Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios flight bookings?

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• Rob says:

  20 Mar20 March 10:31

  Bizarre. I was in the City yesterday, and will be again today, and the supermarkets are well stocked. The Tesco Covent Garden had virtually everything except pasta, as did the Waitrose and Sainsbury’s near Holborn tube. Didn’t have to go anywhere else as I’d got what I needed by then (except pasta, but did get gnocchi).

  • David says:

    20 Mar20 March 15:25

    Probably because barely anyone is going into the City!

    • Rob says:

      20 Mar20 March 16:29

      Exactly. So if you want to stock up on food with no queues, do it. Only mugs start queuing at 5.30am outside Tesco, assuming they can easily tube it into the City / West End.

      • Crafty says:

        20 Mar20 March 21:56

        Is one not more of a “mug” for getting on the tube under current circumstances?

      • Shoestring says:

        20 Mar20 March 22:06

        yeah right there, Crafty

• Marc says:

  20 Mar20 March 10:59

  Cancelled flight for 20th April which we were expecting all paid with Avios and companion voucher.
  As others cannot get refund on their site and when I did try to call was told I can have a full refund subject to £35 pp cancellation fee.
  Why do I have to pay the cancellation fee when it is BA that have cancelled the flight?

  • Rob says:

    20 Mar20 March 11:19

    You don’t.

    • Marc says:

      20 Mar20 March 11:26

      I called BA yesterday and when I got through the agent stated as it was not in next 72 hours there is a £35 admin fee to cancel….. even though it was BA cancelling and not me.
      His instructions to me was that the £35 was only waived if flight within 72 hours and I had to wait 29 days till within the 72 hours.
      So BA get to keep my £1000 Air Duty Taxes for another month, given they have already had it for 9 months in their account pending my flight.

      It’s outrageous when I tried to do it all online rather than tie up their phone lines and yet they force me to make the call and even then still not resolved as I refused to pay the fee.

      • Rob says:

        20 Mar20 March 11:52

        That makes zero chance – no idea what 72 hours has to do with it. You might want to take the £1000 now and go after BA later for the extra when everything calms down.

      • Shoestring says:

        20 Mar20 March 14:25

        just cancel it yourself online (see workaround thread)

        • Genghis says:

          20 Mar20 March 14:31

          Do Shoestring’s efforts meet the definition of a Key Worker?

        • Shoestring says:

          20 Mar20 March 14:57

          🙂

          I realise it’s a bit monotonous to some of you but I feel that it’s helping people who can’t see the comments in the thread

          are they on a mobile?

    • Lady London says:

      20 Mar20 March 23:13

      That’s actual fraud. Won’t refund you when the cancellation is done by them unless you call only in the last 72 hours before the flight they.already cancelled? I really would like courts to subpoena the tapes as evidence.

      As well as inserting JavaScript on their website that denies customers their statutory refund by changing their website’s function to make the previously available money refund request form inaccessible, now a deliberate lie and point blank refusal even when phoned for a statutory refund?

      British Airways has now stooped too low. People are entitled to their money back and some may need it to live now.

      They are telling customers that they must only call BA within 72 hours of a flight BA already cancelled to get their own money refunded? What do they think customers do with their lives? Who can spend 6 hours over 6 occasions trying to get BA to pick up the phone? Some customers may be working in conditions when they simply cant spend the time. Oh wait….perhaps they’ll never get through and British Airways can avoid refunding.

      If you get this rubbish from BA I advise you to keep very clear records of when you requested your money back from BA, what was said, time and date of calls who you spoke to plus whatever time you spent trying to get through. Doing your calls in Skype might do most of what you need.

      Clearly the punishments imposed on BA for openly flouting the law are nothing to them. Nor is honest behaviour apparently and clearly they take their customers for cash-cow fools.

      • Lady London says:

        20 Mar20 March 23:26

        *Take the records to your credit card that you paid with and request a chargeback. S.75 also likely a way to recover for flights BA cancels. Unfortunately if enough people need to go to their card companies because BA is illegally, for practical purposes, denying statutory refunds for flight cancellations, then sadly the card co’s might need to protect their positions by withholding a higher % of BA’s anytime BA gets paid

• Linda says:

  20 Mar20 March 11:09

  My refunds are also going onto a closed cc checked with Amex and they said although cancelled the card is still linked to me, so my current card would get the refund.

