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British Airways giving passengers extra flexibility as Heathrow caps numbers

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British Airways has unveiled a number of flexible rebooking options for people travelling over the next few weeks in order to comply with Heathrow’s new daily 100,000 passenger cap.

Fortunately, unlike mass flight cancellations, these changes are optional and could even be beneficial if you are reconsidering upcoming travel or are changing your plans.

Whilst Heathrow has asked all airlines to stop selling seats for flights until mid September, British Airways seems to be intending to hit its quota of passenger reductions via additional flight cancellations and voluntary passenger rebooking. It doesn’t want to miss out on the revenue from last minute ticket sales at full fare.

British Airways Heathrow cancellations

Do you have a BA Heathrow flight on or before 25th July?

If you have a British Airways flight from Heathrow on or before Monday 25th July that was booked before the 10th July you now have several options available to you:

  • You can rebook onto another British Airways flight to the same destination free of charge within 12 months of the original date of travel. You can also choose to depart from another London airport, such as Gatwick, or fly to an alternative airport in the same destination (eg. Newark instead of JFK).
  • Alternatively, if you no longer wish to fly, you can request a Future Travel Voucher, valid until 30th September 2023. This freezes the value of your flights and can be used towards a future booking.

The changes apply to all long and short haul bookings from Heathrow until the 25th July, including redemptions, and can be made from Manage My Booking. Flights from other airports are not included.

If you have a connecting flight with one or more non-BA sectors then you may be on the hook for a fare difference from the other airlines on your ticket when rebooking.

If your flight is cancelled by British Airways then you are entitled the standard EU261 rights, including a full refund or rebooking, as per our recent article here.

British Airways Heathrow flight cap

Flying between 26th July and 30th September?

Anyone with a booking up to the 30th September is eligible to cancel and request a Future Travel Voucher for free. This voucher is valid for travel until the 30th September 2023.

Booked before the 8th June?

If your trip was booked before the 8th June, for travel by 30th September, BA’s ‘Book With Confidence’ policy applies.

BA is adding further flexibility for anyone travelling by the 30th September 2022 who booked on or beforethe 7th June. As per this page on the BA website, you can change your dates, destination or cancel for a future travel voucher for free. All travel must be completed by the 30th September in order to benefit from these changes.

Note that, unlike customers with flights on or before the 25th July you WILL be on the hook for any difference in fare if you choose to rebook. However, British Airways will waive the change fee.

You can also choose to cancel your booking in return for a future travel voucher valid until the 30th September 2023.

For redemption bookings made before 7th June for travel by 30th September you’ll also be able to cancel this for a full refund – the cancellation or change fee will be waived. Any companion or upgrade vouchers will revert to their original expiration date.

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British Airways and Avios

Comments (117)

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

  • Track says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:46

    Rubbish, BA should be the first people voicing their disagreement.

    Instead they turn backs on passengers and charging them in excess of 600 quid for domestic flights..

    Can BA bring any pressure on HAL to at least install/open one extra scanner for security?? That should give a few thousand per day. Are they that toothless even in T5, that they can do absolutely nothing?

    • ChrisC says:
      15 Jul15 July 09:10

      If HAL don’t have the staff they can’t open anything!

    • ba747 says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:54

      Few factors here. A lot of extra paperwork check in staff still need to check- vaccinations etc which is slowing check in staff. Shortage of security staff. Shortage of baggage handlers to load the bags onto planes- hence you’re sometimes seeing pilots mucking in to get bags onto planes. Shortage of staff to actually turn planes around- loading food, cleaning/ disinfecting aircraft.

      • JDB says:
        15 Jul15 July 12:02

        Also, like so many businesses, not only has the aviation industry struggled to recruit, but now absenteeism is way beyond worst expectations, principally because of covid which generally affects lower paid workers worse.

  • Matt says:
    15 Jul15 July 08:50

    Why BA got rid of Book with Confidence while they are in an absolute mess is beyond me!

    I booked a flight last week and had to cancel it within the 24 hours. You now can’t cancel online because it just takes you the “apply for voucher” page which then says you aren’t eligible. The live chat didn’t work because they needed the card number again and they aren’t allowed to take card numbers. The only way to do it was via phone and that was at full capacity. It’s an absolute shambles. If Book with Confidence was still around I could have sorted it in minutes without any issue. (it was Gatwick so the new policy wouldn’t work either).

    • Damien says:
      15 Jul15 July 09:40

      I thought you had to cancel by phone anyway.

      I once called them to cancel within 24 hours and the agent said I could just do this online. So I did… weeks later I only seemed to get a tax refund. When I chased it down, the told me that I would only have gotten the refund if the agent cancelled it within 24. I told them I had called, but they said they’d no record. was livid.

      • meta says:
        15 Jul15 July 16:28

        They tried that on me. I always ask them to do it on the phone. Ask for access to the recording of the call and then take them to court.

