Why won’t British Airways refund your seat reservation fees when you cancel a flight?

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I thought it was worth taking another look today at one of the most egregious money-making schemes pursued by British Airways – the refusal to refund seat reservation fees if you cancel your booking.

This was a hot topic before the pandemic, but went away for two years because – under the ‘Book With Confidence’ covid guarantee – BA was fully refunding what you paid, including seat selection fees. (The money was ring-fenced for paying future seat selection fees, but at least you got it back).

‘Book With Confidence’ is no longer offered, of course, so your seat reservation fees are back at risk.

What originally kicked off our campaign on this was a reader who cancelled two Avios seats in Club World to the US. All of his Avios and other charges were refunded, less the administration fee, as usual.

However, British Airways refused to refund £500 of seat reservation fees.

Can you really spend £500 on seat reservation fees for a couple?

Unfortunately, yes.

I just did a dummy booking for Heathrow to San Francisco for March. As you can see, for someone without British Airways Gold or Silver status or the oneworld equivalent, if you want to sit on the top deck of the Airbus A380 by the windows it will cost you £122 per person each-way – a total of £488 return for two. Bargain.

There are two issues here, I think: is it made clear that your reservation is non-refundable? and is this ‘fair’?

Is it made clear that seat reservations are non-refundable?

British Airways has made some improvements to its wording since we first started highlighting this issue. When you go into ba.com to select seats, this is what you see (click to enlarge):

The terms and conditions are not shown, but require you to click a hyperlink. This is not ideal, but probably acceptable.

Under the old version of ba.com, you were shown a summary of the T&C with a further click required to see the full version. Unsurprisingly, this ‘summary’ did not include the key point – that your fee was non-refundable in virtually all circumstances.

Things have now improved in terms of clarity. When you click the ‘Terms & Conditions’ hyperlink, you are taken immediately to the full T&C document. The bit on ‘no refunds’ isn’t at the top, but it is there if you scroll down.

Regardless of the T&Cs, is this ‘fair’?

You might say ‘it doesn’t matter if it’s fair’.

Except, under UK contract law, it does.

There are lots of pieces of regulation which could come into play here such as the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999, the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

Here is a very concise summary from the Government’s own website:

Businesses can keep your deposit or advance payments, or ask you to pay a cancellation charge, only in certain circumstances:

If you cancel the contract, the business is generally only entitled to keep or receive an amount sufficient to cover their actual losses that directly result from your cancellation (eg costs already incurred or loss of profit).

Businesses must take reasonable steps to reduce their losses (eg by re-selling the goods or services).

Non-refundable deposits should only be a small percentage of the total price.

Cancellation charges must be a genuine estimate of the business’ direct loss.

A good base line is that a consumer contract can only be imposed if it is ‘fair’.

It is difficult to see how retaining a payment of £488 for seat selection is ‘fair’ when the airline can cancel the underlying seat reservation without penalty and suffers no loss when you cancel, especially if the seat is cancelled well before departure.

Seat selection fees also appear ‘unfair’ in terms of the ‘power’ given to each party. British Airways, according to the small print, is free to throw you out of your allocated seats for any reason it wants.

Intriguingly, if British Airways upgrades you, you don’t get a seat refund:

For the avoidance of doubt, paid seating will not be refunded if you are involuntarily upgraded;

It is difficult to imagine a court agreeing with that, especially if you paid for seats purely in order to be together but – due to the upgrade – you were separated. You do get a refund if you choose to pay to upgrade and do not want to pay for selection in the higher cabin.

In the case of an Avios redemption – or a fully flexible cash ticket – the airline is willing to refund the flight. It is therefore difficult, in my mind, to put together a ‘reasonable’ justification for keeping the seat selection fees.

Is it worth fighting this if it applies to you?

If you are impacted by this, your options are to take British Airways to CEDR arbitration (here is our guide on how to do it) or, failing that, to MCOL / Small Claims (here is our guide on how to do that).

The bad news is that I know that some readers have lost their case at CEDR when trying to do this. This is because the arbitrator is not empowered to look at whether BA’s actions break consumer laws. They only look at whether British Airways has broken its own terms and conditions – which it hasn’t.

Here is a quote from a failed arbitration claim

Here is a quote from a CEDR arbitration decision refusing to order BA to refund seat selection fees:

“Whist I recognise the passenger deems this provision unfair, I am unable to make a determination as to whether the same is unfair, binding, acceptable, balanced or not to the detriment of the consumer. Should the passenger be unsatisfied with my ruling, he is free to reject the decision and and to negotiate a settlement with the airline or to pursue the matter elsewhere should he wish to do so, including to dispute the validity of the abovementioned provision (or the airline’s terms and conditions as a whole) before a competent body or court.“

Even if you win at CEDR or MCOL, these cases do not set legal precedent. Settlement usually comes with the requirement to sign a confidentiality agreement, so it cannot even be publicised.

