British Airways changes its ‘Book with Confidence’ policy (again)

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British Airways has once again changed its ‘Book with Confidence’ policy.

All deadline dates have now been removed. It seems that BA has decided that the August 2021 deadline was putting people off from booking for later in the year or for Christmas.

Full details are on ba.com here.

What has changed if you booked before coronavirus?

If you booked before 3rd March 2020, you can request a Future Travel Voucher as long as your outbound flight is due to be taken by 28th February 2021. You can also change the date of your trip, subject to the payment of any fare difference.

The previous deadline was January. People who booked ski holidays for February half-term are now covered.

What is the position for all other travellers?

The current policy waives the change fee for new bookings made from 3rd March 2020 for travel at any date in the future.

You can change the date, the destination, or both. You will have to pay any difference in fare, however.

Alternatively, you can exchange the value of your ticket for a Future Travel Voucher valid until 30th April 2022. You can do this at any time and for any reason.

Remember that, for bookings made purely with cash and with no Avios element, these vouchers now come as an eVoucher and can be used online without having to call British Airways.

There was previously a ‘travel by’ deadline of 31st August 2021, beyond which BA was not willing to guarantee the ability to change your flights or take a voucher.

British Airways book with confidence extended

Remember that British Airways is legally required to offer a full cash refund if it cancels flights. Before requesting a refund via a travel voucher, you may prefer to wait to see if your flight is cancelled, allowing you to ask for cash.

Will the Future Travel Voucher deadline be extended?

This is the next question that British Airways will need to grapple with. When it started giving out vouchers, putting a ‘travel by’ deadline of 30th April 2022 seemed generous.

Even if you believe that travel restrictions from the UK will be lifted in a few months, it is unlikely that many of BA’s top long-haul destinations will be welcoming tourists for some time to come.

Full details of the ‘Book with Confidence’ guarantee are on ba.com here.

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.

Jonny says:

25 Jan25 January 20:32

Is the FTV 30 April 2022 deadline…
1. Book by?
2. Complete outbound by?
3. Complete all travel by?

Thx
- BrightonReader says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 21:00
  
  Please read the article! The answer is in there
  
  (clue – in the last section)
- Rob says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 21:06
  
  Complete all travel by
Phillip says:

25 Jan25 January 20:46

A couple of interesting things that I have come across recently:

One of the call centre managers claims there was a change in policy for cancelled Avios bookings and they will only rebook if there is Avios availability. I haven’t had to test it with a different agent, but they gave in when I persevered saying that they’d only allow it because the policy was not in place at the time of the flight being cancelled.

Then on a recent paid booking that had been cancelled, I was told that if I don’t rebook within 2 weeks, I would then have to pay the fare difference for any new dates I book.
- Bagoly says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 20:53
  
  Two weeks of cancellation, or of the (first? last?) cancelled flight.
  Given how difficult it is to get through on the ‘phone that seems unreasonable.
  - Phillip says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 21:49
    
    From the cancellation. I take what some of the agents say with a pinch of salt…
- SammyJ says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 22:38
  
  I asked about this the other day, and was told if they cancel, they’ll rebook you on any date of your choice whether there’s availability or not, irrespective of peak/off peak, for dates up to a year from the date you made the booking. That was a UK agent on the You First line.
  - Phillip says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 22:40
    
    That’s what I’ve known and have been able to do with a number of bookings up until recently.
  - G Flyer says:
    
    26 Jan26 January 08:40
    
    Back in November 2019 I booked 2 Club World returns using Avios from LGW to the Caribbean for a fortnight in September 2020. BA cancelled our flights in July 2020, but I’ve not rebooked or asked for a refund of the Avios or “taxes” yet, as I thought I’d have more flexibility to rebook if I called to change the cancelled booking, rather than get everything refunded and start again trying to find Avios seats. It seemed like a sensible strategy at the time, but as time drags on and the route’s been suspended the prospect of travelling anytime soon seems less likely, I’m not so sure…
    
    I’d really appreciate any thoughts on if better to seek refund now, or keep hanging on?
HarryB. says:

25 Jan25 January 21:15

Hi fellow HfPointers! On 23/3/2020 I booked return reward flights for February 2021 but they were cancelled by BA. The issue is that the agent I spoke with told me that I have to rechedule my flights to take place (outbound+inbound) by 23/3/2021 (1 year after the booking was made). This seems hard to materialise and at the same time unreasonable for BA to ask. Applying for a Future Travel Voucher is undesirable as there’s no Avios availability for the flying class I’m after. Is it worth pressing an agent for travelling after 23/3/2021 or not?
- Phillip says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 21:57
  
