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Has British Airways just cancelled your long haul flights? Here are your options

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British Airways has just made some sweeping cancellations for 2021, in many cases cancelling routes entirely.

The following routes have been permanently suspended, according to internal communications:

British Airways BA A350 in flight
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Calgary
  • Charleston
  • Dammam
  • Durban
  • Jeddah (although a temporary Hajj operation will exist in July 2021)
  • Kuala Lumpur (from late March)
  • Lima
  • Muscat
  • Osaka
  • Pittsburgh
  • Seoul
  • Seychelles (from late April)

Three routes have only been suspended for the 2021 Summer season and are due to return in November 2021:

  • Bangkok
  • San Jose Costa Rica (from mid April)
  • Sydney

You may already have received an email alerting you if you had a booking on one of these services.

British Airways BA A350 Premium Economy

What are your options?

Flight cancellations are governed by EU law EU261. These regulations will continue to apply following the end of the Brexit transition period on 1st January 2021 as they have been subsumed into UK law.

You can read the full text of EU261 here. Article 5 of EU261 deals with cancellations:

1. In case of cancellation of a flight, the passengers concerned shall:

(a) be offered assistance by the operating air carrier in accordance with Article 8;

Article 8 outlines the duty of care an airline has towards you in the case of cancelled or delayed flights, including the right to reimbursement or re-routing.

Here is the relevant extract from Article 8:

Article 8: Right to reimbursement or re-routing

1. Where reference is made to this Article, passengers shall be offered the choice between:

(a) – reimbursement within seven days, by the means provided for in Article 7(3), of the full cost of the ticket at the price at which it was bought, for the part or parts of the journey not made, and for the part or parts already made if the flight is no longer serving any purpose in relation to the passenger’s original travel plan, together with, when relevant,

– a return flight to the first point of departure, at the earliest opportunity;

(b) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at the earliest opportunity; or

(c) re-routing, under comparable transport conditions, to their final destination at a later date at the passenger’s convenience, subject to availability of seats.

As you can see, there are three clear options: a full refund (clause a), re-routing as close to the original flight timings as possible (clause b) or re-routing at a later date (clause c). It is your choice which of these you choose, not the airline’s.

There does not need to be Avios seat availability if your cancelled flight is an Avios redemption and you would like to be rerouted.

What if British Airways no longer flies there?

EU261 is clear that the right to re-routing is not dependent on whether a particular airline flies to the original destination.

For example, British Airways has cancelled its Kuala Lumpur flights permanently. Malaysia Airlines is now the only airline offering direct flights between London and KL.

In this case, you could reasonably argue that “comparable transport conditions” include re-routing onto the only direct flight available with Malaysia Airlines, rather than a connecting flight.

Some agents will claim they cannot reroute you on another airline because they do not have an agreement with each other. This is unlikely to stand up in court: EU261 does not make such a provision.

That said, you cannot pick what alternative airline you wish to fly. BA can put you on any flight as long as it gets you to your final destination at the “earliest opportunity” and under “comparable conditions”.

Can I switch to a different airport?

Yes. BA’s policy is to let you rebook to airports within a 300 mile radius of your original destination.

In our example where British Airways has cancelled its Kuala Lumpur flights, it is still flying to Singapore which is less than 217 miles away. In this case, you may prefer to be rerouted to Singapore.

BA have also said that they will allow re-routing to Vancouver for Calgary bookings and Riyadh for Jeddah bookings in this specific case.

EU261 is a little more vague about your rights in this case. Here is Article 8 (3):

3. When, in the case where a town, city or region is served by several airports, an operating air carrier offers a passenger a flight to an airport alternative to that for which the booking was made, the operating air carrier shall bear the cost of transferring the passenger from that alternative airport either to that for which the booking was made, or to another close-by destination agreed with the passenger.

It is not entirely clear how EU law defines ‘region’ here. It is debatable whether Kuala Lumpur and Singapore are in the same ‘region’ – they certainly aren’t the same city!

BA British Airways 787-9

Do I get compensation?

