Reply To: British Airways offering (near) free cancellation on Avios bookings

[yonasl]

kieranfox wrote:

I had LHR-BCN-LHR booked in Economy reward flight saver for 2 adults (£70)

I wanted to amend the date of the outbound which it wouldn’t let me do online as there were only Business seats available. I therefore made a separate business class booking (£50) for the outbound and called BAEC to cancel the outbound.

I have been charged £35pp (total £70) change fee for doing so. So I got a £35 refund of the original outbound charge but essentially have ended up paying £35 more for the privilege as it’s classed as an amendment rather than a cancelation to cancel one sector.

I read online that I shouldn’t end up paying more if the taxes are less than £35 which they clearly were. Have I been over-charged?

You pay £35 for cancelling an Avios flight. This is taken from what you already paid so:

– If you paid £100 and avios: you get the avios back and £100 – £35 = £65 back
– If you paid £10 and avios: you get the avios back and £10 – £35 = £0 back
– If you paid £0 and avios: you get the avios back and £0 – £35 = £0 back

What BA has done here:
– You paid avios and £70 for a return ticket in Y
– You then paid avios and £50 for a new ticket in J
– BA cancelled one of the Y legs and charged you £35 so refunded £70-£5 = £35 (and the avios)

This is correct, you cannot “amend” a ticket, it needs to be cancelled and rebooked.

The amount you paid, while called “taxes & fees” is simply a £ amount made up by BA.