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BA is refunding some Future Travel Vouchers – is your 2-4-1 voucher still protected?

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At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, British Airways – along with most other airlines – did everything in its power to stop passengers receiving cash refunds for cancelled flights. One of our most read articles in 2020, with over 75,000 views, was a hack to get around the removal of the cancellation options on ba.com.

More positively, BA was (and still is) also allowing passengers to voluntarily cancel flights for a voucher, even when the flight was still operating.

Whilst this was a good result for BA’s cash flow, the consequences are now coming home to roost.

British Airways Airbus A350 Aircraft

The reason why it is virtually impossible to get through to a British Airways call centre, unless you are Gold or flying in First, is because rebooking using a Future Travel Voucher requires a telephone call.

I was speaking to a BA call centre agent recently who told me that it takes around 20 minutes to book a flight using a Future Travel Voucher. This means that one call centre agent can handle 25 voucher bookings per day. No wonder the lines are permanently blocked. What is frustrating is that most of these flights bookings could have been done online if it wasn’t for the voucher.

How is British Airways solving this problem?

British Airways has taken two steps to get around this problem.

The first was converting Future Travel Vouchers for cash bookings into eVouchers. eVouchers CAN be used on ba.com so the passenger can rebook without picking up the telephone.

The second phase is now underway.

British Airways is voluntarily breaking up Future Travel Vouchers which contain Avios. This means that:

  • the Avios will be deposited back in your account, and
  • the taxes and charges you paid will be refunded to your credit card

This isn’t necessarily good news for everyone

This may sound like great news, but it will worry a lot of HfP readers.

From 1st October, British Airways has been expiring unused American Express 2-4-1 companion vouchers which have reached their expiry date. No more extensions are being offered.

However, you’re a mug if you let your voucher expire. As this article explains, you can save your 2-4-1 by booking a random Avios redemption and then cancelling it for a Future Travel Voucher. This ‘freezes’ your 2-4-1 voucher until September 2023. You can change your destination and travel class when you eventually rebook.

If BA is going to break up Future Travel Vouchers without asking you first, however, this strategy won’t work.

So far, so good

It seems, so far, that British Airways is approaching this in a scientific way.

The only examples I have seen – albeit it is a small sample – of cancelled Future Travel Vouchers were for very small amounts, eg return Avios flights to Amsterdam. The email above specifically refers to ‘Reward Flight Saver’ bookings, which are predominantly short haul.

I haven’t seen examples of 2-4-1 bookings being automatically refunded, even when booked on short haul routes, or bookings with a substantial taxes and charges element. I also can’t find any reports online of it happening.

Logically, if 80% of customer cash is locked up in just 20% of bookings, British Airways may decide to refund the other 80% of bookings which account for only 20% of the sequested cash. Pressure on the call centre will drop – especially if Reward Flight Saver bookings are especially fiddly to rebook, as the email implies – whilst requiring only a modest hit to cash reserves.

That doesn’t help you, of course, if you booked a return trip to Manchester with a 2-4-1 voucher and £70 of taxes and then deliberately cancelled it to ‘protect’ your 2-4-1.

We can only hope that BA takes a sensible approach to this and does not cancel Future Travel Vouchers which contain a 2-4-1 companion voucher – especially if that 2-4-1 is already past its expiry date.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (146)

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

  • John says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:03

    You’d like to think they’d have thought of this and will leave voucher bookings alone! Surely …

  • Polly says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:07

    Am l too late now, in wrapping up our cancelled SEA 241 tkt. wasn’t sure how to go about it. Guess just buy a flt to Dublin with the 241 and extend it, Hope for the best. Shame if BA don’t extend them. Would be a great goodwill gesture. Have to find the email now.

    • Yuff says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:13

      I don’t think it’s too late.
      I need to do do the same, if you cancel it with 24hrs you haven’t lost anything anyway.
      Old vouchers aren’t worth that much to me as I could only use it short haul anyway, as there is never any availability long haul on the Estes I would go, so the new vouchers are much better in that respect.

