British Airways evouchers for cancelled flights are arriving – and it’s a mess

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

• Rob says:

  27 Mar27 March 16:37

  Yes, it does say that there – that’s why I said it can. The voucher, as you can see, does not mention that and only refers to part-payment.

• EwanG says:

  27 Mar27 March 16:40

  @Rob – small typo in article, with a word missing – presumably NAME?
  “…it was NOT issued in the same *name* of the lead passenger..”

• sayling says:

  27 Mar27 March 16:45

  “To be honest, given that ba.com actually has boxes where you input voucher codes, even the lack of online functionality is unacceptable.”

  Or, “Hopefully, BA will be able to utilise the existing boxes for voucher codes to enable online use of these vouchers in due course. They could even develop functionality that enabled customers to enter their codes and see how much their vouchers are worth”

  I’m not sure BA have ever been in a position where they have used vouchers for refunds in the past. Certainly, in normal times, to introduce a process not used before, with such huge demand and that requires significant IT development would be a challenge. To introduce it without a rigorous project plan and without significant testing would seem unthinkable.

  Yet in these difficult times of staffing issues (self isolation/ quarantine, sickness, etc) and huge demands on limited resources (including call centres being closed at country level, rather than by company decision), that’s pretty much what I assume has been done.

  I don’t believe that CS are individually typing these emails, so it’s likely they are being produced as a mail-merge output/extract from some database (probably two, given that BA Holidays customers are getting different emails). It’s probable that they use different databases for different parts of the business.

  Yes, there are definitely areas where communication could be better, but I’m guessing they’ve thrown everything to the pump as much as they can, to help as many people as they can as quick as they can.

  With hindsight, a few more people directing the firefight rather than fighting the fire might be the result of an end of crisis review.

• Doog1000 says:

  27 Mar27 March 16:51

  I am about to cancel a booking for myself and two friends on the same PNR – if I do it will that be enough or does each passenger need to cancel individually to get individual travel vouchers?

  • Andy S says:

    28 Mar28 March 10:58

    Yes it’s one booking so only you have to do it. you will get credited the total cost

• Hobart says:

  27 Mar27 March 17:02

  I had to cancel a return Business class ticket to Chicago when the meeting I was attending on 26th March was cancelled on 12th March. BA reimbursed only two thirds of the amount paid, and my annual travel insurance has declined tov pay the difference. Can anyone advise whether BA should be liable for this? The flight would have been cancelled by BA anyway – if only I had waited to cancel!

  • sayling says:

    27 Mar27 March 20:06

    Unfortunately, I think you may have answered your own question when you said “if only I had waited to cancel!”

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    27 Mar27 March 20:07

    The if only part is the important one…

• Tim says:

  27 Mar27 March 17:12

  Yep my voucher arrived a week ago, just has ref number on it.

• Chechire Pete says:

  27 Mar27 March 17:48

  On a similar topic but an Iberia booking, I mentioned few days ago that my Easter trip was an Iberia holiday, and I wasn’t expecting to get an easy ride in looking at my refund as They already cancelled my outbound flight but I had no options at all to request anything. It was a messy booking as it generated BA 125- tickets and also 2 additional BA PNRs, but the Iberia PNR was the master.

  To my utter amazement this afternoon I received an email from Iberia which said they are refunding my entire holiday back to my CC and I don’t need to do anything. I’m got smacked!

  We are contacting you about your upcoming trip to Alicante.

  As you know, many countries have imposed flight restrictions or bans in order to stem the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and we have also implemented measures to alleviate its effects, but especially to protect what matters most to us, our customers.

  Your trip (flights + hotel or car) has been affected, and we will therefore refund the value of your booking. This will be returned to your original payment card within the next 10 days, but may take a few more days to show on your statement. We will endeavour to process the refund sooner than this but due to the unprecedented volumes of affected bookings it will take some time to work through these. Thank you for your understanding. If your original payment card has expired, or the account is closed, the refund will still be processed as normal due to banking requirements. You should contact your card provider if you have any queries about how the refund will reach you.

  If you have already selected the option on iberia.com to cancel your booking and receive a voucher for the same value, this email supersedes your request and the amount of your reservation will instead be refunded, without the need to contact us.

  If you have already been in touch with us to rearrange your travel plans, thank you for your patience, and please disregard this message.

  We hope that this situation recovers as soon as possible and that you trust Iberia again to book your next vacation.

  Thank you,,
  Iberia Vacaciones

  • Peter K says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:17

    Are you related to Cheshire Pete?

    Good result though.

    • Cheshire Pete says:

      27 Mar27 March 18:25

      Yeah! Not sure how that changed! Corrected.

    • Cheshire Pete says:

      27 Mar27 March 18:27

      This bit is interesting though. BA to follow!?

      “ if you have already selected the option on iberia.com to cancel your booking and receive a voucher for the same value, this email supersedes your request and the amount of your reservation will instead be refunded, without the need to contact us.”

      • Shoestring says:

        27 Mar27 March 18:33

        Got reminded by CAA of legal obligations, well, not CAA as Iberia – but Spanish version thereof

• Charlieface says:

  27 Mar27 March 17:59

  125 numbers mean they are prob generated via the GDS. So maybe a travel agent or another airline could check them

  • JAXBA says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:44

    Travel agents won’t be able to see them, they wouldn’t have the right permissions.

    Other oneworld airlines in Amadeus, maybe. But why not just ask BA, since you have to use it through them.

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:49

    It’s just because when Iberia sell a Holiday in the UK, it needs an ABTA certificate, and it appears BA have to issue this. Hence 125 instead of 075. Also payments went to British Airways and not Iberia. It’s the 1st time I’ve booked such a thing on the UK website so just seems a lot of layers to unpick it!

  • ScienceTeacher says:

    27 Mar27 March 18:53

    The 125 is the ticket number on the booking. Since the six character PNR is reused every few months, the ticket number is the only constant. So when you phone, you quote this 125 voucher number when in fact behind the scenes it was the ticket number 🙂

  • Cheshire Pete says:

    27 Mar27 March 19:02

    Anyhow! This is just a side show! The point of my post is Iberia are apparently doing Auto cash refunds even if you’ve previously been issued a Virtual Voucher, which is now superceded. I never actioned anything so I was never offered one in the first place, and based on my previous experiences of Iberia Customer Services, they seem to be ahead of the game compared to BA.

    • Deanc says:

      27 Mar27 March 19:57

      BA are doing the same for BA holidays . The email I received from them said that even if you had requested a voucher you would get a cash refund. I have had no such email for flight only bookings.

      • Deanc says:

        27 Mar27 March 20:00

        Text of the email I received from BA Holidays last Friday…..

        f you have already selected the option on ba.com to cancel your booking and receive a voucher for the same value, today’s email supercedes this. We realise a full refund offers you maximum flexibility now that we are unable to provide your holiday as planned. You do not need to contact us if you have already opted for a voucher as we will process a refund instead. We hope this reassures you of our continued commitment to put our customers at the heart of our business and that you will trust us with your future travel.

      • Rob says:

        27 Mar27 March 22:13

        It’s the (strict UK) law on Holiday bookings, that’s why. They would lose their licence to sell holidays if they didn’t pay. No such sanction for ignoring rules on flights.

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