British Airways cancellation policy due to death – am I entitled to compensation

[abohra]

Hi

We are a family of 3. We had tickets booked to Malta on BA for a short weekend during the Christmas school holidays from London-Gatwick. The outbound tickets to Malta were purchased using avios. The inbound ticket was a cash purchased using Amex credit card.

Sadly 4 days before our trip my husband’s father fell seriously ill so we booked tickets to our home country and left on the same day. He sadly passed away the next day.

We had to cancel our Malta tickets. The outbound ticket that was cancelled , we got all of our avios and lost some booking fee which is acceptable . But for the inbound trip we were only refunded airport taxes – £15 GBP per passenger . In all we got less than £4 per person.

On this occassion , I left to buy the travel insurance till late so have no travel insurance for the trip.

Is there any way to request refund under special circumstances. I checked the web and found this article. Has anybody had any experience . Please advise.

Thank you in advance for reading this.

The article on the web
https://www.travomojo.com/cancellation-policy/british-airways-cancellation-policy/

[NorthernLass]

I’m sorry to hear about your father-in-law. As you had booked avios tickets, you should have lost, at most, £35 per person, per booking, but have had all your avios refunded.

Can you post exactly how many avios and how much cash you paid, and what you have been refunded? Also, was this one booking, or were the outbound and inbound legs booked separately?

When and how did you cancel the flights?

You need to look at the Ts and Cs for your booking, not rely on a 3rd party website which may be out of date or just wrong!

[Rob]

With respect, this is what travel insurance is for. If you need insurance for a holiday, you buy it the day you book. The greatest chance of something happening requiring a claim is probably higher before rather than during travel.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

How did you cancel the tickets? On line or via the call centre?

On line there is no way to make any sort of case for special circumstances.

Via phone then it might have been possible to at least ask for a refund (not compensation). There might not have been a refund but the possibility to change the date of travel. Both of these are mentioned in the article you linked to but are predicated on you speaking to BA at the time.

But I’d say it was too late to go back to BA.

You say you paid using Amex. Some of those cards do come with travel insurance so check if there is any coverage there. Your home insurance is also a possibility so again check the policy just in case.

[NorthernLass]

OP was entitled to a refund of all avios plus an element of the cash amount paid, regardless of whether they had travel insurance. They are saying they got no avios for the return leg, which is why I am wondering if this was 2 separate bookings.

It’s not clear why they saying they got £15 pp refunded, but then only £4 pp.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

NorthernLass wrote:

OP was entitled to a refund of all avios plus an element of the cash amount paid, regardless of whether they had travel insurance. They are saying they got no avios for the return leg, which is why I am wondering if this was 2 separate bookings.

It’s not clear why they saying they got £15 pp refunded, but then only £4 pp.

Outbound was Avios the inbound cash.

Since the avios flight was fully refunded (less the cancellation fee) we are only talking about the inbound cash flight

[NorthernLass]

Ah – missed that! I always assume that no one would book cash flights without having insurance (unless they were prepared to lose the money), although actually 2 close friends of mine do this regularly and I think it stresses me more than them when I am reminded of it!

[Rui N.]

I’d bet most people book flights without having any insurance. If they get insurance (most people don’t), they get it close to the trip.

[RK228]

Rui N. wrote:

I’d bet most people book flights without having any insurance. If they get insurance (most people don’t), they get it close to the trip.

I can’t speak to what others do, but I have the Nationwide Flexplus account with travel insurance specifically so that I’m covered at all times worldwide.

[Rui N.]

Good for you, I guess.

[RK228]

Rui N. wrote:

Good for you, I guess.

To be clear, I was trying to politely question your assertion that most people don’t get insurance and, if they do, it’s only just before the trip (e.g., someone must be interested in travel insurance, as it’s included with a number of bank accounts, credit cards, etc.).

I do not know the actual figures though, so will bow out of this conversation.

[Rob]

I fully believe that most people only buy insurance very close to departure, but they are stupid to do so. It’s not as if it gets any cheaper, although logically it does.

In terms of a ‘major’ claim, I suspect you are far more likely to have something happen in the 5-6 months before departure that stops you going than you are to have something happen to you whilst away.

[JDB]

Rui N. wrote:

I’d bet most people book flights without having any insurance. If they get insurance (most people don’t), they get it close to the trip.

Travellers are free to make this decision, but if they do, it’s not reasonable for them to expect BA to become the insurer of last resort.

BA does allow changes and refunds in compassionate cases but it usually needs to be done at the time and upon production of evidence.

[Jill Kinkell]

A few years ago we had a trip to Rome booked. A week before departure my MIL died. BA refunded everything on production of a copy of death certificate. Took a phone call to a clued up agent who was very good explaining what to do. We did have Travel Insurance( annual via Bank) but BA were very sympathetic and understanding.

[abohra]

At first let me thank all of you to taken the time and replied to my post. From the replies , I understand that I need to have had travel insurance which I didn’t.

But just to answer some of the questions raised by NorthernLass.

1) Both the inbound and outbound legs were booked separately so there were 2 booking PNRs
2) The outbound leg was booked using Avios and we got all our Avios refunded minus the booking fee thankfully.
3) I cancelled the flights using the BA website. Being abroad with time difference and things happening, I had no bandwidth to pursue via phone.
4) For the inbound leg , the airport taxes were about £18.xx GBP per person. BA charges a £15 cancellation fee we got 3.xx per person back.

Thanks once again for your replies.