  • ENS says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:21

    My TP year ends Oct 8th. 110 points to retain silver which I will achieve based on flights already booked . V concerned that I may miss my target as BA keep cancelling and rebooking onto flights at very antisocial hours isn’t feasible for me.
    Any chance BA will extend the TP year or renew all silvers as a goodwill gesture in view of current situation

    • G says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:43

      Very unlikely; though if you are just short of renewing by like TPs – you can ask for a grace period; or you can credit flights two weeks after 9th October to be credited to your previous TP year.

      • ChrisC says:
        15 Jul15 July 11:13

        I wound’t rely on the grace period.

        I’ve seen numerous comments here and on flyer talk that BA are denying such requests because of the reduced TP thresholds.

  • Aisak says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:39

    I sense the have lost the “go the extra mile” here. They should proactively ask customers to ammend their travel plans to avoid LHR while retaining the operaing within the IAG group. i.e. people from MAN/GLA/EDI connnecting to the US could be redirected onto Lingus flights. or people from Europe to the US via LHR be redirected on AA services (the JBA)… but…

  • Charles Martel says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:46

    Do the HfP team have any insight or comment on the Emirates position which seems to be that they’re going to operate as previously agreed?

    • Rhys says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:37

      Not really, except that clearly Heathrow has a staffing issue and Emirates digging its heels in isn’t going to solve that problem, it will just mean that capacity cuts have to come from elsewhere.

      I wouldn’t be surprised to see it snowball and John Holland-Kaye to resign though.

      • JDB says:
        15 Jul15 July 11:13

        Emirates will comply with cuts as they did at LGW and are doing at other European airports, even if they may apply them differently than initially requested as other airlines have agreed with HAL. It’s just a lot or corporate noise like Amazon vs Visa or Tesco vs Heinz and it helps to have a bogeyman to blame when they notify passengers.

        • BuildBackBetter says:
          15 Jul15 July 12:36

          Can’t they move one more flight to Stansted temporarily?

          • Rob says:
            15 Jul15 July 12:50

            I think that’s where it will end, although it is messy for those who are driving to the airport since they need both legs to be at the same place.

        • Mikeact says:
          15 Jul15 July 17:38

          Except they made a more serious response than either Amazon or Tesco .

    • numpty says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:36

      For the ME carriers it is a double hit as so many of their passengers are using the ME airports as a hub for onward travel. Cancelling a ticket from LHR – DXB is also likely to result in a cancelled onwards ticket out of DXB.

  • Aaron says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:54

    Hi all,

    I have a flight from LHR to ARN on 18/07 with BA. Is there a chance that BA might cancel such flights at short notice?

    I can see that there are other alternatives from LCY with KLM but would involve a layover at AMS.

    Many thanks!

    • Peter says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:03

      Like any other time, they can cancel the flight even on the same day – but they have to provide you with alternative flight and if you arrive 3h later than expected at your destination – you’ll get £££ some extra money from them.
      So you see, it’s really not in their interest to do so.

    • david says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:05

      First check if its possible to buy ticket your already on. But I believe if its not cancelled yet, itll be fine and go ahead as planned.

    • Rhys says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:35

      Unlikely, given compensation would be liable

  • James says:
    15 Jul15 July 09:56

    Look all around the world. Most airport and airlines are having these issues.
    It’s not just BA.

    • ChrisC says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:11

      Indeed and it’s the same issues

      Airlines having difficulties finding staff to do their functions and airports have difficulties finding staff to do theirs.

    • Brian78 says:
      15 Jul15 July 11:01

      Yes it’s not just BA but some airlines have been more impacted than others.

      Eg EasyJet have cancelled a lot more flights than Ryanair

    • NorthernLass says:
      15 Jul15 July 12:30

      The army has been on standby at DUB to help with security checks, it sounds every bit as bad as UK airports.

      • Brian78 says:
        15 Jul15 July 12:49

        Should do the same in the U.K. About time they made themselves useful

        • Mike says:
          15 Jul15 July 17:46

          er they have been making themselves very useful – sorry if you were expecting a Platoon to personally assist you with your holiday to Majorca

    • Erico1875 says:
      15 Jul15 July 16:53

      I had broken luggage at EDI. Speaking to a baggage guy about the mountains of luggage sitting there.
      Typical example. Lufthansa flight that day from Frankfurt. 170 pas. No luggage loaded at all !!
      When that lot arrives they, just like all the rest, need to be identified, then owners contacted and it then delivered, instead of the normal process of passenger lifting it off a carousel.
      Shortage of staff, certainly Europe wide is just compounding these problems.
      So it does make sense to try to slow things down to clear backlogs

  • SammyJ says:
    15 Jul15 July 10:24

    I currently have a £1700 e-voucher which I understand can only be used for flights. If I used it to book anything before 25th July, could this then be cancelled and effectively transformed into a FTV, that can then be used to book hotels/car hire?

    • Rhys says:
      15 Jul15 July 10:33

      No, only flights booked up to 10th July get the extra flexibility

      • Rob says:
        15 Jul15 July 11:08

        I get a feeling this will roll over though and be extended ….

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

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