Lloyds Avios voucher returned after BA cancellation?

[marks7389]

Hi All,

I have a flight booking to Singapore in February, booked with Lloyds upgrade voucher, that has been cancelled. I contacted avios.com this morning via chat to get it refunded and have been told that the voucher will not be issued and that all I can do is amend the date (which doesn’t work for me).

It’s the second time it has happened – the voucher was originally used for a booking in February 2021, but on that occasion the voucher was reissued for 3 months and I was able to rebook.

They’ve effectively also told me that a complaint is pointless as their customer service team will tell me the same, so I’m probably looking at a CEO / Exec Team level complaint. Before I do that is anyone else in the same position, and had any success in getting either an upgrade voucher credited or some recompense in Avios?

For what it’s worth they haven’t notified me of the cancellation even though I know the flight has been cancelled since at least the end of November.

Thanks all.

• This topic was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[marks7389]

Thanks to NorthernLass for your responses, which now seem to have disappeared…

I had a look at the UK261 wording. It does provide for refunds as well as rerouting/future rebooking, specifically under article 8:

“reimbursement within seven days of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought”

To me that says it should include the upgrade voucher as that was part of the “price”. So I’m going to challenge it on that basis.

[JDB]

marks7389 wrote:

Thanks to NorthernLass for your responses, which now seem to have disappeared…

I had a look at the UK261 wording. It does provide for refunds as well as rerouting/future rebooking, specifically under article 8:

“reimbursement within seven days of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought”

To me that says it should include the upgrade voucher as that was part of the “price”. So I’m going to challenge it on that basis.

I think the issue is that while the upgrade voucher did form part of the “price” it is effectively no longer valid currency. The validity of the vouchers was extended by concession/as a matter of goodwill, not as a matter of contract, so one should be wary of treating them as everlasting, even following cancellation by BA. I doubt they have the facility to reissue the vouchers at this stage, even if they wanted to and they are unlikely to give you an Avios or cash ‘refund’. Many people are losing these vouchers and BA 241s etc because they can’t use them, so the rebooking offer may be the most generous option. Once you ask for the refund, I fear the voucher is lost, but others may have better experience.

• This reply was modified 55 years, 4 months ago by .

[meta]

I think you’ll need to take BA to court (MCOL) to try and get some form of refund for the voucher. Though it’s not as straightforward and you need to think about how you put the monetary value to the voucher. It could be a difference in Avios quantified by whatever BA sells them for. BA may well issue you a refund for surcharges and Avios and then you’re left with fighting for the value of the voucher.

UK and EU courts have concluded in several instances that under EU/UK261 that 241/upgrade vouchers have value though it is not the case law as MCOL rulings are not binding.

EU/UK261 also allows you to rebook for any date in the future on BA or even other airline.

Unless you are prepared to go through MCOL process, I’d go for a rebooking again.

[meta]

Yes, refund means voucher is lost as @JDB says. This is in T&C of the use of Lloyds voucher and BA might want to argue that line because UK261 reverts to the passenger to chose one of the options – rebooking, re-route or refund. If you chose a refund then BA can say, well T&C mean voucher is not refunded.

However, they cancelled so it’s not clear how this would be viewed by the judge. It could go either way at MCOL.

[NorthernLass]

What happened to my reply?! It didn’t breach any of the rules!

[memesweeper]

I’ve had immense trouble getting BA to rebook under Eu261 a Lloyds voucher Avios booking. Avios.com can’t/won’t do it (can only refund, which expires the voucher) and BA can’t/won’t as it’s a a ‘travel agent’ booking (albeit a travel agent that’s owned and run by BA/IAG).

However, I have managed it, by numerous HUACA and threats of legal action. There are senior people at Avios who can talk to the right people in BA to make this happen. It was really, really hard work.

[NorthernLass]

@memesweeper, you’ve been spouted rubbish by avios.com. They moved my NCE flights in August to PRG in April without any quibble and they weren’t even cancelled, there was just a problem for us with the French entry rules. They had to cancel and rebook but there was no suggestion that it wasn’t possible.