Your British Airways eVoucher or Future Travel Voucher is extended to 30th September 2023

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British Airways has amended its rules on eVouchers and Future Travel Vouchers.

If you received an eVoucher or Future Travel Voucher for a cancelled flight, or if you voluntarily chose to cancel, your voucher is now valid until 30th September 2023.

This represents a five month extension on the previous deadline of 30th April 2023, and indeed a 17 month extension to the original deadline of 30th April 2022.

British Airways eVoucher Future Travel Voucher extended to 30th September 2023

Remember that 30th September 2023 is the day by which your travel must be completed. It is NOT a ‘book by’ deadline.

What is the difference between a Future Travel Voucher and eVoucher?

Initially, all British Airways refunds which were not paid in cash were issued as a Future Travel Voucher.

The FTV is, literally, your ticket in a frozen state. The voucher number is the same as your old ticket number.

When you come to rebook, you need to call British Airways. They will reopen your old ticket and make any necessary changes.

The problem with the FTV is that it is inflexible:

you cannot change the passenger names

you cannot change the ticket type (eg an Avios ticket cannot be turned into a cash ticket)

you need to call British Airways to rebook

British Airways was failing to tell people how much their voucher was for – or what vouchers, Avios, seat selection or baggage fees were rolled up in it – and it was not possible to find out online. You needed to call the overstretched call centre to find out exactly what you had got, and when it expired.

BA stopped issuing FTV’s for cash tickets

Late last year, British Airways changed its policy. All refund requests for cash tickets, which did not qualify for a pure cash refund, started to arrive as an eVoucher.

The eVoucher could be used online and was not tied to a particular person, making it easier to spend.

British Airways also started the long process of automatically turning Future Travel Vouchers for cash tickets into eVouchers.

I understand that any Future Travel Voucher with an Avios element will remain as a Future Travel Voucher. In terms of expiry it makes no difference as both types of voucher have been extended to 30th September 2023.

‘Book With Confidence’ has also been extended

British Airways has also extended its ‘Book With Confidence’ guarantee.

This means that, for any flights you book for travel by 31st August 2022, you can change the date for any reason without paying any fees. Any fare difference will still be due.

This represents a four month extension to the previous travel deadline of 30th April 2022.

Will anything happen to British Airways American Express 241 vouchers?

I feel that we are now due a further announcement on extensions to unused British Airways American Express 241 vouchers, given that there is little sign of long haul markets opening.

Remember that, in any event, you can artificially extend your unused 241 vouchers to 30th September 2023.

All you need to do is book a simple return flight from, say, London to Manchester for two people using your companion voucher. Once booked, cancel it and take the Future Travel Voucher option.

When you want to use your 241 voucher, you simply ring up British Airways and pay whatever extra Avios and cash are required to change your Future Travel Voucher into the redemption you want. You cannot change the passenger names. Travel must be completed by 30th September 2023.

That said, I strongly recommend that you do NOT do this until the very last minute before your 241 voucher is about to expire. I expect British Airways to extend them anyway, and your 241 voucher is far more flexible when it is completely under your control.

Conclusion

Extending outstanding vouchers to 30th September 2023 is a sensible move by British Airways. Even if short haul travel opens up fully this Autumn, many favourite long haul routes are likely to remain closed for longer.

You can see the new rules pertaining to eVouchers on this page of ba.com.

The updated rules regarding Future Travel Vouchers can be found on this page of ba.com.

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.

LS says:

4 Aug4 August 07:57

Extended status by another 6 months as well has it?
Nik says:

4 Aug4 August 08:48

My father has a couple of FTVs totaling around £4000 from last year. They are for cash bookings with 2 named travelers. Will these be automatically converted by BA into eVouchers? If so when, and should we prompt them (how?) or sit back and wait for them to do it?
- Rob says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 09:13
  
  They should have been done by now, may be worth calling BA.
  - Nick says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 11:19
    
    Not all FTVs can – or will be – converted to e-vouchers. If they haven’t been done yet, there will almost certainly be a reason for it, so calling won’t help (the vast majority have been converted successfully, however).
- ChrisC says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 12:31
  
  Are you sure these are still FTVs? He should check his emails.
  
