Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

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

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Finally ….. British Airways has seen the light and is now allowing you to cancel ALL flights up to 31st May, in return for a travel voucher.

However …. I am not convinced you should accept.

Let me explain.

Here is the British Airways ‘Book With Confidence’ website.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

These are the new rules:

If you are travelling between 14th March and 31st May, you can refund your flight for a British Airways e-voucher irrespective of when you booked.  No refunds are on offer for flights beyond 31st May.

If you are travelling between 1st June and 31st December 2020, you can refund your flight for a British Airways e-voucher if you booked between 3rd March and 31st May

The voucher is valid for 12 months from the date of your original flight

The voucher can be used on any route, not necessarily the one you originally booked

This applies to both British Airways marketed flights and BA Holidays bookings, although Comair and SUN-AIR are exempt

You cannot claim if you have already started your journey

Flight cancellations can be made until the close of check-in, whilst BA Holidays bookings must be cancelled within 48 hours of departure

Anyone who has already cancelled their booking and lost money cannot retrospectively request a voucher

You can also change your flight dates without any change fees, although you have to pay the fare difference.

The small print on how the voucher works is on the ‘Book With Confidence’ website.

British Airways Book With Confidence

But … but … but … perhaps you should wait?

I know this sounds contrarian.  Many of you have been on tenterhooks waiting for a decision like this to allow you to cancel your trip.

And yet ….

The EU has agreed the terms of a deal to allow airlines to cancel flights without losing their slots.

Next week, British Airways is likely cut anything from 25% to 100% of its scheduled flights – probably around 50% given what Lufthansa is doing.   If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to a full refund IN CASH.  No messing around with e-vouchers.

By taking the refund now, you are also giving up your right to potential EC261 compensation if you were due to travel within 14 days of the cancellation being made.

Unless you are travelling in the next 4-5 days, you might want to think about waiting in case you end up missing out on a full cash refund.

Of course, there is also a risk that British Airways withdraws this offer and you can no longer refund your ticket at all.

It’s up to you.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (869)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • WILLIAM T MEECH says:

    Canada
    Ban on entry to UK travellers. US border closed to non-essential travel from 20 March (midnight EST). Some flights suspended. UK travellers that wish to leave are advised to consider leaving as soon as possible, to ensure travel plans can be met.

    INFO REF PREVIOUS COMMENTS ABOVE
    WILLIAM T MEECH

    • Lady London says:

      Your nationality or visa status is not the airline’s problem.

      Suggest you follow the advice above to make the best of things.

      Or, you can panic and pay cancellation fees now or get nothing back if your ticket was nonrefundable. And you are likely to any voucher as well.

      Or you can follow advice and watch and wait as your chance of a change having to be made on the provider’s side near the time of your flight looks very high. In that case as your booking departs from Europe you are covered by eu261 meaning a cancellation or flight number change anywhere on your booking, or a significant reschedule anywhere on your booking, means you would be entitled to a full cash.regund (and not be obliged to accept any voucher).

      You choose.

      • Lady London says:

        *likely to *lose* any voucher as well. Such as Lloyds or 2-4-1.

        text editor ate the ‘lose’

  • Sw11_01 says:

    I have flights from London to Bordeaux with EasyJet on 10 April. Does anyone know if I can get a refund yet or if I need to wait it out?
    Any help much appreciated.

  • Michael says:

    I have a flight booked to Vietnam (operated by Qatar Airlines but with a BA flight number and booked on BA site) departing 30/3 via Doha the first part of my flight to Doha is still operating but the connection to Hanoi is cancelled same applies to the return 07/4 can someone please advise where I stand with regard to refund/voucher?

  • Anton says:

    How do we apply for a cash refund? There’s no option for this anywhere and they say call centre is only for those flying in the next 72 hours. Do we call anyway or is there another way to apply for it?

    • Rob says:

      If your flight us cancelled and you have been emailed to say that, the route in the article works.

  • jamie says:

    But what about subsequent flights in the same booking that aren’t cancelled, like domestic transfers, do you have to call??

    The biggest problem with calling BA is that you get cut off quite frequently.

  • makrxx says:

    So if I’ve flown LHR-SIN, and the return leg of SIN-LHR I need the date changed, I can only get an e-voucher instead of a change of date, correct? But wouldn’t one-way ticket be generally a fair bit more expensive than the individual leg of a return journey? So in that sense I’ll have to top up.

    • Lady London says:

      To change existing ticket read the conditions to see if it’s possible. It will either be a nonrefundable ticket or changeable for a fee plus fare difference. Some can be changed after flying the outbound, some can’t.

