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Coronavirus refund policies: British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet, Hilton, Marriott

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Due to rapidly changing policies over coronavirus cancellations and travel waivers, we have decided to compile all the information we have in one up-to-date reference post. Hopefully this gives you an overview of your cancellation and refund rights with the major travel companies we cover on HfP.

As well as links to the offical guidance, we have included information from the anecdotal data left in our comments.  Thank you to everyone who has left feedback.

We will update this as changes occur.  It is currently correct as of 13th May.  If you have experienced something different to the policies described below please let us know in the comments or email rhys @ headforpoints.com

Coronavirus airline and hotel cancellation and refund policy summary

British Airways coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Read the British Airways COVID-19 travel advisory here.

Cash flights: all flights up until 31st December can be cancelled in exchange for a British Airways voucher which is valid on any route until 30th April 2022 (this extension applies to previously issued travel vouchers, too).

If your flight has been cancelled by British Airways you are entitled to a full cash refund instead.   The only way to do this now is to ring BA at 0800 727 800. Do NOT select any of the options. Your call will eventually go through and you will here the customary BA hold music. This process took me about 15 minutes the other day, although recent comments suggest the lines are currently very busy.

Your refund should include any seat selection fees and other additional payments.

Avios redemptions:  you are entitled to a full refund in the event that British Airways cancels your flight.  Follow the instructions above if you want a cash refund rather than a voucher for your taxes and charges.  If your flight is still operating and you cancel an Avios redemption of your own volition, you are entitled to a refund of all the Avios and taxes and charges paid, minus a £35 fee.

‘Avios + Money’ bookings (Avios bookings where cash was used to reduce the Avios required):  these work on the same basis as standard Avios redemptions. You are entitled to a refund of your Avios and cash regardless of whether British Airways has cancelled your flight or not.  A £35 per person cancellation fee applies if your flight is still operating.

‘Avios part-payment’ bookings (cash bookings where Avios was used to reduce the cash required):  British Airways is offering a voucher for tickets where the flight is still operating. The voucher is for the original cash price – ie. if your flight was £900 before you reduced the cost with Avios you will get a voucher for £900.  Cash refunds are available instead of a voucher if your flight has been cancelled but, as per the above, you will need to call to request this or try our workaround.

Flight & hotel/car or BA Holidays package:  if British Airways has cancelled any part of your holiday you are legally entitled to a full refund in cash.  If you choose to cancel of your own volition BA will retain your deposit.  There are strict UK laws surrounding package holidays but these have been relaxed slightly. You should still receive your cash within a reasonable time frame, however.  There will be no attempt to make you take a voucher.

American Express 2-4-1 vouchers:  all British Airways Amex 2-4-1 vouchers have been extended by 6 months.  This includes vouchers which have already been used – if you cancel, it will come back with an extension – and all forthcoming vouchers which will be issued by 30th June 2020.

Lloyds upgrade voucher:  you can apply for a six month extension if your Lloyds Avios Rewards credit card upgrade voucher is due to expire in March or April by calling Avios

Executive Club status extensions:  if your British Airways Executive Club membership year ends in April, May or June your tier point requirements to renew have been reduced by 30%.

British Airways A380

Virgin Atlantic coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Read the Virgin Atlantic COVID-19 travel advisory here.

Cash flights: All flights cancelled by Virgin Atlantic are eligible for cash refunds.  These cannot be claimed online and require a call.  Remember that there is no rush and that as long as your flight is cancelled you can claim your refund at a future date.  Virgin Atlantic has been reaching out to passengers with existing bookings to offer targeted rebooking incentives including bonus miles, upgrades and cash cards.

If your flight is still operating, Virgin Atlantic has implemented a flexible booking policy. Tickets booked between 12th March and 30th June for travel until 31st December 2020 can be rebooked free of charge for dates up to 31st May 2022, although you may have to pay a fare difference. Virgin will keep your ticket open for you to rebook at your convenience.

If you booked on or before 19th March there is no change fee AND no difference in fare as long as your travel prior to 30th November 2020. A fare difference may apply for rebookings between 1st December 2020 to 31st May 2022.

Virgin Flying Club miles redemptions:  You will pay £30 if you cancel your booking at least 24 hours before departure to receive a full refund of all miles, taxes and fees.  The fee is waived if your flight is no longer operating.  Virgin Flying Club redemptions booked between 6th March and 31st March are eligible for free changes although reward seats must be available on your new dates.

Virgin Flying Club status:  Virgin Atlantic has announced that it is extending Gold and Silver members’ status by six months. Companion, upgrade, credit card and Clubhouse vouchers have also been automatically extended by six months.

