Big news: BA is being more flexible on rebooking your cancelled flights

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• Sam says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:05

  I assume this applies retrospectively to bookings made previously and not just the ones made from now onwards?

  • Phillip says:

    19 Jul19 July 06:19

    My understanding is that any currently live booking qualifies.

• Jane says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:14

  Twitter agents changed their tune with respect to my booking when I contacted them over a few days last week. Initially my reward flights booked 1 year ago for travel 5th August 21 were ‘out of ticket validity’ for any changes, by Friday the latest they could rebook was 4th August 22 for outbound travel. Still waiting to hear whether they are going to do that now or if I need to wait till September when the inbound is released.

• Phillip says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:17

  If you got the “right” agent on the phone over the past year, there were a number of them who were willing and able to change tickets beyond the original 12 month validity!

  • Memesweeper says:

    19 Jul19 July 07:22

    Some people got lucky on the phone, or lucky online, or had the devils own job getting rebooked on the phone or online. With multiple bookings I experienced all of this… the inconsistency between bookings and the disregard of the law was maddening. One thing that helped was asking agents to check a PNR that *had* been moved more than 12 months into the future wrt the original booking date.

• Matthew says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:18

  Good to know. I still have an Avios sale booking which I was able to move to within a year of the booking date (October when the sale was) after my flight was cancelled (June). Does this now mean that I can move my rebooked flight until within a year of the original booking date, i.e. to next June? And does my flight need to be cancelled again for me to be able to do this, I couldn’t just do this now voluntarily? I spoke to Avios last week and they don’t seem to be aware of these changes…

  • Phillip says:

    19 Jul19 July 06:22

    Given that your first change was due to a cancellation by BA, you can still change it free of charge voluntarily, as long as there is Avios availability. If you want to change it to dates without availability, then you want to hope for a cancellation.

    • Matthew says:

      19 Jul19 July 06:29

      Interesting, thanks. Obviously the key thing is trying to keep the sale fare and not pay more Avios. They have been saying that unless my flight is cancelled again I can’t now change it without paying more Avios, and even if it is cancelled I can only change it to within a year of the original booking date. If this new policy now means I can change it to within a year of the original departure date that would be much better and gives me another 8 months or so to push it back and keep the sale fare it would seem.

      • Jonathan says:

        19 Jul19 July 08:57

        You get 1 free change (with no price/availability restrictions) after a cancellation so unfortunately if you have already used this then you can’t shift again.

        Using the BWC free change policy then you are liable for a fare recalculation so yes, you lose the 50% discount. They were allowing changes keeping the 50% but only for travel till end of June ‘21.

        • Lady London says:

          19 Jul19 July 13:23

          basically you need another cancellation by them anywhere on the booking to be able to rebook without paying any extra

        • Matthew says:

          19 Jul19 July 14:55

          Thanks. I was spray allowed to change for travel up until a year from my date of booking though and I didn’t have to pay any extra Avios towards my sale fare (so they waived the June restriction). The question is whether that relaxation will still apply if my flight is cancelled again. I guess I’ll find out soon enough…

• MrIO says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:26

  Mine was cancelled for the US (I was meant to fly tomorrow). I was given a voucher for a rebook but told for the 20 July 2022 I needed to wait until 30 July. Has this now changed?

  • JohnT says:

    19 Jul19 July 07:04

    Doubt it as flights not put on system till then.

  • Jonathan says:

    19 Jul19 July 09:01

    If you got a “voucher” then that is essentially a credit note worth whatever you paid in Avios & cash valid until April ‘23. You have to pay whatever the current price is & top up if necessary. If the new price is cheaper you usually get another voucher for the difference.

    To use the free rebooking without availability or fare restrictions then you don’t get a voucher you just leave the booking alone till you want to rebook.

    Did they send you a Future Travel Voucher? If so you are now in the former situation.

    • IO says:

      19 Jul19 July 10:52

      Ok thanks

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 13:27

    Why did you take a voucher? you could have told them you’d not be on any flight on the booking and said you would get back to them with your decision as to.what you wanted to do with it. You don’t have to make any decision by the flight date – just make sure if it’s not been completely cancelled, that the airline knows you won’t be on the first flight on the booking

    • Lady London says:

      19 Jul19 July 13:33

      Then if you rebook (ie no refund no voucher taken) you get the seats you want without them being allowed to ask you for any higher cost on cash or avios.

