Change of outbound (QR) which was booked from cancelled BA flight using FTV

[Vit]

Hello all, I don’t think this will attract too many readers but just in case anyone has done this before and can share their experience too?

Long story short, similar to everyone, we were put into QR flights for those cancelled BA flights to BKK. Our original flight to BKK was booked using FTV which contained expired 2-4-1 amex voucher.

We were try trying to change our outbound flight from BKK to NRT / HND now that Japan is open but was told that is not possible as that would mean they have to reissue a new ticket using that FTV above but that it contains an expired 2-4-1 voucher, we would need to pay full avios.

For me, it is a bit annoying but does sounds right to me based on what I read here. Anyone else had different experience?

I guess I could have tried to ask to to change our outbound destination when they put us into QR but who would have thought Japan would be opening this winter! 😀

[JDB]

If it’s any consolation, BA wouldn’t have rerouted you to Tokyo after the original cancellation as it falls outside their 300 mile concession and they have not proved to be at all flexible beyond that limit. In the current position, BA is I fear correct. If you wanted to change your booking from BKK to TYO it’s a cancellation and rebooking, so the expired voucher would no longer work on the new booking.

[Vit]

Hi @JDB, in that case I would put my hand up and agreed. I thought it is okay to change within the zone but I guess that is only applicable when make fresh avios award booking and not flight cancellation thereafter. Bits and pieces that are good to know. Many thanks.

[JDB]

Vit wrote:

Hi @JDB, in that case I would put my hand up and agreed. I thought it is okay to change within the zone but I guess that is only applicable when make fresh avios award booking and not flight cancellation thereafter. Bits and pieces that are good to know. Many thanks.

The issue is that at present you have a very much ‘non standard’ booking (for want of a better expression) that you only have as a result of exercising your EC261 rights following cancellations. You are using an expired companion voucher on QR, neither of which is usually possible! Thus, if you voluntarily change/cancel you can’t use the expired voucher, need Avios availability and, if you want to use another voucher, can’t fly QR.

The voucher would probably have been effectively extended to Sep 2023 when it was inside the FTV but that seems to change once you apply it to a new booking. I think we have read of some vouchers coming back with Sep 2023 expiry rather than just expired but there can be no certainty.

[Vit]

Thanks @JDB. Yes, that seems to be the exact case here. It get a bit too messy and I am not keen to get it messier involving the EC261. To be fair, one section of my return leg get cancelled (more like changing the flight time to 1 hour later but QR flight number changed). So BA was fair enough to change the inbound for us to a later date as requested. I could have tried asking changing for the inbound departure point that time just to see if it is possible. 🙂