Virgin Atlantic coronavirus refund and change policies

easyJet coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Cash flights: As of 30th March, easyJet has grounded its entire fleet.  Any flight cancelled by easyJet is eligible for a full cash refund. Some people have had success in emailing flightrefund@easyjet.com for a refund. You should include the booking reference, departure date and preferred language in the subject line in the following format: Booking Reference/Departure Date/EN. If this does not work, you will have to call 0330 365 5000.

You CAN request a voucher for a cancelled flight via Manage Bookings.  These vouchers are valid for six months from the date of issue – the rules are vague but it seems that you only need to book, and not fly, within six months.

easyJet is waiving its change fees for flights allowing you to rebook on different dates and/or routes if you wish.  This is possible irrespective of whether your flight is cancelled.  You must pay any differences in the fare.

Any ticket booked with easyJet at the moment for future travel will be covered by the ‘free changes’ waiver although fare differences must still be paid.

It is reportedly exceptionally difficult to reach easyJet by telephone.  One reader who speaks Italian contacted the Italian call centre, for a UK booking, and had his call answered virtually immediately and his refund processed.

It is not clear if easyJet Plus members will have their annual membership extended.

Hilton coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Read the Hilton COVID-19 travel advisory here.

All existing bookings are fully refundable, for cash, on stays until 30th June, irrespective of the original room rules.

New bookings made until 30th June will be fully refundable irrespective of how far in the future your stay occurs.

Hilton Honors status:  Hilton is automatically extending member status for an additional year, to 31st March 2022.  In addition, any member who was due to lose status on 1st April has had it extended to 31st March 2021.

Points expiry has been put on pause until 31st December 2020.

Hilton coronavirus refund and change policies

IHG coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Read the IHG COVID-19 travel advisory here.

All existing bookings made by 6th April for stays until 30th June 2020 have had their cancellation fees waived.  There is NO cancellation or change policy for bookings beyond 30th June 2020.

However a new discounted ‘Book Now, Pay Later’ rate has been introduced that allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before arrival.  You can no longer book prepaid rooms.

‘Best Flexible Rates’ now have free cancellation until 6pm on the day of arrival.

IHG Rewards Club status: IHG Rewards Club status has automatically been extended by 12 months, carrying over until early 2022.

IHG Rewards Club elite status points requirements for 2021 have been reduced by 25% for all members.

Spire Elite members will receive an additional ‘choice benefit’ of 25,000 points or Platinum Elite status for a friend.

In an email, IHG has confirmed it would be extending Ambassador status by three months for those who pay for it although this is yet to appear on accounts.

Credit card free night vouchers expiring after 1st March 2020 have been extended until 31st December. All certificates earned in 2020 will be valid for 18 months.

IHG coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Marriott coronavirus refund, change and status policies

Read the Marriott COVID-19 travel advisory here.

All existing bookings are changeable or cancellable for no charge up to 24 hours before arrival until 30th June 2020.  For clarity, this includes bookings for stays AFTER 30th June but the cancellation or change must be made before 30th June.

Hotels are allowed to refuse to honor this policy if your stay is “with special event restrictions or peak demand weeks”

New bookings made before 30th June, for stays at any point in the future, will be changeable or cancellable free of charge up to 24 hours prior to arrival.

Design Hotels and Homes & Villas by Marriott are excluded from these policies.

Marriott Bonvoy status:  Status earned in 2019 will be extended until February 2022.  It has paused points expiration until February 2022 and extended the expiration of suite night awards by one year (to December 2021).

Free night awards from credit cards, annual choice benefit, promotions or travel packages due to expire in 2020 have been extended until 31st January 2021.

Category

General

Comments (373)

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

  • Ian Williams says:
    2 Apr2 April 06:56

    What about BA car hire (Avis) booked in addition to a 241 or should I say companion voucher, as they are always 2 seperate bookings

    • Anna says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:46

      I’m in that position. It says on the booking that you have to call to cancel but I am thinking about emailing Avis as well.

  • Arno McLean says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:05

    Surely you would think IHG will change their policy at some point for bookings beyond 30th of April, like Hilton have?

  • Zara says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:07

    I’m really confused about the easyJet flight change policy. I changed some flights to other ones and there is no mention of any additional fare difference charges when I go through to final confirmation. At every step it said “free” so I am very confused and will be very disappointed if they charge for any difference in fares which didn’t show up at all during the change process. It said clearly that if the flight is cancelled by easyJet then You can change to a different flight free of charge. Have I confused things in your above guidance?

    • Algor says:
      2 Apr2 April 07:33

      Modification fee is waived, you will pay only fare difference.

      If fee was not waived you would pay fare difference and change fee.