      Taking a voucher means you have to pay full price avios/cash, when you rebook.

      No wonder BA wants you to take a voucher. If they cancelled any flight on your booking, the only reason to take a voucher is if you have a 241 voucher in the booking as taking a voucher would extend its validity to fly on till end April 2023. Otherwise leave the booking alone and come back to rebook a future date when ready, or take a refund if it’s more important to you not to have the money tied up right now.

• Amy carpenter says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:32

  This 50% off avios sale, does that happen annually or was it a one off thing? I haven’t been a mad avios collector or follower of this page long enough to be aware, but it would be good to know.

  • mr_jetlag says:

    19 Jul19 July 06:46

    one off COVID sale

  • Lady London says:

    19 Jul19 July 14:13

    Occasionally historically and in very few years.

    If you have the Iberia credit card on Spain they seem to do 50% avios about once per year

• J says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:35

  “On the upside, British Airways was being ultra-flexible. No Avios seats available? No problem. Cash tickets now far more than you originally paid? No problem.” – that’s nothing more than the law requires of them. In my experience, BA were being anything but flexible and actively sought to deny passengers their rights (strictly speaking they broke the law, by not fully advising passengers of their rights, never mind refusing to deliver them). I suspect there’s a whole mass of CEDR cases reaching adjudication about now and not going in BA’s favour – maybe someone at the CAA has had a quiet word and told them to clean up their act? 😉

  • J says:

    19 Jul19 July 08:09

    ^By which I mean, told BA to clean up its act, not CEDR – in case I wasn’t clear 😉

  • Bagoly says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:33

    I suggest that the thought behind the law when drawn up was that if you had booked for say 10th-1th August you should have the right to reschedule because hotels etc would have been booked up, or get a refund.
    The ability to then move to say 23rd-27th December which is typically peak pricing has been pretty generous.
    I don’t disagree that they have been obstructive in other ways, but we should give them credit for this aspect.

    • Lady London says:

      19 Jul19 July 13:36

      No, this is the law. And rightly so since it only kicks in if an airline subject to EU261 cancels your flight.

• Helen says:

  19 Jul19 July 06:40

  Does this also apply to BA holidays? I have a trip to CPT in October (originally booked for March) but I expect South Africa will still be on the red list then.

  • simon brewster says:

    19 Jul19 July 07:24

    BA holidays is particularly difficult to contact by phone recently, and you can’t do anything online except pay a balance. As soon as you indicate your flight includes a car or hotel the recorded voice just says sorry and you get cut off. I’ve had to resort to being placed 40th in the queue (about an hour and a half) for the “Chat Bot” on a couple of occasions to sort things out following a flight cancellation and a change of cabin.

    • Bagoly says:

      19 Jul19 July 10:24

      Yes, Rob’s recommendations of BA Holidays have (understandably) not mentioned this disadvantage. Back in April one could choose different dates to fly online.
      I finally managed to get through to BAH after an hour on Saturday only to be told that because my holiday originates from outside the UK, I have to call BA on the number for that country. Only open Mondays to Fridays, and has just cut me off.
      But there is one advantage of starting from Europe at least, that for straight cancellations one can use email: baholidays.europe@ba.com
      For flights only starting from Germany there is contactbade@email.ba.com
      For cancellations (rather than amendments) I prefer email – if they haven’t replied by deadline one still has something with which to claim.

  • Bagoly says:

    19 Jul19 July 10:35

    Given that they have to pay cash out to hotels and car hire firms, the ability to move to peak periods, E.g. Christmas, or even just to post-Covid dates, without paying more would seem to be expecting rather much.
    But perhaps BA has persuaded at least some suppliers to share the pain?

    • Jonathan says:

      19 Jul19 July 11:13

      For holiday bookings I believe the policy is to move flights without availability restrictions or fare recalculation but car hire/hotels are repriced which is fair enough given package holiday regulations give them the right to just refund you & that is their obligations fulfilled.

      • Lady London says:

        19 Jul19 July 13:51

        +1 Fair enough in the case of BA Holidays (ie packages) bookings

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