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BA extending 2-4-1 vouchers to 30th September 2023 – but only if you wrapped them in a FTV

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We recently covered the news that British Airways was planning to break up Future Travel Vouchers, returning the underlying cash, Avios and vouchers to the holder, in order to reduce pressure on its call centres.

In the last few hours this has started to happen. There is some good news though.

British Airways has decided to extend the life of 2-4-1 vouchers wrapped up in Future Travel Vouchers.

British Airways extending 241 companion vouchers

Here is the email being sent out to some holders of Future Travel Vouchers:

“You accepted a Future Travel Voucher for this booking, however, we know there are some issues with vouchers associated with Reward Flight bookings, so to offer you maximum flexibility we’ll be cancelling it and refunding you in full.

“You don’t need to do anything. We’ll automatically credit the Avios back to your account and refund the money to your original form of payment. We expect this to take approximately 4 weeks and it means you’ll be able to use your Avios as you wish.

“If you used a Companion Voucher on this booking, we will add it back to your Executive Club account with a new expiry date of 30 September 2023. If your original Companion Voucher had an expiry date beyond 30 September 2023, that same date will apply when we add the voucher back to your account. This will be done automatically by us and added back to your Executive Club account once your refund has been completed. Please allow approximately 4 weeks.”

This email represents a change of heart by British Airways. The original messaging was that Companion Vouchers would be returned with their original expiry dates, or expired if that date had already passed.

This may be down to HfP pressure, since we had been actively encouraging readers to turn their expiring 2-4-1 vouchers into Future Travel Vouchers in order to keep them alive. There would have been a lot of frustrated customers if those Companion Vouchers had been expired.

What can you do about an expiring 2-4-1 voucher if it wasn’t wrapped in a Future Travel Voucher?

Nothing, unfortunately. You are going to lose it if you don’t use it. British Airways started expiring 2-4-1 vouchers again on 1st October 2021 and it won’t stop now.

It is too late now to turn it into a Future Travel Voucher. As we covered last week, BA is no longer accepting Future Travel Voucher requests for flights which contain an American Express voucher. You will automatically receive a full refund instead which won’t change the 2-4-1 expiry date.

BA has done the right thing by extending 2-4-1 vouchers wrapped in Future Travel Vouchers. These people had taken advantage of a loophole, albeit one created by BA, to extend their Companion Voucher and it would have been wrong to withdraw it.

By cashing in these Future Travel Vouchers, the pressure on BA call centre will be sharply reduced – it takes around 20 minutes to make a booking using a Future Travel Voucher – which will benefit everyone.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (156)

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

  • Jill (Kinkell) says:
    9 Mar9 March 16:43

    Read Lady London’s reply above to someone else.

    • Jill (Kinkell) says:
      9 Mar9 March 16:44

      That was for Andy

      • Andy says:
        9 Mar9 March 16:50

        Thanks Jill, I didn’t quite understand her reply but will read it again. No point me getting moved onto JAL or anyone else as Japan won’t be open. I guess I’ll phone up again and see if they’ll move me till later this year…no luck just now!

  • Namaste says:
    9 Mar9 March 18:31

    Hi, advice please:
    I’ve used FTVs and 2 CVs for an outbound booking to Orlando (4 pax) in October. Have not booked return leg yet.
    We can no longer travel to Orlando in October, but maybe able to use it during the summer school holidays.
    Can anyone tell me, can I cancel the outbound and use it instead for a completely different destination and date? And any fees/ charges incurred?
    Thanks in advance.

    • NorthernLass says:
      9 Mar9 March 20:46

      You can cancel as per BA’s Ts and Cs – you’ll pay £35 pp (which will be deducted from the refund of your surcharges). I think you still have to call to do this but it seems to be changing almost daily! You’ll get your companion vouchers back with the original expiry dates, which might be an issue with re-booking (unless you mean you’re planning to go this summer).
      Once you’ve got the avios and vouchers back (should be immediate but sometimes needs chasing up), you an make a new booking from scratch.
      Go to MMB and look at your cancellation options carefully, if it says you will receive a voucher for your cancellation, you’ll need to call BA to get a refund.

  • Jen says:
    9 Mar9 March 18:38

    Have received the email and voucher back on account but showing as used. Has anyone had theirs changed from used to available yet?

    • NvT1115 says:
      9 Mar9 March 19:59

      Mine shows as available and new expiry date

    • NorthernLass says:
      9 Mar9 March 20:49

      Yes – mine is showing as available but OH’s is showing as used. A few other people have mentioned this. I think it’s going to take manual intervention by BA to resolve. I’ve tweeted but not sure if I’ll get a response as the system doesn’t recognise what I’m asking about!

      • NorthernLass says:
        9 Mar9 March 21:05

        Spoke too soon! OH’s voucher now showing as available to use. So I don’t know if it happened on its own or it was the Tweet that did it!

  • Gav says:
    9 Mar9 March 20:04

    Unfortunately I just missed the FTV voucher as I tried the loophole cancellation on the 2nd of March, was offered the full refund and the 241 voucher reinstated at the original expiry date. I went on the chat last week and was advised that I had to call to re-book and they would allocate the voucher and Avios then.I’ve checked recently and the voucher is still showing as used. Do you think this will be reinstated to allow use online

    • NorthernLass says:
      9 Mar9 March 21:25

      See above, there might be a glitch in the system with this which may resolve itself.

  • Clare says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:11

    I’m still waiting for return of avios and voucher for 241 return flights cancelled by by BA last November for a flight that would have left last week. Cash returned after about 6 weeks. Manage my booking still says BA is processing the refund. I have had it with BA and will fly with other airlines in future even though I have 2 unexpired 2 for 1’s and likely to get another one shortly.

  • Jen says:
    10 Mar10 March 08:57

    I can happily report that whatever glitch it had is now resolved as the voucher is showing as available to use. Thanks all

  • Dave says:
    10 Mar10 March 12:32

    Any advice on how to trace my wife’s 2-4-1 that was converted to a FTV in Oct 2020 but is not appearing in her account ?

    • Rob says:
      10 Mar10 March 13:06

      It doesn’t appear in your account. Your FTV reference number is the ticket number of the trip that got cancelled (not that you can look it up even if you have the number – only the BA call centre can do anything with it).

  • rebecca says:
    10 Mar10 March 20:04

    What should you do if you have not received this email from ba yet and you have an ftv with a companion voucher inside? Are ba contacting customers on a rolling basis?

    • Rob says:
      10 Mar10 March 21:25

      It’s not clear how many will be broken. The more cash, the lower the chance.

      • roro says:
        10 Mar10 March 21:50

        Really – is that even legal – surely a refund of even one FTV with 2-4-1 extended must be applied to everyone in that position regardless

        • Rob says:
          11 Mar11 March 08:41

          BA can do what it likes. You accepted the FTV on the terms offered. Whether BA improves those terms for some people is irrelevant unless you can prove sexual or racial discrimination in who is being refunded.

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

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