British Airways - how do get an invoice when you cancel a flight?

Sobryma

Due to my father in law being terminally ill we cancelled a BA booking to Vienna. As we hold travel insurance through our bank we requested a receipt so we could file the claim, when filed we received the message that it may be delayed but would normally be issued in 28 days.

While it is bizarre that what should be a basic administrative task can take a month we waited....and waited.....and waited (in fact my father in law has passed away while we have been waiting).

Our original request was made on 14 February, we have chased this week and have just had a response sending us a link to start the request again.

Obviously we could do without this right now but I have chased again.

What has been others experience with getting invoices out of BA??

MasterPoo

You say "Invoice" in your title, but then "receipt" in the OP?

Invoice is a Bill/request for payment and a Receipt is confirmation of payment/sale, i.e. your proof of payment.

Will your Insurers not consider the claim if you showed, proof of purchase/payment receipt, if you bought online you should have the receipt via email? When I've booked my flights online I've been emailed receipt as PDF, is this not sufficient?

MasterPoo

Or have you misplaced the receipt and now require a copy?

Sobryma

MasterPoo wrote: »

You say "Invoice" in your title, but then "receipt" in the OP?

Invoice is a Bill/request for payment and a Receipt is confirmation of payment/sale, i.e. your proof of payment.

Will your Insurers not consider the claim if you showed, proof of purchase/payment receipt, if you bought online you should have the receipt via email? When I've booked my flights online I've been emailed receipt as PDF, is this not sufficient?

Yes statement or receipt is needed. And your thoughts appear logical unlike the system BA operate.

BA operate a system which must have involved zero thought.

You get emailed confirmation of original booking.
Your invoice and details are online.
To cancel you have to phone and they cancel the booking.
You request they email statement which obviously they ignore.
They refund to the degree available on that booking.
BUT
They then kill/delete your booking entirely so you can't access original details of cost and refund.
You then have complete an online form to refund, you can't phone. They ignore that request or lose it due to poor systems or under staffing, and ask you to start again.

Sobryma

MasterPoo wrote: »

Or have you misplaced the receipt and now require a copy?

I am not seeking to solve world hunger - all I would like is for someone to email a pdf statement showing booking cost and refund.

This is beyond BA's systems.

Westin

I was under the impression that the insurers would normally take the original paperwork (eticket) as your proof and refund minus the APD which they would ask you to claim back from the airline. I'm not sure a cancellation invoice is normal from an airline, which is why your request might be falling on deaf ears at BA. You would get a cancellation invoice however if you booked and cancelled a package holiday with a tour operator. Is that where the confusion might lay?

Sobryma

Westin wrote: »

I was under the impression that the insurers would normally take the original paperwork (eticket) as your proof and refund minus the APD which they would ask you to claim back from the airline. I'm not sure a cancellation invoice is normal from an airline, which is why your request might be falling on deaf ears at BA. You would get a cancellation invoice however if you booked and cancelled a package holiday with a tour operator. Is that where the confusion might lay?

The problem is they do not send you an invoice when you book and the insurer wants one, you do get a summary as such showing payment and itinerary and a link to an online booking, but when they cancel the booking they erase all details. I may be able to cut and paste a few emails together for changes and try to find the credit card refund (I got no receipt for this) but the insurer wants a statement.

BA obviously know this is an issue as they do provide an online link to request:
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/webforms/public/en_gb?eId=120001&wfpId=customer_receipt
The problem is they are incapable of completing the request.

Sobryma

Westin wrote: »

I was under the impression that the insurers would normally take the original paperwork (eticket) as your proof and refund minus the APD which they would ask you to claim back from the airline.

I might actually try printing the three or four emails and copy of credit card refund and see if the insurer has a degree of competence that BA do not, otherwise it will be Christmas before it is resolved.

MasterPoo

OP invoice and receipts are two totally different things and hence why I was getting confused by your thread.

You paid for tickets and you are saying BA did not issue you a receipt, instead only issued you with a itenerary summary and a link.
You cancelled your flights
You then tried to access the booking details on their website to print off the receipt, via the same link that was in the intenarary summary email, but your booking has disappeared.

My questions to you are the following:
When you made the original booking, BA would've had to
a. confirm your purchase by way of issuing you with a receipt
b. also emailing you the itenerary summary and link to access your account on their system for you to do things like online check-in, upgrade, choose meals etc.

So have you checked your emails to ensure you were not issued a receipt?

You could also potentially provide insurers with bank/credit card statement which should reflect the purchase and refund, have they said this is not allowed?

Sobryma

MasterPoo wrote: »

So have you checked your emails to ensure you were not issued a receipt?

You could also potentially provide insurers with bank/credit card statement which should reflect the purchase and refund, have they said this is not allowed?

Yes I was issued with a series of e-tickets for booking and amendments, so if I take all three emails I believe I can get to itinerary, charges etc. so if I add them all up I can get to the total cost. I received no notification on email when I cancelled just a refund to card so would need to copy card statement.

They delete the booking details when you cancel so you can't access fees (i.e. they do not leave many details, certainly no charges, cancellation cost, refund etc. on their live system so when you to link the is little or nothing there).

Sobryma

Good news - British Airways have emailed to apologise for delay