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NEWS: British Airways – BA holiday balances change, BA flight schedule for May and how to get hold of BA for a refund

BA flight schedule

According to London Air Travel, British Airways has extended the cancellation of all flights at London City and London Gatwick until 22 May 2020. I think it is highly likely to continue well beyond that date.

For May BA’s long haul routes are:

  • London Heathrow – Boston 1 daily 787-8
  • London Heathrow – Chicago 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – Delhi Service resumes on 1 May 20, 1 daily 787-8
  • London Heathrow – Dubai Service resumes on 1 May 20, 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – Hong Kong Service resumes on 1 May 20, 1 daily 777-300ER
  • London Heathrow – Johannesburg Service resumes on 1 May 20, 1 daily 777-300ER
  • London Heathrow – Lagos Service resumes on 1 May 20, 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – Los Angeles 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – Mumbai Service resumes on 01 May 20, 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – New York JFK 1 daily 777-200ER (2nd daily resumes on 01 May 20)
  • London Heathrow – Sao Paulo Guarulhos Service resumes on 01 May 20, 1 daily 777-300ER
  • London Heathrow – Singapore 1 daily 777-300ER (Singapore – Sydney sector remains cancelled)
  • London Heathrow – Tokyo Haneda Service resumes on 01 May 20, 1 daily 787-9
  • London Heathrow – Toronto Service resumes on 16 May 20, 1 daily 787-8
  • London Heathrow – Washington Dulles 1 daily 787-8

Remember, BA may not alert you if your flight is cancelled, so it is best to keep checking on check BA’s Flight Status page.

 

BA holiday balances

One of the questions I have received a lot is whether you should pay your balance on your holiday booking with BA. Obviously, if you do not wish to travel you can just change the dates or take a voucher if it is within the allowed timeframe. If you are not likely to travel and are not sure you want to rebook or take a voucher, it is a different matter in terms of whether to pay the balance. This is a tricky one as once you have paid there is a risk that your flight may not be cancelled and then even if there are still travel bans in place, you may be left with a voucher for a large sum of money. My advice is to leave it until the last minute to pay in the hope that BA cancels your flight first. BA had reportedly been telling people they did not need to pay their balance until 3 weeks before. BA have confirmed this in writing on their website on this page. My booking still shows the original date 6 weeks before, so I am guessing that BA’s IT may not update your booking. 

This is what the website now says:

We have reduced the ‘balance due’ date for all new and existing bookings that include a hotel and/or car. Your final balance is now due three weeks prior to your date of travel.

 

Getting a BA refund – which number to call?

I was emailed by Reader A who mentioned he was struggling to get through to BA in the UK to get a refund for his cancelled bookings. He actually lives in Hong Kong and so tried the Hong Kong number. He got through almost immediately. So if you are struggling to get hold of BA it may be worth trying an international number. I would recommend Skype for his which you can use for International calls like a normal mobile with their pre-pay service. Calls cost from around 1p per minute. If you are BA Gold or Gold Guest List then you should be able to access BA fairly quickly through the dedicated Executive Club numbers. 

You can find a list of all the international contact numbers here. 

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22 comments

  1. I take it that the numbers to use are just the ones listed on the BA website? Or are there others to try that are made less public? I did try the US last night and it just cut me off straight away.

    Our flight was cancelled yesterday and as I want to try and rebook a first class reward flight with a 2-4-1 voucher I think the only way I’ll pull it off is to cancel, get a refund, and try and rebook as normal in a few weeks time for next year.

    1. Hi Matt it may be easier to just wait and rebook/change the booking by phone when you can as refunds can take some time unless you have the Avios to spare. The numbers listed are the only ones I know of. I would try and pick a country with few flights rather than the US one. Japan or Hong Kong may be worth trying.