It would require a full court hearing to take place before legal precedent was set, as happened in – for example – Jet2 vs Huzar, the case which set the precedent that mechanical failure was not an excuse for not paying EC261 compensation.

Until someone does that, however, British Airways will carry on attempting to extract large sums for seat selection fees on cancelled flights.

The only good news is that, with the new Club Suite, the seats are created more or less equal and there is very little justification for spending money on a reservation. Even if you end up not being able to sit together, other passengers should be more willing to move onboard to accommodate you as they would not be worse off.

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

Mark LLL says:

2 Jan2 January 10:39

On topic (we’ll, clinging on by fingertips) was bumped out of my paid-for seat selection on outbound EK upper deck A380 economy. Ended up between two strangers on 7.5 hour flight. No spare seating. In fact the female to my left had been seated away from her husband which she was vocally unhappy about. I offered to swap seats with him but he declined (keeping his aisle seat) I never would have chosen the seat I was in.
Yet to fly inbound, one leg of which the selected seat complimentary.
Will I be wasting my time requesting refund of the seat charge for single flight? Can I even begin a complaint before return flights?
- WorldTraveller says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 14:49
  
  I will never get why some people call women ‘females’. Sounds like you’re referring to a dog lol. Cant you just say ‘woman’?
  - Novice says:
    
    2 Jan2 January 15:55
    
    Not anymore apparently. Can’t even say mother anymore thanks to a certain vocal minority.
    
    I stand with JKR. She is totally right. Can’t blame true feminists for feeling like men are taking away their rights again.
    - Swifty says:
      
      2 Jan2 January 20:51
      
      Having the word “Female” creep into spoken English, to describe women, which is an Americanized version of police language really bothers me. (mainly currently used on tiktok and other dumb as custard social media platforms) It’s a race to the bottom, my friends.
    - EdC says:
      
      3 Jan3 January 02:16
      
      Get off with the nonsense, no trans rights supporters are in favour of calling women “females”. Or not calling mothers “mother”.
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  3 Jan3 January 00:55
  
  Claim your refund! And yup do it before the return.
Novice says:

2 Jan2 January 10:50

Still on BA charges topic;

I have booked a return flight to HKG from London Heathrow and after booking the flights read here that domestic flights to connect are free so as this is booked using an upgrade voucher I would have to call for it.

Will I be charged now because flights were booked online and with the upgrade voucher you can only have direct flight in my understanding.

I don’t want to get charged anything not because I can’t pay up but it’s the principle of the matter.
- zapato1060 says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 13:06
  
  Calling in you can leave from regionals. But now your flight is booked you’d have to cancel and “hope” they go back into inventory.
  - NorthernLass says:
    
    2 Jan2 January 14:02
    
    No, they can add the regional connection. Should be free of charge as it can’t be done online, although sometimes they argue if you’ve left it too long and say you have to pay £35.
    - Novice says:
      
      2 Jan2 January 15:58
      
      Ok thanks I will get to it asap then. My flights are in October so was going to book regional after my April trip but I will do it this week now.
AJA says:

2 Jan2 January 11:25

Interesting comment on Sky News just now expressing the opinion that charging passengers for seats should end following this JAL crash. ALSO expressed opinion that all families should be seated together as it helps in an evacuation that parents can look after their families. Not sure who it was that said it but it might have been a former BA pilot.
- Richie says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 11:27
  
  BTW The UK CAA’s definition of ‘seating together’ isn’t actually seating together.
  - AJA says:
    
    2 Jan2 January 11:32
    
    Yes that is an issue too. Though I do think the row immediately behind or in front or just across the aisle is OK.
- BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 12:10
  
  And in some plane layouts it’s physically impossible to seat a family next to each other without having to cross an aisle or be in adjacent rows.
  - No longer Entitled says:
    
    2 Jan2 January 14:29
    
    But the point here is a very fair one. If I am across the isle I am still exiting the plane with my kids. If they are rows apart I am not leaving without my kids. There is a big difference between leaving a cabin bag behind and leaving a child. I doubt as a parent I would be alone in this.
    - NorthernLass says:
      
      2 Jan2 January 16:42
      
      Absolutely not – but it’s not just children. I flew Ryanair recently with my OH and sister and FR’s stupid seating algorithms had us scattered all over the plane both ways. I did think a bit about what I’d do in an emergency, and I would find it very difficult to just leave the aircraft without knowing whether they were ok.
      - Bernard says:
        
        2 Jan2 January 17:24
        
        If it matters then pay for seat reservations. They are offered very clearly when you book
      - David says:
        
        2 Jan2 January 21:41
        
        As above, the reality is that you pay far more for the benefit of getting ‘free’ seat selection with BA and OW partners, than you would paying to be seated together on Ryanair.
        