  BA sent emails when they did the conversion saying something like ‘your FTV is now an e-voucher’ and in the body say something like
  
  your name/voucher number 125-4xxxxxx/amount
  
  If the number in the voucher is 125-4xxxxx then it’s an e-voucher useable online. If it’s 125-2xxxx it’s an FTV requiring a call to use.
  
  But only straight cash bookings can be e-vouchers. Anything else is an FTV
  
  I wouldn’t call but use the live chat function instead.
  - Nik says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 13:51
    
    Thanks. The numbers are in the 125-2xxxxx format, so it looks like they are FTVs, and there’s an email from BA a couple of weeks ago saying ‘Your future travel voucher is here’. Why were they sending FTV emails as late as July 2021?
    I need to do some more digging
    - ChrisC says:
      
      4 Aug4 August 14:57
      
      Was it blank?
      
      I got one of those and just ognored it as it gave no details at all. Not even the booking reference of the related flights.
      
      On this page
      https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/incident/coronavirus/vouchers-refunds#tcscancel
      
      “Currently, we’re only able to issue eVouchers for certain booking types. For example, if your booking has multiple passengers or you’ve purchased extra baggage, we’ll send you a future travel voucher.”
      
      So that may be the explanation.
      
      It also explains that when I;ve had to call to use a voucher they always ask if I there were any other passengers on the booking.
      
      To all intents and purposes e-vouchers and FTVs are the same. It’s just the latter require a phone call to use.
Backpacker says:

4 Aug4 August 09:40

I had two business class avios tickets cancelled last year
I can’t change anything in “Manage my booking”, and every time I call the call centre over the last 3 days (Blue Frequent flyer line) they hang up on me saying they are too busy to answer, no matter what options I select.. Is there a a better number to use?

Does there have to be avois seat availability for me to get these re-booked, or can I select any flight given they cancelled the flights?
- Robin H says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 13:05
  
  From Bermuda I eventually got through to a CR in Manchester on a Silver number after twenty nine attempts, on four different, over ten days. What a PIA.
- ChrisC says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 15:00
  
  Given that the flights have been cancelled there does not have to be avios availabilty on the rebooking – as long as the route is the same.
  
  But if you took an voucher then there does have to be avios availability. But the advantage is also you can use it on any route.
  - Backpacker says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 20:38
    
    Thanks Chris, have not taken the voucher so hope I can switch to another flight for both! Cheers Matt
Ross says:

4 Aug4 August 09:55

Booked flights to Dubai using my 241 voucher in the 50% sale last Oct. First booking was originally for June this year but due to an equipment change I was able to rebook online to late Sept. Just received an email from BA saying we had been downgraded from First to Club so we could move the booking to a week earlier in the original cabin. Dubai is of course on the red list and I don’t expect this to change anytime soon but I assume the flights will still be running at the time so BA won’t cancel them automatically. Can anyone explain what my options are as I assume cancelling will not just cost me 35pp but I will also loose the 50% bonus as it’s my choice? Thank you all!
- Colin MacKinnon says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 13:59
  
  Downgrade is not the same as a flight cancellation – but BA have been good at refunding tickets in downgrade circumstances, and waiving the fee.
  If you fly on the original date, you get very nice compensation for the downgrade.
  If you rebook to another date, you are in the hands of BA – so very limited, because it is a downgrade.
  If life is calm enough, you can try and make it more complex by insisting on re-route in F on another carrier. You may (almost definitely!) have to buy the other ticket and then take BA to court!
  Best advice? Don’t accept the change. Wait until a day or two before the flight to see if BA cancels. Then you get a free change, in F, to a date up to 12 months in the future.
  If BA don’t cancel, then you cancel and pay the £35 fee. Do it three or four days before the flight in case you can’t get through to You First.
- Colin MacKinnon says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 14:37
  
  ps If you cancel, you just get back what you paid – ie you “lose” the 50% avios deal.
  
  If BA cancels, you can now rebook – which keeps the 50% deal – up to a year later.
  
