British Airways Increases Award Change And Cancellation Fees

Published: April 1, 2014

Yesterday I shared the news that British Airways Executive Club added change and cancellation fees for Executive Club Gold Card Holders effective immediately. Not only is it disappointing that Gold members now pay the same change fees as all other members, but it was also disappointing that they made this change without advance notice.

Well today it appears as if there’s more bad news when it comes to award ticket change and cancellation fees, as British Airways has raised these fees across the board.

Per the reward flight booking service fees page on ba.com, the fee to change or cancel an Executive Club award ticket has gone up by $15 (from $40 to $55):

Executive-Club-Award-Change-Fees
Old award ticket change fees

Executive-Club-Award-Change-Fees
New award ticket change fees

What makes Avios bookings interesting is that you don’t necessarily have to pay the full cancellation fee when redepositing an Avios ticket. In order to redeposit an award ticket and get the Avios back in your account you have to either forfeit the taxes or pay the $55 fee to get the residual taxes refunded.

This means if you book an award ticket between Tampa and Miami for 4,500 Avios plus $2.50 in taxes you’d just forfeit the $2.50 and get the 4,500 Avios redeposited.

Meanwhile if you booked an award ticket that involves fuel surcharges, like Los Angeles to London in first class for 75,00 Avios plus ~$500, you’d have to pay $55 in order to get the ~$500 refunded.

As was the case before, Executive Club award tickets can’t be changed or cancelled within 24 hours of departure.

While this change is disappointing, at the end of the day British Airways still has very reasonable change and cancellation fees compared to other programs, which often charge $150-200 per ticket. And beyond that it’s nice that British Airways doesn’t charge any close-in ticketing fees for awards booked within a few weeks of departure.

The lack of advance notice irks me a bit, though.

(Tip of the hat to Ghetto IFE)

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Arcanum Gold

February 18, 2016, 1:48 pm

I just got screwed over with a cancellation and thought I'd warn people about my experience. As Ivan Y said, they take the cancellation fee out of what you paid in cash, and if the balance drops below $0 they don't charge you the excess. In my case, the award I wanted was 9,000 points + $19 in taxes, but I chose the cash + points option for 6,500 points + $59. When I went to cancel, they refunded 6,500 points and kept the entire $59 (this was in AUD so the cancellation fee would have been $63). In essence, they kept the cash portion of the cash + points in addition to the taxes since the total was less than the cancellation fee. The lesson is, if you're making a speculative booking or one you may want to change, don't use the cash + points option unless you're prepared to pay up to the entire cancellation fee.

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cindy Guest

December 14, 2015, 2:29 pm

Is it still true that you can just forfeit the taxes to get a refund of avois w/o paying $55?

Jeff Guest

September 15, 2015, 12:13 am

Are the fees the same if I, say, change from the 1:30PM flight to the 5:30PM flight, with the same departure and destination points?

dizzydevil Guest

July 11, 2015, 12:46 am

as far as i know, you can change a flight booked within 24 hours at no cost at all but you have to call the british airways call centre. It cant be done online but can be done with the call centre for free.

Ed Guest

March 7, 2015, 11:41 am

When using BA, sometimes glitches prevent the website cancellation. Haven't experienced for US/AA flights, so the speculative bookings (or easy cancellations) are still a-go, but when it happens it SUCKS to have to call in AND to eat whatever high fee they quote you. I was quoted $80 (presumably the $55+$25, and balked, but was sent to the never-ending-queue which is how BA tells you to F!#K off)

British Airways Increases Award Change And Cancellation Fees

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