• 

  British Airways

  IATA/ICAO Code:

  BA/BAW

  Airline Type:

  Full Service Carrier

  Hub(s):

  London Heathrow Airport, London Gatwick Airport

  Year Founded:

  1974

  Alliance:

  oneworld

  Airline Group:

  IAG

  CEO:

  Sean Doyle

  Country:

  United Kingdom

British Airways has offered flexible rebooking options to passengers scheduled to depart London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) over the coming weeks, according to Head for Points. BA’s move comes just a few days after Heathrow’s management implemented a maximum passenger cap of 100,000 daily departing passengers over the summer, forcing several airlines, including BA, to cancel numerous flights.

This article will go into the finer details of the voluntary rebooking options offered by British Airways. Let’s take a closer look at the updated terms and determine the best option for each individual’s travel needs.

UPDATE: 2022/07/16 15:06 EST BY DEVANSH MEHTA

Statement from British Airways

This is incredibly disappointing news for our customers, coming at a time when we’ve already taken responsible action to reduce our summer schedule to slim our programme further, utilising slot alleviation to minimise disruption, provide certainty for travellers and help airports manage their resource.

As a result of Heathrow's request, we will now need to take a small number of additional flights out of our schedule and we will be contacting customers to apologise, advise them of their customer rights and offer options including rebooking or refund. We also know that some customers may want to review their travel plans in light of the current travel challenges and have introduced a policy that will allow customers to easily change travel dates so that they have additional flexibility.

Who is eligible, and what are the options?

The first category includes passengers booked on a British Airways flight (short and long-haul flights) from LHR on or before July 25th, with bookings made before July 10th. All such passengers can rebook another BA flight to the same destination within a year of the original departure date. Additionally, such passengers can also opt to change their departure airport from LHR to any other London airport. Similarly, the arriving airport can also be changed to other nearby airports in the same region.

It is important to note that passengers taking advantage of the mentioned voluntary rebooking schemes will not be charged for the fare difference when modifying their bookings.

For passengers looking to avoid the possibility of airport chaos altogether, BA is offering Future Travel Vouchers for the same value as the original booking. These vouchers can be redeemed by September 30th, 2023. Secondly, passengers scheduled to fly BA till September 30th can also get free travel vouchers for the future.

The “Book With Confidence” promise still stands

Even though British Airways ended its COVID-era booking policy in early June, bookings made before then are still allowed much greater flexibility. For bookings made on or before June 7th, passengers can already change their flights without any extra fees. Only the fare difference was payable. BA’s “Book With Confidence” policy offered the following advantages:

• Free cancellation up to one hour before departure (refund with an eVoucher redeemable while booking alternate trips completed before September 30th, 2023)
• No change fees while modifying trip details such as time and date (only for trips completed by September 30th this year)

Passengers covered by the “Book With Confidence” policy will still be responsible for paying the fare difference when modifying their trip. However, the more lenient voluntary rebooking policy mentioned earlier has no such charges.

Should passengers rebook now or risk last-minute flight cancellations?

With the daily passenger cap introduced by Heathrow, several airlines are forced to scale back operations. British Airways’ voluntary rebooking policy is quite clever as it benefits the airline and passengers. The carrier can recover or retain some of the revenue that would otherwise be refunded to passengers if their flight is canceled, while travelers can plan ahead and choose to postpone or modify their travel and entirely avoid airport chaos in the process.

Naturally, not all passengers will have flexibility in their travel schedules, so the rebooking program may not be for everyone. However, those passengers who can opt to postpone or modify their itinerary should consider taking advantage of the mentioned options.

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Are you booked onto a British Airways flight departing Heathrow over the coming weeks? If yes, do you plan on rebooking to avoid the potential mayhem? Please, let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Source: Head for Points