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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.

  • Boris says:
    3 Apr3 April 00:24

    When all of this is done, remember how companies behaved with regards to thier employees and customers. Hopefully there will be a reckoning. Because if there isn’t, capitalism is dead. And the future will be even more bleak than it is today when the socialists take hold.

  • Alex Sm says:
    3 Apr3 April 01:39

    My favourite European airline Aegean is the first who introduced rebooking without charging you extra, even if there is a difference in fares. And they gift you miles on top of that. All stauses extend but with so little pomp. Unlike the UK airlines.

  • Denis Potasnikov says:
    3 Apr3 April 11:50

    Oman Air: they ignored any communication reg full refund for rtn LHR-MCT-BKK.
    I raised dispute with Amex Platinum, submitted all email correspondence and itinerary – full refund appeared in my Amex account in less than 48hrs. No questions asked.
    Excellent service!

    • Sk123 says:
      3 Apr3 April 13:44

      I cancelled the Amex I paid with. What’s my position if airline not giving a refund? I don’t know how to go about chargeback and S75 that people are writing about.

      • Sunny says:
        3 Apr3 April 15:00

        I’m in the same situation, my mum called Amex as she paid for our flights, you can still do a section 75 claim even if u have cancelled the card. She will call back next week to see how my claim is going.

        • Sk123 says:
          3 Apr3 April 15:16

          Thanks. Did you do that after you had tried to get a refund from your airline? If the airline refunds do we still have this right to claim?

          • Sunny says:
            3 Apr3 April 21:00

            We haven’t managed to get through to Lufthansa so I’ve put a claim in and sent an email to Lufthansa asking for a refund just so I’ve covered all bases.

  • Craig says:
    3 Apr3 April 12:15

    For those of you like me finding it impossible to get through to easyJet to request a refund, I raised a dispute with AMEX this morning which they investigated and closed virtually instantaneously with a message that the credit will be visible on my next statement. Can’t fault AMEX and seems like they’ve figured out that easyJet customer service doesn’t exist in reality.

    • KK says:
      4 Apr4 April 10:15

      I just called AMEX asked dispute with EasyJet, and then got transfered to a special team, then told they will not issue refund but referred to an Easyjet CEO email about EasyJet is going to provide refund for customers

      • Charlieface says:
        4 Apr4 April 22:45

        Insist you want to make the claim, if they refuse tell them you will take them to the FOS, and follow through with the threat. They are by law jointly liable

        • Alex Sm says:
          5 Apr5 April 00:04

          what is FOS?

        • Lady London says:
          5 Apr5 April 00:40

          jointly liable comes from s75 which is provided by it being paid on a UK credit card

          If it was paid on charge card (not credit) then most cardco’s participate in chargeback scheme operated by the cards as a group themselves, and in this case you are claiming chargeback because you did not get what you paid for on the card as the flight was cancelled.

          s75 also covers consequential losses potentially, however chargeback only covers refund of the item itself

          Regardless of the above, Amex is known for being very decent about such matters a d regardless of whether your Amex is a charge card or a credit card, their own coverage and refunding on such things is generally excellent by all reports. So as you paid on Amex I would expect them to sort it for me.

      • Craig says:
        5 Apr5 April 21:08

        Do it online with AMEX if you can. Just got a refund for another cancelled easyJet flight.

  • Isherwood says:
    3 Apr3 April 14:31

    Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but the refund experience from avios.com was spot on. My Avios booking was BA Paris to JFK for 31 March. BA cancelled Paris -LHR about 10 days before flight. Three days later received an email from Avios.com asking if wish to cancel for full refund – simply reply ‘yes’ to the email. Did that and 2 days later email back confirming immediate full refund of all ‘charges’ to BA Amex – plus all avios back in my account. No calls or workarounds. Well done Avios.com. They did the right thing here and I will not forget that in the future.

