British Airways giving passengers extra flexibility as Heathrow caps numbers

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• Nick B says:

  15 Jul15 July 07:57

  If you have a flight after the 25 July and are considering delaying your flight, the best option just appears to be to wait until BA give you a more generous range of options.

  • Charles Martel says:

    15 Jul15 July 08:31

    I’m keeping my fingers crossed, I have a flight to Canada booked in early November I’m now unlikely to be able to take as I’m emigrating. A voucher would be great but I think it’s probably too far out and the summer travel surge will be over.

• Sergio says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:06

  So I had a FTV booking for last Tuesday which had to be cancelled within 24 hours due to my wife testing positive for Covid. Should my FTV have been given back along with its 23rd September 2023 expiry date?

• Kevin says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:11

  Got a flight to Singapore in August via Lloyds upgrade voucher got cancelled but been rescheduled to a later evening flight. However i have no intention to fly now. In this situation can i request

  1) rebook a flight to Singapore in Jan 23 (currently can’t see any avios redemption available)
  2) rebook a flight to any destination in the next few months.

  What benefits i would get from FTV especially if the future redemption is not the same zone considering Lloyds voucher already expired in 2021. TIA

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:36

    As I see it:

    1. Yes, BA cancelled your flight so you have rebooking rights to SIN in Jan 23. No avios availability needed, no extra money to be paid. Don’t cancel your ticket, that would end your contract, this is a change to the existing one.

    2. This would involve cancelling your ticket. You would lose the Lloyds 241, you would get back your avios and cash. You can then spend that with whatever airline (or shop, or power company, etc you choose!) Your Lloyds voucher is lost. You pay whatever new fare the airline wants. So it is not a “rebook”. It is a “cancel and make a new booking”.

    3. Can’t see any point in a FTV, unless you had made the spend to hit a credit card target and thought a refund would knock you back. Or used the recent Amex BA discount.

    • Toby says:

      15 Jul15 July 09:55

      I am in a similar situation with HKG. Booked for September, cancelled by BA. Tried rebooking for November but told no Avios availability, so not possible. They only offered rebooking -3/+14 days, for which there aren’t any BA services going.

      So option 1. may not work. Good luck.

      • Toby says:

        15 Jul15 July 09:56

        Oh, and when I asked about routing to another destination, they said it had to be within 300 miles. Which doesn’t give many (any) options…

      • Rhys says:

        15 Jul15 July 10:32

        If BA cancelled your flight it doesn’t matter if there’s Avios availability or not, they have to reroute you to your original destination if that’s what you want.

        • Toby says:

          15 Jul15 July 12:22

          I absolutely agree. But Gold call centre and You First insisted it was only possible to change within -3/+14. Any dates outside had to have same terms- i.e. Avios availability. After a lot of pushing they offered to re-route on CX, but again only within the same date window.

          As an aside- it has suddenly become possible to make changes online to dates that previously weren’t available (and call centre couldn’t access).
          So @Kevin maybe try MMB today and see if your dates work.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Jul15 July 13:49

          Toby that’s BA’s complete lies and rubbish. @Rhys is correct.

          You will get what you want if they cancelled your ticket. There’s a very light ‘background’ requirement in the UK law that your choice of new date should be reasonable, but that refers to reasonable for your own circumstances and doesn’t have much to do with what lying cheating, illegal-denying BA thinks.

          If you spend a little time here on HfP in the Flight Cancellations and Changes category, you will see how to follow the steps. They are usually done online, sometimes with a phone call. Very rare to have to appear anywhere personally.

          1. Keep details, even recordings if you have a phone that does it, time, date, who you spoke to and what they said.

          I’d show about 3 attempts.Likely to be easy now since provided you managed to get through at least once and get a refusal, it”s easy to just let 2 more calls dialling BA’s number show on your bill with, say, 45-60min not getting through. That’s 3 reasonable attempts

          2. Send a Letter Before Action by signed-for snail mail to BA Waterside address attn Legal. Details of what to put find by googling as follows : ..Site: headforpoints.com “letter before action”…
          or “LBA” can find too. Do from Google as above not from within the site as site search doesn’t always work.

          3. after however long you’ve gien them in your LBA to provide the flight timing you want, such as 21 or 30 days, wait a week then MCOL. You’ll find how to do in the threads you’ll find above.

          You can CEDR instead of MCOL but results of CEDR are risky. Whereas MCOL must judge competently and according to the law.

          People here will help if you get stuck

    • Kevin says:

      15 Jul15 July 13:35

      My situation might be slightly different from Toby as BA put me on a flight few hours later than my original flight. So in this new airport/BA flexibility options i can rebook for Jan 23 rather than within few days as advised by Avios.?

      • Lady London says:

        15 Jul15 July 14:00

        you don’t have to accept or turn up for what the system tentatively puts you down for in MMB or BA’s first offer.

        Once you do accept you’re stuck with it as you only get one chance if they cancelled a flight on your booking. But on that one chance you can reroute your whole booking to a different date.

        Remember never ever take a refund even if the airline tries to tell you that’s your only option if you still need or want to travel, at same or a different time. Until you take a refund the airline is responsible for the whole cost of any replacement flights as well as any needed hotels and meals due to the rerouting/rebooking. So refund only if it’s your choice not theirs. A voucher is even worse.

        As @ColinMackinnon said a voucher only preserves the amount you paid for the booking, not the flight (which now and on the future may have price out of reach). This is why rerouting rights are so valuable.

