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BA’s Delhi call centre has been shut down – expect even longer waiting times

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British Airways issued a notice to the travel trade on Sunday evening to warn that the call centre in Delhi has been closed down by the Indian Government.  

This is part of a coronavirus clampdown.

The closure has taken out a chunky percentage of British Airways call centre capacity.  It is having “a big impact on call waiting times”.

The airline continues to ask that customers only telephone if they are due to fly within the next 72 hours.

Of course, BA could reduce call centre volumes by putting back the option to receive a cash refund for cancelled flights – instead of a voucher – on the website.  Luckily we have a workaround which will allow you to hack the BA website and trigger a cash refund payment.


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 (12)

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

  • Rich Jones says:

    I received notification of my cancelled Helsinki flight for May half term today…. Cash refund or rebook! Instantly available on manage my booking.

    • Antony D'Emanuele says:

      Does the link to refund actually work, this is what was there before but the link took you to the voucher page…

  • Vinz says:

    Is there a workaround to ask for a refund for onbusiness point redemption flights? I don’t want to call them…

    • Lady London says:

      You can do most changes online. Log into OnBusiness then select to manage booking.

      It won’t work if you are logged in already on another tab as a non-OnBusiness user. Make sure you log out of any other BA login first and you might have to delete cookies. Then OnB will let you log in. (Unless it’s having one of its lets-make–everyone-change-their-password times, which it used to have frequently in the past).

      If you can’t log in you’ll have to call OnBusiness on their specific number but it’s really much easier to change things online.

  • Nick_C says:

    I don’t understand why most call centres still seem to operate from offices. Ideal function for home working.

    • Polly says:

      Yes, Amex staff work from home a lot. Often just chatting to staff, they might say they are WFH, not just recently. Seems sensible. But BA will cut costs this way, of course. And the longer people hold on the phone, more likely to give up and accept the voucher.
      Unless….they are now allowing the cash refund on line. Without the workaround.

    • Osagie says:

      Guessing in some countries, not every worker has the conditions for good internet, telephone or even electricity at home so need an office environment. Also probably their clients require strict measures such as cameras etc to avoid credit cards and other financial details being misused

  • Nick says:

    You realise the refunds team is also probably in India, right? So even if the button is put back on the website, how are they going to process them?

    • JAXBA says:

      A different office in Mumbai, but yes, they are in India.

      I’m not getting my open jaw, previously reissued Avios 241 tickets refunded any time soon am I? Poop.

      MMB won’t let me, even with workaround, as it no longer recognises the original card used to pay.

    • George carter says:

      Nick better start asking your country government to encourage people to work so the call centres won’t move to India.your government can’t afford to pay for call centres in your own country as people are lazy and you don’t have funds to pay them anyways as majority wants to live on benefits. ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS MATE.

  • Jonathan says:

    If BA invested heavily in building a website that allows you to make and or amend any type of booking using their website, then their call centres would’ve probably been nowhere near as big they were before the Covid-19 outbreak. The fact that a lot of Avios bookings require you to call up in the middle of the night to try and make a booking is to be honest ridiculous, why you can’t do something like this on the internet, and you have to call up is something that BA is being intentionally (or not) blind-eyed towards. If people could make all these types of bookings using the internet, then their call centres might not need to be staffed in the middle of the night

  • Alex Sm says:

    I wish Opodo closed its India call centre because it’s useless anyway – after a 2-3 hour wait you are told to call back in a few days re your booking / refund / whatever

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

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