In some circumstances, monetary compensation is provided in addition to any duty of care, refund or re-routing rights.

EU261 also outlines the circumstances in which you may be entitled to compensation.

Article 5 states that:

1. In case of cancellation of a flight, the passengers concerned shall:

(c) have the right to compensation by the operating air carrier in accordance with Article 7, unless:

(i) they are informed of the cancellation at least two weeks before the scheduled time of departure; or

(ii) they are informed of the cancellation between two weeks and seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than two hours before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than four hours after the scheduled time of arrival; or

(iii) they are informed of the cancellation less than seven days before the scheduled time of departure and are offered re-routing, allowing them to depart no more than one hour before the scheduled time of departure and to reach their final destination less than two hours after the scheduled time of arrival.

As virtually all the cancellations have been made with more than two weeks notice you will not be entitled to compensation.

What other options do I have?

British Airways is offering Future Travel Vouchers as well as cash refunds if you do not wish to rebook. Unless your booking involved a British Airways American Express 241 voucher or a Lloyds upgrade voucher, cash is obviously the sensible answer.

The only reason to take a Future Travel Voucher is that it protects your 241 or upgrade voucher and extends it to 30th April 2022. All travel must be completed by this date.

How to contact BA

If you would like a full refund of your flight you must use the form here. You can only request a voucher on Manage My Booking.

For re-routing options you must call British Airways directly on 0800 727 800. If you have BA status then you should call the relevant status line as you have a substantially greater chance of getting through. If you have a booking in First you should call the ‘You First’ number here.

Phone lines are likely to be very busy in the coming days given the number of cancellations. Your best bet is to give it a week or so for things to calm down and then try again.

It is important to be clear that you may well not be offered the options that EU261 legally provides, especially if you have an Avios ticket. You may find that you will be left in the position of having to pay cash for a new ticket from another airline and then take British Airways to CEDR arbitration or Money Claim Online in order to reclaim your money.


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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

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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 card

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.)

Comments (413)

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

  • Flyer says:

    Return flight and whole route cancelled yesterday and spent 2.5+ hours on the phone to BA yesterday, first call disconnected after an hour, second call disconnected after an hour and 20 minutes. Tried my luck closer to midnight and got transferred to whichever location supports exec club queries at that time of day. Suffice to say I was cited the 300 mile thing and got nowhere.

    Read this article today and was alerted to the My First number. We had originally been lucky enough to bag outbound first seats on Avios and despite a) the outbound flight already being downgraded to an A350 and thus Club and b) our return only being in Club they were happy to help. Less than 5 minutes on the line and I was immediately rebooked on a BA flight from an adjacent departure airport within the same country and over the 300 mile limit.

    THANKS RHYS. Yesterday was awful, today was just perfect.

    • Lady London says:

      er…you did know about the 75% back you could claim due to that downgrade ? (as well as fly)

  • Nick_C says:

    Re recording phone conversations.

    I find the Cube ACR app on Android to be good. Although on one recent (to BT) the recording stopped after just more than an hour.

    But always a good idea to record important phone calls. (As an individual, my understanding is that you are not legally required to notify the business you are calling that you are recording the call. As a courtesy, if someone on an incoming call tells me they are recording the call, I let them know that I am as well.)

  • Always_in_the_air says:

    My flights haven’t been cancelled, but I’ve just been downgraded from F to J. There are four of us flying on redemption tickets.

    I booked with points during the 50% sale using one 2-4-1 voucher and two GUF for two vouchers.

    My question is, what are my options regards rerouting, cancelling and compensation if I do take the flights?

    • Always_in_the_air says:

      Sorry should have added it is LHR – GRU

    • Charlieface says:

      Reroute and cancellation: same as you would normally have.
      Compo: the 50% off you can’t argue against, that is the price they offered you at. You would have a big fight with BA on the value of the 2-4-1 and the GUFs. But people have successfully argued for the voucher value to be computed against the equivalent Avios saved.

  • Lady London says:

    Read the General daily thread esp yesterday (back 2 or 3 days is enough, back 5-7 makes you an expert), you will get everything you need.