      • Mikeact says:

        15 Jul15 July 17:34

        It’s easy enough to download an app that records your phone conversation ….very easy, and settled a dispute I had with one of our mobile operators. I won, with a threat to the SCCourt,and received my disputed money back. Result.

        • Lady London says:

          15 Jul15 July 23:10

          @Mikeact not fot me – as my phone does it – but could you share which app for the benefit of others here?

          If you don’t have apps or smartphone then note date and time of call right after the call, and what was said : should be good enough. I put it in email or cloud to get timestamp the old fashioned way was to handwrite such notes sequentially dated and timed into a *hard covered* [so not easily changeable] notebook as each step was taken, with no gaps, this record could be submitted to court as evidence.

          And as @meta has pointed out today, you can do a DSAR request to BA to get their recording though sometimes you can be told not available or lost.

• Gary says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:14

  I would appreciate some help please on a flight and separate car rental booking i have made but would like to cancel.

  i have 3 Avios flights to SFO returning from LAX. One involves a companion voucher. They were all booked prior to 7 June with outbound flights on 30 August and returning on 18 September.

  Not linked to this i have a separate car rental booking through BA.

  Is it correct that i can cancel the BA flights and receive a fill refund of the taxes and fees- without the £35 per flight admin charge being levied? If so presumably i can do this online?

  The problem i may have is with the car rental booked via BA. Would the same rules apply does anyone know? Also i cant see an easy way of cancelling this online.

  i have tried multiple tomes to phone BA on this but have never been able to get through. Ironically their system cocked up the car rental as they have allowed the system to let me book a car from a downtown SF Budget location that i have found out isnt even open on the day i am due to collect!

  Dealing with BA has become so difficult i am almost prepared to simply lose the amount i paid for the car rental!

  Any guidance on the above would be gratefully received. Many Thanks

  • ChrisC says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:06

    You can indeed get a full refund but you initially claim it as a voucher for those flights as as you say they are covered by BWC.

    From what people have said even though you apply for a voucher they are refunding all the avios and cash elements fully. IIRC voucher is also returned but with its original expiry date.

    Csnt help with the car bookings

• Nigel T says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:18

  So if I want to cancel an award flight to Chicago on 23/7 (and return on 30/7) I still need to call BA to get my Avios back?

  • ChrisC says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:07

    See my response to Gary immediately above your post.

• Mco says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:24

  I need to take a domestic return flight to qualify for silver again before august 6th. I got enough tier points but only 2 BA flights on file. Anyone have any experience in this sort of thing? Are they flexible in any way?

  • Craig says:

    15 Jul15 July 08:35

    No they would not flex to permit that, obvious question but why not just get the two flights in to make your 4 needed??

  • ChrisC says:

    15 Jul15 July 08:59

    Not sure if that’s a typo but you have until August 8th to get the qualifying BA flights as that’s the end date for your collection year.

    But you’re going to find this to be very expensive. I did a few random dummy bookings for 4th August (LON – MAN or EDI) and even basic economy we’re running at over £200 for a return. You might find a cheaper date / destination but it could take some work to find any.

    • ECR says:

      15 Jul15 July 11:45

      A same day return from London to Manchester on 26 July is currently £136 going out via Gatwick and returning to Heathrow.

      • Bagoly says:

        15 Jul15 July 13:40

        JER has some days cheaper than MAN, and can do from LGW.

  • Rob says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:03

    You can have a 2 week extension if you call. No leeway on the BA flights required.

    • ChrisC says:

      15 Jul15 July 09:08

      I don’t think the extension would work to get the qualifying flights.

      Plus at the moment they appear not to be offering the 14 day extension because of the reduced thresholds.

• Jimbo says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:33

  BA robbery. Today 15/7 1 way LHR to Glasgow is £594!!

  • Panda Mick says:

    15 Jul15 July 08:36

    I’d suggest the train but avanti have been cancelling the glasgow -london on a whim. Have done quite well out of compensation so far, though 🙂

    • John says:

      15 Jul15 July 08:41

      Well similar to flights Avanti is obliged to get you to Glasgow if you have a ticket and they cancel your intended train, although you are only allowed to get the next train unless you obtain permission (ideally written if from a station), and if they cancel the last train they need to give you a hotel or taxi

  • NorthernLass says:

    15 Jul15 July 12:27

    My LHR-MAN next week was selling for £617 in economy a few days ago! I’m wondering if this will happen to us:
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/british-airways-passengers-get-email-mid-flight-cancelling-next-leg/ar-AAZBC5d?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=50b7234cc6784f0f830d183c90e51394
    I wonder how many people know they can claim these costs back from BA, it must be costing the airline a fortune!

    • Brian78 says:

      15 Jul15 July 12:48

      “My LHR-MAN next week was selling for £617 in economy a few days ago! ”

      That’s some good pence per avios you’ll be getting!

• James says:

  15 Jul15 July 08:36

  They’ve already started cancelling flights in October too. My flight from Glasgow to Heathrow pulled this week

  • Calum says:

    15 Jul15 July 13:01

    How much notice did they give you? I’m flying to LHR then to JFK Sunday and am a bit worried!

    • Rhys says:

      15 Jul15 July 13:03

      3 months’ notice if James is travelling in October…

      • Calum says:

        15 Jul15 July 14:25

        I didn’t see that I’ll need to go to specsavers!

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