Should I cancel and re-book?

[LindyLoo]

I have booked return flights Glasgow to London in April next year and although I used my Avios for the club europe seats, I was still charged £107.78 as well as the 60,000 Avios points. Will I get the full Avios points back as well as the £107.78 paid? I was thinking of just paying the full price of £350 and keeping my 60,000 Avios.

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

Assuming thee are full avios (and not part pay with avios) bookings You’ll get all the avios back but will charged £35 per person cancellation fee

I’m assuming from the number of avios involved that there is more than 1 passenger so it will cost you at least £70.

Something to factor into your decision whether to cancel and rebook for cash.

[John]

If you’re spending 60000 avios on a CE domestic return for 2 people, the additional charges to be paid should have been £2.

An odd amount of £107.78 probably means your BA account has not earned any avios for the past 3 years, so you didn’t get the RFS prices. Without RFS the actual charges would be £179.78 (at the time of booking – they have since increased for flights in 2023) when paying the “normal” avios price for this route of 34000, meaning that you have spent an additional 26000 avios to save £72.

Unfortunately as mentioned you will lose £70 of the money already paid as cancellation fees, should you wish to rebook at the current asking prices.

[BJ]

Just reading this story sounds painful to me 🙁 In short, yes, I would cancel and rebook Economy for cash if fares are reasonable as this would free up those 60k avios for much better plans at a cost of £70 tops. There is IMO nothing worth getting excited about on a CE flight from GLA to LHR, economy is fine.

Following on from advice in previous my suggestion is:

A. Book the flight for cash in economy if fares are reasonable.
B. Unless you have other plans for the 60k avios now, hold off cancellation of the existing reward booking until up to 24h before departure. There is a chance BA might cancel the flight which would then allow you to ask for a full refund without paying the £70 cancellation fees.

[meta]

@BJ There is a risk that BA cancels either ticket if you hold two tickets in your name for the same flight. The system will very likely flag this up and usually cancel the ticket that was booked last.

[BJ]

@meta, what if OP were to book the departure before or after, or booked LCY instead of LHR: would they pick that up too? It’s a long shot anyway as a schedule change is much more likely than a cancellation although I did have an EDI cancellation this year so it can happen.

[meta]

Different flights should be ok, same flights no.

[Aquarius12]

When did you book? You have a 24 hour window to cancel without charge

[Londonsteve]

Ouch. Without wishing to offend the OP who may be inexperienced in the world of Avios, I think this is the worst value redemption I’ve ever read about. Paying the Avios + £1 rate in Business without even the benefit of RFS for a 1 hour domestic flight when all manner of other transport options are available for a vastly lower price is painful to read. I’d chauffeur drive the OP between London and Glasgow in exchange for 60,000 Avios!

[NorthernLass]

I would definitely cancel and rack the £70 up to experience. 60k avios could get you GLA-LHR-NYC in Club World (or other destination in the same band) on a peak date. It would be interesting to know if this was for two or more people and what the price breakdown actually was.

[cabal of rabid baboons]

I remember the days when you could get a train from Glasgow to London but maybe I’m showing my age?

[BA Flyer IHG Stayer]

cabal of rabid baboons wrote:

I remember the days when you could get a train from Glasgow to London but maybe I’m showing my age?

You still can but they use that new fangled electrickitty these days!

[ClubSmed]

You can also get the sleeper train rom Glasgow to London, but you could fly return to London in Business twice for that price…

[LindyLoo]

Thank you everyone for your advice, I don’t get to travel much and I know that 60,000 Avios is a lot (FYI Northern Lass, there is 2 of us) but I had it to spare (I had just booked Washington DC for September next year Club World with my 241 Amex voucher so that cost me 100,000 Avios plus the tax and I had plenty left over), Love the offer ‘londonsteve’ of driving me down to London for 60,000 that’s hilarious. Sleeper is a ‘no go’ did it once when we were flying to New York, got off the train at London and hubby and I near hit the deck on the train platform! We suffered seasickness for a month! Went to the top of the rock and both me and hubby had to hold on because we both felt the effect from the sleeper 2 days previously! Man was that building swaying like nothing on earth, no one else was hanging on like us so it must have been the effect of the sleeper! It was bazaar, I think people thought we were drunk, we were staggering all over the place without a drop of alcohol in us! I raised a complaint with BA over the £107.78, they are looking to it, they ‘gifted’ us 5,000 Avios meantime so I’m holding out for a refund.I know Club Europe is a waste of Avios but I’m flying with the rest of my family, it means I don’t need to sit with my kids and grand child.. Yes I am not a maternally instincted parent or grand parent, I like the peace and quiet of the Club lounge at Glasgow and London! LOL!

[LindyLoo]

John wrote:

If you’re spending 60000 avios on a CE domestic return for 2 people, the additional charges to be paid should have been £2.

That’s what I complained about, it should have been £2, I had plenty of Avios.

An odd amount of £107.78 probably means your BA account has not earned any avios for the past 3 years, so you didn’t get the RFS prices. Without RFS the actual charges would be £179.78 (at the time of booking – they have since increased for flights in 2023) when paying the “normal” avios price for this route of 34000, meaning that you have spent an additional 26000 avios to save £72.

It is an odd amount of money, I agree! I’ve earned loads of Avios over the past 3 years

Unfortunately as mentioned you will lose £70 of the money already paid as cancellation fees, should you wish to rebook at the current asking prices.

[NorthernLass]

@LindyLoo – love it! I recently achieved BA Silver and have booked next year’s Easter holiday in PE on the basis that I can take my husband in the lounge and our 17 year old will happily sit outside as long as there’s wifi 🤣

[Londonsteve]

@LindyLoo you may well be able to salvage back some VFM by cancelling and rebooking with a lesser amount of Avios and more cash if you really did want to fly in Club, although the £70 cancellation fee may wipe out a lot of the benefit. Even though you get lounge access in GLA and LHR, I’d still suggest it’s a waste of Avios and you’d do just as well buying a cash fare to fly in Economy (or a minimum Avios, maximum cash reward seat which is consistently the best value option when it comes to spending Avios, as long as there is reward seat availability). Better to preserve Avios and have another transatlantic experience, especially if you’ll have the benefit of another 241 voucher in the near future.