British Airways

PANDP2017

Has anyone experience on the British Airways eVoucher scheme? We claimed one when our cruise was postponed. We had previously booked flights and seats, and BA issued one voucher. Now we attempt to book identical services, we've been told we can't use voucher for booking seats. How can this be, who can we go to for help. 

Browntoa

Quite clear that it can only be used for flights in the terms and conditions

bagand96

Maybe @Butts has a crafty workaround?

PANDP2017

They have said its not valid for booking extras such as seating, but my concern is  a proportion of the value of said voucher was originally paid for seating. Surely refusal to accept for identical services is unlawful? 

Should they not have refunded the seating monies by other means? Now I'm left with c£400 worth of voucher, to be used before April, that's not use to us. 

JJC1956

Did you opt for a voucher? I asked for and was given a refund for 2 flights that were cancelled by BA but was only offered a voucher when I cancelled a flight, my voucher is available until Apr 2023. BA told me that if there are any monies left over when booking a new seat that they will issue me with a new voucher.
In your case it seems a bit daft that even though your outlay included seats, that they will only allow you to book flights and obviously pay extra for seats, what bright spark marketing trainee came up with that money making scheme.

ratechaser

bagand96 said:

Maybe @Butts has a crafty workaround?

Well getting status is the traditional workaround to avoid paying for seat assignments, although possibly not that much help here.

OP - I assume you realise that all vouchers are now extended until April 2023, so you do have a couple more years to use them?

Butts

bagand96 said:

Maybe @Butts has a crafty workaround?

It sounds like the OP cancelled and it was a Flight Only Booking if they got an e-voucher.

They could take a punt and stick the lot on a Flight that is likely to be cancelled turning the voucher into cash if you get a friendly agent.

More realistically the two year validity gives scope for a future trip.

If the Flight had been cancelled they would have had multiple refunds for the various components of the booking that all come separately-ie Cash for Flight, Voucher possibly and Cash for extras.

Op - Did you book the Cruise and then the Flights to match rather than as a package from one source. Where were the flights to ?

PANDP2017

Thank you all for the feedback.

Yes we did book the cruise then the flights to match. With the cruise being cancelled but not the flights (initially) we opted for the eVoucher, not being away of the clause regarding seating. The flight was eventually cancelled, although later.

The flights are to Miami, 5 people travelling, our 70+ elderly parents and our 9 year old daughter. From what I see, we have little option to book seats, hence the challenge.

Loosing the value of the voucher, from the original booking, seat value, and re-paying for seat reservations, would give us a cost for seats to c£800.

@ratechaser, what's this 'status' workaround? 

ratechaser

PANDP2017 said:

Thank you all for the feedback.

Yes we did book the cruise then the flights to match. With the cruise being cancelled but not the flights (initially) we opted for the eVoucher, not being away of the clause regarding seating. The flight was eventually cancelled, although later.

The flights are to Miami, 5 people travelling, our 70+ elderly parents and our 9 year old daughter. From what I see, we have little option to book seats, hence the challenge.

Loosing the value of the voucher, from the original booking, seat value, and re-paying for seat reservations, would give us a cost for seats to c£800.

@ratechaser, what's this 'status' workaround? 

...as in frequent flyer status - if you are Silver or Gold tier with the BA Executive Club, one of the status perks is free seat selection from time of booking. It's unlikely to help you though unless someone in your party has that status and can act as lead Booker - if that's the case then all of you will get free seat selection. Even being Bronze will allow you to choose 7 days before the flight. For that matter, does anyone in your party have equivalent status with any of the other airlines in the OneWorld alliance, as that could also get you free seat selection?

The costs you are quoting suggest you might be flying in club world, which does have some pretty hefty seat reservation costs. It's a bit of a contentious subject with BA - they are pretty much alone in charging for business class seat selection, but it does tend to only catch out the infrequent flyers, because it doesn't take much more than a couple of long haul business flights and you'll then get status and not have to worry about seats any more...

By the way, there are rules to ensure that your daughter will get a seat next to at least one of her parents, but beyond that, I'm afraid you will have to pay if you want to all sit together...