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Cancellation fee on Club Europe Avios flight redemptions now £12.50 each way, not 50p

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For a few years now, due to BA IT limitations, the £35 cancellation fee per person for a short haul Avios booking has been waived if you cancelled online.

You were just charged a nominal £1 return / 50p each way to refund your Avios ticket.

This was a saving of £69 if you had booked a return trip as two separate one-way flights, which was not to be sniffed at.

British Airways Club Europe seat

Club Europe redemptions are now £12.50 each way to cancel

As we covered a few weeks ago, British Airways has increased the cost of Club Europe Avios redemptions – click to read.

The ‘lowest cash, most Avios’ option when booking now requires £12.50 of cash, rather than 50p, each way.

This has allowed BA to increase the ONLINE cancellation fee to £12.50 each way, because it knows that you will have paid at least that much.

Here’s an example:

British Airways Avios cancellation

Here are a few pointers:

  • the £12.50 per leg cancellation fee only applies to Club Europe bookings made since the Avios devaluation (mid July) – older bookings can still be cancelled for 50p each way
  • you only pay £12.50 per person each way irrespective of how much cash you actually used – as the screenshot shows, if you paid £54.50 in cash to reduce the number of Avios needed for a one way flight, you get £42 back
  • Euro Traveller economy redemptions still have a cancellation fee of just 50p each way
  • these fees only apply for online cancellations – the call centre is likely to charge you the ‘official’ rate of £35 per person per booking, whether one way or return

There isn’t really anything to complain about here, to be honest.

If you are someone who books redemptions as two x one-way Club Europe flights to make changes easier, you are still only paying £25 in total to cancel rather than the ‘official’ fee of £70.

Even if you book your tickets as a return flight (which made no sense when cancellation was 50p) you are still paying £10 less to cancel than the ‘official’ £35 fee.

If you are flying in Economy on short-haul, you’re still only paying 50p each way to cancel instead of £35 per booking.

BA could, of course, fix this situation at any point but it would be messy. You don’t have a contractual right to cancel for 50p each way, or indeed £12.50. Assuming that you had taken the ‘lowest taxes’ option when booking, it would require ba.com to ask for a credit card payment for the £35 per person cancellation fee before processing the 50p / £12.50 refund. I don’t see this happening in a hurry.

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Comments (94)

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

  • e14 says:
    28 Aug28 August 06:06

    Hopefully this article will bring the lost revenue to BAs attention so this is finally fixed, which will also probably end some folks speculative booking strategies.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      28 Aug28 August 06:31

      A bizarre article. As if loose lips haven’t sunk enough ships in this game in recent years.

    • Jonathon says:
      28 Aug28 August 07:43

      I’ve often wondered how many things might remain if we didn’t write articles about them. It just draws attention to anything vaguely good about a programme and they are magically removed shortly after.

      • JDB says:
        28 Aug28 August 07:56

        Perhaps they will fix it (if they wish to) as part of the website ‘upgrade’ much of which relates to adding the facility to charge for ancillaries such as hand luggage. I’m not sure the article will change anything – it’s inconceivable that BA is unaware about of how things work currently.

      • Rob says:
        28 Aug28 August 08:17

        But there is good stuff you’re missing out on because we haven’t written about it …..

        There was a massive loophole for Amex transfers when Finnair swapped to Avios for example which we deliberately didn’t cover. You missed that. I could have told you ….

        There is a huge credit card opportunity out there right now which we haven’t covered, although there is a good reason for that which will become clear.

        • lftbeach says:
          28 Aug28 August 09:17

          ‘There was a massive loophole for Amex transfers when Finnair swapped to Avios for example which we deliberately didn’t cover. You missed that. I could have told you ….’

          I thought you were supposed to be on ‘our side’, with any loop holes etc.

