The HfP chat thread – Tuesday 29th September

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• Vicky says:

  29 Sep29 September 14:52

  Need a bit of advice, my son’s BA flight to LHR in Sept was cancelled and BA offered us FTV or full cash refund for cancelled leg or rebooking to same leg until the ticket validity date (mid Dec). Due to COVID, we are unable to travel anytime soon due to quarantine requirement in both direction so requested if BA can move the date to 3rd Jan so that I can travel to accompany him and return to the UK. BA puts his foot strong on ticket validity and not flexible on EC261. I quoted EC261 regulations and pointed out travel date convenient to us but BA refuse to comment on EC261 and unwilling to make changes. Instead informed me to compliant to CEDR if I feel that BA treated us unfairly. What are my chances if I refer this to CEDR? Or should i just accept the FTV / cash refund.

  • Kai says:

    29 Sep29 September 15:02

    Why not just accept cash refund?

    • Vicky says:

      29 Sep29 September 15:14

      Outbound took most of the cash so hardly would get anything in return leg so FTV or cash refund is less convincing hence seeking some advice .

  • BS says:

    29 Sep29 September 15:22

    I’m in similar situation, although I need to travel home for Xmas!
    BA refusing to rebook me as there is no one world airline on the route, although plenty of other airlines are running it. Their ‘policy’ says they cannot book these.
    Despite escalation and it clearly being under their obligations under EC261, it looks like I will have to pay for my own replacement, and claim the cost off BA either through CEDR or MCOL. I have started a formal complaint on resolver, and will escalate externally when BA inevitably refuse again. If I’d paid by credit card, I would just S75 the cost of the replacement off that, but unfortunately I didn’t.

    All in all I’m a bit shocked how BA are treating their gold members, and more resolved than ever I will put (almost unreasonable) effort in to make sure BA pay up.

    • Vicky says:

      29 Sep29 September 16:06

      Exactly, I feel your pain. Someone posted a comment this morning that passengers abuse BA contact centre staff hence they have made T&Cs but who will fight for passengers who are treated so poorly by BA. The same rude behaviour applies on their side as well, the agent who I spoke in my case was so rude that she said ‘you cannot get any statement that you are looking from me on EC261’ better you hang up your phone. It was so unpleasant and rude and BA now comes back to claim that they treat their passengers with respect and kind and it is passengers who abuse their staff. Can BA be above the law and regulations? Sounds like in some cases they behave like that.

      • callum says:

        29 Sep29 September 17:03

        I’ve used pretty much that exact line several times when I worked in a call centre (not BA!). While I can’t comment on whether that was appropriate in this case (I’d recommend you record all your phone calls – not just for this, if you’re promised something you then have proof as well), there’s only so many times you can repeat the same information over and over again to a customer who doesn’t want to hear it.

        It sounds like you were asking her to make a judgement on an EC261 case that she wasn’t trained/allowed to make – is that right?

• Jack says:

  29 Sep29 September 16:25

  Has anyone used that Economist offer with a diff credit to the country they’re registered in?

  • Lady London says:

    30 Sep30 September 17:59

    yes. twice. and not just me.

• Andrew says:

  29 Sep29 September 16:37

  Triple Avios (15/£1) and extra discounts at Bicester Village during October.
  https://www.bicestervillage.com/en/campaign/private-sale/partners/registration-head-for-points-ba/

  • mr_jetlag says:

    29 Sep29 September 16:52

    It says 15 per £4 spent on the link…

    • Andrew says:

      29 Sep29 September 17:08

      Sorry yes, read that wrongly.

• callum says:

  29 Sep29 September 16:55

  I forgot who asked me to update them, but Avios just agreed to extend my Lloyds upgrade voucher by 2 months (it was due to expire tomorrow). The whole process (including account verification) only took 30 seconds – much easier than last week where they were flat out refusing!

  • Fred says:

    29 Sep29 September 17:02

    They used to extend Lloyds vouchers by 6 months, then reduced it to 3 months….now you say only 2 months??!?!

    • Callum says:

      29 Sep29 September 18:40

      The way Avoid ran the scheme, I’m surprised they’re extending it at all!

  • Fred S says:

    29 Sep29 September 17:37

    Yep, their all round policy is to extend to 30/11 (if you ask) and there may well be another extension available nearer the time (according to the agent I spoke to)

  • whiskerxx says:

    29 Sep29 September 19:28

    I thought my Lloyds voucher was due to expire tomorrow (I had previously been informed 30th September), so I called today to check and make a booking if that were the case.
    I was informed that it doesn’t expire tomorrow but now expires 31st December – so a three month extension without any prompting

    • Callum says:

      29 Sep29 September 22:03

      Weird. Mine was also due to expire tomorrow and hadn’t been extended.

• Harry T says:

  29 Sep29 September 19:38

  Anyone with Swiss bookings should double check them. Swiss have cancelled some of my flights for itineraries in November (Hong Kong) and January (Johannesburg). I expect it’s best to ring as soon as possible if your bookings have been cancelled. I did receive an email about both bookings, which tried to encourage me to take a voucher or rearrange. I rang the UK service centre just now and got through in five minutes – they agreed to refund me without quibble.

  • Aston100 says:

    30 Sep30 September 00:14

    Thanks for the heads up. I just checked and can see my flights to JNB have been changed.
    I was not notified.
    I don’t think I can make the new outbound time. Will phone Swiss in the morning.

    • Harry T says:

      30 Sep30 September 11:45

      You’re welcome. You should be entitled to a refund. They’ve already emailed me after I called last night, to confirm I’ll get a refund to my card shortly. They moved my flights by a day. I’m not optimistic about being able to visit SA via AMS and avoid quarantine/denied entry.

• Lee says:

  29 Sep29 September 19:45

  Upgraded my BA free card last month, then hit the £10K spending and received voucher yesterday. How long should I keep the fee paying version before downgrade? Really don’t want to mess up with Amex. Thanks.

  • Connor says:

    29 Sep29 September 20:16

    Can downgrade or cancel straight away. Won’t make a difference.

• mutley says:

  29 Sep29 September 19:55

  Have a 2 for 1 that expires in January, what’s the best current option to make use of it after this date?

  • Connor says:

    29 Sep29 September 20:17

    Make a cheap booking with it and cancel under the Booking with Confidence scheme. It’ll be extended for use till 2022.

    • mutley says:

      30 Sep30 September 10:44

      Thank you.

• JAD says:

  29 Sep29 September 20:41

  Had a twitter exchange with BA this afternoon re some flights we have next month that currently fall outside the ‘Book with Confidence’ policy. I had a response from BA saying that the current policy is changing at midday tomorrow and will be extended until the end of Oct. Thankfully it will save us having to cancel and pay cancellation fees for redemption flights to a destination we can’t get into. Hopefully of use to others too!

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