Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios flight bookings?

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Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios BA flight bookings?

One topic has dominated my inbox and the HFP comments over the last couple of days – the withdrawal by British Airways of the ability to refund an Avios flight online for cash.

EDIT: We have a found a way to get around BA’s block and to allow a cash cancellation. This article shows how.

If you have a British Airways booking made for cash then you can, under the BA ‘Book with Confidence’ guarantee, refund it in return for a British Airways voucher. This voucher is valid for 12 months from the date of the flight which you had to cancel.

This policy is for people who are holding non-refundable flight tickets. It has NOTHING to do with Avios bookings.

Any Avios bookings you hold were made under the standard British Airways rules. These allow you to cancel your flight up to 24 hours before departure in return for a full CASH refund of your taxes and charges, plus the return of your Avios. A fee of £35 per person is payable.

These rules have not changed, and indeed it is debatable that they could be changed retrospectively.

What happens when you try to cancel an Avios booking online?

If you go onto ba.com and try to cancel an Avios redemption, this is the page you are taken to:

Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios bookings?

If your flight is one which is unlikely to operate, you may not see this. You may just see your cancellation options greyed out.

This is the form you fill in to receive credit for a CASH flight. It is NOT designed to be used by holders of Avios redemptions.

It appears that BA is deliberately trying to encourage holders of Avios tickets to accept a 12-month travel voucher, even though they are legally entitled to a cash refund.

If you ring British Airways, you WILL receive your cash refund.

Unfortunately, you are putting extra pressure on the call centre by doing this and stopping people who need immediate help from getting through. This is a situation of BA’s own making, however.

People are getting the same problem when a flight is cancelled

I have also heard a similar story from readers whose flights have been cancelled.

Instead of triggering an immediate cash refund, they are directed to the same page on ba.com where they are asked to request the ‘Future Travel Voucher’.

Again, you do NOT need to do this. If your flight is cancelled and BA only sends you a link to the voucher claim form, you need to get on the phone and request cash instead.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

There is one caveat to this …..

If you have an Avios booking and you cancel it, you lose any money you have paid for seat reservations. This could be substantial.

My understanding – although I am not 100% sure about this – is that if you take the travel voucher then it will include a credit for seat reservation fees, either as part of the voucher or as a marker to allow you free seat reservations in the future.

Don’t try to call BA if you can help it

It is frustrating that British Airways is making you call their overrun call centres in order to get the cash refunds to which you are legally entitled.

However …. there is no rush. Unless you are trying to cancel an Avios booking for immediate travel, there is nothing to lose by holding off. Once British Airways grounds the bulk of its fleet in the next week or so, there will hopefully be a period when it is easier to get through and fewer people are in need of urgent assistance.

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

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

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

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

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:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

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

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

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.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

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

Christian says:

19 Mar19 March 09:45

Can we drop the “don’t hassle the poor call centre” narrative.
Firstly, it’s what they’re there for.
Secondly, if BA didn’t try to shaft its customers there wouldn’t be any need to call them in the first place
Thirdly, If they are kept busy then there is less prospect of them losing their jobs.
- Anna says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 09:53
  
  I called You First yesterday to cancel one of my bookings and told the CSA about this. She was horrified and agreed that it would make more work for them and said she would take it up with management/IT, not that that guarantees anything!
- I says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 09:56
  
  BA is trying to save the company and thousands of jobs with these measures. For obvious reasons it’s trying to minimise the number of refunds. Let’s all just stay calm and do our bit to help them through this.
  - Journeying John says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 10:42
    
    Really not sure why. BA have systemically screwed their customer base in recent years and this situation is of their making, compounded by under resourced contact centres… With multi BILLION pound annual profits, £8.5 BILLION in cash reserves, they can afford to be reasonable but are prioritising the shareholders and board bonuses over their customer base again…
Paul says:

19 Mar19 March 09:52

On a similar tack – I received a cancelation email yesterday for the outward leg of a return ticket booked using On Business points. But I can’t re-book (or get the points refunded) online, only by calling them, so they’re making the rod for their own backs. And the return sector hasn’t been cancelled – but if I don’t fly the first leg then it will be wiped out of the system. To call them and get this sorted is going to be a couple of hours of my life that I won’t get back.
Mikeact says:

19 Mar19 March 09:54

Are these BA vouchers that folks are receiving, transferable ?
Simon Cross says:

19 Mar19 March 10:09

OMG – After THREE one hour calls I get through then in the middle of the cancellation the phone line goes dead.

So I call again and the new agent says that I cannot cancel the booking unless i telephone a PREMIUM RATE number becase the booking used a Lloyds voucher.

This is ABSOLUTELY SCANDELOUS
- Judge says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 10:57
  
  Scandalous, but hyperbolic.
  
  The number for Lloyds vouchers is not premium rate. Same as any 01 or 02 number.
  
  0344 493 3349 and hang on beyond the messages
Aliks says:

19 Mar19 March 10:14

My daughter is trying to get back to the UK from Bangkok having cut short her backpacking holiday.
So she has a flight booked with BA in a couple of weeks time. Can she move the booked flight forwards and get home on the next available flight?
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 11:16
  
  No. BA is not allowing this free judging by reports.
- Lyn says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 18:39
  
  I can’t find Rob’s link to the BA Trade page at the moment, but here are excerpts from it that I noted when I read it, in case it helps. Specifically Rebooking(1) —
  
  “Update 6 – 14 March 2020 at 17:25
  advice for British Airways – 125 ticketed customers operated BA or AA/IB/AY
  to/from all US airports
  tickets issued by 13 March 2020 for flights up to and including 11 April
  
  Rebooking Allowance
  – rebook onto altenative BA / JV travel between 12 April and 1 Aug 2020
  – waive change fees but ticket will be requoted
  
  Rebooking Allowance (1) for part-flown customers to return asap
  – rebook onto an alternative BA service as early as possible
  – rebook without charge into the same class as original or lowest available in the same cabin
  
  Origin/destination/stopover changes – yes
  
  Redemptions included – yes
  - Lyn says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 18:48
    
    My apologies, so sorry to waste your time.
    
