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Workaround found. How to trigger an online British Airways flight refund using Google Chrome

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Our main article today is about BA’s unwillingness to let you claim an online cash refund for an Avios flight.

We have now found a way of triggering a cash refund – as opposed to a voucher – without calling British Airways (and waiting hours in the queue …..)

This next chunk of text is for getting a refund of your taxes on Avios bookings which have not yet been cancelled by BA. 

For a refund on a CASH or Avios BA flight booking which has been cancelled, scroll down this page and read the PS. at the bottom.

If you have a CASH BA flight booking which is NOT showing as cancelled, do NOT follow any of the advice on this page.  You are not yet able to get a cash refund.  You either need to accept the British Airways travel voucher offered or wait until your flight is cancelled and then follow the steps above.

To be clear:

Got an Avios booking which is not yet cancelled?  Read on

Got an Avios booking which is cancelled?  Go to the PS at the bottom

Got a cash booking which is cancelled?  Go to the PS at the bottom

Got a cash booking which is not yet cancelled?   Sorry, there is no way of getting a cash refund.  You need to accept the BA voucher or wait for your flight to be cancelled.

How can you stop British Airways forcing a flight voucher on you?

In summary ….. if you turn off JavaScript in Google Chrome then ba.com will take you to the full cancellation page.

Here’s proof it works:

How to trigger an online Avios flight refund using Google Chrome

This is how to do it, using the Google Chrome broswer.

Go into ‘Manage My Booking’ on ba.com and select ‘Cancellation options for this booking’.  You must be logged in and using the BA account of the person who booked, ie the person who is named on the confirmation email.

You are taken to the ‘consent’ screen:

How to trigger an online Avios flight refund using Google Chrome

Do NOT continue the process, as you will only be taken to the ‘Future Travel Voucher’ page which you don’t want.  In order to cancel, you need to first disable JavaScript in Chrome.  (If you are not using Chrome, you need to find out how your browser handles JavaScript.)

This is how you do it:

Click the ‘three dots’ in the top right corner of Chrome

Scroll down to ‘Settings’ and click – this opens a new ‘Settings’ page

Click ‘Privacy & Security’ in the left menu – this brings the ‘Privacy & Security’ section to the top

Click ‘Site Settings’ in the ‘Privacy & Security’ section

Scroll down to the ‘Permissions’ section and click ‘JavaScript’

Turn off JavaScript by toggling the ‘Allowed’ button

Do NOT close the window as you need to turn it back on later.  Switch back to the window where you have the ba.com ‘Consent’ page open.  Tick the ‘Please tick here’ box and click ‘Continue’.

You will now be on the standard cash cancellation screen.

Turn JavaScript back on.

You can cancel your booking for a full cash refund of your taxes, and with your Avios returned.

But don’t forget ….

You will be still be paying the £35 per person cancellation fee on a long-haul booking.  If you want to avoid this, you need to wait until BA cancels your flight automatically, assuming it does not operate.

If you paid for seat selection, you LOSE this money if you cancel.  You may prefer to take the travel voucher as I believe the seat selection value is retained, either as part of the voucher or as a credit for free seat selection when you rebook.

PS.  How to get a refund for a CASH British Airways booking

If you are looking to refund a CASH booking which has already been cancelled, this is an alternative set of steps:

1) Go into Manage My Booking on ba.com and select the flight shown as cancelled

2) Go into your browser’s settings and disable JavaScript – for Chrome, follow the instructions I outlined earlier in this article for cancelling an Avios booking

3) Go back to ‘Manage My Booking’ and click on the ‘Cancel and Refund’ button which is just under the cancellation notice

4) Confirm that you now see the correct cash refund form and not the voucher refund form

5) Turn JavaScript back on in your browser settings

6) Click on the “Yes” radio button to select that you are a person in the booking

7) When nothing happens press “Enter” on your keyboard. (this works in Firefox and Chrome). The page refreshes and shows an error at the top of the page “email address invalid”

8) Click on the “Yes” radio button again

9) Complete and submit the form

You will see this screen:

British Airways cancellation

For absolute clarity, do NOT cancel a CASH flight if you have not received an email from British Airways saying that your flight is cancelled.  If your flight is still showing as operating, cancelling means you lose EVERYTHING except a nominal amount in taxes.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (May 2025)

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

Get 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 Card

30,000 Avios and the famous annual Companion Voucher voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express Credit Card

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 Credit Card

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

80,000 bonus points and great travel benefits – for a large 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, and the standard card is FREE. Capital on Tap cards also have no FX fees.

Capital on Tap Visa

NO annual fee, NO FX fees and points worth 1 Avios per £1 Read our full review

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

10,500 points (=10,500 Avios) plus good benefits Read our full review

There is also a British Airways American Express card for small businesses:

British Airways American Express Accelerating Business Card

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.

The American Express Business Platinum Card

50,000 points when you sign-up and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

The American Express Business Gold Card

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 (1117)

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

  • Aleksei says:

    Hello
    I have made a booking for flights in April with 2-4-1 voucher and trying to understand how exactly is it possible to select new dates for travel? I don’t want to refund but just to reschedule. Is the only possible option getting a refund/voucher and starting all over again?

