[Anonymous]

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

BA have announced they are changing Cancellation fees to be per coupon. Whereas now they charge for example a £300 cancellation fee on semi flex tickets to New York in Club – they will now charge £300 per coupon – so in effect doubling the cancellation fees to £600 from London. Connections from regions are they are additional coupons look like they will be stuck with even higher fees if on semi flexible levels.

the communication from BA on this is quite ambiguous and not very clear on say a MAN-LHR-JFK – but it isn’t a great step forward.

[FCTraveller]

Do you have the source for this, can’t find anything online.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

They sent out a communication advising as of 10th May they are changing refunds on Published fares. Will copy tomorrow as on iPhone.

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Here we Go

“From 10th May, British Airways will begin implementing a change to the refunds policy for British Airways fares. This will enable our trade partners to automate refunds as it will use industry standard ATPCO Category 33. The automation will lead to a reduction in the time taken to process refunds for British Airways customers. We will begin this process with public fares, and later private fares, helping to streamline the overall customer experience.

New Refunds Policy

We will be simplifying the policy to apply all cancellation fees per fare component. This will be reflected in the fare rules.
When combining non-refundable fares with refundable fares:
1. The amount paid on each refundable fare component is refunded
2. The amount paid on each non-refundable fare component will not be refunded
3. When combining fares, charge the sum of the cancellation fees of all cancelled fare components

Below on a LHR-JNB in R Class

Current refund rules
All fare components are refundable minus the largest cancellation fee
Fare paid £5000
Amount refunded £4700
Cancellation fee £300 (Largest fee £300)

New refund rules
All fare components are refundable minus the cancellation fee for each fare component.
Fare paid £5000
Amount refunded £4400
Cancellation fee £600 (£300 + £300)”

The example they use from a region isn’t clear – but either way will cost more now to cancel on semi flex tickets than it did before.

[Carajillo2Sugar]

TimFitzgeraldTC: I read it as being per fare component, rather than per coupon, so (eg) if MAN-LON-NYC is a through fare (ie one fare component), just the one cxxln fee applies for those two sectors.

That said, they state “It is not our intention to use this to increase the collection of penalty fees.”

Based on the examples given by BA, it would suggest they have done just that (and doubled it in some cases!).

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi Carillo2Sugar

I agree with you – but I’d need to take a close look at fare constructions now in case BA change the look to make MAN-LHR a separate fare component for example.

And yes – it is a blatant increase in penalties, to say otherwise is insulting.

[JohnHarper]

Perhaps the best response to this sort of blatant theft is to book with anyone else.

ABBA!

[Jimmy111]

the bit that made me smile was them saying:

‘The main driver behind this change is so that we can implement automation on the refunds process. It is not our intention to use this to increase the collection of penalty fees.’

Mmm

[Author]

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