    I’ve just realised that the this information was probably specifically related to flights back from the U.S., and perhaps only for cancelled flights. I only noted the information that was relevant to our situation.
    
    So Rob is probably right and different rules would probably apply to the route from Bangkok.
    - Lyn says:
      
      19 Mar19 March 18:54
      
      Having said that, it is probably worth asking BA nicely to consider your daughter’s situation. If she is young enough to be back-packing this may be a scary situation for her, and for you, so you might be lucky enough to find an empathetic call centre person. They’d be better off putting her on an earlier flight, now that seats are likely to be opening up, rather than having to wait and deal with duty of care obligations if they start cancelling flights.
DavidB says:

19 Mar19 March 10:15

This is rather annoying and counter productive for front line call centre staff. Though found that KLM also has a manual refund process when cancelling revenue flights. So far, the only airline that handles award booking cancellations (all due to the virus and border closings) fully online that I’ve had to use is AS. The AC Aeroplan function doesn’t work and one must call, and while you can cancel and get taxes/fees back online, AA requires a call to get points put back into one’s account!

Although I think I cancelled an Avios booking yesterday, the res still shows on the BA site and I have had no confirmation it is being processed (unlike KLM that at least sends a confirmation notice that it will be processed in a few days time). Will call later this morning, which will be overnight in the UK and lines should be quiet.
- Secret Squirrel says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 12:12
  
  If paid by Amex for flights, will Amex allow refund to bank account in these circumstances?
  - stevenhp1987 says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 13:26
    
    If your account goes into credit you can get the credit balance refunded.
    - Secret Squirrel says:
      
      19 Mar19 March 13:49
      
      Brilliant & thanks.
  - GeoffGeoff says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 13:34
    
    Amex will initially just credit your card account with any refund. However they don’t like persistent positive balances so if the credit remains unspent after a while (3 months I think?) they will refund to your linked bank account.
Boi says:

19 Mar19 March 11:12

OT:
We had YYZ-AMS-LBA (which we were not going to take). KLM have cancelled AMS-LBA and say cant re-route. I want a partial refund. KLM offering rebooking within 6 months. Thats of no use to us. Am I right we are entitled to partial refund?
Should I cancel the whole flight or just submit a claim?
The YYZ-AMS leg is today
- Anna says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 11:48
  
  is this because you came home early due to illness? What’s the situation with the YYZ-AMS, are you just a no-show? You would normally be entitled to a refund for the cancelled leg but it’s complicated by the fact that you’re not taking any of it.
  - Boi says:
    
    19 Mar19 March 12:09
    
    Yes, came home early. But even if I didnt I wouldnt have taken the YYZ-AMS without a way to get home from there. So wanted to know if I should cancel that leg too?
- Mikeact says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 12:30
  
  This is primarily BA and Virgin. Go on to Flying Blue on FlyerTalk.
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Mar20 March 23:42
  
  Go for reroute. Eu261 gives YOU the right to choose reroute or refund. If they refuse reroute the reroute yourself and claim. Best to tell them to get tickets for you on any other routing direct or indirect if no direct. They are responsible for all rerouting costs and meals that fall on route, transport to train if that is needed etc . They cannot refuse to ticket
  ,you on another airline btw since they can’t get you home quickly
  
  Phone them and ask them under eu261 duty of care rules to provide replacement tickets. Say, on ba via lhr. I’d consider train routing from ams or LHR or Gla Edi if no flights Make sure if you can its on a European airline as better if that one mucksyou round too.
  Usually id say find the flight yourself first and ask for specific options you find but as it’s so close I’d call first ideally whilst online looking. Paris has few eurostars running daily. They owe hotels if it takes longer.
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Mar20 March 23:45
  
  Read it again you can get the whole thing rerouted even if just one leg cancelled provided you didn’t miss the earlier flight timjng yet you can reject and refund whole thing not just last leg if it’s not going to get you to your destination ad booked.
  - Lady London says:
    
    20 Mar20 March 23:49
    
    Go for a refund of the whole thing you, through to ba you are entitled as it doesnotget youto uourbooked destination you don’t have to take a voucher and shouldnt. Think they technically have to pay you within 7 days as well
    - Lady London says:
      
      20 Mar20 March 23:50
      
      Refund all YYZ through to LBA is your entitlement. d*** text editor
Chrisasaurus says:

19 Mar19 March 12:11

No bits!

Anyone able to help me clarify the cancellation policy for Marriott? It starts you can cancel up to 24hrs before arrival, is that 24hrs before arrival.time (checkin) or the day of arrival?

So, for a stay booked for Friday do I have til 3pm or is it too late?
- Rob says:
  
  19 Mar19 March 12:49
  
  I assume 24 hours before check-in but I wouldn’t necessarily want to risk it. Will also be check-in local time.
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Mar20 March 23:55
  
  Be careful, Accor also says 24hrs but in small print it’s by midnight of day preceding the day preceding arrival so as good as 2 days, don’t think Marriott is the same but check TS and cs