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British Airways – Book with Confidence extended again
If you have been thinking about booking a trip with British Airways or have one booked for after April next year and would like to move it, there is some good news. BA have further expended their policy. However, they have added some terms and conditions about when you must cancel holidays by.
Existing bookings – booked before 3 March 2020
There is no change but there is a change t the terms and conditions for holidays. If you are due to depart between now and 30 September 2020 you can claim a voucher to the value of your booking, valid for travel until 30 April 2022.
Vouchers can be used as payment, or part-payment, for a future booking. Your new trip booked with your voucher must be fully completed by 30 April 2022 (departure and return). You should receive your voucher by email within seven days of your application. I received mine within 10 minutes and I am hearing that from most people now. You still have to call to rebook but that is expected to change soon.
Do not make any changes to your booking itself, fill in the voucher form here. You can do that until check-in closes for your flight.
For BA holidays changes or refunds must be made by the following cut off times:
The following booking and travel dates are eligible:
Bookings made before 3 March 2020
Eligible for travel dates up to 30 September 2020 | Notice required – 48 hours
You can find more information about vouchers in this section.
Bookings made after 3 March and new bookings
For new bookings, there is a change of dates as it now applies to bookings for travel until the end of August next year and they have added some extra terms and conditions for holidays.
Changing your booking
You can change the dates and destination of your booking without incurring a change fee, although you will need to pay any difference in price. This applies to bookings made from 3 March until 30 September (was 31 August) 2020 for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021. Change booking Terms and Conditions
Cancelling your booking
If you decide you no longer want to travel, you can cancel your booking and get a voucher to the same value for a future booking. This applies to bookings made from 3 March until 31 August 2020 for journeys that are due to have been completed by 31 August 2021 (was 30 April 21)
BA Holidays
- Bookings made from 3 March to 10 June 2020
Eligible for travel dates from 3 March to 31 December 2020 – Notice required – 48 hours
Eligible for travel dates from 1 January to 31 August 2021 – Notice required – three weeks - Bookings made from 11 June to 30 September 2020
Eligible for travel dates from 11 June 2020 to 31 August 2021| Notice required – three weeks
More flexible vouchers for BA customers
One of the biggest frustrations has been the lack of ability to use vouchers online and the fact that even if you paid for a holiday for other people, they still each get a voucher. BA has now made a change to solve both of these issues. I have previously covered the use of vouchers online.
BA has launched a Mega voucher to deal with bookings paid for by one person for the whole booking. The current Book with Confidence terms state that each customer on a booking receives their own voucher. That means, if a party of 4 are travelling on a single booking they each receive their own individual voucher for the value of their ticket. BA are now able to combine the total of all individual vouchers within a PNR into a single “mega voucher” that will go to the lead passenger to redeem. The even better news is that this will be a e-voucher that can be redeemed online.
You will need to phone BA to do this.
Abu Dhabi and other routes suspended
BA are starting to trim down their winter schedules already and there are a number of routes that have been suspended from late October until the summer schedule starts at the end of March 2021. These routes are:
- Gatwick to New York
- Gatwick to Cape Town
- Gatwick to Las Vegas
- Heathrow to Abu Dhabi
- Heathrow to Pittsburg
It also looks like Osaka and Durban will be removed from sale but it is not official yet. I would expect BA to continue cancelling flights to smaller cities, particularly in places where they could get you to your destination with a codeshare or like Abu Dhabi where it is only a 90-minute transfer by car from Dubai airport.
5 comments
These changes are definitely a positive but tbh we have given up trying to book anything. We have had w cancellations this week and a third is pending ( hotel not operating but BAH blissfully unaware and currently selling tickets for people arriving there next week so it’s been escalated for them to get this confirmed by hotel. They can’t accept our proof from the hotel as it’s in the form of a FB message!).
Our new policy is to wait until literally 3-4 days before hand then book somewhere based on current situation and hope HM Gov doesn’t ruin things while we are away.
I do not exaggerate when I say we’ve had eleven cancellations so far this year ( many being total reroutes which even then have been canceled as the reroutes have themselves been canned) and we just can’t deal with the, near weekly, emotional rollercoaster involved any more.
We’re only silvers but I think if we got all the TPs for the flights we couldn’t take we’d be GGL at this point!
Sadly I think last minute bookings and flexibility are the way forward at the moment. For example I have Portugal booked for next month but if it’s not back on the exemption list we will have to change (ridiculous that it’s not ok but France is despite having far far more cases and rising!). I will be writing about how to spot likely places that will or won’t be on the list next week.
All – can anyone explain how the flight pricing works when presenting a BA Future Travel Voucher for another booking? Today (11-8) I applied for a voucher, £800 in value. I have to call the call centre to use it (unlike an e voucher I have just discovered). Despite my new chosen flights showing on the BA website coming in at £800 ish also, the call centre quotes me £1,600. Offset by the voucher, an additional £800. The agent is unable to explain why, all she could tell me is because it was not a new booking. I challenged several times and I am still none the wiser. Can someone explain what is happening, and what I should watch out for when I come to use them another time? Are these vouchers really worth anything after all – in this case it would appear not if you get my maths.
This is completely wrong. It is a new booking and the agent is talking rubbish. It sounds like she was trying to change a booking maybe? Did you definitely have confirmation of the voucher before you tried? I have used a couple myself and had no difference in what was showing on ba.com. Only other reason would be if the fare had gone up after you looked at it. If it still shows £800 I would try again.
Thank you Michele. I’m now trying to get my vouchers consolidated as suggested. I am struggling online via customer relations, they dismiss it right away as being possible, in a wholly unhelpful reply. I’ll try by phone as suggested above when I have some patience and in September when it may be quieter?! Who knows. And for the first time in years Easyjet gets the business for these flights! BA doesn’t help itself. Thank you.
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