    Done so many times, it’s all there.

    Meanwhile Yes we are trying to persuade Rhys to do a “What if you’re Downgraded from First to Business” article as well too.

    All I can say is read and you will be considerably richer. Start with 75% cash cost of F (who pays that?) or 1.6p*(75% of avios paid)+(‘taxes’-£200)*75%=>>compo claimable, as a rule of thumb

    • Lady London says:

      PS compo=per seat, however paid, even if you got the seat with a toy from a cornflake packet

    • Always_in_the_air says:

      Thank you, I shall start reading!

      Yes and article on the subject would be REALLY useful!

      • Anna says:

        This might be interesting as you may be the first person to be downgraded on a flight using a GUF voucher – I wonder how the value will be determined?

        • e14 says:

          Would be even better if the GUF booked into the commercial class A, you could then just pull the commercial fare ?

    • Lewis Clayton says:

      Thank you. I read the thread and called back to BA with all the ammo I needed to change our flights from Calgary to Vancouver on the same dates, and a much nicer plane with Club Suite!

      Thanks to all for the great insight abs support.

  • JohnT says:

    Wow fantastic responses to so many queries! Mine is lhr-chs return atl-lhr club 241 & 1/2 avios in May for 1 week. Easy option is to go to ATL +5 hour drive so extra car hire cost. Indirect flights via Mia or DFW have poor connections, any other thoughts? (apart from still won’t be usa travel by then..)

    • Charlieface says:

      BA do not need to offer you the car hire unless you can show the connections are really poor, in which case you should ask but they will fight.

    • Lady London says:

      CLT is a nice airport.
      I think TPA rated OK ish too.

      I’ve only seen bad comments about ATL airport but suspect @Doug M might know all this stuff.

      Dallas might be where BA would route you through as their pal AA seems to do CHS from Dallas fairly majorly

      If anything seems DL stronger at CHS than OneWorld

      Looking at the map, looks s fantastic part of America full of Civil War history to explore….jealous

    • e14 says:

      I’d push for AA LHR-DFW-CHS, should allow for a two hour connection at DFW, as you note though, probably best off holding off rebooking for at least a couple of months
      They should offer LHR-MIA-CHS, there should be some reasonable (two hour connections) there

  • Matt says:

    Hi all. So my KL flights cancelled. Booked in F on avios companion voucher. I’m now booked onto Singapore same dates but agent advised I could only be booked into J due to avios availability. Difference in avios / tax refunded but I wanted to stay in F. Have I been fobbed off?

    • Lady London says:

      You’ve been Tango’d.

      Now much, much harder, and more particularly due to the ‘kind’ concession from BA allowing you to change your destination, to get the 75% back of your First Class value per seat, that you would have been due.

      I bet BA couldn’t make the change fast enough.

      • Lady London says:

        There is a slim chance if you have a recording or contemporaneous notes of the call, that as the BA agent advised incorrectly that after their cancellation of your flight you couldnt be rebooked into First due to no First seats of avios reward type being available, you could claim this incorrect statement by the agent is why you were induced to take SIN and in Club instead.

        Someone legal would have to give an opinion on are you completely sunk or just hard to turn the boat over to get your 75%compo that you should have had. For each seat.

    • Harry T says:

      You were entitled to be rebooked into First, with no requirement for Avios availability on the dates you wished to travel. As LL explained, you will now face an uphill battle.

  • Jan M says:

    So I’m affected but haven’t been contacted. A 50% Avios + Lloyds voucher booking. But I was never convinced a trip to Malaysia in June was on the cards. No obligation for me to do anything is there? I can just wait till April/May and then see if I can rebook for Singapore in September, say?

  • James says:

    RIP Avios – As someone who’s Calgary based my Avios are now totally useless. There’s never availability on AA from YYC and rarely availability on AS. Buying a positioning flight to YVR or YYZ would probably cost me a similar amount as a WestJet deal directly to London from YYC.

    I’m not surprised they’ve dropped this route though, they were always far more expensive than AC/WS who have superior service and cabin on the route.

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