Had a British Airways First Class ticket cancelled or need to change one? Call “You First”

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• 1ATL says:

  27 Feb27 February 04:05

  Didn’t you used to cat Quintessentially concierge service 30 days in advance of travel at some point when flying First? Presumably that feature has gone by the way side…. I can’t say I ever had a need to call on Q

  • 1ATL says:

    27 Feb27 February 04:06

    get*

  • Rob says:

    27 Feb27 February 09:57

    Q has gone, yes.

• Nick says:

  27 Feb27 February 04:56

  You First came to the rescue yesterday as my short hop to Iceland was cancelled, unfortunately they still couldn’t deal with BA Holiday side of things. Shame no one other than BA Holidays can amend flights etc especially when they don’t open till 8am. Their 24hr Holiday line refers to an email address. Not very helpful at all when you’re trying to ring someone at 5am

  • Andrew J says:

    27 Feb27 February 08:07

    A flight to Iceland in First?

• Colin MacKinnon says:

  27 Feb27 February 05:22

  Tip on comments a month or so worked for me….

  Called YouFirst to change a LAX to LHR ticket in business to come back from Denver in F – even though I knew Denver no longer had F.
  Agent said let me check F, then said they were sorry it was no longer offered, would CW do.
  Previously had held on regular phone for the max one hour for three days in a row.

• Steve says:

  27 Feb27 February 07:16

  Can this be used for First class flights booked with miles? What about reward flights in first class booked through BA on another carrier?

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    27 Feb27 February 07:33

    Yes to first question for sure

  • Anne says:

    27 Feb27 February 07:38

    Definitely yes for BA First tickets booked with Avois. I used YouFirst the other week to sort reticketing for an involuntary downgrade LHR-DXB booked with a 241 – sorted in minutes by a very knowledgeable chap. And best of all, no wait at all to get through.

  • AJA says:

    27 Feb27 February 08:42

    As Chrisasaurus says yes definitely works for reward flights booked in F. I used You First to get a refund in June 2020 of my cancelled reward trip to TLV in F. Very quick to answer the phone and very swiftly sorted.with companion voucher and Avios back in my account while still on the call. Cash back to Amex within 3 days.

  • Lady London says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:36

    Yes see my reply below.

• Peter says:

  27 Feb27 February 07:25

  Wish I had known about this a few weeks ago. I had a journey that included First LHR-SIN that I booked in a sale last year. I was moved to a later flight that meant my connection in SIN no longer worked. I tried changing the flight on-line to the previous day but was asked for another £2,400. I tried calling BA several times but either waited an hour on hold or got the recorded message to call back later before the line went dead. In the end I cancelled on-line and got my money back but lost a bargain First fare.

  • Secret Squirrel says:

    27 Feb27 February 07:56

    You cancelled online & got your money back? Did you take a FTV do you mean?

    • John says:

      27 Feb27 February 08:50

      If your flight is cancelled you can get a full refund online most of the time – you only get forced into FTV if you voluntarily cancel

    • Peter says:

      27 Feb27 February 09:41

      As the flight I booked was cancelled I got a full refund even though the automatically re-booked flight was only 1 hour 45 minutes later. I cancelled as it was impossible to contact BA to ensure I arrived in Singapore in time to connect to my next flight.

      • Lady London says:

        27 Feb27 February 11:00

        Sorry but I guess you know now that you took the worst outcome.

        Tip: whenever BA offers a full cash refund, consider that they are only doing it so that they can remove rights you have to something much more valuable.

        The easier they make it or the quicker the agent tries to refund or says this is all you can do, be sure there is a big stinky rat sitting on BA’s shoulder.

        If your flight number changes, or same flight number but a different day this counts as a cancellation. Even if the different flight number is a short time later or earlier. This gives you full cancellation rights to choose any other time or date you choose to travel instead. Your choice not the airline’s. If the airline that cancelled your flight says they can’t do this for any reason, and note that any reasons are their problem not yours, you are fully entitled to get a free replacement ticket under s75 from your UK credit card if you paid with one, or to purchase your own replacement ticket elsewhere and have them reimburse a raft of costs for the ticket and quite possibly other things.

        This, regardless of the cost of the new ticket and no admin charge or cost to you allowed.

        This, for BA any other UK or Europe based airline on any journey even multistop or connecting from or to UK or Europe at either end, and on any other airline’s flight departing UK or Europe if not a UK-based or Europe-baser airline.

        Watch carefully if your airline advises only a schedule change. Check the flight number. Easyjet made a practice in Covid of emailing people mentioning only a time change in Covid. Whereas they had in fact cancelled all flights on the same day except one, movef everyone onto that one flight, and sent cheery little emails about how they were doing everyone a public service by trying to fly as many people as possible and so it was only a different flight departure time. Whereas they’d cancelled the person’s flight and moved them to another flight. Ie a cancellation with full cancellation rights that Easyjet went to considerable lengths to conceal.

        • mecrash says:

          27 Feb27 February 13:42

          I thought you could only do this within the 14 days before a flight.
          Are you saying we can do this if the flight is months away if BA cancel your flight and try to consolidate on to a later flight. ?
          Normally I just take the cash refund

        • Lady London says:

          27 Feb27 February 19:32

          Mecrash the 2 weeks notice ahead, or exceptional circumstances only lets the airline out of compensation amounts.

          There is no exemption for duty of care. Not even if the flight is cancelled 355 days ahead. The airline owes everything which comes under duty of care with no getout if the flight/airline comes under EU261 or its UK equivalent. So your choice to reroute (rebook) now or later date, or refund. Not the airline’s choice. Additionally all meals at local rates, accommodation if needed due to the wait for soonest available reroute, transport to and from the accommodation, internet. No cost and no admin charge to you. Ask them and if they don’t provide you buy and reclaim (a tedious process but you’ll win).

• Tracey says:

  27 Feb27 February 07:56

  I have a companion voucher about to expire. I wonder if booking a F flight then immediately cancelling for FTV would mean I could rebook using You First?

  • AJA says:

    27 Feb27 February 08:34

    I don’t think so. You could phone You First to re-book if the flight in F was cancelled or disrupted or you want to make changes to it.

• Andrew J says:

  27 Feb27 February 08:14

  If you have a BA Holiday with a flight in First which you need to cancel/amend – still call You First and start the enquiry with them, they won’t be able to help but will put you through at the front of the queue to the Holidays team, with an introduction so you don’t even need to explain yourself again.

• Ishan says:

  27 Feb27 February 08:22

  YouFirst were great in helping with a BA Holiday booked in F. Couldn’t get through to pay my balance using an e-voucher but they did it for me.

  Curiously, I could use an e-voucher generated before I made the holiday booking and paid my deposit but not an e-voucher generated a couple of weeks ago (ie well after the holiday booking was made). Told that had always been the rule but hadn’t heard that before. It will get used elsewhere so I didn’t quibble.

  • Tracey says:

    27 Feb27 February 08:34

    Also had this problem!

  • ChrisC says:

    27 Feb27 February 09:15

    That has always been the rule and quite clearly elucidated in the voucher T&Cs.

    Yes some people may have gotten lucky but that doesn’t mean it applies to anyone else.

    I’ve certainly had a “new” voucher declined for use on an. “old” booking,

    • Ishan says:

      28 Feb28 February 01:05

      I had a look at the T&Cs online and couldn’t find the rule

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