BA REFUND ISSUE

Rupert Myer, Melbourne, Australia

I recently travelled from Sydney to London and on to Nice a few days later with British Airways (BA) after I purchased a first class return ticket on the BA website. Just before I was due to return to Sydney from Nice, I realised that I needed to fly into Sydney the evening before I was booked to arrive. There was no BA flight schedule option that would have got me back to Sydney in time for my commitments. Knowing this, I chose to purchase a one-way flight from Nice to Sydney on Emirates and cancelled the remaining portion of my BA ticket online.

The procedure for cancelling the ticket at the BA website was very straightforward and I followed the prompts. The final window specifies that the refund amount cannot be advised, that it may take several days to calculate it and that there will be no grounds to dispute the sum offered. As an Emerald Oneworld member and a frequent traveller on the network, I’ve never had a problem that would lead me to distrust the airline. I’d expected to receive a fair and reasonable refund, less some administrative penalty for cancellation. Following my completion of the process, I promptly received an email advising me the refund was being processed and that any money owed would be refunded to my credit card.

A week later, I received the promised email with a fearsome confidentiality warning. It advised that a refund had been processed and that an amount of A$168.83 (US$151) would be refunded. There was no explanation offered as to how that number had been reached other than it included a channel fee of A$20 (US$18) and a penalty of A$0.

As the purchase price of the ticket had been A$9,756 (US$8,726), the effective net one-way fare was A$9,587.17 (US$8,573) – nearly A$1,000 (US$894) more than the scheduled one-way first class fare. Although I had been warned not to dispute the refund, I contacted BA to enquire about the minuscule refund sum. I was told quite bluntly and in a disinterested way that in the original online ticket purchase, it was made,“perfectly clear” that, if the ticket had to be cancelled after the commencement of the journey, penalties would apply.

According to the advice received after cancellation, there were no “penalties”. However, the consequence of cancellation was the virtual forfeiture of the ticket. To add to the ignominy of the situation, there was no expression of regret or concern that such a significant loss had been incurred. I was told that I should read the details more carefully next time. It’s not clear what I would learn from doing so.

My concern is that there should be clearer warnings about the potential forfeiture of a ticket after commencement of the journey. There should also be greater clarity given to the other options available that would include deferral of travel to another date or an open dated return. The online cancellation offers no other prompts. It’s difficult to make a calculated decision about the cancellation of a ticket if no refund amount can be advised at the time that the decision needs to be made. So, money lost, frequent flyer miles lost, a sour memory of a bad customer experience and “no correspondence will be entered into.” It seems an odd way to honour loyalty.

BA REPLIES:

We are disappointed to hear of Mr Myer’s experience in cancelling a flight on our airline. As an Emerald Oneworld member, and frequent traveller of the network, we value Mr Myer’s loyalty.

Our customer relations team, who specialise in issues encountered during or after a journey, are happy to speak with Mr Myer to clarify the charges in this particular case. We would appreciate it if Mr Myer could contact our local Australian customer relations team on 1300 767 177, or alternatively email the customer relations team through the form at www.britishairways.com.

As an experienced traveller, Mr Myer’s

feedback regarding his customer experience is extremely important to us and we would like to thank him for his valued patronage.