  Unfortunately, there are many things agents can do (but don’t)… changes are meant to be made within the validity of the ticket which is one year from the date of booking, hence what they are telling you. I know that for paid tickets, if your flights have been cancelled, BA.com does allow you to change your ticket beyond the one year validity but it restricts you to the same booking class, which doesn’t help on an Avios booking. I think there is scope to push… highlight that they cancelled the flight and you cannot now find availability – you booked a year in advance for that reason.
  - kitten says:
    
    26 Jan26 January 01:51
    
    It’s a minor admin issue and they may have to write a new ticket to give you your chosen date of reroute for your booking if they cancelled a flight on your booking. Should not be used as an excuse to deny your right to reroute under EU261. Plenty of people can only travel once per year or travel only annually for a particular event.
- Littlefish says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 23:09
  
  As it’s BA that cancelled then you also have the option of a full refund.
- HarryB. says:
  
  26 Jan26 January 18:55
  
  Thank you all. I’m going to give them a couple more call until they eventually agree to just transfer the flights to dates beyond the 12 month period given. I can ask for a full refund of Avios and taxes but that’s not ideal as I’d prefer to eventually travel with the premium cabin seats that I really struggled to find!
IanM says:

25 Jan25 January 21:56

I have a one way to ATL end of March which was a rebooking from a one way cancelled by BA back in March 2020, it took an unbelievable amount of hassle to get rebooked on the phone and through the AVIOS team so I am not looking forward to the next call. I wasn’t offered a FTV because it was an avios flight.
- Phillip says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 21:59
  
  They do offer FTV for Avios bookings if it is of interest. And once you use it, they will refund the balance if your new booking costs less in Avios and/or cash.
- ChrisC says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 22:06
  
  when you say ‘avios team’ do you mean BA Exec Club or Avios.com?
  
  They aren’t the same people (or even organisation)
  - Phillip says:
    
    25 Jan25 January 22:34
    
    I think IanM means when you call the BAEC and you go through the extensions, there is an option for if you booked your flight with Avios… they’re meant to be a dedicated part of the call centre that just deals with Avios bookings.
    - IanM says:
      
      26 Jan26 January 08:10
      
      When I got through to the BA team they had to refer it to their ‘Avios Team’ because they weren’t able to work out how many avios the one way purchased for March 2020 was actually worth. It was incredibly slow, I could have worked it out in 5 minutes.
      
      They had initially refused to issue a voucher saying I could rebook the cancelled avios flight. It was messy
Simon says:

25 Jan25 January 22:20

For cancellations by BA, I understood it was possible to change the flights to later dates without any excess charges? I booked two sets of CE flights for late March in the last September sale – both cancelled in lockdown, but the prices were great and I’d rather move switch them to the Autumn than request refunds. Tried moving them in MMB to various dates when the flights are available for sale online (same days of week etc) but get messages that flights are not available on all the dates selected. Guessing there is some fare bucket restriction happening but does anyone know whether it’s worth calling an agent to change manually? Just didn’t want to waste a call if they prefer to refund me anyway…
- Phillip says:
  
  25 Jan25 January 22:37
  
  Ba.com only let’s you rebook if there is availability in the same fare bucket as your original ticket. If you call and you’re within the validity of the ticket they should be able to change it to another date for you.
  - kitten says:
    
    26 Jan26 January 01:59
    
    Rubbish. BA being rascals again.
    If BA cancels a flight on your booking there does *not”, not ever, have to be avios seat availability on the flight you choose to reroute on to. FACT.
    
    This is even be explicitly stayed in the text of EU261 itself. Any available seat in same class of travel (of any fare class within that booking class and does not have to be the avios class) that is available, you have a right to be rerouted on to.
Chris says:

25 Jan25 January 22:50

Any sign of a further extension to the Amex 241 vouchers? I have a voucher from a cancelled flight that expires in July and would quite like to (try) and fly in September.
- Rob says:
  
  26 Jan26 January 00:03
  
  No
- Alan says:
  
  26 Jan26 January 00:31
  
  You could always book then cancel and take FTV to extend availability to April 2022…
  - Chris says:
    
    26 Jan26 January 21:27
    
    Interesting… so if I book then cancel the FTV extends the expiry of the 241 voucher?
    - Rob says:
      
      26 Jan26 January 22:39
      
      Yes
Littlefish says:

25 Jan25 January 23:16

Hmmm. Odd! So you can change date or destination or both. But not Cabin.
Not spotted that limitation before. I think other airlines do allow all three.
Anyway, anyone tried to change cabin and found the agents/BA do allow it?
Ceri says:

26 Jan26 January 06:08

Anyone think there will be any chance of the 2 for 1 American express vouchers being extended yet again!?