Reply To: How I mis understood the benefits of using Avios on short haul European flights

[Froggee]

shub wrote:

As a data point, I recently cancelled my economy flight from Gatwick to Dalaman booked using Avios using £35 cash option (return trip). When cancelling it showed the refund amount of £34 per ticket, and the same has been refunded to the bank. So just charging £1 cancellation fee. Not sure if it’s BA IT that worked in my favor or there has bee some change in the policy.

Gosh – thank you @shub

That’s worth a separate post on its own. I had a pair of seats to Marseille for the Rugby World Cup I wanted to cancel. I’d grudgingly bought them for the 7:10am flight at T-355 when I couldn’t get the 9:25am ones.

Seatspy to the rescue a couple of months later and after an alert I bagged the 9:25am albeit in economy rather than Club Europe. I don’t really care as I’ll have the window and my normal body-mass-index friend will have the privilege of sitting in the middle.

So I cancelled them just now for 50 pence a seat.

Also of note was that the 7:10am is sold out. Despite this the Avios seats went back into reward inventory. So you can buy two seats now with Avios but not cash. So this conclusively proves (to me) that T-355 seats do go back into reward inventory as others have suggested although someone did say that closer to the time of the flight they don’t get returned.

Anyway – thanks again @shub. I suspect you’ve saved me £64.