  • EvilGazebo says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:07

    I wonder how much longer it will take to get through after this article? *picks up phone*

  • Karen Davis says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:08

    I have just cancelled flights using a 2-4-1 voucher and been given a future travel voucher stipulating ‘flights must be completed’ by September 2023. The call took 13 minutes including waiting time, marvellous!!

    • NorthernLass says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:29

      It’s good that you got through so quickly, but you could have done that online!

  • shd says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:12

    I have a final 241 lurking in my exec club account, expiry October 2022.

    Should I be trying to redeem the 241 and then cancelling for an FTV while it’s still possible?

    Minor issue: haven’t even got an amex card at the moment, cancelled them all as couldn’t see the point in paying annual fees under Covid…

    • Polly says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:22

      Borrow a friends Amex to pay, is all that’s required… one of the many you have referred!!

    • Rob says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:27

      If you are 90% sure of using it by October then don’t do it. The reason is that, to rebook, you will need to ring the call centre and that is virtually impossible unless you are Gold. Better to retain the ability to book online.

      • shd says:
        20 Dec20 December 08:39

        > If you are 90% sure of using it by October…

        My crystal ball is somewhat Covid-impaired, but I’d say the chances of redeeming it “properly” it by October are pretty much nil 🙁 I’m not even sure about in the year after that, to be frank.

        We could almost certainly grab 2 x CE RFS short haul before October, but whether that’s worth the hassle is another story.

      • meta says:
        20 Dec20 December 09:41

        It’s possible even if you’re not Gold. Best is to call after 7:00pm or bang on 8am or on a weekday. The wait time is then about 40 min then. I did it 2 times in the last two weeks.

        There is another option if you think outside the box…

        • ADroyd says:
          21 Dec21 December 15:11

          I tried calling on the Bronze line at 8am three days in a row, but still got cut off after an hour.

          Does anybody know the Gold number?

  • Njb says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:22

    I cancelled a cash flight booking last week and received an e voucher instead of FTV which I was expecting. I was pleasantly surprised.

    • John says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:38

      Why were you surprised by something you were expecting?

      If you meant *wasn’t* expecting, BA has been giving evouchers for cash flights for over 15 months now.

    • ChrisC says:
      20 Dec20 December 08:41

      Cash only bookings have been e-vouchers for well over a year.

      Other than in very beginning of vouchers in March 2020 and a couple of months after that cash bookings have been issued as evouchers.

      It’s only bookings such as avios, using 2-4-1s and holidays that are now issued as FTVs.

  • LR says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:33

    I don’t suppose this has anything to do with why we were “locked out” of our BAEC accounts last month…. does it?
    We have a booking using a 2-4-1 which was due to expire Jan 2022 after already being extended once by BA, we “protected” it as many others have done to get a FTV so that it was due to expire Sept 2023. Our booking is ABZ-LHR-JNB in cw in just over 4 weeks time. As each day passes it looks more unlikely that we will be permitted to travel (another lockdown on the way?) so it will be interesting to see what happens if BA cancel or more so if we cancel and request another FTV. Will they revert to the Jan 2022 expiry or allow the Sept 2023 expiry? Who knows.

  • Roosit says:
    20 Dec20 December 08:38

    This might explain then why to my positive surprise I received a full refund for reward flights earlier this month, where the outbound flight had changed. The change was from LCY to LHR with arrival about two hours later than I had booked. I thought I wouldn’t get a refund but a voucher because the delay wasn’t at least four hours and the airport change same city. I was pleased to be wrong there though.

    • ChrisC says:
      20 Dec20 December 09:43

      Your situation is totally unrelated to this article.

      If the flight number changed from LCY to LHR then that counts as a cancellation and you can have a full refund. Even I’ve been refunded even if the flight number or times were the same,

    • meta says:
      20 Dec20 December 09:46

      For any change of airport even with the city you are covered by EU/UK261 even though BA likes to pretend it’s not. In any case, it’s a cancellation as flight numbers surely changed.

      • Roosit says:
        20 Dec20 December 12:44

        Thank you both, that’s good to know for future reference, I must have misread the terms at the time.

    • Lady London says:
      20 Dec20 December 18:40

      And refund costs BA less than you choosing to reroute on a later date of your choice – and it’s your choice not BA’s

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

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