Two readers get upset because BA Holidays is too quick to pay refunds

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UPDATE: BA Holidays contacted us this morning to say that any customer who has had their holiday cancelled but does still want to travel WILL be rebooked on request and where available, if they do not wish to book a new trip on ba.com. They will not be asked to pay any additional money for the same holiday based on alternative flights, irrespective of the current ticket price.

British Airways has, to its credit, been one of the better airlines when it comes to paying out cash refunds during coronavirus.

OK, it removed the website refund functionality on ba.com and effectively gave you a choice – claim a Future Travel Voucher online, or hang around on the telephone to ask for a refund. Once you called, however, your refund was generally paid promptly.

In its recent investigation into airline refunds, the Civil Aviation Authority was relatively pleased by how British Airways had handled things.

Has BA Holidays been a little too keen to refund people?

In the past week, two readers have contacted me with concerns over BA Holidays. Put simply, they feel that BA Holidays has been a little too efficient in refunding them.

BA Holidays operates under different rules to the airline. As a package holiday business, it must – by law – pay out refunds in cash within 14 days of a holiday being cancelled. Failure to do so would lead to the loss of its authorisation to sell package holidays.

This is the email the readers received:

We are contacting you about your upcoming British Airways Holidays trip.

As you may already be aware, your booking has been affected by flight cancellation(s) due to a revised flying programme in response to coronavirus COVID-19. This means we are unable to provide your British Airways Holidays itinerary as originally booked.

We are currently receiving exceptionally high call volumes and are very sorry if you have been unable to reach us by phone to discuss your options.

To prevent the need for you to contact us, we will be cancelling your British Airways Holidays itinerary and processing a full refund. This will be returned to your original form of payment within the next 7 – 10 days.

If you have already been in touch to arrange alternative plans following the cancellation of your flight(s), these will remain in place and you can disregard this email. You can check the status of your trip in Manage My Booking on ba.com. Your booking will only be refunded if it contains a cancelled flight.

While your original flight is no longer operating on your chosen date or time, you can check ba.com for alternative packages based on our revised flying schedule. When you are ready to rethink your travel plans, we have introduced additional flexibility so you can book with total confidence. This includes the removal of change fees for new bookings and low deposits on package holidays that can be paid in full as late as three weeks before travel. View the full details of our Customer Promise.

Prepaid seating refunds for your original booking can be requested using this claim form, please mention that your booking was cancelled due to COVID-19 when submitting your form.

We are very sorry that your trip has been affected in this way but look forward to assisting with your future travel plans.

British Airways Holidays

Here’s the problem …..

Neither of these readers want a refund.

They want a holiday.

Long-haul premium flights are currently very expensive. With airlines carrying few passengers, fares have shot up on the grounds that those who are travelling must travel and will pay whatever is needed.

BA Holidays could have rerouted these readers on other airlines, but presumably decided that it was too expensive. Instead, it chose to wash its hands of both readers and simply send back their money.

You will see from the wording of the email that, for anyone who had been able to get through to them, BA Holidays was willing to rebook. Once the email was sent it was too late.

One reader told me that he had repriced his trip and it would cost him an additional £8,000 to rebook it.

It is perfectly possible that some of these holidays could have gone ahead. We are not talking about people due to fly to New Zealand next week.

One reader (not the one whose bill had risen by £8,000) was going to San Francisco in February 2021 on a package booked in a recent BA Holidays sale. Whilst I wouldn’t want to place a bet on San Francisco accepting tourists next February, we are looking six months ahead and a lot can happen in that time. The odds are certainly not zero.

Issuing a refund now, without discussing it with the customer, seems excessive.

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British Airways and Avios

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

Navid says:

20 Aug20 August 08:12

Your buddy can still fly to SFO from CDG for approx. € 1,200: https://youhavebeenupgraded.boardingarea.com/2020/08/yes-oneworld-business-paris-san-francisco-return-1200-euro-2020-2021/
lynn orford says:

20 Aug20 August 08:13

My holiday was cancelled as the Friday flights were removed , however we could have just been asked could we fly on Saturday instead then we wouldn’t have lost the hotel booking. When I costed it to re book it was £3000 more!
Alan T says:

20 Aug20 August 08:15

My guess is BA would say, they are simply applying Regulation 13 of the PTR 2018 and within their rights as the organiser, cancelling and refunding holidays as a result of unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, although there appears an apparent clash with the passenger rights under EU 261?
Lottie says:

20 Aug20 August 08:15

I had exactly the same thing happen to me, I rang straight up when I received the email and asked what part of the holiday was cancelled so I could rebook alternative arrangements and they didn’t know! As far as they could see the flights were still running. I made them confirm that they holiday wasn’t in fact cancelled, flights and car were still going ahead And that I was still booked. Just came back last week, all went ahead as planned. The flights cost was 3 times what I paid so I can only assume they were dumping people who booked at a low cost to sell the seats at a much higher price.
- Jessie says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 12:48
  