          • Rob says:
            28 Aug28 August 09:34

            People like Jonathon complain though 🙂

            You’re missing the point I think. The fact that we treat HfP like a little fun blog with all this chat in the comments confuses you as to the scale of the site now. We will have over 700,000 unique users this month – so Wembley Stadium x 8 concerts, Taylor Swift levels. Probably 2.7 million page views. 20,000 people getting every article by email and almost 40,000 getting the Saturday summary. There are over 6,500 airline, hotel and loyalty professionals following me on LinkedIn. We can kill any loophole within 30 minutes unfortunately.

            If you want really interesting stuff, go and dig around in the forum. It’s all there. Just not here.

          • Ian says:
            28 Aug28 August 20:45

            Clearly not.

        • MW says:
          28 Aug28 August 10:03

          Rob, how long should we wait for the “good reason which will become clear”?

          I was planning on applying this evening, before I read this…

          • Rob says:
            28 Aug28 August 10:06

            For what?

          • MW says:
            28 Aug28 August 11:35

            Regarding the “huge credit card opportunity”.

            I assume you’re talking about the baec bapp offer – but are you hinting something better is coming in the near future?

          • Rob says:
            28 Aug28 August 11:46

            Not BAPP and it’s already here, hiding in plain sight.

        • Jet says:
          28 Aug28 August 10:10

          Very curious about the credit card opportunity!

          • Harry says:
            28 Aug28 August 12:16

            Presume Rob is referring to the new NatWest Travel Reward Card which Rob said is “the best card on the market”

            Wonder what the good reason for them not covering it is though!

          • Rob says:
            28 Aug28 August 12:29

            It’s a terrible card for people like us. For man in the street, for travel spend ONLY, it is ok.

        • danimal says:
          28 Aug28 August 14:27

          Is this a known unknown? I don’t know if I know about this loophole or not. I will now spend the rest of the afternoon going down a rabbit hole, only to find out that I’ve been exploiting it all along. 😉

      • JDB says:
        28 Aug28 August 08:49

        There are lots of frequent traveller/card/voucher/miles ‘hacks’ that nobody here ever mentions. Whether that’s through ignorance or discretion/common sense I don’t know but long may people remain silent.

        • lftbeach says:
          28 Aug28 August 09:18

          Why should folks remain silent ?

          • JDB says:
            28 Aug28 August 09:41

            @lftbeach – it’s not a question of “should” but there are lots of things best left unsaid because once publicised they will cease to be useful or enjoyable and might be removed as an option altogether. Think of that great little town or restaurant you know, now overrun and not as enjoyable as before.

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            28 Aug28 August 10:09

            Because it kills the loop holes!

            IHG didn’t do anything about buying AMB statue and you renewing the top status (if you had it) for several years until some of the US sites started to advertise it. Now no one benefits.

            The ability to change your FF number using the Finnair website was a useful tool until all the people who just bought RJ status started using it and it got blocked meaning no one can do that now.

          • meta says:
            28 Aug28 August 10:35

            Best deals and loopholes are those that I find yourself. If you want to find loopholes best invest your own time rather than wait for someone to serve you information. The site and forum should be treated as a sort of teacher/guide on how to find these.

          • Richie says:
            28 Aug28 August 11:08

            I’m frequently relieved when someone hints regarding places in the forums and there aren’t any follow up questions.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      28 Aug28 August 07:53

      Read the article again!

      BA has fixed the 50p fee!

    • memesweeper says:
      28 Aug28 August 07:53

      BA will most certainly know about this. What they choose to do about it, if anything, isn’t going to be much influenced by Rob.

      • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
        28 Aug28 August 08:09

        I see your argument and I raise you Mr X in the study with his poison pen. Anomalies abound; until indexed searching picks them up for the mass audience.

        • Nick says:
          28 Aug28 August 09:56

          Lol, absolutely love that Rob thinks he’s as big as Taylor Swift. I think that’s what his daughter’s generation would call ‘delulu’ 🤣

          I suspect this might get changed once all the Nexus back-end stuff has been done, it certainly won’t be done in the legacy systems, there’s no point.

