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Like just about every major passenger airline in the world, British Airways has spent most of the past 16 months issuing passengers with travel vouchers for flights that either it or its customers have cancelled courtesy of the Covid pandemic. Up until today, these vouchers had an expiration date in April 2023 but with travel on a lot of BA’s routes still significantly restricted, the airline has now extended that expiration date by a further 5 months.
British Airways Travel Vouchers
For British Airways customers who have had their flights cancelled by the airline (and who accepted a voucher in place of a cash refund) or who have chosen to make the most of the airline’s Covid cancellation policy and postpone their travel plans, there are two types of travel vouchers in circulation – Future Travel Vouchers (FTVs) and eVouchers.
Future Travel Vouchers were the vouchers that the airline was issuing for a significant part of last year (as its systems were shown up to be woefully inadequate to deal with the travel crisis) and share an identification number with a passenger’s ticket number. These vouchers cannot be used online (you have to call BA to use them) and can only be used by the passenger in whose name the ticket was originally issued.
eVouchers (details here) are the vouchers that British Airways has been issuing since late last year* and are considerably more flexible than their older counterparts as not only can they be applied online (to a variety of British Airways bookings), but they can also be used for any passenger the voucher holder chooses to use the voucher for.
Initially, the British Airways vouchers were set to expire at the end of April 2022 but that deadline was pushed back to 30 April 2023 in January of this year, and now that deadline has been pushed back giving customers until 30 September 2023 to consume the full value of their vouchers.
Holders of British Airways vouchers should note that it’s not enough to have travel booked by 30 September 2023 if they wish to use their voucher(s). 30 September 2023 represents the date by which all flights booked using one or more vouchers must be completed.
*British Airways has converted some FTVs to eVouchers in recent months.
British Airways Extends Its ‘Book With Confidence’ Policy
In addition to extending the validity of its eVouchers and Future Travel Vouchers, British Airways has also extended the travel dates covered by its ‘Book With Confidence’ policy.
Up until now, customers have been able to cancel their bookings or change the dates of their bookings without penalty (any fare differences would have to be paid) for travel due to be completed by 30 April 2022. British Airways has now extended that travel date to 31 August 2022. You’ll find more details on BA’s Book With Confidence Policy on this webpage.
Bottom Line
British Airways has extended the validity period of its Future Travel Vouchers and its eVouchers through 30 September 2023 – that’s a 5-month extension. The airline has also changed its book with confidence policy so that it now covers travel that’s due to be completed by 31 August 2022 (it previously only covered travel due to be completed by 30 April 2022).
I could not find the answer…. easily…. on the BA site…… to the following question.
Does this extension include bookings made with Avios and does it include partner metal?
thanks!
This applies to all FTV/eVouchers issued by BA. Vouchers from canceled Avios bookings and from BA booking for travel on partner airlines are all included.
Doesn’t appear to apply to their Companion Vouchers. I still have one showing as expiring in Oct 2021. Weird they’ve not extended those.
I suspect a companion voucher extention will be on its way.