Priority Pass and British Airways Flight Pass join the coronavirus ‘no refunds, no extensions’ list

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We have given a lot of coverage on Head for Points recently to airlines and hotel companies who are doing their best to avoid paying refunds.

We aren’t seeing much love from service providers either.

A steady trickle of complaints about airport lounge club Priority Pass and coronavirus refunds has been landing in my inbox.

One reader, who has been a very happy Priority Pass customer, had – mistakenly, he admits – set up his Priority Pass account to auto renew. His new subscription was taken on schedule, with no attempt to either reduce the fee or extend his membership period for the fact that he won’t be able to use his card for a number of months.

After numerous discussions with the company yielded no deal, he ended up cancelling his card. He received a refund of the fee that had just been taken, given that the new membership year had not yet kicked in.

In the face of this – and similar feedback from others – I strongly suggest turning off auto-renew in your Priority Pass account. Obviously this only applies if you pay directly for a Priority Pass and not get it free from American Express Platinum.

Letting your membership lapse may be the best way of getting the company to offer you an equitable deal going forward. If you are currently part-way through your subscription, there seems little hope at the moment of getting a free membership extension.

EDIT: A couple of days after we published this article, Priority Pass announced a three month extension for all cardholders.

OptionTown isn’t being very helpful either

We have covered the British Airways Flight Pass on a few occasions.

A British Airways Flight Pass can be an excellent deal. It is effectively a carnet, allowing you to prepay for a number of short-haul flights on either a particular route or to a particular country. Once you have bought your Flight Pass, you are guaranteed a seat when you want one as long as tickets are still being sold for cash.

Flight Pass is run by a company called OptionTown on behalf of British Airways.

According to reader feedback, OptionTown is not offering refunds on unused Flight Pass tickets. This is – to be fair – in their terms and conditions, but clearly it is against the spirit of the scheme when British Airways is not flying to the destination covered by the pass.

If you have any personal feedback from talking to Priority Pass or OptionTown in recent days, please let me know.

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.

Charlieface says:

7 Apr7 April 09:13

I think the FOS newsletter case 86/3 is relevant in the case of Option Town, case was upheld in where a ferry company went bust and they’d bought a carnet, although the argument there was whether to divide the cost between the tickets and therefore less than £100:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/2921/86.pdf
- Rob says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 10:14
  
  Option Town tickets are also less than £100 each in the vast majority of cases though ….
  - Genghis says:
    
    7 Apr7 April 10:38
    
    But with OptionTown you’re not buying 10 x one way tickets say, you’re buying an entitlement to receive 10 one way tickets, i.e. should be over £100.
    - Lady London says:
      
      7 Apr7 April 14:40
      
      Even a BA booking for 4 people travelling together is covered by s.75 provided the total for the 4 is over £100. On MSE relatively recently.
    - Andrew says:
      
      7 Apr7 April 14:42
      
      Not quite.
      
      I buy 18 domestic singles for approximately £1200. However, the tickets cannot be redeemed as single, but only as a pair of singles to make a return journey.
      
      It’s a bit like buying a 9 pack of KitKats and claiming it’s 18 single biscuits.
Oz says:

7 Apr7 April 09:33

I currently have Amex Plat and am relying on it to pay a travel insurance claim. If I cancel the card will it invalidate my claim?
- Rob says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 10:13
  
  Clearly yes if you haven’t submitted the claim. If you have submitted then you need to get the small print out and see if you need to be a cardholder on the day you claim or the day they agree to pay (or indeed the day they actually pay).
  - Charlieface says:
    
    7 Apr7 April 19:19
    
    Technically if the liability arose before you cancel do you actually need to submit it before cancelling. I don’t think so, but obvs would be stupid not to.
Andy says:

7 Apr7 April 09:35

Over the last 2 weeks i did have 2 BA flights booked, one reward and one full price, and one emirates/flydubai reward/cash hybrid (for want of a better word). All flights were cancelled, BA rewards points were refunded within 24 hours and the cash followed about 3 weeks later. BA full price was refunded in full within 48 hours. Emirates/Flydubai have gone through a whole range of full refund, partial refund and have now settled on a voucher system, now discussion. This was announced 2 weeks ago, to date the voucher has appeared for roughly one third of the cash i paid and no refund or reward miles on the horizon. I have lived in the middle east on and off since 99 and am leaving for good in June (hopefully) and this behaviour by Emirates has typified their shocking decline in customer service and care from this end. Every time i try to contact them either by phone, FB message or email, it takes days (min 5) for anyone to get back to me, the phone option is the worst by far, im still waiting, 19 days and counting. Emirates has also already started flying again, I do not know if that has been reported in the UK, but their comments suggest that the passengers can continue to socially distance on the flights while they are being repatriated ( I assume that is what they are for, but no formal details have been given yet)
nick says:

7 Apr7 April 10:23

If i close my Plat and clear out my MR balance – what happens when my refunds post – with regards to the MR ?

I would go into a negative balance? What happens then?
- Genghis says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 10:32
  
  Nothing. I suggest clearing out your points prior to cancellation.
Scallder says:

7 Apr7 April 15:21

Just had an email from IHG with the following in it about credit card nights:

“Anniversary night certificates earned through IHG Rewards Club credit cards (USA & UK):

We are extending the expiration date of anniversary certificates that are set to expire in 2020. Certificates expiring from 1 March 2020 can now be used through 31 December 2020.

Certificates issued in 2020 will have an 18-month redemption time period.

We will be reaching out to cardmembers directly with more information.”

I used one earned June 2018 and expired June 2019 for a stay in Vienna at the start of May this year. Have just called them and they have essentially said, tough luck. The policy doesn’t allow them to do anything.

So whilst it’s a positive step them extending vouchers earned from 1st March 2019 (or whatever date would have given an expiry of 1st March 2020), this does nothing for anyone with vouchers attached to existing bookings earned in good faith from 1st March 2018 to 31st December 2018.

Even asked for the 35k points that the voucher had saved me (would have been worth 55k if they’d given me the voucher back and I could attach it to an existing points booking in November, which is within 6 months of the existing date in May, so is inline with the extensions they’re giving vouchers earned this year).

Was finally (after a long hold) told to email the Rewards Club to see whether they could sort anything out, but I’m not too hopeful right now which is extremely frustrating…
- Scallder says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 15:48
  
  Sorry have moved to the chat thread
- Kevin says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 22:25
  
  I got my free night voucher last month but didn’t receive email as you got while the voucher shown last only 12 months.
Tom says:

7 Apr7 April 20:05

I’d go further and assert that auto-renew and auito-pay are always bad ideas.

It’s always better to dispute a debt if you haven’t already paid it
- Lady London says:
  
  7 Apr7 April 22:28
  
  Priority Pass is always set to auto renew as default when you buy it. So you have to call them to stop it autorenewing or by default it will.
M Jones says:

8 Apr8 April 19:33

The way round any auto-renew obstruction tactic, especially used by Insurance or Broadcast Providers, who all demand a call to cancel your recurring payment, is to lodge a formal complaint in writing. In the UK these complaints are counted and likely later considered by Regulators or an Ombudsman. Most of these Firms will have an online complaint facility, or a letter to their HQ Registered address. If all else fails most have a GDPR email address and certainly a “Media Center” email address. None of these Firms want negative PR as to how they deliberately obstruct concellations at “this difficult time”. It’s a game, we just have to play their game better than them! Takes some searching but can be done.