British Airways Extends Voucher Validities & Cancellation Fee Waivers

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British Airways has today announced that it is extending the validity of all the travel vouchers it has issued (and will issue) for a period of up to two years and it has confirmed that it is extending its flexible changes policy to cover bookings for travel through the end of July 2020.

British Airways Cancellation Fee Waivers

If British Airways has cancelled your flight(s) you are entitled to a refund of whatever cash and Avios you paid for your trip – you do not have to accept a voucher.

However, as of today, if you have a booking for travel through 31 July 2020 but you no longer want to take your trip, British Airways will issue you with a voucher for future travel to the value of your booking. The voucher will be valid for travel until 30 April 2022 and can be used as payment, or part-payment, for a future booking as long as that booking is for travel that is fully completed by 30 April 2022.

British Airways Voucher Validity Extensions

If you have already accepted a voucher from British Airways it will now be valid for travel through 30 April 2022 regardless of what the voucher’s original expiry date was.

A lot of the vouchers that I’ve been hearing about have had an expiry date of one year from the date of issue or, worse yet, one year from when the original ticket was issued so this extension to 30 April 2022 is a big improvement and may be of small comfort to anyone who was miles into accepting a voucher when they should have been offered a refund.

Warning

If you are considering canceling an upcoming trip (with travel through 31 July 2020) you should hold off doing anything for now as there’s no benefit to canceling just yet. You’re currently allowed to cancel a trip (and receive a voucher for the total cost of the trip) up to 24 hours before you’re due to fly so why not wait and see if British Airways does you a favor and cancels your flights between now and the day before you fly?

If the airline cancels your flights you’re entitled to a full refund (which is much better than a voucher with an expiry date) and, if it doesn’t, you can cancel closer to the date of departure and you’ll be in no worse of a position than if you canceled today.

No one should be accepting a voucher for future travel if there’s a chance that they are (or will be) entitled to a refund (see more here).

Bottom Line

These are nice improvements for British Airways customers but they’re still no more than what a lot of other airlines are offering (including 3rd rate airlines like the US3) and it’s not even close to being as generous as what Emirates is now offering its customers.

I’ll give the airline proper credit when it starts offering refunds to customers who were misled into accepting vouchers and when it updates its website to, once again, allow customers to request the refunds they’re entitled to.

Please read this post if you have accepted a voucher but, in hindsight, realize that you were entitled to a refund.