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Just a few days ago, British Airways finally extended its ‘book with confidence policy’ as it because obvious that limiting the policy to travel through September was looking short-sighted. At the time I speculated that it probably wouldn’t be long before British Airways addressed the expiration date of its travel vouchers and, following an update today, that exactly what the airline has now done.
Travel Voucher Expiration Dates Extended
Towards the beginning of the pandemic, British Airways was issuing ‘Future Travel Vouchers‘ to its customers regardless of the currency used to purchase the original fare. These vouchers were (and still are) more than a little inflexible (no name changes, a phone call is required to use them, etc…).
Later in the year, British Airways started to issue ‘eTravel Vouchers‘ for cash fare cancellations and it began to convert the Future Travel Vouchers issued to cash fare cancelations into eTravel Vouchers (Avios bookings that are cancelled continue to be issued with Future Travel Vouchers). These eTravel Vouchers are considerably more flexible than the Future Travel Vouchers as they can be used online, they can be used on any type of booking and they’re not linked to any one passenger.
Both versions of BA’s vouchers were originally given an expiration date of 30 April 2022. As of today, however, the British Airways website shows both types of vouchers expiring on 30 April 2023 (link).
British Airways Amends Its ‘Book With Confidence’ Policy Again
It was only two days ago that British Airways updated its book with confidence policy but the airline has made another small change to the policy today.
When the extended policy was rolled out on Tuesday, the new wording did not include a deadline by which travel would have to be completed if the change fees were to be waived. As of today, however, that is no longer the case. A quick look at BA’s ‘book with confidence page’ now shows that changes fees are only being waived for travel that is due to be completed by 30 April 2022.
This probably won’t be a major issue for most people as you can’t actually book travel that far out just yet (and you won’t be able to so for a few months) so I don’t think we have much to complain about here. Based on the speed that this update to the terms was rolled out, I suspect that this was an oversight on Tuesday rather than something British Airways has hurriedly decided to add in.
Bottom Line
British Airways has just extended the validity period of its Future Travel Vouchers and its eTravel Vouchers through 30 April 2023 – that’s a one-year extension. The airline has also made a small change to its book with confidence policy to reflect that change fees are only being waves for thrave due to be completed by 30 April 2022.
[HT: Reader Andy]
This is great! I have 4 vouchers on First Class flights that I was starting to get nervous about.
Any idea if they are going to extend the executive club memberships too one more year? At present it is virtually impossible to collect enough tier points to retain gold
No mention yet and I wouldn’t expect BA to say much before March/April (when it will be a lot more obvious just how much traveling UK citizens and residents will be able to do).
Thank you Ziggy!
Yeah, If I can’t fly to London, there is no way I’ll be able to keep Gold.
Any word on extending the Chase Companion certificates?
None so far.