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Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios flight bookings?

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Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios BA flight bookings?

One topic has dominated my inbox and the HFP comments over the last couple of days – the withdrawal by British Airways of the ability to refund an Avios flight online for cash.

EDIT:  We have a found a way to get around BA’s block and to allow a cash cancellation.  This article shows how.

If you have a British Airways booking made for cash then you can, under the BA ‘Book with Confidence’ guarantee, refund it in return for a British Airways voucher.  This voucher is valid for 12 months from the date of the flight which you had to cancel.

This policy is for people who are holding non-refundable flight tickets.  It has NOTHING to do with Avios bookings.

Any Avios bookings you hold were made under the standard British Airways rules.  These allow you to cancel your flight up to 24 hours before departure in return for a full CASH refund of your taxes and charges, plus the return of your Avios.  A fee of £35 per person is payable.

These rules have not changed, and indeed it is debatable that they could be changed retrospectively.

What happens when you try to cancel an Avios booking online?

If you go onto ba.com and try to cancel an Avios redemption, this is the page you are taken to:

Why is British Airways deliberately blocking online cash refunds for Avios bookings?

If your flight is one which is unlikely to operate, you may not see this.  You may just see your cancellation options greyed out.

This is the form you fill in to receive credit for a CASH flight.  It is NOT designed to be used by holders of Avios redemptions.

It appears that BA is deliberately trying to encourage holders of Avios tickets to accept a 12-month travel voucher, even though they are legally entitled to a cash refund.

If you ring British Airways, you WILL receive your cash refund.

Unfortunately, you are putting extra pressure on the call centre by doing this and stopping people who need immediate help from getting through.  This is a situation of BA’s own making, however.

People are getting the same problem when a flight is cancelled

I have also heard a similar story from readers whose flights have been cancelled.

Instead of triggering an immediate cash refund, they are directed to the same page on ba.com where they are asked to request the ‘Future Travel Voucher’.

Again, you do NOT need to do this.  If your flight is cancelled and BA only sends you a link to the voucher claim form, you need to get on the phone and request cash instead.

British Airways BA 777X 777 9X

There is one caveat to this ….

If you have an Avios booking and you cancel it, you lose any money you have paid for seat reservations.  This could be substantial.

My understanding – although I am not 100% sure about this – is that if you take the travel voucher then it will include a credit for seat reservation fees, either as part of the voucher or as a marker to allow you free seat reservations in the future.

Don’t try to call BA if you can help it

It is frustrating that British Airways is making you call their overrun call centres in order to get the cash refunds to which you are legally entitled.

However …. there is no rush.  Unless you are trying to cancel an Avios booking for immediate travel, there is nothing to lose by holding off.  Once British Airways grounds the bulk of its fleet in the next week or so, there will hopefully be a period when it is easier to get through and fewer people are in need of urgent assistance.

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Category

British Airways and Avios

Comments (254)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Lorcan says:
    19 Mar19 March 08:37

    The same issue is happening with flights booked using OnBusiness points. These tickets are in theory completely refundable.

    I had a flight booked for the coming days which I wanted to cancel. Given the pressure currently on BA call centres my temporary solution was to change the flights for a future date much later in the year and hope that by then things will have calmed down and I can cancel.

  • Antony D'Emanuele says:
    19 Mar19 March 08:45

    We are in Borneo at the moment on a trip using Avios. Due to return on 25th March from KL. We called BA to try and bring forward the flight given the situation back home. They would not do so without purchasing a new ticket. A few hours later they cancelled the flight and after calling they moved us onto a Malaysian Airlines flight to LHR tonight. Given the situation disappointing that BA could not have been more amenable initially. On the plus side for BA they have responded to calls even at 2am in the morning so full credit to them…

  • Jonathan warren says:
    19 Mar19 March 08:50

    I have a First 2 4 1 flight to Atlanta on 15 April and booked car rental via BA and got a cancellation notice but the flight still has not been cancelled. I think it highly likely the flight will be cancelled. Will I get a voucher for this with First guaranteed or will I get taxes and Avios refunded and my reward extended?

  • Simon Cross says:
    19 Mar19 March 08:52

    What happens if a BA avios flight which BA has cancelled but I cannot reach the call centre before the flight date.

    Wil they still refund the Avios and the taxes after the flight date?

    They are creating these problems by removing the canceloption on the site

    • chai says:
      19 Mar19 March 09:01

      Same issue here!
      Don’t they have enough problems? Why not let half the requests be dealt online as before.

      I guess they hope to need to refund less cash and more vouchers.
      Money Money Money….9 Billion Euros not enough…

  • Shoestring says:
    19 Mar19 March 09:04

    I just downloaded the BA app to my tablet to see if the real cancel options were enabled but the answer is no. Still goes to voucher option only.

    Somebody said it works OK on the mobile phone app, might be worth a try.

  • Simon Cross says:
    19 Mar19 March 09:10

    i HAVE one ba Avios booking. Out to Santiago (which BA have cancelled) and back from Lima (which is still showing as flying).

    I cant reach them and my Santiago flight leaves in a couple of days.

    What happens as …………….

    • meta says:
      19 Mar19 March 10:07

      Your cancelled flight is leaving?

    • Connor says:
      19 Mar19 March 10:32

      Hi Simon,

      I’ve got the exact same itinerary booked but haven’t heard yet that my Santiago flight has been cancelled either. When are you due to fly?

      I’ve had success getting through to BA on the phone about other bookings – the sales option seems to be the quickest route to speak to someone.

      Good luck!

  • Judge says:
    19 Mar19 March 09:23

    Rob – just for clarity, did you previously say that for Avios redemptions where there is a range of Avios and cash options (is this only RFS flights?), that cancellation fees were now only £1?

    And also for clarity, presumably this does not apply when using the 2 for 1 voucher, as RFS charges here are fixed?

    • alan young says:
      19 Mar19 March 09:57

      That’s what I want to know, will I be charged just a £1 to cancel my European flight? My RFS was £17.50

  • Christian says:
    19 Mar19 March 09:45

    Can we drop the “don’t hassle the poor call centre” narrative.
    Firstly, it’s what they’re there for.
    Secondly, if BA didn’t try to shaft its customers there wouldn’t be any need to call them in the first place
    Thirdly, If they are kept busy then there is less prospect of them losing their jobs.

    • Anna says:
      19 Mar19 March 09:53

      I called You First yesterday to cancel one of my bookings and told the CSA about this. She was horrified and agreed that it would make more work for them and said she would take it up with management/IT, not that that guarantees anything!

    • I says:
      19 Mar19 March 09:56

      BA is trying to save the company and thousands of jobs with these measures. For obvious reasons it’s trying to minimise the number of refunds. Let’s all just stay calm and do our bit to help them through this.

      • Journeying John says:
        19 Mar19 March 10:42

        Really not sure why. BA have systemically screwed their customer base in recent years and this situation is of their making, compounded by under resourced contact centres… With multi BILLION pound annual profits, £8.5 BILLION in cash reserves, they can afford to be reasonable but are prioritising the shareholders and board bonuses over their customer base again…

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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