      I suggest you do that this then work out which flight you prefer to change it to then –
      do absolutely nothing.

      Reason : in these times there’s a really good chance the airline might want to change your return flight. At that time you have choices.
      If it’s a European airline reject any offered change and say you’d like the rest of your ticket refunded. Or, ask for your preferred date and flight instead. Neither of these will cost you anything.

      So prepare and watch the booking in MMB and on the schedules/see if your current flight becomes unavailable in the booking engine
      Particular times to check your booking are 13 days ahead, 6 days ahead and just inside 72 hours ahead. Give the flight every chance to change or cancel : but not by you. If you get to too close (and mine would be 12 hours ahead ) then call and make your change. But you causing it may not be possible (nonrefundable no changeable ticket) or could cost just £35 or or £35 plus massive fare difference.

      Whereas if it’s their change then it’s all free, nonref can get refunded, no changeable can get changed. In these times could be be worth your wait.

      • Lady London says:

        Ps if it’s not a European airline and if your ticket did not start in Europe then you are instead, only allowed to use the airline’s (and possibly agent’s) terms and conditions that you bought the ticket with and not the wider rights above.

        For clarity, even a non-European airline has to do the above for any change on the ticket, if the starting flight on the ticket departed from Europe

      • NSIDHU says:

        i have booked BA flight London gatewick to Torronto Canada on 20th of june. am i entitled to get a refund due to covid-19 if our flight cancelled by BA

    • Lady London says:

      One way tickets very expensive usually. For SIN check out Scoot from Germany? which may be an exception. If you have lots of miles one ways can be a good use of them

  • janie says:

    Does anyone know what Expedia are doing?
    Have flights to Canada on BA booked via Expedia.
    If BA cancel can I only get credit like Expedia state or am I entitled to a full refund?
    Whilst I booked through Expedia the charge on my AMEX was to ‘ British Airways PL, WW London’
    The flights cost almost £4K so I really can’t afford to have this as credit when out of work.
    It’s giving me sleepless nights and no one has any answers.
    I do have travel insurance.

    • janie says:

      Also travel insurer states no claims will be paid if the airline cancels the flight.

      • Lady London says:

        ? Travel insurer may say that now but check the terms and conditions from when you originally bought the insurance. Those are what apply for the duration of insurance that you bought. That’s the point of insurance.

        So go check and you may well find there’s nothing about that not being covered in the terms you signed up to. In that case you are covered and the insurer cannot deny your claim.

        If any insurer ever writes to you trying to change terms midcontract or put restrictions or new things that didn’t apply in the terms you purchased originally then assuming there isn’t fair scope in the original terms for you to have to accept this then it can strengthen if you communicate back to them by any means that you reject this change – although it should not be necessary might be useful.

        Who would buy any insurance if the terms say the insurer can decide at any time that they’re not going to cover the set of things you agreed and paid for up front? That makes insurance worthless. It’s a contract and you can enforce it i.e.they have to cover the loss you signed up to have covered and that you paid the offered price for.

        • janie says:

          Well the policy states it covers me if I cancel my trip, and of course this would be BA cancelling my fights not me cancelling, so I guess that’s why they won’t pay out as it is for the airline to reimburse in the event of cancellation.

          There must be other people who have booked via Expedia, but I can’t seem to find any info as to whether they are refunding or just offering vouchers.

          • Lady London says:

            Hi Janie

            I suggest you read the original terms again, would be surprised if there’s not something about airline cancelling or failing to transport you. Even though I know there are a lot of travel policies around that are basically useless I hope you haven’t got one.

            Otherwise if it does cover you cancelling for certain reasons then you know what you have to do.

        • janie says:

          I have a Bupa business and leisure complete policy so it’s meant to be quite comprehensive but it excludes the failure of any provider to provide part of the trip, so it’s not covered. It would cover industrial action, causing delay but not this.
          So have to wait for BA to cancel the flight.

  • Nielsen Rodrigues says:

    Dear All,
    After a bit of research i found this guide to help you with your full refund without having to be forced down the route of a cash voucher.
    I have got a confirmation email from BA stating that my money will be refunded to my card which i used for booking.
    Best of Luck and I do hope it works for you as well.
    Please click on the link below for a step by step guide

    https://headforpoints.com/2020/03/19/how-to-trigger-an-online-avios-flight-refund-using-google-chrome/

    • Joanne W says:

      Hi, I received an e-mail on 15th March saying my trip on 3rd & 4th April was cancelled and I would receive a full refund within 7 days which may take a further two to show up on accounts. nothing received as yet.

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