  3. It is a tempting thought that one can get through to BA on the gold number “fairly quickly” but this is not the case. They try to turn you away unless you leave it until 72 hours before departure for a cancelled flight. One needs to discuss options re voucher v refund, effect on status etc. And I will probably accept a voucher in lieu of a refund!

  4. I got through to Gold Executive club in UK really quickly to sort out a refund for my cancelled flight on 15th April to San Jose California . I had booked with a gold upgrade voucher, and the lady I spoke to was extremely efficient in dealing with everything, even when she had difficulty with the currency of refund, which the system insisted on giving me in South African Rand (as my membership is with South Africa executive club). She sorted out the refund back to my Amex, sorted out the voucher back to my account and extended for six months to November 2020. She said it could take three weeks for the refund to arrive as the office in India that handles refunds was closed or working on reduced basis (can’t remember exactly what she said). We got the refund back within 10-14 days. I wish I had got her name as given all the complaints I have read via this website, she deserves my golden ticket! Can’f fault BA this time with my experience!

  5. I’m in the UK and have found the 0800727800 number not too bad recently (I’m silver). I’ve used it about 6 times for refunds and a booking. Whilst it was difficult to get through a few weeks ago, it seems better (at least when I’ve used it). Yesterday I tried at 1157 and it said call later. At 1204 I got through and the whole call took 10 mins.

    Oh and Michele, the ads are fine

  6. Hello again Michele. I have just got through on the gold line. He was unable to say anything about discounts for status except to say that it was being looked at.
    In the end I took a refund for my early May Catania flights because in mid September the avios cost on a part cash/part avios deal would be 17000 return as opposed to 42000 return. September is a lot cheaper than May! I would have rebooked had I been able to!

  7. Hi Michelle. I hope you do not mind me contacting you on a completely different matter to that of refunds, since I managed to get my refund fairly easily as I am a BAEC Gold member. My status renewal date for BAEC membership is 8 June 2020. I have already achieved Gold status for 2020/2021 having amassed 2100 tier points. Since BA have reduced the threshold for Gold status by 30% for those whose renewal dates were in April, May or June of this year, I was expecting them to also reduce the requirement for the Gold Upgrade by the same amount, so that I could then receive it. This appears not to be the case since my BAEC account is still showing that I require 400 tier points to get the voucher. Do you know if BA have any plans to change their policy here? If not have you any suggestions as to whom at either BA or BAEC I could contact to ask if I could be considered for the upgrade voucher as I have no chance under the present circumstances of acquiring the extra tier points. I am a bit disappointed as my company were about to send me on several long haul visits during March, April and May, all of which were cancelled owing to Covid-19. I would have easily got the extra 400 tier points.
    Cheers Cliff.

    1. I believe they are evaluating the voucher qualification on an individual basis so I would call the gold line with the PNRs if what has been cancelled.

      1. Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately my company suspended all overseas travel before any of my business flights were booked. I have only one personal return flight to Cyprus that was cancelled and that was worth very few tier points since I booked economy and upgraded using Avios. It seems like I will not get the upgrade voucher, which seems a bit mean on behalf of BA. Why reduce the tier point requirement only for status renewal and not for the other qualifications?

        1. The voucher is a soft perk. Its not, and has never been part of “qualification” sadly.

  8. On the balance-due timescale, we had been told that from a BA agent but still got the standard email at the 6-week point for later holidays – so clearly BA IT is not all joined up.

    Also, despite the advice to only call within 72 hrs of travel, there are many other ‘deadlines’ that require calling BA – like open jaws or adding a 241 return leg – which we have just done having been up at 0100 this morning to book it. We got through to the Gold line after a 12-minute hold and, as ever, the agent was excellent – she even checked up with BA Holidays, about a deposit which we had asked to be refunded on 21 March, and said that it had been processed on 14 April. I can’t help feeling that a simple email confirmation, at the time of the refund, would have alleviated our concern over whether anything was actually being done about it, and saved unnecessary time on the phone to already overloaded phone agents.

