like what I need to do. I assume I can cancel through the app or is there some advantage of calling them? Is this how you got the 6 month extension?

      Still don’t know what the voucher option would offer me.

      • Jon says:

        17 Mar17 March 13:28

        I had to call them because they took away the option to do it online or in the app and we were due to travel tomorrow. They were pushing me towards voucher. I suspect voucher would have worked out better for them.

        I haven’t had a 6 month extension to the companion voucher yet, will try to get that nearer the expiry date once things have hopefully calmed down a bit.

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