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Help with Refunds on British Air

AshvEd

Our Tauck Bridges trip to Italy with our grandson was cancelled. We were stopping in the UK to see our daughter and booked one leg from Heathrow to Rome on British Air. All they want to offer are vouchers and they are not transferrable. We don't plan to take this route again. Any guidance on getting a refund would be appreciated.

Comments

AlanS

Since the UK is no longer a member of the EU it may not help, but EU regulation 261/2004 covers all that stuff ("The Flight Compensation Regulation is a regulation in EU law establishing common rules on ... airlines may be required to make payments or otherwise assist passengers, in cases of delays, flight changes/cancellations or denied boarding.. ") It may still cover you, however, since the flight was to an EU country. Google it and see if you find any help.

This article in Forbes doesn't paint a good picture. I just noticed this important piece of information from the Forbes article, "Under the law, passengers who accept a voucher have waived their right to demand a refund later."

British

Yes, you MUST NOT ACCEPT a voucher, that is what BA hopes that passengers will do. I hope you have not waived your rights. Our flights back from Italy were supposed to be on them, and we got our money back. And as far as I know, EU rules still apply in hte UK until the end of the year in a transition period.

AshvEd

Thanks Alan and British. We have not cancelled nor accepted a voucher. I plan to be on the phone with them next week.

British

Another clarification Ed, when was your trip supposed to be? You basically have to keep waiting for BA to cancel, then you can definitely get money back. They drag their feet doing this because of the voucher thing. Here is what happened with us. We purchased our tickets thru Amex, when we called them to cancel for us several weeks ago now, the agent said to hang on and wait for BA to cancel as they were still showing the flight was a go for June. Anyway, she called us back as she had discovered that the leg back from Venice had been cancelled, so she was able to get the refund then and there. She said it might take one or two billing cycles for us to see on our account, but it did not, is was there really quickly.

AshvEd

Flight is 23 July 2020. It sounds like we should wait this out and hope that BA will cancel it.

KathyEvans

I had multi city flights with BA which I booked through Orbitz. We had all business class tickets, leaving 4/6. I had to spend a lot of time on hold but I finally got Orbitz to issue a refund. The refund is from BA. My husbands ticket was credited back to our cc, but not mine. My credit came exactly one month later. Don't give up! I refused a voucher and remained very nice through all of my conversations with Orbitz and BA. Just keep asking for supervisors. Good Luck!

OmaGoh

What I have learned is that you do not cancel the flight, you wait for them to cancel.

TravisW

We're going to be in the same spot with BA for our August trip, so curious to hear of any successes folks have had with refunds.

AshvEd

All is well that ends well. BA sent an email this morning cancelling our flight on 23 July. After about 15 minutes on hold (very short time), I spoke with an agent and asked for a refund. Bingo! It should be put back on our CC in about 10 days. Thanks to all for your guidance.

British

Woo hoo glad to hear Ed!

AlanS

I think "YMMV" (your mileage may vary) describes what is going one these days. I just had a win-win situation with Delta. I noticed there was a better itinerary for our upcoming flights for XMAS Markets on the Rhine which I booked last January. So I called Delta to see what it would cost me to change. The agents said the change fee would be be around $195(?) per ticket. I noted the new flights were cheaper so it should have been pretty close to a wash overall in the end. The agent (and a supervisor) said they couldn't just change the flight, but what they could do, just for me, was to cancel the first flights, issue a refund and book the new ones as a new booking. That was even better than I expected since they didn't charge me the change fee! New, better, cheaper, flights, no change fee, and refund posted to my AMEX in two days!!! Now the only question is will the tour get cancelled. I'll tell another flight story, with American, in a separate post.