-
Does anyone know of an online way of cancelling a BA Avios hotel booking? Terms of the booking say “Cancellations made outside of 72 hours to travel will be charged a cancellation fee of £35” and I know I can call BAEC to cancel but asking if there’s a route without the phone wait.
All a bit of a shame as it’s almost 60,000 Avios earned just for the hotel, even before paying with BAPP.
You need to be a bit careful about this. Most of the hotels on that site are non-refundable which is a bit of a drawback vs the lure of lots of Avios. They show this during the booking process, but not on the confirmation email save, after the £35, they add:- “ plus any applicable Supplier fees as advised at the time of booking”.
Hopefully your cancellation will be fine, but you should be aware they may try to invoke this (if that’s what is on your email) and you will have to push back very hard. I helped someone sort this specific issue three months ago.
You need to be a bit careful about this. Most of the hotels on that site are non-refundable which is a bit of a drawback vs the lure of lots of Avios. They show this during the booking process, but not on the confirmation email save, after the £35, they add:- “ plus any applicable Supplier fees as advised at the time of booking”.
Hopefully your cancellation will be fine, but you should be aware they may try to invoke this (if that’s what is on your email) and you will have to push back very hard. I helped someone sort this specific issue three months ago.
Aye saw that too. No choice though: just tested positive for Covid and whilst the booking isn’t until Saturday and Egypt doesn’t test I’m not flying if positive and there’s zero chance I will be clear before the 72 hour window expires.
See what they say. BA will go to the hotel or Expedia and ask them to agree a refund on your behalf. If they say no, come back here; I and others can tell you what you need to do to get your money back. They should cave quickly, but best not to pull the levers yet. Hope you recover quickly.
I have the same problem! BAEC hotels ans cars have refused to refund a prepaid hotel even though I told them of wy wife’s health problems. I would be interested in any suggestions of how to get them to change their position.
I have the same problem! BAEC hotels ans cars have refused to refund a prepaid hotel even though I told them of wy wife’s health problems. I would be interested in any suggestions of how to get them to change their position.
I’m not sure what the T&Cs are in respect of ordinary BA car hire/hotel bookings, but they are acting as an OTA which complicates things. Are you saying they aren’t paying a refund to which you are entitled or won’t offer some goodwill? Can you claim on travel insurance?
The issue @masaccio reported is quite specific to booking hotels with BA/Avios for cash with special Avios bonus whereby they flash some very onerous terms during booking but send an email confirmation with different terms. That is a problem for them!
Each hotel has different cancellation policies on the site, although every time I’ve booked I’ve been fortunate enough to have a cancellable room up to a week or so before departure.
Getting through on the Gold line today is super-frustrating. The preamble “don’t call us” message is very long and then you get to play option bingo where most (all?) basically end with a “We can’t speak to you right now”.
They are “prioritising customer service calls over sales calls” but it’s not obvious how to pick that option. After random choices I got through to a human with the cash flight and hotel option and then they passed me on to BAEC.
Turns out you can cancel online: MMB -> View bookings made with Avios (even though it’s cash) gives you a list of Avios Hotels bookings with a link to cancel.
The ‘supplier fee’ is over 500 quid. Any options @jj?
I don’t think the Gold line is the right number to call to resolve this – you need to call the number in your confirmation and ask them to contact the supplier to get a full refund. Do not accept the £500 cancellation charge unless you can and want to make an insurance claim (although any insurer who was on the ball would question the fee) as this will be at best a tacit acceptance of the fee.
If they come back and say no, the supplier won’t budge, email BA/Avios at avios.operationdept@avios.com along these lines which you need to adapt to your circumstances and check the text is correct per your confirmation:-
Re: British Airways Avios travel reservation XXXXXXXX
I made the above reservation on [DATE] to stay at the [XX HOTEL] in early April at a total cost of [£XXX.XX]; a PDF copy of my confirmation email is attached.Unfortunately, I contracted Covid on [XX DATE] and will therefore not be able to travel and/or do not expect to have a clear test until after the 72 hour cancellation window.
I therefore contacted the BA Gold line on [Sunday 27 March] to cancel the booking for a refund [or to rebook]. I spoke to [NAME] / and was told to check and cancel on MMB] and discovered that there was a [£500.00] cancellation fee. I now understand that the supplier has also refused to refund my booking.
I am quite astonished by this response, partly in light of the much publicised BA/BA Holidays ‘Buy with Confidence’ (“BWC”) policy which you have failed to apply in any form. While this policy is a matter of goodwill over and above statutory requirements, it is a reason why one chooses to book with you. However, even ignoring the BWC policy, your refusal to refund my booking (less the £35 cancellation fee) is in breach of the strict legal/contractual position and your imposition of new contract terms after the time of booking is a breach of Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA”).
My confirmation email (i.e. our contract) has three brief sections that relate to cancellations or changes:-
“Changing your booking” – you offer the opportunity to change the booking by way of cancellation and rebooking, but don’t guarantee the same option will still be available. This option has not been offered to me.
“Cancelling your booking” – for cancellations made prior to 72 hours, you simply say there is a cancellation fee of £35, “plus any applicable Supplier fees as advised at the time of booking”. This confirmation email is “the time of booking” and the formal evidence of our contractual agreement. To the extent that there is any supplier fee at all, the quantum of which you have failed to specify, it must be taken, under any CRA test of “fairness”, that any such fee will be a relatively modest sum akin to an administrative fee and certainly no more than BA’s own cancellation fee. However, as no fee is specified, the consumer is not properly informed so BA has foregone the opportunity later to collect such a fee.
“Cancellation fees” – this section adds nothing relevant to the above
Underneath these three sections you provide two hyperlinks – one to the service fees which confirm the £35 BA fee and another “View full terms and conditions” which links to the British Airways Executive Club t&c’s, so largely irrelevant to this hotel booking. The only other terms cited in the email relate to data protection or car hire only.
[The implication of the terms as supplied in this email is that you would charge a £35 fee in addition to refusing to refund the cost of my booking, which cannot possibly be the intention, but serves to highlight why your current refusal to refund me is completely at odds with the contractual position.] .It is critical, for the protection of both parties, that terms and particularly that onerous penalties/cancellation fees are clearly and transparently set out in any travel confirmation and this is a requirement of the CRA that BA has failed to follow on this occasion; you cannot now, ex post facto, impose new cancellation fees or indeed any other new contract terms as BA seeks to do.
Please confirm that you have refunded the sum of [£XXX , i.e. the cost of my booking less £35, although in these circumstances even this fee should be waived] to my credit card within the next 14 days, failing which I will issue proceedings to recover this sum via the small claims track of the County Court (MCOL). Please provide your address for service of such proceedings.Cheers, much appreciated. Got through to the Duty Office in seconds and spoke to somebody who was surprisingly human. Promised a call back tomorrow after they contact the hotel. Somewhat hopeful given it’s an Oberoi property and you have to think they are not rubbish at this.
Fingers crossed we have salvaged a holiday at little extra cost (BA flight rebooking was a little more but not much). On to EgyptAir for some internal flight changes. Last time they handled it well so also hopeful.
Amazingly we booked this holiday in 2019. It is the Covid holiday that keeps on giving.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
