How do I cancel a 2-4-1 booking for a voucher?

[leesanderson]

I have a 2-4-1 booking to Australia over Easter which I want to change to a voucher. Family live in Queensland, who are not allowing interstate travel and family have indicated it’s very unlikely we will be allowed entry (even when boostered).

I’ve been looking on the BA site and it’s not clear how too cancel get a voucher for this 2-4-1 booking. The BA sites states “We’ll try to issue your preferred voucher type, although some bookings – such as Avios redemptions and holidays – aren’t currently eligible for a single eVoucher.” Should I click no to the “Request a single eVoucher”? Worried if I select no I will loose the 2-4-1. Info on the BA site not clear….. as normal.

[JDB]

leesanderson wrote:

I have a 2-4-1 booking to Australia over Easter which I want to change to a voucher. Family live in Queensland, who are not allowing interstate travel and family have indicated it’s very unlikely we will be allowed entry (even when boostered).

I’ve been looking on the BA site and it’s not clear how too cancel get a voucher for this 2-4-1 booking. The BA sites states “We’ll try to issue your preferred voucher type, although some bookings – such as Avios redemptions and holidays – aren’t currently eligible for a single eVoucher.” Should I click no to the “Request a single eVoucher”? Worried if I select no I will loose the 2-4-1. Info on the BA site not clear….. as normal.

I’m not sure sure why you would want to cancel for a voucher at this stage? Unless you pay the £35, the FTV will still hold the voucher/taxes/Avios so it’s all tied up, but you keep your options open in case things change in the next three months and most importantly, if they don’t, BA may well cancel the flights giving you rebooking rights which are particularly valuable for Australia given the difficulty in finding the seats you will require to rebook if you take the FTV.

[jokerjokerj]

100% agree with JDB on this one. Unless you’ve got another plan that you need for the voucher/Avios for, it would be much better to keep the “Australia” flights intact.

[leesanderson]

Thank you for your comments JDB and jokerjokerj. I have been thinking about another plan (not Australia). I’ll wait until it’s closer to Easter too see what’s happens with restrictions etc. If I have to cancel for an eVoucher, will the 2-4-1 be included? BA’s web site it not clear on this. I assume I’ll have to sit in the call center queue to find out.

[Lady London]

JDB is right. You’d be nuts to consider taking a voucher The reason your family is doubtful, is exactly the same reason there is an excellent chabce BA will cancel yout flights. Just one flight cancelled will be enough to get you the right to switch to, say, Christnas at no cost to you. And the weather is better. Are you fully aware of your EU261 rights?

I wouldnt even call BA now. It sounds like if you can get through to them, you’re in great danger of oersuading yourself to do somethubg that wastes the rights you have Which BA agents aee trained to help you on (not so forwsrd on informing you of all the rights you have though…)

A voucher onky preseeves what you paid not whst you bought When you rebook using a voucher you can inly credit it against the market rate BA is selling at in the future. Do you know how hard it is in the past and future to get any award seats to Austrwlia? Other dream longhaul places are pretty hard to find 2 or even 1 avios sest for. If BA cancels a flught you have booked, there doesn’t have to be any avios seats available on the rebooking date you choose, you just get to choose the date you want and if there’s any seat beibg sold in that cabin you are your 242 have a right to it at no cost.

There’s more but at this hour apologies I haveb mo more time.

[tiriavpo]

e-vouchers and Future Travel Vouchers are different. The form is a bit ambiguous, simple cash bookings can become e-vouchers (like gift voucher e-codes which can be used online for another cash booking). Avios bookings become FTVs – these are in fact just everything you have previously paid, including the 241 voucher, held in credit with the original booking reference (PNR). This credit has to be used by the same people but for travel anywhere – you can add more cash or avios, or be refunded any leftover balance if the new trip is cheaper.

As with any avios booking, you can choose to cancel it and get a refund minus £35pp cancellation fee. The 241 voucher would be returned with its original expiry date. Any new travel would need avios availability in the usual way.

Or you choose to ‘postpone’ it and take a FTV – this keeps the 241 voucher alive until 30 Sep 23, which is the current final usability date for FTVs. You can apply for the FTV using the form mentioned, but will have to call to re-book using the FTV credit. Avios availability required for the new trip.

Or wait to see whether (any of) the flights are cancelled by BA. This would give you a fee-free refund option, or FTV as above, or the possibility of moving the trip to a future date. Crucially, this would not need avios availability BUT in BA’s eyes, it would have to be within ‘ticket validity’ which BA generally take to be 365 days from booking date, not from travel date. Some people have successfully fought this but it is not guaranteed. Given this is a premium route, you probably booked it about a year in advance (?) so you may not have much flex to re-book very far into the future if they try to hold you to their ticket validity interpretation.

