British Airways launches new refundable ticket types – but only via travel agents for now
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In an attempt to overcome business concerns over bookings flights, and potentially as a first step to withdrawing Book With Confidence and Future Travel Vouchers, British Airways has announced two new fare classes.
The new fares are called Select and Select Pro. Both allow you to claim a full or partial refund after a fee, which can be as low as £50.
For clarity, these fares are NOT for sale on ba.com at the moment. They can only be booked via travel agents and are aimed at business travellers. In time, they will be sold to the public when Book With Confidence is withdrawn.
The easiest way to explain them is via this chart:
As you can see, Select and Select Pro both allow free changes to your ticket, albeit with the fare difference to be paid.
Select Pro is fully refundable, but is only available on long-haul routes. Select is refundable with a fee.
The only difference between Select Pro and a traditional ‘Fully Flexible’ ticket is that you must actively cancel a Select Pro ticket before departure. You can’t just forget about it and ask for a refund at some point in the future.
How much more do I have to pay for a Select ticket?
Quite a bit.
Here is the typical price difference, which possibly exceeds the value you will get from the flexibility:
How much does it cost to cancel a Select ticket?
It’s not a bargain. Here are the costs:
- Short-haul: £50 in non-premium, £70 in premium cabins
- Long-haul: £50 in non-premium, £100 in premium cabins
Are these fares available on all routes?
Most of them, yes. The main exceptions are Doha, any trip starting outside the UK, EU, USA or Canada, China Southern flights sold under the BA JV and flights which are part of the Siberian joint venture.
Are Select and Select Pro good value?
When you factor in the extra cost of the ticket, and the cancellation fee for Select, this doesn’t look too attractive.
Clearly, for some people in some circumstances these costs are worth paying. Business travel bookers tend to be more risk averse.
To be honest, for the average leisure traveller, I doubt there would be much demand even if they were offered on ba.com, which they are not (yet). You would probably be better off buying the cheapest possible ticket and taking the risk that you end up losing your money if you cannot travel. In the long run I think you would be better off.
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As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!
In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.
You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:
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There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:
British Airways American Express Premium Plus
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British Airways American Express
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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.
American Express Preferred Rewards Gold
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The Platinum Card from American Express
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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.
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There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.
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