  • Ken says:
    3 Apr3 April 15:07

    I saw a couple of people had rung BA to get an Avios refund but say they were cut off. It happened to me until I realised what was happening. When the recorded message tells you to “Press ‘1’ for refunds”, it should really say “Press ‘1’ to follow up refunds already agreed but not yet paid”. Because all it does is tell you the refund is on its way and then it purposely cuts off. A bit misleading to say the least. Anyway, I rang again and simply sat tight when it invited me to press ‘1’. I got through to a customer advisor after about 10 minutes who agreed to give me a full cash refund of the taxes, full reinstatement of my Avios and return of the 2-4-1 voucher with an extension of 6 months. Although I had to wait a full 15 minutes on hold, the Avios and voucher appeared in my account there and then. The cash refund will come after 10 working days. Whilst I was on the line to the Executive Club helpline, I asked if they could also cancel a cash flight for 8 of us later this month, where BA had cancelled both flights. No problem. Another 15 minutes on hold and it was done. Cash should be back within 10 working days. Entire call took 43 minutes, but I am happy it’s been sorted!

    • Stagger Lee says:
      3 Apr3 April 16:17

      I was told the cash element of my 241 would take up to a month to come back but it only took 2 days.

    • SUE says:
      6 Apr6 April 16:02

      Yeah it worked. Got the points, extended companion voucher and waiting for return of taxes plus seat reservation money. 12-14 days apparently. I can see the voucher and the points already (within seconds) so I have very high hopes it will all be done and dusted for return flights.
      I called 0800 727 800 for this. As you say pressing for refund on 0344 no doesn’t work for a refund request. Was told IF I need to chase up the refund to then call 0344 493 0787 / Option 1.

  • Jon D says:
    3 Apr3 April 18:02

    Hi
    If you have booked a BA flight through a travel website. In my case Opodo do I have to request the refund through Opodo or can I request the refund through the BA website? My flight is the May bank holiday weekend so not cancelled yet however I have been getting emails from Opodo asking if I would them to apply for the voucher on my behalf as ‘most airlines have stopped offering cash refunds’

    Sounds misleading to me but I am also curious as to when (if ever) I will see my money as Opodo do not exactly have the best reputation with customer service

    Any help would be appreciated

    • mvcvz says:
      4 Apr4 April 11:59

      Nothing personal, but my view is that anyone sufficiently reckless to give their money to Opodo probably deserves everything they get.

    • Lady London says:
      4 Apr4 April 14:38

      It’s misleading.wait till flight cancelled – till 12hrs before if you can – then contact Opodo with a cc to BA stating your right to a full refund within 14 days due to BA’s cancellation.

      You can get a clue if any of the flights on your booking have been cancelled meanwhile by trying to book onto them as a new passenger. If you don’t find the flight or it’s showing full that’s good news keep watching for cancellation then act. Any significant retaining, or cancellation of any flight in your booking means you can do this.

      If opodo has an admin fee in their terms you will probably have to pay this. Otherwise no deductions so long as they cancelled not you.

      If they don’t cancel then you should take a voucher or take the free rebook option to a later date if your choice.

    • Alex Sm says:
      5 Apr5 April 00:06

      I am trying to get my money from Opodo since March 9 for the cancelled SWISS flights to Italy. SWISS is very evasive by its own, they removed all the info about refunds from the website, only vouchers + CHF50 ‘compensation’ everywhere. And Opodo can’t sort out anything, asked me to wait several times for 72 hrs, and now for ‘up to 3 months’ for a refund…

      • Lady London says:
        5 Apr5 April 00:47

        Switzerland is also signed up to EC261 so if you’ve made a reasonable attempt to get your refund just go s75 on credit card, chargeback, or insurance if covered.

        Under EC261 they have to refund within 7 or 14 days of the flight they cancelled. Be fair in these times and give them 28 but I have seen reports of Swiss denying payment that was clearly due to passenger under EC261 before in peacetime and passenger having to go to court for it and, of course, getting it so I wouldn’t let them play the LH Group game of keeping me hanging around. Go to your card.

        • Lady London says:
          5 Apr5 April 00:49

          You might get stuck with an admin charge from Opodo if it’s in your terms with them – fair enough. But all the rest you should get back.

  • Bent B says:
    3 Apr3 April 21:29

    Same here. Had several flights cancelled and haven’t seen a dime or an email. The oldest was a flight that was supposed to be 2 weeks ago, got cancelled when it all started some time back. I am having the same issue with other airlines.

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