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

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• Phil Tester says:

  27 Mar27 March 20:28

  I noted that too. I have to hand a redemption voucher LHR/Kef. No booking ref, date of issue or value. I’ll still have to contact the call centre to redeem, so why not call and get the cash back?
  The associated avios and CV are not on my account, so another inquiry. Not best use of staff time, or mine.

• ChrisC says:

  27 Mar27 March 22:25

  My voucher is already 2 days late over the timescale BA told me it would arrive

  Today I got an email about some flights in May and offering a voucher if I wanted to cancel.

  Not doing anything until I get my first voucher. Sort your current list out before adding to it

  How can BA get their comms so wrong on this?

  Hopeless.

• Nick says:

  27 Mar27 March 22:41

  Rob, with the greatest of respect, all this article proves is how little knowledge you have of airline ticketing processes and how anything actually works in practice. The ‘usual’ vouchers you refer to that can be used online are issued as new EMDs, which is a much more time consuming and complicated process than this, which is essentially suspending a booking by inserting a ghost flight and two protect keywords. As you’ve seen, it’s already a manual process as it is and they’re taking a while to be done, imagine how long they would take if they were the other version. Particularly because the experts in this area (call centre agents) are either not working at all (India) or busy helping customers (NCL, CPT, BRE) and the vouchers are being handled by head office staff repurposed from their day roles.

  In answer to one of your questions, yes they have to be used by the same passenger, so the ‘resale’ element mentioned by another commenter won’t be possible.

  And for the record, I do think there will be major issues later when it comes to actually using these. Call centres will be swamped and people will be frustrated about the lack of flexibility. I wouldn’t be surprised if AA-style hold booking functionality were developed to make it work (i.e. book online, call up to ‘pay’).

  What I would do if I had a large one (thankfully all mine were cancelled so I was allowed full refunds) would be to make a very cheap booking for a city break, which would free up the rest to be used much more flexibly on any booking by any passenger (as at that point, residual value will indeed be issued on a full EMD).

• Gavin says:

  28 Mar28 March 01:41

  Well I’ve got a flight for May 20th returning June 4th I really hope gets cancelled so I can get a refund. Seoul seems to be every other day, and flying out on even days and returning on odd days (it’s an overnight flight out of London). Hopefully the return flight will be cancelled then.

  If I have to use a voucher by May 2021 my concern is that travel restrictions may not be scrapped until autumn, and May 2021 is a bit too early for a summer break. Maybe Christmas 2020 to get away somewhere.

  My understanding is that travel using the voucher needs to be completed by 12 months after the first flight but I appreciate the detail is fuzzy now.

• nigel whitehouse says:

  28 Mar28 March 06:07

  i booked thru worldairfares uk and finnair cancelled the flight. but worldairfares refuse to give me a cash refund, can anyone tell me if they have to refund me ?

  • Shoestring says:

    28 Mar28 March 06:25

    legally, yes

    could be they are conserving cash – if they go bust you could lose everything

• AndyC says:

  28 Mar28 March 06:51

  We accepted a BA e voucher 15 days ago, not heared a thing from BA after the first automated email stating BA would be in touch in next few days. Are we within or outside timescales others have received theirs in? Ours were flights and car = holiday. Any ideas as to why our booking and ref number have disappeared off our Exec Club account so cant check anything!!??

• Tom says:

  28 Mar28 March 07:08

  How long are refunds taking?

  Anyone know?

• Tom says:

  28 Mar28 March 07:15

  If you cancelled the Avios bookings then you lose £35.

  If the airline cancels the flight you are entitled to a full refund under EC261.

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