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British Airways will now offer refunds via a voucher

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Last week, British Airways launched its ‘Book with Confidence’ guarantee in an attempt to drive bookings.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough.  I even gave it a hard time during my BBC World TV interview last week.

British Airways has now made it better AND extended it to cover bookings made to the end of March.

For clarity though …. anyone who booked before 3rd March is still stuffed.  On the majority of routes, they must travel if their flight is still operating or lose their money.

Full details of ‘Book with Confidence’ are on this page of ba.com.

British Airways Book With Confidence Guarantee

This is how ‘Book with Confidence’ now works:

For NEW bookings, and ONLY new bookings, made from Tuesday 3rd March to Tuesday 31st March for travel up to 31st December 2020, you will be able to:

change your flight to any future date without paying any change fees, or

request a full refund in the form of a British Airways voucher, valid for 12 months from the date of the first flight in your booking

This applies to all cabins on all routes.   You can trigger the change or voucher right up until the close of check-in of your originally booked flight.

Here is some small print:

It is only valid for British Airways marketed services, excluding Comair and SUN-AIR

If the flight you book with the voucher is cheaper than the value of the flight you cancelled, the extra can be carried over to another booking – you do not lose it

Multiple changes are allowed to the same booking – you can change the date and then decide to cancel the whole thing if you wish

If you change your flight, you must pay the fare difference if you want to move your flight to a date which is more expensive than the price you paid

Note the any money you pay for extra baggage or seat selection will NOT be refunded as part of the travel voucher.  However, your additional baggage and seating will be carried over to whatever flight you eventually book with the voucher.

The voucher is not transferable

You can find out more on ba.com here.


How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

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British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

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You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

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American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

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We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

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You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

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Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Comments (71)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Simon says:

    ” Book with confidence” ” Fly in trepidation”

  • Michael C says:

    Does anyone know if the new Guarantee covers Hotline flights?

    Cheers!

  • Alex Sm says:

    My friend received a ‘goodwill’ refund for a flight to Spain booked before 3 March. I suspect BA privately does provide refunds to those who ask nicely but doesn’t want to make it a general policy yet

  • W M Reid says:

    What a shame BA only looking after those who have or are booking flights in March. Same old story ie stuff those who booked before Coronavirus ever heard of, eg I booked aug 19 to travel next week, At least eu & foreign airlines more sympathetic regarding when you booked.
    Future international travel planned for later this year will not be on BA.

    • Big Dave says:

      yep – really dissapointed with BA on the 3rd march thing – we booked last november for a conference
      in march which has been moved to later on in the year I would like to move the flights too but the costs are more than rebooking with another airline – this was work trip which i always book with BA since forever – not anymore!

  • Muzer says:

    Looks very likely now that BA will cancel my Israel flight. Once they do, will they let me redate to an arbitrary date of my choosing? Or will I have to cancel/rebook?

    • Rob says:

      One of the two daily is now cancelled. 50% chance your money is lost, 50% chance you’re getting a refund!

      • Murray Colpman says:

        I was out on one and back on the other so 100% chance 🙂

        Got a refund. Was hoping they would let me rebook to October but no luck there.

  • Aston100 says:

    Sorry don’t know if already been asked. If you cancel and take the voucher, can you use that voucher towards a BA flight to somewhere else instead?

  • Kenneth says:

    O/T BA cancelled a flight to Italy. I opted for a refund. However, I also book an Avis car through BA. They have not refunded that cost. I have tried many times to get through to them. Does anyone know of a way of cancelling, preferably without incurring a fee. Thanks.

  • RD says:

    We are meant to fly on the 17th, both have been told to self-isolate due to 6 people in my husband’s workplace being diagnosed. BA says because the route is still running, we can only have our taxes back. Totally bizarre policy and not in the interest of public health. In the absence of symptoms, one might be tempted to still travel, in face of losing over £1300! (we wont!).

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.