      • Zara says:
        2 Apr2 April 08:05

        But when I select new flights (which I know are more expensive than my original flights), I get to final confirmation and it says “free”. Surely they need to list any fees otherwise?

        • Bagoly says:
          2 Apr2 April 09:05

          Are you sure they are more expensive now than what you paid?
          They have some pretty cheap fares listed, and it is the amount you paid that matters, not the price now listed for your original flight.
          It is also possible that they have made a programming error in this rush which benefited you.
          Unlike hotels “shall I charge it to the card you provided when you checked in?” Easyjet website always asks for new/repeated credit card details when they make any new charge, so if you got a confirmation without entering them I expect you are OK.

      • Lady London says:
        2 Apr2 April 20:03

        Ez historically did not charge diff on replacement flights and this is how I would w pect their system to work based on my own experience.

      • Lady London says:
        2 Apr2 April 20:04

        For cancellations this is not correct. Pretty sure it’s been incorrectly stated as such.

        • Lady London says:
          2 Apr2 April 20:07

          *don’t know if Rhys said it in the article but if he did it’s not correct – although the article seemed to state things from the “offering” airline’s point of view in most cases as compared to things like eu261 rights and other refinements like this.

    • Mikel says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:03

      Our return flight was cancelled and the refund button was available at that time. 14 days later it’s still showing as refund processing. EasyJet really getting bad press at the moment on social media. I’ve sent two DM’s on twitter and the reply only refers to changing the flight or voucher, despite specifically mentioning refund. Really getting pissed off with their attitude.

      • Lady London says:
        2 Apr2 April 20:12

        I should think they’ve sent at least 80% or 90% of their call centre staff home. I’m not privy to on what basis. They are in South Africa and I’m not aware of any support for them from the South African government.

    • BP says:
      2 Apr2 April 09:43

      There was wording (now removed) on their website that indicated cancelled flights could be moved to any other flight for free.

      Non-cancelled flights have the change fee waived but must pay and fare difference.

      I took advantage of the initial wording by booking a £85 return which I was certain would be cancelled in order to change it for free to the dates I need which cost £388. Just waiting on my flight being cancelled on the system so that I can test this out!

      • Charlieface says:
        2 Apr2 April 12:00

        Removing the wording doesn’t change that cancelled flights can be changed with no fare difference. That’s the law

  • Dee says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:07

    A word of caution- imparted by my travel agent – The return portion of a flight is almost worthless as the outbound leg is what the flight value is based on, so asking for the refund of your return part of your ticket wouldn’t necessarily give you the cash you’d need to book on another flight with another carrier.
    We’re current stuck in New Zealand. Our Emirates flight home was cancelled 2 days before departure I’m informed that Emirates won’t recommence schedule flights until 2nd June. A single ticket to LHR in business class with Qatar is currently around $NZ 17000 (£8000) for mid April – roughly the same price we paid for our return ticket…..

    • Bentoni says:
      2 Apr2 April 07:44

      This may sounds stupid – is this covered by travel insurance? I read quite a few cases about people stranded abroad, makes me wonder if travel insurance are useless …

    • Mike says:
      2 Apr2 April 07:53

      Emirates have a responsibility to get you home, no?

      I know actually getting them to do it is a different matter, but you should not have to shell out again…

      • AJA says:
        2 Apr2 April 09:17

        The trouble is EU261 and its duty of care provisions only applies to non-EU airlines for outbound flights from the EU and UK. It does not cover you for inbound unless it is an EU based airline. As Emirates is a non-EU airline they won’t necessarily bother to help. NZ or other countries may have their equivalent to EU261 for flights departing from there. This is one of the pitfalls of using a non-EU airline.

        • Mike says:
          2 Apr2 April 12:12

          You still have a contract with the airline, even if no EC261…

        • Lady London says:
          2 Apr2 April 19:38

          If all on same booking and departed from UK or Europe iirc eu261 covers outward and return? even if non EU airline? Non EU airline standalone from outside Europe not covered though.

    • TGLoyalty says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:13

      And how much is a return ticket home?

      ie book a return leg for how ever far out the far rules out allow and either use it or drop it, no one will come after you.

      • Lady London says:
        2 Apr2 April 20:14

        You mean to throw away the return half?
        You are right would normally work out cheaper.

    • John says:
      2 Apr2 April 09:27

      Well, no, the inbound portion will have a defined value as shown in the breakdown of the ticket’s fare construction. It could be very high or very low compared to the outbound portion.

      The fact that most airlines do not sell one-way tickets at the same price as the inbound portion of a return ticket is neither here nor there.