  9. BA HOLIDAYS DATAPOINTS

    I have several BA Holidays booked throughout the year. Sardinia is the next one ( 03rd June) & we were waiting on BA to change the dates where we could do anything.

    Last Thursday ( 16th April) I called the Silver Line and was forced by their system to redial the following number for BA Hols (( 0800 727800). I got through fairly quickly, roughly 10 min wait, and spoke to a lovely young man. Using existing advice from Michele & the team here I told the chirpy chap that I was happy to either take a voucher against another existing booking OR just have the balance transferred to it internally but wanted to check if I had it added to booking X and that got canx/ we were still unable to travel then would I be able to shift it a 2nd time to another booking ( Y) at that point.

    He advised me “actually Mr Powers i’m not going to do any of that for you, and here’s why…..”
    He then explained that at present the flights hadnt been cancelled and the hotel was nonrefundable*( see below on this) and that BA WILL NOT ALLOW VOUCHERS OR CREDITS TO BE APPLIED TO PRE EXISTING BOOKINGS so I would risk losing everything. He then said that he would manually change the due by date to 13th May but that I should be aware id receive no notification saying this and that in MMB the date would show the original due date however BA’s internal IT would know that the due date has been changed.

    I am happy with this for now however I am very unhappy that BA will not allowing crediting to existing bookings ( made prior to their “book with confidence” policy came into effect). I have two BA Holidays which are comfortably over £5k each, along with several others, for this year and them not allowing me to offset against those imho is an appalling CS approach and a kick in the face for long term loyalty from customers.

    Considering the hotel booked is the Pullman in Sardinia and Accor are currently offering free cancellation at all their properties I am not sure how BA can maintain that the hotel rate remains “non refundable” ( I do understand that BA Hols were the agent I booked through however the knowledgeable agent I spoke to said that it was because the hotel said it was non refundable which is clearly wrong).

    Michele etal if you’d like to use my experience as a data point and/ or would like more details, up to and including a DPA/ GDPR to discuss the above then please reacho out to me via my registered email on here or DM on Insta : SilverInSix

  10. I have sent two emails requesting a refund for a cancelled flight scheduled for 9/4/20 referenced
    The emails were dated 30/3/20 and 3/4/20.

    Emmanuel A Hanson.

    Can I please receive a reply in due course. Thank you

    1. This is not British Airways. This is a blog called turning left for less. I have removed your Exec Club details from this comment so people can’t see them! You need to go to the British Airways website. http://www.britishairways.com

  11. A question?

    I had my second trip cancelled (first was a holiday booking in March,so had all that refunded) last week and called for a refund, return of Avios, and 2-4-1 now with an extra 6 months to late December 2020.

    However, I have a further 2 reward flights booked with 2-4-1’s later this year.

    Do you know if I can request they swap out one of the 2-4-1 vouchers used on those for the older one I just had back, as it’s unlikely I will use it?

    I know this could well all prove academic anyway and I will just end up with 3 refunded rewards trips and 3 extended 2-4-1’s, assuming BA survive if it continues that long anyway!?

    Thanks.

    1. Yes you could but you would probably have to pay the change fee and usually there would have to be availability for what you want still available as I’m pretty sure they would have to cancel and rebook. But clever thinking on your part to manage them

      1. Thanks Michele.

        I kind of thought that would likely be the case that I’d have to pay the change fee, cancel and rebook?

        Anyway, I’ve got a bit of time so I will keep an eye on availability and what’s happening anyway in regard to flights and further voucher and status extensions?

        I could always do something short haul with it as a last resort?

        Cheers.

  12. Hi Michelle

    HKG has been reduced to 3 weekly in May and the outbound flight is now a lunchtime departure instead of the evening slot.

    1st June it returns to twice daily but I expect that will be revised along with many other schedules nearer the time. I’m due to go on 3/6 but I fully expect that to change or even be cancelled.

Comments are closed.