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British Airways scrapped its ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee last night

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British Airways ended its ‘Book With Confidence’ policy at midnight yesterday, Tuesday.

There was no advance notice given to the public, although we were able to get an article up on Tuesday afternoon after we were told in advance.

Any flight or BA Holidays bookings made from Wednesday onwards will no longer be covered by the policy.

Booking a flight to the US is now risky unless you have good travel insurance, since there is no sign of the requirement for a negative test within one day of travel being removed. Even Avios bookings carry some risk due to the need to cancel within 24 hours of departure.

What were the ‘Book With Confidence’ rules?

Until last night, any British Airways cash flight booked for travel by 30th September 2022 (this is the date by which your entire trip must be completed, not just the outbound) could be cancelled at any point – up to an hour before departure – for an eVoucher.

You could also change the details of your ticket (time, date) without any change fees, although any fare difference was payable.

The eVoucher would be valid as part payments towards any new BA flight booking, on any route, for travel up to 30th September 2023.

If you had made an Avios booking, it could be cancelled for free – no £35 fee – up to one hour before departure. You did not receive an eVoucher. All cash, Avios and any relevant vouchers were returned to your Executive Club account.

If you have existing BA bookings, nothing changes. You are still covered by ‘Book With Confidence’ on the terms above as long as your trip is completed by 30th September.

What happens for bookings from today?

Normal pre-covid service has resumed:

  • non-refundable cash tickets will, once again, become non-refundable (taxes and charges can, technically, be refunded but the administration fee is usually higher than the amount due)
  • Avios tickets can be cancelled up to 24 hours before departure for a fee of £35 per person

Whilst I initially thought that BA Holidays may continuue to have a version of ‘Book With Confidence’, it is clear this morning from the covid pages of ba.com that this is not the case.

Caveat emptor.

Is BA making a mistake here? It is possible that the airline is seeing revenue leakage from business class tickets, with corporate travellers booking ‘cheap’ tickets because they know that they can be refunded if plans change. The gamble is that increased revenue from forcing business travellers back to flexible tickets offsets the lost revenue from leisure travellers who now choose to book elsewhere.

You can see the new policies on ba.com here.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (88)

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

  • Howard says:
    8 Jun8 June 10:40

    Sorry to be off topic….I have as future voucher which I would like to use….Online it won’t take…..Its impossible to talk to anyone at BA….they say they are not dealing with booking over the phone….Thanks Howard

    • Rob says:
      8 Jun8 June 11:32

      I thought BA was taking phone bookings again now? All existing vouchers are being broken up regardless – if this is a cash FTV then you’ll get an eVoucher usable online. If this is an Avios FTV then it will be broken up at some point and all the various bits returned.

  • RJ says:
    8 Jun8 June 11:12

    It’s been a very handy service up until now…so I’m not surprised they’re ending it, can’t expect them to keep it up for ever. Last week I cancelled a reward flight 5 minutes before departure time (LHR – YVR) and got a full refund of points and cash!

    • Chris says:
      8 Jun8 June 11:17

      RJ with further evidence of why we don’t deserve nice things 🙄

    • Jan de W says:
      8 Jun8 June 12:00

      And it is precisely because of actions like that, that BA are cancelling BwC!

      • Brian says:
        8 Jun8 June 13:50

        Not really, it was going to end eventually anyway.

      • Callum says:
        8 Jun8 June 15:36

        If “actions like that” are the main issue BA has with the scheme, they could very easily change the rules to ban “actions like that”…

        Most other airlines have dropped most/all of their Covid flexibility – BA therefore no longer sees a need to take the financial hit in running the scheme. It really is that simple…

  • jsto says:
    8 Jun8 June 11:37

    Yesterday I attempted to cancel an Avios booking for April 2023 via the usual “Apply for a voucher” form, which in the case of Avios bookings simply gives you a refund. Unfortunately I got an email saying my booking was ineligible for this (presumably as it is for after September 2022).

    If I were to change the booking to pre-Sept 2022, would I then still be able to cancel at no cost (instead of having to take a £35 x 5 hit)?

    • Rob says:
      8 Jun8 June 12:20

      The change will cost you £35 though as its outside the BWC period, although sometimes ba.com doesn’t charge this due to some IT weirdness.

    • Sunguy says:
      8 Jun8 June 12:21

      I will leave others to opine here – but, as BWC ended at midnight – this sounds like a “new” booking (the booking code may not change but the Ts&Cs will ) – therefore, its extremely unlikely doing that would work….

    • polly says:
      8 Jun8 June 12:40

      Reverts to normal avios booking cancellation rules. You missed the boat. On the nod for the 5 x £35 hit…
      You can see why it’s a no notice change, think of all the bookings going through already from this site…

      • jsto says:
        8 Jun8 June 13:15

        Agh thanks. Yeah should have thought of doing this last night after my initial attempt for a refund failed!

  • Paul says:
    8 Jun8 June 12:48

    The simple response is don’t book BA. They cant be trusted to communicate effectively and when things go wrong, as they will over the summer in spades, they wont be there to sort it out.

    • Mikeact says:
      8 Jun8 June 13:24

      You mean other airlines are just fine ? Ridiculous comment.

      • Brian says:
        8 Jun8 June 13:51

        Depends. I don’t use Ryanair as Stansted is a pain for me to get to but they don’t seem to be having the same problems as BA. It’s called good planning.

  • Paul says:
    8 Jun8 June 12:51

    remarkable how fast they were able to update that page of their pathetic web site. If only the rest of it were as up to date and easily accessible.

  • Gordon says:
    8 Jun8 June 13:39

    I did post about BA scrapping its book with confidence last night in the comments section on Earn more Avios when you fly Finnair in Business Class. So hope people were able to make a booking before midnight ?

    • Gordon says:
      8 Jun8 June 13:45

      Also BA seem to be cutting back on supplies in Galleries south. Only Johnny Walker red label available but in B satellite Galleries it was available. I guess they do not have to supply as much in the quieter B galleries lounge….

      • Gordon says:
        8 Jun8 June 16:35

        Sorry meant to say Johnny walker black label was available in B satellite lounge but not in South galleries lounge.
        Think I had too much Johnny Walker….

    • Michael C says:
      8 Jun8 June 14:23

      I saw it there, Gordon, & got 2 quick flights in, cheers!

  • Blindman67 says:
    8 Jun8 June 14:04

    So if I book a fully flexible ticket with an Evoucher-and then have to cancel at a later date, will the refund be another voucher-that expires Sept 23?

  • Ann onymuss says:
    8 Jun8 June 15:07

    Obviously not encouraged – but I’ve been in to the states 4 times now on the same covid test.

    Just screenshot and edit .
    rub out the date , then add new text of the same size . I also put a bit of a squiggle in the qr code so that won’t work .

    Works fine with VeriFLY .

    • qrfan says:
      8 Jun8 June 18:34

      You have to make an attestation to the us govt regarding this test, no? So you’re committing fraud against the US government for the sake of £12 and 5 minutes of taking a supervised test. Forget the moral implications, that is absolutely insane risk taking even if your risk of getting caught is a fraction of 1%. Unbelievable.

    • Ian says:
      8 Jun8 June 21:50

      They walk amongst us!

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