          • Danny says:
            28 Aug28 August 10:05

            You think BA will invest in their backend systems?

          • Rob says:
            28 Aug28 August 10:07

            Mr Doyle is spending £700m! That’s the good news.

            The bad news is that BA is planning to make it all back via extra surcharges and fees which the current IT system can’t handle but the new one can. The only reason BA doesn’t price like easyJet is because it physically can’t (yet).

          • Danny says:
            28 Aug28 August 11:24

            Very interesting, thanks Rob. The days when BA will charge £30 for a cabin suitcase are approaching then…

          • Londonsteve says:
            28 Aug28 August 16:21

            Yes, that was the first thing that came to my mind too. On the one hand it’s a competitive advantage when selling tickets that 2x hand luggage is included, on the other, no low cost competitor offers the same and BA must be salivating at the prospect of the potential extra revenue while also being able to price tickets even cheaper for flight search purposes! Still, with so many people now used to taking short breaks with only an underseat bag it could financially benefit a lot of travellers if they did this. And checked luggage is included in reward fares so I never travel with a large item of hand luggage any longer.

          • Track says:
            28 Aug28 August 23:16

            BA is doing exactly that. I have noticed the jump from HBO to “Econ with luggage” on European SH is now firm £20.

            Before the difference was £12-15.

    • zapato1060 says:
      28 Aug28 August 13:01

      Rob ‘credit card’ wise you mean [edited]

      • david says:
        28 Aug28 August 18:30

        Understood.

        I am looking forward also to the article on Finnair 10 euro Avios transfer. I predict that will be very popular hfp article for a long time to come or until they stop the benefit.

  • RobH says:
    28 Aug28 August 06:51

    Hi Rob, Interesting comment about booking 2 one-ways rather than a return. Something I have been looking at recently with the use of the Barclays upgrade voucher, if traveling as a couple, is it better to use one upgrade voucher for each return, or use one for 2 people one way and the other one way for the return leg. (One advantage of the one way was that you can book as soon as the flights are available, but wasn’t sure if there was a downside)

    • Rob says:
      28 Aug28 August 06:52

      Can’t use it for booking the 2 return legs because Barc voucher flights must start in the UK.

      • RobH says:
        28 Aug28 August 07:03

        Thanks Rob, you just saved me from making a big mistake! I guess it’s a call to the BA call center then as it’s departing from a different location in Canada than we land at. Typical that the booking date falls when we are already on holiday in the USA – but I guess I shouldn’t complain about “too many holidays!”

      • Mikeact says:
        28 Aug28 August 09:44

        Not quite right , you can book a BA return, and apply the voucher to the return, a call will sort it.

        • Rob says:
          28 Aug28 August 10:02

          Yes, that’s correct, but the question was about booking a return leg separately.

      • chris w says:
        28 Aug28 August 09:53

        Do you think Barclays will ever fix the rules of the “Upgrade” voucher so it in any way competes with Amex’s 2-4-1?

        • Rob says:
          28 Aug28 August 10:00

          It’s a better product than the Amex voucher already in some ways – the free card gives a voucher you can use in WTP or Club (Amex doesn’t) and the paid card voucher triggers at £10k vs £15k for the Amex voucher. You also get the option of 7k Avios instead of a voucher.

          For people who refuse to pay card fees the Barclaycard beats the Amex option easily.

          • Grimz says:
            28 Aug28 August 11:14

            And the Barclaycard voucher can be used by someone else although it would use your Avios.

          • david says:
            28 Aug28 August 18:33

            I am with you Rob but like chis w, a small tweak to be able to use one way from abroad to the UK would be the cherry on top.