      • Charlieface says:
        2 Apr2 April 11:35

        It is true that a half round trip does have a value in the ticket, but generally an airline will reprice it as a one way. What you need to do here is tell them they haven’t fulfilled their contract, ultimately contract law still applies even if EC261 does not.

    • Lady London says:
      2 Apr2 April 19:35

      Completely irrelevant
      Emirates hasto pay cost of getting you home whatever that is. Qatar is still flying also try Air Canada via Toronto if they fly out of NZ – there is one terminal at Toronto that does not force you to immigrate if transiting.

      If Emirates won’t provide replacement ticket – and if your booking departed from UK or Europe they have to under ec261 – then buy if you can and sue them or ask your insurance or credit card to help. Credit card is also liable to provide same under s75 if a UK credit card.

      Have you contacted the British.Consulate in NZ? They should be keeping track of any repatriation flights so you should let them know you are in need

  • Mark says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:27

    Does anyone know what happens if your BA flight is cancelled and you do nothing…. do they have to simply refund the cash at some point as they cancelled it or do you have to proactively ask for the refund or voucher or risk losing the cash altogether?

    • King says:
      2 Apr2 April 07:39

      +1 I am in the same boat here. Any help appreciated, thanks.

    • AJA says:
      2 Apr2 April 09:23

      I think they are obliged to refund and I believe you have 6 years to claim. But if you leave it to BA under current circumstances they might just issue a voucher, if they do anything. If you want a cash refund you need to be proactive and call them. It’s their own fault if it clogs the phone lines up even more. BA don’t want to refund cash if they can get away with it.

  • Paul says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:29

    Let’s see how getting a refund on my Marriott points stay for the Monaco Grand Prix goes as that did have very punitive cancellation terms as it was a special event.

  • AndyC says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:29

    We accepted a BA voucher for flight and car (=holiday) back on march 19th. Apart from initial , weve not heard a thing since after the first immediate system reply! How do we get this voucher or money back please?

    Our booking has been wiped off of our Exec Club account so no way tracking of it , can anyone kindly help us unravel this please? Thank you

    • Gavin says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:09

      I requested a voucher on 15th March and received an email on 18th March saying they were processing it, and that it will arrive after 7 days (initial confirmation screen said 48 hours!). I’ve not heard anything yet 15 days later. I assume there’s a backlog.

    • Vit says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:11

      Managed to speak to BA Call centre about this (mine is flight only) when calling in early to ask for cash refund about my other flights.

      Note that I asked for voucher a couple day before my flight was due to depart and heard /recieved nothing since then.

      I was confirmed by the ba call centre that my flight “voucher” is in place and in the system. Just make sure I keep hold of my booking reference and bring that up when call in to make a new booking. Seems to me that it is just a cheap and easy way for them to keep track of these voucher in such time rather making a new IT flow system to send out voucher code to everyone.

      Hope that helps.

    • AJA says:
      2 Apr2 April 09:26

      If you know your PNR from your original booking you can try logging into it on the Qantas site. That apparently show the value of the voucher.

      • Gavin says:
        2 Apr2 April 12:56

        I tried this and can see a strange additional flight in my booking (original booking is between LHR and GVA):

        BA8695 Greenwich Mean TM to Mont Joli
        Departs12:00 (Mon) Arrives14:00 (Mon) Duration:7h 00min

        Can’t find any reference to the voucher or value though.

  • BJ says:
    2 Apr2 April 07:31

    Thanks for this, s useful summary all on one place. With the £50 back on £200 promotion, many of us with have booked travel plans with American Express Travel. What are readers experiences when seeking changes or refunds through them?

    • The Original Nick says:
      2 Apr2 April 07:54

      @BJ, I’d like to know this too?

      • BJ says:
        2 Apr2 April 08:12

        My hotel stays are June and July so a bit early for me to test the water yet myself.

    • Ant says:
      2 Apr2 April 08:02

      I cancelled a hotel booking with Amex travel that was for £250 for which I had got the cash back of £50.
      The £250 was refunded by Amex Travel and a few days later the £50 cash back was reversed. So I got net £200.

      Annoying but fair.

      • BJ says:
        2 Apr2 April 08:10

        That’s the way it works. Was your hotel reservation flexible or non refundable? Mine are nonrefundable.

        • LewisB says:
          2 Apr2 April 14:45

          I used this offer on 3 different cards for non-refundable hotels this summer. I was assuming it was dead and I would need to hope for FCO advising against travel to claim on the insurance. I looked over the site yesterday if they had changed their policy but nothing. Would be good to know if anyone has been successful with this!

      • Axel says:
        2 Apr2 April 09:01

        How did you get a response from Amex travel, was it email, chat, phone, wa… ?

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