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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.

  • ChrisC says:

    For Firefox open a new tab then
    – type about:config
    – It will warn you about risk of changing advanced option. Click Accept the Risk and continue
    – In the Search type JavaScript
    – The JavaScript.enabled was the second one in the list for me and said True. Double click it to change to false.
    – Repeat the process to turn it back on

  • JoeSmoe says:

    Confirm it does not work for my cancelled reward flight, without JS I can get the cancellation with refund page up but it is missing the proceed/next button. Turning JS back on and it redirects to the future voucher page.

    • Shoestring says:

      incorrect: see my point by point guide above – it works fine for cancelled flights

  • Yuff says:

    Anyone know how to get through to BA to book an Avios flight?
    I’ve tried calling but it just cuts me off.
    I am trying to book a flight for 12-15 year old on their own and the website won’t let me book it!

    • Anna says:

      There are thousands of other people trying to get through, that’s why!

  • don says:

    Brilliant, this saved me (presumably) hours on the phone with BA cust service fighting for what should have been so simple. Also, may want to point out that you need to turn Javascript back on before hitting the cancel button or it won’t process.

    Thanks for the tip!

  • Ammar says:

    OT – bought a non refundable emirates ticket via amex travel for 560, due to travel tomorrow to Pakistan tomorrow. FCO advise to not travel so wanting to cancel trip. have travel insurance with Axa (40 pounds excess). Amex travel have been in touch with Emirates, can only get a voucher for amount of fare paid to be used in next 11 months? What would you do:
    1) Get the voucher
    2) not travel and claim via travel insurance for cancellation of trip?
    Any response before 3pm welcome, when amex next call me back
    Thanks

    • Charlieface says:

      Claim via travel insurance as they will give cash. You shouldn’t be required by insurance to take a voucher to mitigate your loss, especially if you don’t intend to travel

  • Jessiefan says:

    I have an outstanding avios flight ATL-LHR-EDI on 24th, but I am already back in Edinburgh as it was too much hassle to get in touch to try and change it so I went ahead and booked a one way virgin to LHR and another avios LHR-EDI for this morning.

    What will happen to my original avios return – can I do anything with it? I can’t cancel because I flew the original outbound. Is it just burned or would I get something if BA cancelled it??

    Should I let BA know as I won’t turn up or just leave it.

  • Technoholic says:

    This worked, fantastic tip, thanks!

  • Genghis says:

    Received an email from BA this morning noting a flight for my MIL I had booked for her had been cancelled. Going into MMB, the apply for refund button took me to the voucher page. However, going back in and turning off JavaScript, as mentioned, took me to the page to get a cash refund. I turned back on JavaScript then pressed continue. All good. Saved a few hours on the phone. Thanks HfP community.

    • Genghis says:

      Should have mentioned, this was a cash booking.

      • Anna says:

        So the cancel/change options weren’t greyed out?

        • Genghis says:

          No

          • BLT1 says:

            Thanks Genghis. Any ideas – I get to the right screen and says are you a passenger on the booking Yes/No, but there is no continue button just return to manage booking?

          • Shoestring says:

            @BLT1 – see my point by point explanation in comments

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

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