  • David Williams says:
    28 Aug28 August 07:58

    I don’t think there is any risk of BA “finding out” and fixing this issue – for exactly the reason Rob states at the end of the article. This was a byproduct of the introduction of multiple choices/combos of how to pay for a redemption. You arguably cannot have a situation where one person is charged a 50p fee for cancelling online and another a £35 fee just because they chose a different combination of Avios/money to make the same booking with. So you have to either chose to charge everyone the lowest common denominator (50p for Economy and now £12.50 for Club Europe) or you charge everyone the standard fee of £35, which would result in collecting money from a number of bookings at the point of cancellation, which like Rob I can’t ever see happening. The call centre of course remains an odd exception to this rule.

    • JDB says:
      28 Aug28 August 08:11

      If they were genuinely concerned about some being charged 50p and others £35 they could simply make the fee also chargeable/payable in Avios. BA is more than capable of taking automated payments even if it can struggle with taking manual ones.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      28 Aug28 August 10:12

      “I don’t think there is any risk of BA “finding out” and fixing this issue “

      Yet here is an article clearly stating that BA has found and fixed it!

  • Nick P says:
    28 Aug28 August 08:06

    So if you have 4 travellers on the same booking under the new rules, it would cost you £50 to cancel online [one way].

    But if you cancel that same booking via the call centre, does it still cost £35?

  • Occasional Ranter says:
    28 Aug28 August 08:06

    Perhaps worth flagging for newbies that cancellations within 24 hours still incur zero fees ?

  • Alison says:
    28 Aug28 August 08:32

    On Sunday I booked 2x CE returns with 241 for LHR-ATH next month. On Monday I needed to adjust the outbound flight but cancelled and rebooked. All avios returned immediately and ZERO cash deducted ie got 100% refund.

    • Rob says:
      28 Aug28 August 08:46

      That’s because you get a 24 hour cooling off period.

      • Alison says:
        28 Aug28 August 09:01

        Good to know about the cooling off period too, because the BA site standard text in MMB says 35 quid to change or cancel. (I think I’ve been caught out by this in the past by changing the flights rather than cancelling).

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      28 Aug28 August 08:48

      Yes because you were inside the 24 hour cooling off period.

      If you’d waited until Tuesday you’d have been charged!

      • meta says:
        28 Aug28 August 10:38

        It’s the same for cash flights. This is now mostly standardised across airlines, but some big ones still don’t have cooling off periods (Cathay for example has cooling off period for cash flight only if your member of Asia Miles).

        • Alison says:
          28 Aug28 August 15:50

          Last time I booked cash with Qatar in J and spotted 30 mins later that the ‘better’ flight had reappeared in availability, neither the website or the call centre would let me change FOC barely an hour after booking.

  • PhilE says:
    28 Aug28 August 09:30

    And now the RFS fees for long-haul include an extra 12.50 each way. E.g. LHR-CPT return in CW is 180k-200k Avios + £475 (used to be £450) and WT+ is +£355 (used to be £330). Guess they took the chance to make a few changes…

  • Andy says:
    28 Aug28 August 09:37

    Real question is why is any cancellation fee justifiable?

    • louie says:
      28 Aug28 August 09:44

      One reason is to deter the Avios-rich from making multiple speculative bookings which they later choose from and cancel the rest, thereby reducing the number of available Avios seats and making the Avios programme less attractive. If there’s a cost to that approach, people are less likely to do it.

    • Rob says:
      28 Aug28 August 09:46

      We know what happens, because BA Gold members used to get free cancellation. People book up every single award seat. You decide in February that you fancy a weekend in Ibiza at some point. You book Avios tickets on every single Friday night flight between mid July and mid September, cancelling every pair 24 hours before departure because you don’t fancy it that weekend. Perhaps you fly one pair, perhaps none. However you’ve locked out everyone else from those seats.

      This has been happening with the 50p cancellations. I have two flights booked back from Amsterdam for World Aviation Festival in October because I may or may not be going to an event in the evening. I’ll just pull the plug on one for 50p nearer the time. Obviously Amsterdam is not tight on seats but it symptomatic of the issue.

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