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.

• Colin says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:30

  What happens if you applied for a voucher, but as the flight was cancelled you were actually entitled to a full refund? BA are saying as I applied for a voucher, they now can’t refund it? I feel like although this might technically be difficult for them, it’s not in line with the law?

• NigelthePensioner says:

  28 Mar28 March 09:36

  Alex Cruz……..sorry, I mean Willie Walsh at his finest!!
  Like a puppet on a string………

• David says:

  28 Mar28 March 10:09

  Amongst many abolished BA flights, my wife and I have had the final segment of a Round the World cancelled. The other 15 segments have already been flown.

  Problem: the original date for the final segment was April 24, 2020 and the ticket expires twelve months after the date of the first flown segment, April 28, 2019.

  Question 1: will the April 24 date be extended six months, or will BA argue that the first segment is the date used for verification of BA’s extension liability?

  Question 2: both are First RTWs. As you will know the total price of the tickets was probably 6 to 8 times less than the total of individual segments, therefore the cash value will be pretty low. Would I be better off asking for a voucher under these circumstances?

• Holger S. says:

  28 Mar28 March 10:25

  I am curious what Is going to happen to my refund / voucher. I booked one way to Santiago de Chile using the BA 2-4-1 and all my avios for two first class tickets. When I looked at the price on the website for the same flight and date It was an eye watering £19,540 instead of BA 2-4-1, 140k avios and £780 in taxes. Will be interesting how I get it refunded. I used the trick of a full refund but got an email First that BA is processing the refund and will be in touch, then later the week another email that my voucher will take time to process. Seriously not sure. Would be happy with the £19k voucher for the equivalent flight but that’s not going to happen.

  • sayling says:

    28 Mar28 March 11:39

    You’ll get your voucher and Avios back. Probably surcharges, too. You won’t get a voucher for £19k

  • Paul says:

    28 Mar28 March 23:21

    Charge back via Amex.

• DavidB says:

  28 Mar28 March 10:36

  Everything you wrote is what went through my head when I received one on Thursday. Mine was for an award and so may or may not have a cancellation fee deducted from what were governments and airport fees and taxes, not BA supplements (a intra-Asia award on Malaysian). Unlike other airlines my miles are not redeposited so I must call on overwhelmed CSA to find all these things out! What a difference from the AC and AS vouchers that clearly set everything out.

  One has to think this was intended to obfuscate things and hope we’d ultimately forget and the voucher would expire so BA can write off the liability while keeping the cash. Or BA’s management is clueless. Or it hates its frontline CSAs and customers! As a Gold ExecClub member it makes me wonder why bother with this airline in my future (if the is a future) flying?!

• Amanda says:

  28 Mar28 March 10:41

  Hi
  What happens please if you used a combination of BA companion voucher (that expires in September 2020) & air miles
  I don’t think they will extend the companion voucher by the 7 months needed that will allow me a year via a voucher
  Also it won’t allow me to click for a voucher and I think this is why
  I’m guessing I’ll get my air miles back though
  I also paid taxes and upgrade via Amex card but as I’ve since paid the bill off I don’t want a refund onto it or I’ll have a useless credit
  I tried to call the contact centre who said they won’t speak to me until 72 hours before
  I work in a shop so it will be impossible to call 72 hours before as it takes hours to get through!!!
  Any help please? Thank you

  • Melaie Domb says:

    28 Mar28 March 11:21

    I was due to fly to Jo’burg on May 12th using a companion voucher. I can’t remember what the original expiry date was for the voucher but it has been redeposited in my account with an expiry date of December 2021. This is probably 6 months later than the original expiry date as I normally receive my voucher in or around May or June. However, the avios points have not been redeposited so I’m not sure what has happened to them.

    • Karen P says:

      28 Mar28 March 17:16

      Melaie,
      Did you have to call or fill out the voucher request form online before you received your 2-4-1 voucher back? I have a flight booked for May 9th.

  • ANDREW PEEL says:

    28 Mar28 March 14:23

    Just had my trip to Singapore and Austalia cancelled, paid with Avios, Companion Voucher and cash for the tax and seat upgrade etc. called the number, waited about 5 minutes for them to pick up. very pleasant person on other end, full refund immediatley, and added 6 months to the companion voucher. no compaints, very efficient and professional.

• Andy S says:

  28 Mar28 March 11:11

  So we have determined there are two different systems in play.

  A flight only booking gets a voucher email with no value but a reference number (which someone dertermined above is the same as your flight ticket number (starting 125 if issued by BA directly which I suspect all of these are). These say you have to rebook over the phone.

  A flight+car, flight+hotel etc. booking is through BA holidays, I think a separate entity to BA, and in this case you get a different email, without a code, but with the value. These say you can rebook online, and from this I infer that your BA holiday account is in credit to the tune of this voucher, so any rebooking takes funds from this first, and charges you anything on top, or refunds the difference in another voucher, which may still remain as a BA holiday credit, or may be like a flight-only voucher, we have no data points as yet.

  Any comments or corrections appreciated.

• Nick G says:

  28 Mar28 March 11:22

  Hi Rob – good work as always! Thanks for your daily updates, very useful. I have question for you and any experts who read this.

  What happens if you have used a 2-4-1 Amex voucher for a flight in April (that is cancelled), but for which the original expiry date of the 2-4-1 voucher was early May 2020?

  Is there any intel on whether BA are going to refund the 2-4-1 vouchers too, and if so have they set any kind of new expiry date? As obviously, I won’t be able to use it by early May 2020 if they return the voucher with it’s existing date in place.

  Any help, gratefully received. Normally I would call BA and ask them, but as they are dealing with all the urgent requests of travellers in need, I’m not going to call them and take up time that someone in more urgent need could do with.

  Cheers!

  Nick

  • Rob says:

    28 Mar28 March 11:45

    Vouchers are coming back with a 6 month extension.

    • Nick G says:

      30 Mar30 March 11:35

      Thanks Rob! Keep up the good work, cheers! Nick

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