British Airways will refund ALL flights to 31st May for a voucher – but should you say no?

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Finally ….. British Airways has seen the light and is now allowing you to cancel ALL flights up to 31st May, in return for a travel voucher.

However …. I am not convinced you should accept.

Let me explain.

Here is the British Airways ‘Book With Confidence’ website.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

These are the new rules:

If you are travelling between 14th March and 31st May, you can refund your flight for a British Airways e-voucher irrespective of when you booked. No refunds are on offer for flights beyond 31st May.

If you are travelling between 1st June and 31st December 2020, you can refund your flight for a British Airways e-voucher if you booked between 3rd March and 31st May

The voucher is valid for 12 months from the date of your original flight

The voucher can be used on any route, not necessarily the one you originally booked

This applies to both British Airways marketed flights and BA Holidays bookings, although Comair and SUN-AIR are exempt

You cannot claim if you have already started your journey

Flight cancellations can be made until the close of check-in, whilst BA Holidays bookings must be cancelled within 48 hours of departure

Anyone who has already cancelled their booking and lost money cannot retrospectively request a voucher

You can also change your flight dates without any change fees, although you have to pay the fare difference.

The small print on how the voucher works is on the ‘Book With Confidence’ website.

But … but … but … perhaps you should wait?

I know this sounds contrarian. Many of you have been on tenterhooks waiting for a decision like this to allow you to cancel your trip.

And yet ….

The EU has agreed the terms of a deal to allow airlines to cancel flights without losing their slots.

Next week, British Airways is likely cut anything from 25% to 100% of its scheduled flights – probably around 50% given what Lufthansa is doing. If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to a full refund IN CASH. No messing around with e-vouchers.

By taking the refund now, you are also giving up your right to potential EC261 compensation if you were due to travel within 14 days of the cancellation being made.

Unless you are travelling in the next 4-5 days, you might want to think about waiting in case you end up missing out on a full cash refund.

Of course, there is also a risk that British Airways withdraws this offer and you can no longer refund your ticket at all.

It’s up to you.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Michael Gallen says:

20 Mar20 March 20:14

I had flight booked for 12/04 from Billund via LHR to Edinburgh. Just had confirmation that Billund/LHR leg cancelled but not LHR/EDI. Option to cancel & refund does not work. Does anyone have suggestions how I should proceed?
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Mar20 March 20:27
  
  Call them. While you are on the phone waiting take a quick look at comments on the top few articles on here. The most recent comments on all the articles will give you all the info you need.
  
  But call them as they are not updating their systems fully on cancellations promptly so probably as your booking cancellation – which it is – sounds only half done by them you’d have to call anyway to get your money back and dodge them trying to give you a voucher instead
- Mac says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 10:39
  
  I had the same yesterday: LHR-OSL leg cancelled over Easter weekend. Manage My Booking gave the option to rebook or cancel, but cancel option kept going to the page to apply for a voucher rather than a refund to my original payment card.
  
  I tried the JavaScript trick from the Avios article a few days ago and it worked, even using Safari browser on a Mac, got the email confirming a cash refund and didn’t have to call anyone.
  
  On the rebook or cancel page in MMB, click Safari>Preferences>Security and deselect the enable JavaScript box. Click cancel booking, then Continue on the next page. The page showing the cash refund amounts will now load. IMPORTANT: go back to settings and re-enable JavaScript at this stage. Then confirm the cancellation and wait a few seconds for the confirmation.
  - Yoki says:
    
    22 Mar22 March 13:20
    
    I am very grateful to the gentleman who advised to switch JavaScript on and off at certain stages to by-pass the system that forces to accept the vouchers and to get into the refunds route. Saying that, BA might have reacted to this loophole already because i tried Safari and Explorer browsers of many versions, and only managed to succeed with the recent Chrome version. I printed out the request for refund confirmation, other legs of my flight to Singapore, Sydney and back were cancelled on My Bookings, and I received an email confirmation that the refund is in the process already. Hope they will not send a voucher to my address.
    I had to try because of many comments about the rude behaviour and refusals to refund money when people managed to get through to the customer service for a refund.
    I wish good luck to everyone. The BA is fighting for survival, but in this rude way it will lose the loyalty of millions of customers and is risking its own future.
- Dee says:
  
  22 Mar22 March 11:48
  
  Hi
  
  This has also happened to me. Booked LHR to Edinburgh 5/4 – Not Cancelled
  
  EDI to LHR 8/4. – Cancelled
  
  I want to cancel the whole trip as this was booked as a BA Holiday
Neal says:

20 Mar20 March 23:50

Iberia flight on 22nd March cancelled – Called and the agent blatantly refused to refund. This is in breach of EC261!
Very rude agent refused to discuss this matter further and hung up.
Any suggestions?
Will never fly with them again when things are back to normal.
- Lady London says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 00:02
  
  Try a couple of times more and keep proof if you can of date time who you spoke to.
  