  Makes me glad I didn’t just take the cash for our F downgrade and subsequently cancelled flight to Denver in September – so now I can either take the downgrade to CW on the direct LHR-DEN (with no compo because it is my choice) or ask for a re-route in F to, say, LA or DFW, and then on to Denver sometime in the next year.
  - Ross says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 17:52
    
    Thanks Colin, unfortunately I jumped the gun when the downgrade mail came through and changed them to a week earlier as I could see availability in F on those dates. The strange thing is I cannot reserve seats on those flights (could on the originals) which makes me wonder if it was a mistake on their side. Fingers crossed BA cancel so I can move the flights to another year (never thought I would say that!)
Tim says:

4 Aug4 August 09:56

What is it with ‘your’ all the time? ‘Your British Airways eVoucher or Future Travel Voucher is extended to 30th September 2023’. What’s wrong with ‘British Airways extends eVouchers and Future Travel Vouchers to 30th September 2023’? Is it a generation X trying to be trendy type of thing? 🙂
- Rhys says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 10:02
  
  It’s more engaging and conversational!
- Rob says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 10:09
  
  Tim (see what I did there), if you read ANY book on marketing / engagement you (see what I did again there) will learn that ‘you’ / ‘your’ are proven to be hugely successful in increasing interest.
  
  People are selfish, greedy and self centered. They want things for themselves, not for others. Why do you read HfP? Because YOU get something from it – cheaper / better / more travel. Do you read any Australian travel sites where none of the information or deals have any relevance to YOU, despite the quality of the writing? Thought not.
  - Dave1985 says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 10:28
    
    Good points.
    
    Marketing books are generally mumbo jumbo/garbage though.
    
    Not one person’s behaviour will be impacted by “the” instead of “your”
    - Rob says:
      
      4 Aug4 August 10:54
      
      This is so easy to prove that I don’t even know why you challenge it.
      
      There have been literally thousands of published split tests results done over the years with direct mail copy and now it is even easier with email to split test the headline and see which outperforms. The basic principles are well known.
      
      The Guardian, New York Times etc do ‘live’ split testing on their website headlines, with the system automatically running multiple versions and then – after half an hour or so – settling for the one with most clicks. You can see it yourself if you go into their websites – the headline will often refresh from what it was when you last opened it to a different form of words.
      
      We’d do it ourselves if the tech made it easy, but for us to use 2 different email headlines and compare the open rates would require us to manually send the emails which we are not prepared to do (especially at 6am!).
      - Nick says:
        
        4 Aug4 August 11:23
        
        Netflix does it too with the squares they show you too… they have multiple images and work out which makes you most likely to click. Sadly it’s based mainly on boring stereotypes, so an account they know to belong to a white male will see mainly the faces of pretty blonde girls.
      - Rob says:
        
        4 Aug4 August 11:54
        
        There are some interesting articles about this if anyone is interested. Various examples where films with, say, a 90% BAME cast will show on Netflix to a white male like me with a picture of a white young girl who has about 30 seconds screen time.
      - Alex Sm says:
        
        15 Aug15 August 13:29
        
        What about changing the morning emails sender to “Rob from Head for Points” or “Rhys from Head for Points”? Apparently it’s also a very popular technique to raise interest to mailings
  - Tim says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 11:31
    
    I appreciate the ‘you’ bit is often punchier, more concise, has fewer syllables and is better – for example: ‘Why you should fly BA’; ‘Why you should stop flying BA’, however ‘you’ is a suggestion in those cases where as ‘Your British Airways eVoucher…’ is assumed possessional, and there is a difference. I’d wager A/B testing on ‘Why you…’ would yield more clicks for sure, but ‘Your xxxxxx..’ would not make diddly squat difference. 🙂
    - WaynedP says:
      
      4 Aug4 August 11:42
      
      It’s used innocuously enough here, Tim, but there are powerful motivations for using the possessive in many places.
      
      The slogan on the side of the Brexit Vote Leave Campaign bus deliberately stated “Let’s fund OUR NHS instead”
    - Rob says:
      
      4 Aug4 August 11:52
      
      But if you don’t have a FTV, you aren’t interested in the article anyway, so possessional is correct 🙂
      - WaynedP says:
        
        4 Aug4 August 11:58
        
        Only uninterested if you don’t have a FTV and believe you won’t trigger one in the future.
        
