The new Aspire lounge in Manchester Airport Terminal 2 is finally opening

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• TimM says:

  30 Jan30 January 04:29

  I have had no contact from BA regarding my FTV which comprises mostly cash and a small amount of Avios. I imagine I will be last in line.

• Waldek says:

  30 Jan30 January 05:02

  I received only cash refund and no Avios :
  Avios points information
  No Avios points have been refunded to your account. Please see the terms and conditions of your booking for more information.

  It was a FTV

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 06:15

    But why no avios? What did you book: part pay with avios, UUA, seat selection? For a simple reward booking you should definitely have received both avios and money back.

  • Rob says:

    30 Jan30 January 10:00

    If you make a ‘part pay with Avios’ booking you get 100% cash back for the original pre discount value.

    • CamFlyer says:

      31 Jan31 January 00:03

      This was not my experience when BA cancelled flights and I requested a refund. The cash refund was some amount short, which BA said was equivalent to the random 2,000 Avios that had appeared in my account.

      • Rob says:

        31 Jan31 January 09:08

        That’s different to taking a Future Travel Voucher.

• BJ says:

  30 Jan30 January 06:29

  Provided BA are extending companion vouchers for involuntary FTV refunds as reported in the article for one case this has to be a good thing. However, why would they do this, wouldn’t their main motivation be to rid themselves of the companion voucher liability? If it turns out that in most cases this FTV refunding (if it’s indeed happening widely) results in the loss of a companion voucher then we can hardly complain about BA gaming the system when many of us did the same to preserve and extend the companion vouchers in the first place. It will be especially tough for those who did no such thing and lose out though.

  • ChrisC says:

    30 Jan30 January 06:46

    They appear happy enough to expire unused vouchers which is fair enough in my book. It’s not like the book a short haul and cancel workaround is a deep secret but the numbers doing that will be small in the scheme of things.

    But ones wrapped in FTVs are different because people have made genuine attempts to use them so to expire those would be wrong.

    And if returning those vouchers back to accounts makes it easier for them to be used then that’s fine with me as well as it will clearly take the pressure off the phone lines to deal with issues like cancelled flight rebookings.

    I have no skin in the 2-4-1 game as I don’t have any as I don’t have an AMEX card,

    • BJ says:

      30 Jan30 January 09:03

      It’s a bit of a mixed bag. Some people have a lot of legitimate grievances with BA practices during the pandemic. Personally I’ve managed ok but the biggest challenge will come in the next two weeks when I attempt to reroute my canelled 50% avios booking.

    • AJA says:

      30 Jan30 January 12:40

      @ ChrisC How does BA know the difference between a FTV from a booking that someone genuinely intended to use and a FTV from a shorthaul booking that was made specifically to extend a 2-4-1?

      Aren’t all rewards bookings genuinely flexible ie able to be cancelled at any time? There’s nothing that says you can’t book a reward flight and then cancel. In fact flexibility is one of their specific benefits.

      Plus the default online is to request a FTV since you can’t get a true refund without calling even though pre-pandemic that was perfectly possible.

      And it’s no different to booking a flight and cancelling within 24 hours.

• Track says:

  30 Jan30 January 06:31

  It actually makes sense for BA to simply refund FTVs, including re-depositing vouchers themselves.

  Saves time and complexity when customers make new bookings.

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 06:50

    It does, provided they are much more confident in their finances which I guess they are.

• bafan says:

  30 Jan30 January 06:49

  I wish BA would refund my FTV. Nothing I hate more than having to call up to make bookings.

  • TimM says:

    30 Jan30 January 07:19

    Agreed. It is two hours plus with the speakerphone playing annoying music & repeated idiotic announcements. Detest. I believe BA know they must refund these vouchers but they are just avoiding legal action by working through them slowly, very slowly.

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 08:57

    I think I saw comments suggesting that you could break up the FTV if you guys are happy to pay the £35 fee.

• Andrew J says:

  30 Jan30 January 06:50

  Looks like BA spotted the workaround and is returning everyone to “mug” status with expiring the 2for1s.

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 07:51

    Except the article suggests further extensions, at least in some cases. I hope it is not one of those things that seems to be at the whim of the person processing it like happens when using BAH FTV on avios bookings.

• J says:

  30 Jan30 January 07:59

  I wonder if it’s because of this glitch – I redeemed a FTV recently with a 241 included and we received tier points and avios for the legs flown…

  • BJ says:

    30 Jan30 January 09:06

    🙂 Shades o.f the old UUA glitch.

  • Aston100 says:

    30 Jan30 January 11:31

    Oh wow, that’s a decent result!

  • Phillip says:

    30 Jan30 January 13:37

    Had similar on a booking without 2for1. Originally a simple domestic QF flight for two. FTV was put in place and I then redeemed for long-haul and used a 2for1. Both passengers got full Tier points and Avios.

• JohnTh says:

  30 Jan30 January 07:59

  Interesting email from BA – Sean Doyle today, promising lots and at least apologising a fair amount! We’ll see….

  • yorkshireRich says:

    30 Jan30 January 10:38

    Did the email mention anything about somebody actually answering those telephones?

  • FatherOfFour says:

    30 Jan30 January 11:31

    Haven’t read yet, but received one from Finnair on Friday apologising for the state of their call centre etc. My first thought was that BA should be sending this… but if course the actions are more important than the words.

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