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British Airways extends free rebooking of all short-haul flights to Friday

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Following the NATS collapse on Monday, British Airways has amended its rebooking guidelines for anyone due to travel on Thursday or Friday.

These apply to anyone flying short-haul:

  • from London Heathrow, London Gatwick or London City Airport or
  • to London Heathrow

You can see the amended rules on ba.com here.

British Airways to allow free rebooking of all short-haul flights on Thursday and Friday

What options are available if you are travelling soon?

If you are due to travel on Thursday or Friday, you can rebook. Your flight does NOT need to be showing as cancelled or delayed in order to do this. BA would be grateful for an extra seat to give to someone delayed, and you may be grateful to avoid the airport chaos.

Flights TO the UK can only be rebooked if you are flying to London Heathrow. No rebooking is allowed for flights to London Gatwick or London City.

You can rebook via ‘Manage My Booking’ for any date up to 355 days from today. If you move your flight by 14 days or less, you can move to any flight with an available seat in the same travel class. If you choose to move your flight by more than 14 days, you need availability in the same sub-class (ie ‘deeply discounted economy’).

You cannot change your destination except to switch to another airport in the same city.

You can only swap to another British Airways flight.

These rules apply to Avios redemptions as well as cash tickets. There does not need to be Avios availability to move your flight as long as the new date is within 14 days of today.

Rebooking is only possible if your ticket has a BA ticket number starting 125-. This may not be the case if you booked via another airline.

The full rebooking guidelines are on ba.com here.

PS. BA has suspended the ’empty middle seat in Club Europe’ rule – we do not know how long this suspension will continue

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (87)

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

  • Budva says:
    30 Aug30 August 22:26

    Don’t people remember the bad old days when Club was 3 abreast as standard? It wasn’t that long ago

    • tony says:
      30 Aug30 August 22:38

      20 years ago it was 2-3 flexi seating. And with far more generous legroom. So no, I don’t think I ever flew in CE when it was 3-3. And I’m the wrong side of 50.

      • Budva says:
        31 Aug31 August 01:31

        DEF was certainly the usual for Club. AC did have those variable width seats. I’ve definitely had a middle seat in Club. So maybe it was 2-3 but the point remains 3 abreast was normal

        • Stu_N says:
          31 Aug31 August 12:45

          The short haul configuration 767s were 2 + 3 + 2 in ET. CW was 2+2+2 so the window blocks didn’t have an empty seat. That said, the seats were much wider and had loads more legroom so not so as much of an issue as the 320 fleet.

  • Tony says:
    31 Aug31 August 00:39

    Obviously this is a massive ballache for most, but I am hoping that they might further extend it to Saturday. My mother was due to fly to Cyprus, but she has been in hospital and given orders not to fly by the Consultant. Of course she booked the cheapest fare she could find (non-refundable) which felt slightly ambitious seeing as this most recent hospital stay was the third of the year!

  • Boltonsam says:
    31 Aug31 August 01:06

    Our flight from LHR obviously lost the empty middle seat and also had no food or drink loaded. We also all 4 got split up (our seats were unilaterally changed even after checking in online 36 hours before this leg).
    We did get emails saying this was the case regarding middle seat and refreshments.
    Surely this is an involuntary downgrade or at least some avios and taxes back given there was absolutely no differentiator compared to flying further back in economy. We did have a curtain though.

  • Jannis says:
    31 Aug31 August 01:49

    Lyon-London club Europe.
    Can confirm it’s 3 seats occupied

  • Stuart says:
    31 Aug31 August 06:34

    From BA Website:
    Your comfort on board is our highest priority. The Club Europe cabin is situated at the front of the plane. We keep the middle seat free so you can always enjoy a guaranteed window or aisle seat and more personal space for working and relaxing.

    I’m sure a few Avios isn’t really compensation for them failing to provide what the promised to deliver especially at some of the extortionate costs of CE these days

    • JDB says:
      31 Aug31 August 07:37

      @Stuart – if the passenger has received all the other CE benefits, how would you calculate the damages for the failure to provide the empty middle seat?

      As to “extortionate costs of CE these days” you must be looking somewhere other than the BA website to buy your tickets.

  • LittleNick says:
    31 Aug31 August 07:52

    I wonder if an avios ticket rebooked onto a flight with no avios availability would get Avios + TPs? Would it be re-ticketed?

  • Matthias says:
    31 Aug31 August 08:05

    Flew BA VIE-LHR in CE yesterday on the 7am and got the normal Club experience: free middle seat (with built-in recliner table), curtain and standard choice of hot meals. Plus we landed early, the crew were great and Vienna airport (including the famous ‘Vienna lounge’) was a delight. The perfect CE experience does exist!

    My wife however was on the 11am and she did not get the free middle seat. Lucky me I guess!

  • Jack says:
    31 Aug31 August 08:23

    If making a new booking that departs tonight, should it give the option to rebook to next week?

    • Rob says:
      31 Aug31 August 08:37

      No, must have been ticketed before Monday.

      • Ben says:
        31 Aug31 August 11:11

        The website rarely enforces the ticketing date. I made a booking on Tuesday for Wednesday and moved it to Saturday, could pick from any flight!

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

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