  It makes no sense what you have said. You are saying they are cancelling you off a flight, and then selling that seat for a higher price? Surely a little difficult to do since the flight that you are referring to is, er, cancelled.
Frances Morris says:

20 Aug20 August 08:22

so the company can’t win. they follow the law and give a refund, and that’s not what the customer wants. I think we all need to accept these unprecedent times and stop expecting to be able to travel at the costs you have enjoyed previously. ANYTHING booked for the next year will be subject to change!
- TGLoyalty says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:52
  
  Why should anyone just accept that?
  
  At the end of the day the consumer has a choice a refund isn’t their only one.
Andrew says:

20 Aug20 August 08:25

Worth remembering Rob’s article about You First if you have a booking with a flight in First which you need to speak to them about. Whilst You First team can’t help you, they will put your through to the Holidays team, without a queue and with a full introduction so no need to start your story again with the new agent.
Journeying John says:

20 Aug20 August 08:29

“British Airways has, to its credit, been one of the better airlines when it comes to paying out cash refunds during coronavirus.”
– How is duping tens of thousands of customers into ungenerous and restrictive travel vouchers better?
BA despite being financially stronger than most of their UK competitors AND seeking and accepting public funds while campaigning against others receiving anything are still taking months to pay out and have done all they can to minimise refunds and maximise profiteering.
#BelowAverage
- Rhys says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:32
  
  Better than Virgin, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France, Ryanair….
- Doug M says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:45
  
  You understand ‘better than’ is a comparative? BA have been undoubtedly ‘better than’ many other airlines in this area. There’s no suggestion they’re perfect. BAs financial strength or otherwise is not a relevant consideration in them following the law in regard to refund options.
  Your posts read as if you’ve had some personal issue with BA, and seek to discredit them in areas where they’ve done OK.
  - Journeying John says:
    
    25 Aug25 August 08:01
    
    I do have issues with BA, based on my experience fo travelling with them. The self reported data used in the CAA investigation included unrequested, restrictive vouchers and refunds. The reality is that on top of under resourced, antiquated IT systems and processes, BA have actively sought to delay and minimise refund payments and obfuscated the process, counter to the law and the CAA guidance issued early in the pandemic. Perhaps you could explain how they have complied with their legal responsibilities as clarified here in March?
    https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Airlines/Guidance-on-consumer-law-for-airlines/
- Doug M says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:48
  
  You understand ‘better than’ is a comparative? BA have been undoubtedly ‘better than’ many other airlines in this area. There’s no suggestion they’re perfect. BAs financial strength or otherwise is not a relevant consideration in them following the law in regard to refund options.
  Your posts read as if you’ve had some personal issue with BA, and seek to discredit them in areas where they’ve done OK.
  - Arnie Lord says:
    
    21 Aug21 August 05:01
    
    I have no wish to attempt to defend Joirneying Johns comments nor disparage the comment that BA have been better than most. But I think you will find that every single person commenting on this issue is effectively commenting because they have been affected and have a personal issue. My own experience with BA over a series of flights has been appalling, no answer on their call centre, hours trying to get through and then phone cut off, etc etc and had it not been for Rob advising me about the First Class phone line I would never have gotten through to BA Holidays. So whilst they may have handled some peoples refunds in and ok manner they certainly have not covered themselves in glory and my own personal experience of an AF refund has been ok and Virgin have at least communicated regularly if delayed but now paid.
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 13:48
  
  +1
  When you consider how many flights and passengers BA has, the number of people BA deliberately sought to deny their right to a full refund in cash, by deliberate provable action *not once but at least two times* by deliberately removing the previously existing perfectly working Choose Refund functionality from their website, is more people than almost any other airline in the world.
  
  They did this not advising passengers of their rights as required by law, deliberately forcing the few more knowledgeable and persistent passengers onto phone lines BA had already admitted were (and are still) unable to accept demand by passengers needing to contact BA by phone. This was a cynical action by BA and the CAA was sleeping on the job.
  
  The fact that some European governments may have supported their national airlines, trying to bend EU rules for them, is totally irrelevant and especially given the much larger number of passengers BA has, does *not* excuse BA’s behaviour.
Passy says:

20 Aug20 August 08:29

I had a trip to LAX in October cancelled by BA Holidays even though only one of the sectors was ‘cancelled’ due to being a 747, event though there were other suitable rotations on the same day of departure.
My deposit was refunded in a few days, but due to the current situation, I have no desire to travel anywhere this year- particularly to the US, so I wasn’t too fussed about the trip being cancelled.