        Aside from that, I do agree people on one booking should be seated together, as much as possible, as a matter of course.
MS says:

2 Jan2 January 12:56

In a similar thread of rules used by BA, I noticed that the BA Price Guarantee also has a T&C which is clear but also feels slightly unfair. BA will match the price of any fare you see within 24hrs. There is an online process for claiming it, and it seems to involve a screenshot of the competing fare.

The deal is even better for Exec Club members. You will get double the difference. It is capped, and paid in the form of a voucher for future travel.

However, here’s the catch. In the small print is an interesting caveat. If you use any amount of Avios as part payment – the price match guarantee is not valid. In fairness to BA, this is clear in the T&Cs from following a link. It’s an interesting get out clause when the BA website essentially encourages Exec Club members to treat avios as currency equivalent when settling the final total (albeit at different rates depending on how many you use).
- Qrfan says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 17:24
  
  That isn’t the only catch. If you use any form of voucher you’re also ineligible too, including a voucher from a previous price guarantee.
AJames says:

2 Jan2 January 13:06

It is great to see this ‘egregious money-making scheme’ being raised again. Thank you.
From experience, trying to sort something out through the BA customer service system is a waste of time. No matter what information you provide you just get standard cut and paste text responses.
When BA works well it is really great but when it gets things wrong nobody at BA seems to want to know.
Would it be worth raising this with Trading Standards, or taking a class action against BA?
- zapato1060 says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 13:10
  
  As evidenced by poor chap who lost £500 beforehand, the best recourse is not paying the fee and/or flying only with rivals.
Martin Green says:

2 Jan2 January 13:47

BA has tried to downgrade me from Business to economy twice, and once from First to Business. The CEO keeps talking about restoring BA to a premium airline, and yet they continue to have ridiculous policies such as making people pay to choose their seat, which are the hallmark of no fills airlines. I now only use them when there is no choice, and my preferred airline is Emirates,who know how to give great customer service
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 14:42
  
  The 777 3-4-3 business class seats are great customer experience?
- sayling says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 16:07
  
  But BA don’t make you choose your seat. They give you the OPTION of paying, if you want to choose your seat before others do.
  The more ‘loyal’ you are to them (ie in terms of flights and flying distance), the earlier you can choose seats for free. But everyone can choose for free at some point before take off.
  
  The issue here isn’t about charging for the option, but being able to get refunded when things change.
- Lady London says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 23:41
  
  @Martin Green when you say BA “tried to” downgrade you 3 times, how did you resist? There are lots of people on here whom BA has downgraded against their protests, some had even paid for their seats, some had medical issues needing the flat seat.
TimM says:

2 Jan2 January 14:22

Unfair, and hence illegal, T&Cs are on the rise. Increasingly big corporates are behaving with apparent impunity. All too often they flout the law then after repeated communications and/or threats of legal action do what they were legally obliged to do in the first place as ‘a gesture of goodwill’ without correcting their behaviour.

I agree with AJames above, Trading Standards really ought to get involved. It is illegality on an industrial scale. One could call it organised crime.
- Lady London says:
  
  2 Jan2 January 23:45
  
  It will take someone to decline a settlement stating that it is in the public interest that the case should be heard I think. To forestall any view by court that you declined a reasonable settlement and wasted the court’s time.
  
  Then if the amount is low, if you win at MCOL this sets no precedent. I believe it needs to be heard in a higher court to set precedent and thus sort out British Airways once and for all on this if the case is won. But I’m not sure how to ensure it goes to a higher court. Then there are higher costs if it goes to a higher court also.
  
  So I am thinking the most useful tactic would be if one of the consumer organisations was behind supporting the base – as I believe that’s how such an expedition might realistically be funded.
  
  But I am not an expert, I am wondering if an expert would comment.
  - TGLoyalty says:
    
    3 Jan3 January 01:03
    
    Was thinking would have to be a consumer group action to have any legs.
BSI1978 says:

2 Jan2 January 18:36

We’ll never get to see the breakdown of course, but apropos of nothing, I’d love to see what the net income figure is pax that BA makes from people (non-status) paying these fees.

There are a lot of valid comments as to why it probably wouldn’t stand up to substantive scrutiny/challenge but BA obviously won’t G be this up anytime soon given the implied yield.

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

Why won’t British Airways refund your seat reservation fees when you cancel a flight?

Can you really spend £500 on seat reservation fees for a couple?

Is it made clear that seat reservations are non-refundable?

Regardless of the T&Cs, is this ‘fair’?

Is it worth fighting this if it applies to you?

Here is a quote from a failed arbitration claim

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