        I don’t currently have FTV, but am very interested and better informed in case that changes in the next few months.
      - Chris Heyes says:
        
        4 Aug4 August 13:19
        
        Rob unbelievably correct no FTV no interest in getting one or reading about one either tried to skip through posts but you kept interceding with posts lol
        hopefully ended now, bytheway don’t read any newspapers
        Don’t even watch TV unless its politics related and never on Holiday
        but I do like you style, although Rhys does better Hotels reviews imo lol
- ChrisC says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 12:43
  
  ‘Your’ is correct because these vouchers are ours and not Rob’s or BA’s
  
  For Rob to put ‘Our Vouchers’ in the headline would therefore be incorrect usage.
Kathy says:

4 Aug4 August 09:58

I have flights booked for Canada in early September using a Lloyds upgrade voucher that already had its expiry extended once. As it happens the flight is just after the rules on entry change for double jabbed people – but it’s unlikely my friend and I would actually go as we have not got enough time to actually plan the rest of the trip now (and there’s too much uncertainty involved for us).

Last time we lucked out and BA cancelled our flight – I think that is unlikely this time. Any idea what the rules are now? I am expecting to have to cancel and lose the voucher, if I would get it back with an extended expiry again that would be useful as we are meant to be going to New York in the New Year for theatre (a much-delayed trip!)
- Mikeact says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 21:10
  
  This was mentioned yesterday, and the day before. Call Avios (via BA) BEFORE Oct 31st which is the current sell by date, for your options.
BuildBackBetter says:

4 Aug4 August 10:15

Rob, looks like your advice has changed?
Two months ago, you suggested BA might stop issuing FTVs once travel reopens, therefore its better to convert the 2-4-1 into an FTV!
- Rob says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 10:58
  
  If you are worried about your 241 expiring then turn it into an FTV.
  
  It is only a question of timing. It is best NOT to have an FTV if you can help it, so it is better to wait and see if BA extends your 241.
  
  However … what happens if BA withdraws new FTVs overnight and your 241 isn’t extended? Unlikely but if it happened you will lose your 241 unnecessarily.
  - First to the left says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 17:42
    
    This is my fear. Mine expires Jan 6 2021 so doesn’t get the 6 mo extension for 241 (chase BA card) expiring by dec 31 2021.
    So again what is the downside of locking it into a FTV now? (Aside from small fees, and the hold my taxes cash – not an issue IMO). My understanding is it locks in all used points voucher cash etc – just extends them until 9/2023.
    - Rob says:
      
      4 Aug4 August 19:30
      
      You can’t change the 2nd passenger name.
      
      You also need to call to book which effectively means you can’t book anything involving ringing 355 days in advance because someone else would grab the seats before you’d done all the admin with the agent.
      - First to the left says:
        
        4 Aug4 August 20:35
        
        Ah ok got it thx. There sadly seems to no longer be any availability in first any longer from the US with points so our December trip might be our last. Business has had plenty of seats since they doubled the quantity. But it’s not first. We’ve been regularly finding award seats in first for the last few years in December (before pandemic) but looks like they’re now saving them for cash buyers now. Agent said as much too. Retiring 747 don’t help either. Although the first cabins in those were trashed. Broken seats and screens, dirty.
Kathy M says:

4 Aug4 August 11:54

Any tips on how to get through to BA executive club bookings in less than an hour? My phone packages (land and mobile) give an hour in any one call. I thought that just meant I had to pay after that, but my attempts to BA each cut out after the. hour- in one case two minutes after getting through.
- Rob says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 12:12
  
  Call early, call late or (less practically) get a Gold card and be answered immediately ….
  - mr_jetlag says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 13:05
    
    Gold card here, it still takes 15-30 minutes at times. GGL probably instant.
- ChrisC says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 12:45
  
  What are you trying to do?
  
  The live chat works for many of queries. Yes it could still be a wait but you aren’t at risk of being cut off because of your phones limitations.
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  4 Aug4 August 13:29
  
  Kathy M I gave a number to ring but I think it was blocked for some reason ?
  so I won’t repeat it, but get on the phone a 1min before 8.00am by the time you have got through it should be 8.00am (with my number they opened at 8.00am)
  Go to your BA Exec Acc to get a correct number for you
  I was through to them in less than 1 min
  - Kathy M says:
    
    4 Aug4 August 15:57
    
    Many thanks, Chris. Will try if I need to go for a FTV. When my flight was cancelled, unfortunately I took the money offered rather than a FTV, hence may need to protect my 241, but it is difficult when you knew you only have a few minutes left to discuss options. That is my problem with teh 60 minute phone limit- I can cope with the wait.