OnBusiness flight cancellation

[VinZ]

Does anybody know if points and money will be refunded like a normal avios booking if I cancel my OB flight online through the FTV procedure?
If that’s the case then it’s easier and quicker than calling the OB customer service.

[Hogdiesel]

Depends rather on what you mean by normal. It should indeed happen automatically, but like many things to do with BA, prompting may well be required. I had two different bookings that BA cancelled earlier this year – the cash element on both was refunded to my card within a couple of weeks but then the points were never credited back. I eventually emailed them after three months and they responded fairly quickly, apologising and crediting the points. Email address I used was actually the executiveclubuk@email.ba.com.

[memesweeper]

Even before the ‘complex’ Avios bookings were being refunded rather than vouchered the OB ones I had made and cancelled just got immediately refunded.

[VinZ]

Ok great. So OB bookings get refunded too. Will give it a go. Thank you both

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[VinZ]

Argh they’ve given me a FTV!

[bdd005]

@memsweeper (or anyone), when you cancel an OB booking, are you subject to the £35 cancellation fee per person (or 100% of cash paid if cash paid is lower than £35) or is all cash refunded? T&C are not clear using wording that a service fee “may” apply. Basically is it treated like a typical avios booking or is there different treatment?

For avoidance of doubt, please assume “normal rules” and not FTV eligibility or BA enticing cancellations due to LHR passenger volumes.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[bdd005]

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[memesweeper]

@VinZ – oh dear – I’m assuming that’s not what you wanted… I’d quiet like to soak up my soon-to-expire OBs into a FTV but have no option to do so now, and following previous experiences assumed it wasn’t possible. Missed the boat on that!

@bdd005 – sorry, never ‘normally’ cancelled so don’t know, my cancellations were all in peak Covid madness

[Lady London]

@memesweeper you know that provided you keep same route and direction you can make changes to date f.o.c. on ob tickets within the 1 year validity? even when the points you used have expired.

So if the route you would use is potemtially subject to cancellations close in, you could take a punt, get a chance to perhaps ftv it if cancelled, or move the date keeping the route if not.

[memesweeper]

Lady London wrote:

@memesweeper you know that provided you keep same route and direction you can make changes to date f.o.c. on ob tickets within the 1 year validity? even when the points you used have expired.

… and every day here is school day. I did not know that!

[memesweeper]

… and the sun rises on another bright day in London, and I go to make my OB booking, and the sun has risen on another BA IT failure. Try to log in and the redirect to https://onbusiness.britishairways.com/group/ba/home fails: not only a ‘forbidden’ error, but nicely revealing the content management system running OB. 🙄 IT security peeps, look away now…

[memesweeper]

bdd005 wrote:

@memsweeper (or anyone), when you cancel an OB booking, are you subject to the £35 cancellation fee per person (or 100% of cash paid if cash paid is lower than £35) or is all cash refunded? T&C are not clear using wording that a service fee “may” apply. Basically is it treated like a typical avios booking or is there different treatment?

For avoidance of doubt, please assume “normal rules” and not FTV eligibility or BA enticing cancellations due to LHR passenger volumes.

The T&Cs say You may incur a service fee to cancel your Reward Flight booking or Reward Flight Upgrade booking or an additional fee to re-credit Your Points … no mention of what the fee is. Could be nothing, the £15 phone fee, or the £35 Avios fee, or some other fee. It’s not simply the taxes/fees/charges.

I was reading the rules as I’d quite like to avail myself of a possible (free) same-day change, but T&Cs aren’t clear if this is permitted — apparently the rules are per the commercial class fare equivalent, but no mention of what that is. I’m going to take a punt have a weekend in Naples, if I loose most of my Sunday, because the return is sold out or the ticket isn’t changeable, ce la vie.

[memesweeper]

Just called up to make my own booking.

I asked about cancellation fees for @bdd005 and the answer provided was “nothing” provided it’s more than 24 hours ahead of the flight. I guess that could change, given what the T&Cs say, but right now it’s zero pounds to cancel for a refund.

Curiously, two flights I wanted, which showed Avios availability in Economy, had no OB points availability in Economy. The one I eventually booked had OB seats available but no Avios. When I asked the agent why, as this seemed unusual to me, he mentioned the possibility of some seats remaining from the “guaranteed” availability pot for Avios, but none for OB. Makes sense, but that means the golden rule of OB availability being better than Avios isn’t always true.

[Lady London]

On OB changes and cancellations I always used to leave a clear full day between my cancellation and the flight. Just in case their interpretation of time ahead of flight required changed. So for a flight on Friday I would always cancel by 2359 Wednesday. For OB still free to move or canx as far as I know

[VinZ]

Btw if you forget to cancel outside the 24 hours move the flight to a later date (check availability beforehand on the website) then call the following day and cancel the rebooked flight. They’ll do it no problem.

[bdd005]

@memesweeper

Thanks very much for making that enquiry – its is great to know! Also the info from

@lady london

Thanks all.

[bdd005]

Thanks @memsweeper @lady london