  Then raise chargeback or s75 claim on your credit card.
  - Neal says:
    
    21 Mar21 March 00:07
    
    Thanks – this is completely unacceptable behaviour from them. I can understand if the flight is still operating, but refuse issuing refunds for a cancellation is just low.
    - Lady London says:
      
      21 Mar21 March 02:56
      
      I will take a bet that at the two major IAG airlines in staff meetings approx 2-3 days ago, staff may have been told retaining cash by issuing vouchers instead was important to.enable their salaries to continue to be paid.
Malcolm bel says:

21 Mar21 March 11:51

Could you suggest to ba that they offer customers supporting them at this time by taking a voucher rather than a refund a voucher worth a bonus amount more than cash eg +15%? This would be good for supporting ba through their cash crunch and good for customers who will want to live again when this is all over….
- Rob says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 13:04
  
  That would make sense I agree.
  - Roberto says:
    
    21 Mar21 March 16:36
    
    Cruise lines are offering this.. Up the 150% in cruise credit against a future cruise.
- Lady London says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 18:51
  
  Good idea. As and when it becomes possible though you can be sure 15-20% will be the thin end of how much BA will hike prices by that people might need to use their vouchers on.
  
  Vouchers may also be valid, say, only 1 year or have other restrictions
Dave says:

21 Mar21 March 13:46

This email sent by Amy James, Head of Inflight Customer Experience (Acting) at BA on 9 March, might help people get EU26 compensation for cancelled italian flights. It shows that BA could have chosen to carry on but deemed it impractiacl for commercial reasons as crew might have had to self isolate – however, as we know, Ryanair and EasyJet continued to operate without the need for self isolation demonstrating that no government advice prevented them flying,making BA’s choice to cease flights with no notice or concern a purely commercial decision.In addition, the adcie on the trade support website was that cursoemers should not be routed onto other carriers – a flagrant defiance of the law and again purely for commerical reasons.

“Since I wrote to you earlier this evening there have been some further changes in the operation and particularly in relation to Italy so I want to give you a quick update. Tonight the Italian Government have expanded the quarantine area to include the whole country and the FCO have advised against all but essential travel, as a result it is no longer practical to operate to Italy.
We have also had clarity from the DFT as to how we should interpret FCO guidance for crew. Today they confirmed the following to us:
“If crew have disembarked the aircraft in a Category 1 area of Italy then the current advice is yes they need to self-isolate on return to UK even if no symptoms. If they have not disembarked from a Category 1 area or have come from the remaining part of Italy currently they do NOT have to self-isolate as long as they remain symptom free.”
I am aware that there was concern and this hopefully provides clarity for those who have undertaken day trips to Italy recently. Based on the above guidance, unless the area is classified as Category 1 when you disembark then you do not need to self-isolate if you are not symptomatic.”
Andy says:

21 Mar21 March 14:36

My flight has been cancelled and I’ve tried the javascript trick but it then asks for my credit card number. The thing is my card number was changed (Amex didn’t send me a new card when the old one expired and when I phoned up they changed the number). I can’t find any record of the old credit card number (aside from the last 5 digits) and Amex won’t tell me….

Is there any other option aside from phoning up? Can I write in instead perhaps?
- Neal says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 15:54
  
  I think if you download your old credit card statements (before you get the new card) it should show the card number on it? Top right corner.
  - Andy says:
    
    21 Mar21 March 19:46
    
    Thanks, I tried that but it only shows the last 5 digits of the credit card number…
roger says:

21 Mar21 March 14:36

What happens if a 241 voucher is used with one leg flown and return leg yet to be flown.
If BA cancels the return leg is my voucher extended?

This is a shorthaul connection but I used another booking to come back to UK.
yorkieflyer says:

21 Mar21 March 15:01

BA website now cheekily saying Do not use Manage your booking “IMPORTANT: Please do not amend your booking in Manage My Booking yourself – we will do this on your behalf.” with a link on the home page to a Voucher request. Shocking behaviour.
WILLIAM T MEECH says:

21 Mar21 March 17:20

ON FEB 28TH I BOOKED A FLIGHT TO MONTREAL WITH BRITISH AIRWAYS TO DEPART ON JUNE 3RD 2020
THE DATES ARE OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF REFUNDS ETC ETC ON BA WEBSITE AND I CANNOT SEEM
TO FIND ANY INFO TO COVER THIS AND WHAT REFUNDS I CAN GET IF I CANCELL
- Lady London says:
  
  21 Mar21 March 18:55
  
  why is this all in capital letters? Did it come from a speech to text machine?