[Lady London]

BA won’t succeed in imposing their illegal limit of 12mths from booking (ie datestamp on the ticket as issue date). This type of situation as mentioned by tiriavpo, ia why. Provided you’ve got reasonable reasons why your particular situation means a particular possibly narrow date range is convenient to you, the legislation does not require you to prove this and BA doesn’t have the right to make you prove this. Just, this legislation is solid, excellently drafted, well proven in the courts, so not taking the p*** is important so as not to let airlines try to overturn it if there are mass cases of it being used unreasonably. The legislarion that lets you choose a date convenient to you to fly instead, overrides anything an airline says or says its systems can’t do.

You might have to fight and even MCOL if they are being particularly stupid but that’s just a procedure usually judged by papee submissions or occasionally involving a phone hearing these days. For Australia on a 241 it’s worth it and you will win (if for sme strange reason they don’t cave before the case is judged)..

Remember BA cancelled your flight in this circumstance. Especially for long haul dream destinations many people can only have enough holidsy days from work or other commitments to make such a long trip once a year or less. You have a right to prefer to go to some places only in some seasons where weather is decent or maybe even at a particular time such as to see the Northern Lights or cherry blossom time in Japan. Or for an annual event public or private that only takes place at a time you don’t control in a year or so. Quite a few people here have other trips or family commitments that mean their next chance to do the trip can’t be for a very long time.

You get the drift. For short haul from UK to Europe you’d quite likely have to work harder to remain reasonable if you’re seeking a long delay. Again reasonable is not required but you should understand your own case and the constraints on you that make your convenient date to reroute to, to replace the trip.

All the above applies for any airline departing UK/Europe, or any airline departing anywhere in the world if airline is based UK/Europe.

[Lady London]

PS you also don’t have to decide on your reroute date by the date of your original flight. Often you will need quite some to replan and these days future flights on many routes haven’t established a reliable pattern for the future yet.

[flyforfun]

Queensland has allowed interstate travel from 13/12/21 :

https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/queensland-restrictions-update/changes-to-queenslands-border-restrictions#arriving-in-australia

International travel is allowed. If you are a direct family member meeting certain requirements you can travel without a Travel Exemption, otherwise you will need to get one. Details here.

Currently if you meet the family requirements or get the exemption, you can home quarantine for 14 days in a suitable residence, ie you have your own bathroom, bedroom and access to a separate entrance to the rest of the household.

However, another announcement is expected mid-Jan where the prediction is that the above requirement will be removed.

I would keep checking the links above for the the latest rules and I’d question whether your family really want you there 😉 I know most Australians were quite happy about being isolated from the rest of the world, but as the Omicron spreads that barrier seems to be falling. I’ve also had conversations with people who think that if you can get covid 2 months before you go, that will give you natural immunity (in addition to being triple jabbed) and less likely to catch it en-route and spread it to those you are visiting.

[elainengyeeling]

Hi

Apologies for jumping on the thread, but I have a similar issue with three avios redemption tickets for flights booked to Thailand and Singapore for Easter in business. One leg has been cancelled (outbound to Thailand) and my preference is to now wait until October when my son has a two week half-term rather than sticking to the original dates.

4 BA agents (line actually cut out, I didn’t hang up and try again) have refused to use validity one year from outbound rather than flight date, and as there is (unsurprisingly) no availability on avios. I was looking into starting CEDR process as I am pretty annoyed at BA (they already refused to extend the date of our Maldives avios redemption in April 2021) and feel a point ought to be made.

The first hurdle I face though is I need to have engaged with BA and received a ‘Final Response’ letter before I can go through the CEDR. As there is no email address for BA, can I ask an agent to do this over the phone?

Also is it sufficient to say that April is no longer suitable for us if they try to push us to the -3/+11 date options on Qatar (which is what they keep offering).

Happy to share my experience once I get the ball rolling. If there are enough wins perhaps BA will reconsider their company policy.

Best regards and many thanks.

[Lady London]

Elaine if you look in the Cancelled Flights category in the Forum here, but as that’s new look back through the Daily Chat threads on the website, this topic and the steps to take are covered repetitively every 2 days or so. Look in particular for posts by meta and Jonathan and any post with the words “Letter Before Action”.

The EU261 and its UK equivalent statute is strongly in your favour. Personally I woukdn’t bother with CEDR as when the law is strongly on your side MCOL will give a more guaranteed result. You get the fee back when you win at MCOL. Btw : search for MCOL to find useful previous posts too using google.

Best to send a signed-for Letter Before Action LBA
to BA’s Waterside address at Stockley Park for the attention of BA Legal Departnent when you get to that stage. For your 3 asks beforehand, just keep a note of date and time and method of each contact, and the outcone, with ideally who you spoke to and ibclude that detail as an Appendix to your LBA.

Provided you didnt accept anyrhing you can still MCOL them for the outcome you’re entitled to for your last April trip as well. Even if the date is past. You have up to 6 years under statute of limitations.

[elainengyeeling]

Thank you Lady London. There was so many posts of the daily chats that i didn’t look through each one; but I’ll Google as you suggest and will go through the process If mcol.

Happy new year