    Many thanks

  • Sam says:

    Hi all,

    I have used the advice above to reach the cancellation page – thanks very much. When I get there I’m not quoted any figure for the refund, just told to submit my claim, after which BA will tell me what I’m owed. I’m slightly reluctant to submit without knowing what I’ll get back, but perhaps this is just what everyone sees and I’m being overcautious?

    Also, I have since cancelled the card I used to make the booking. Does anyone know what happens in this case? Does it mean that I will have to ring BA to get the refund processed?

    Thanks,

    Sam

    • Shoestring says:

      as long as it’s an Avios flight (cancelled = full refund, not cancelled means small fee payable) or a cancelled cash flight (full refund), you’ll be OK

      don’t cancel an uncancelled cash flight as you’ll lose the lot

      • Sam says:

        Yep, sorry. I should have specified – it’s an Avios flight booked with a 241.

        Any idea where the funds go, given the card has been cancelled?

        • Shoestring says:

          funds go to the cancelled card, which is still available for refunds, you need to contact the card co to get a cheque etc

          • Aleksei says:

            And what happens to the 2-4-1 voucher used? Is it returned to the account or it gets lost?

          • PJJ says:

            @Shoestring. After reading your comment earlier today I had an on-line chat with Amex and was told as I downgraded from BAPP to the BA free card any refund would automatically be transferred to the free card. Initial flight and hotel were made on the BAPP. Will find out if ever any gets refunded

          • Shoestring says:

            that makes sense because a downgrade card is effectively the same card account

            but I’ve had plenty of refunds to completely dead Amex cards and there’s no danger you’ll forget about the refund because they start sending you statements showing the credit balance, in the post

    • Rob says:

      As long as your flight is cancelled – and shows as cancelled online – you’re not risking anything. The money still goes back to your cancelled card and you will need to call the card company in a month or so to arrange a bank transfer or whatever you want to do.

      • Sam says:

        Great, thanks, Rob and Shoestring. The flight itself (to Newark in May) isn’t cancelled yet, but I’d rather not wait to request the refund.

        I was just a little concerned by the fact that the ‘Do you want to cancel’ page wouldn’t tell me what I was getting before I hit submit. Probably an overabundance of caution.

  • Charlotte says:

    The cancellations options for this booking is no longer available to click on. Clearly BA have a found a way to stop this. Their unethical behaviour knows no bounds!

    • Rhys says:

      I just managed to process a refund for a cancelled flight, are you sure you’re following all the steps?

  • Zoe says:

    This is genius, thanks very much. Confirmation of refund email from BA received.
    Very cagey of them to deliberately hide their refund page in an attempt to prevent those entitled from claiming money back.

  • Anastasiya says:

    Hi guys, my flights were cancelled by BA already ,booked with cash, when i go to Manage the Booking >> Turn off JavaScript >> click on the Cancel and refund flights >> it prompts me to the page with flight details and asks to confirm if I am the passenger on the booking and then the only option is to go back, what I am doing wrong?

    • Shoestring says:

      you can’t cancel for a refund unless you are logged in

      please follow my instructions very closely

      quick reminder: most people failing forget an important step (Enter or restart Javascript)
      Full sequence:
      Google Chrome
      MMB, logged in as a/c holder who paid
      Find booking (put in reference & name)
      Turn off Javascript
      Click ‘Cancel & refund flights’
      New page ‘Are you a passenger on this flight?’
      Turn Javascript back on
      Tick ‘No’
      Hit Enter button
      New page ‘Error please enter a valid email address’
      A new option now appears below ‘Are you a passenger on this flight?’
      New option is ‘Did you pay for this booking’, tick yes
      Fill in details to claim refund

  • Sam says:

    Sorry to repeat the question, but just to be absolutely clear, the final screen for requesting a refund ‘Cancel and refund your flights’ asks you to confirm you are a passenger on the booking, which passenger you are and your personal details and then invites you to apply for a refund, listing the terms and conditions. It DOES NOT tell you exactly what will be refunded until you submit the claim. Is this the same screen that one normally sees? Apologies again, I am probably being overcautious, but you never know with these things and one doesn’t want to shoot oneself in the foot!

    • Shoestring says:

      that’s what I got (Avios booking) but with certain types of bookings you see the refund amount

      • Sam says:

        Marvellous – thanks for confirming, Shoestring! You have been of immense help.

  • tomacat1 says:

    Got it to work eventually, I also think you need to have the latest version of Chrome.

  • M6ix says:

    My cash ticket YYZ-LHR on april 9th just got canceled. Also for me the refund option wasn’t available online. I reluctantly phoned the call centre, expecting having to wait a good amount of time. After three minutes I got to speak with a friendly chap, who processed my full refund quickly. Pretty happy (and positively surprised) with the outcome.

    • Judith De Witt says:

      Which number did you dial? I rang the number on the email to no effect.

      • M6ix says:

        I dialed +18002479297. Maybe because it’s a non U.K. number it somehow went through faster..?

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