  If you no longer have any account with the cc Company you may have to call and they can issue a cheque or transfer to your bank account. It is to do with money laundering /fraud etc.

• BB says:

  20 Mar20 March 14:10

  I’m newish to this. I’m going First Class to Boston in early May using a 241 voucher plus avios. I think that the voucher expired last year.

  How exactly does the Refund Voucher work in this situation? I have read comments about it being used to get refunds back if partially used (may have misread?!) or used as a part credit towards a more expensive flight.

  I guess I’m probably happy to book Boston again for next year, but then again if a voucher is more easily spendable (i.e. I don’t need redemption seat availability to be able to use a voucher) then it sounds like it could be more beneficial to me? Perhaps I can use it even on another route.

  Welcome any thoughts.

  • Rich D says:

    20 Mar20 March 14:43

    +1 on BB situation
    Have flights booked to BKK in Sep20 with a companion voucher that will expire in Jan21.
    Would a 12 month voucher be issued for both seats?
    Otherwise I think the companion voucher is toast.

  • BB says:

    21 Mar21 March 14:36

    Is no one able to explain how the voucher works pls? Obviously I don’t want to have to waste BA’s time given we don’t fly until early May.

    • Rhys says:

      21 Mar21 March 15:14

      Normally, you don’t get the voucher back if it is past its expiry. In this case, however, BA may be lenient and deposit it in your account.

      • BB says:

        21 Mar21 March 16:27

        Thank you for replying.

        Sorry, I meant to ask how the refund voucher works, not the 241 voucher

        • Rob says:

          21 Mar21 March 17:16

          Valid for 12 months from the date of the cancelled flight, can be used against more than one booking, possibly NOT transferable (not clear yet).

    • Rob says:

      21 Mar21 March 17:23

      Not sure what you’re asking.

      You get the Avios back, you get the 241 back regardless. You can then EITHER get your taxes back in cash (via the workaround) or as a 1-year BA voucher (via the form).

      • BB says:

        21 Mar21 March 18:31

        Thanks rob.

        I’m no doubt being thick but obviously paid using cash for the taxes/charge and then avios.

        If I get the Refund Voucher, what £ value does this have? I have no idea what the value of a first class ticket was to Boston at that time. Do they just give you a voucher that says “you can have a return to Boston first class whenever i you want in 12 months” or do they say “your flight would have cost £x each at that time so here’s a voucher for £x to use as you see fit”.

        Thanks again!!

        • Rob says:

          21 Mar21 March 18:47

          You are being thick!

          The voucher is for the £ you paid in taxes for the Avios ticket.

        • BB says:

          21 Mar21 March 19:18

          Rob, you are a star! I was complicating things far too much! I’ll take the avios back and take my chances with the 241 I guess and hope they extend it.

• erin sackett-hermann says:

  20 Mar20 March 15:42

  This was so helpful, I called this morning. Please note that you have to call the executive club, not the general number. Also you will have to explain that you could not cancel for refund online so they waive the fee for cancelling by phone

  • Adam Huszka says:

    20 Mar20 March 15:58

    Erin, which number is that?
    I tried 0344 493 0747 but it only says I should call the main number.

    • erin sackett-hermann says:

      20 Mar20 March 17:35

      I’m calling from the US, the direct number for executive club given to me was +1 800-452-1201. That was given to me by the agent at +1 800-247-9297 which is the general US number.

• Jim Paterson says:

  20 Mar20 March 16:14

  My 2 for 1 redemption has disappeared from My Bookings. The booking was London to Bangkok and return from Singapore to London. I have heard nothing from BA and no Avios have been reaccredited to our accounts. Hopefully someone will call or email me to confirm return of Avios and refund of taxes etc.

• Mike says:

  20 Mar20 March 20:06

  Hi – what does cash refund mean exactly? I booked 2x business class return to Dubai. It cost 110000 Avios + 1 Companion pass + £1000. The face value is probably around say £5000. Based on this example what do you think my options are?

  • Shoestring says:

    20 Mar20 March 22:02

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

• Lindsey says:

  21 Mar21 March 09:56

  Just to save anyone else spending hours on hold to exec club call centres (UK). They are currently only refunding flights that are within 3 days of travel. They said try next week ( my flights are within 14 days) and it might ease off or they may solve the web problem.

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