BA future travel voucher - retrospectively changing the value

mainsc

Just had a very odd call from BA. Like others, we had our trip in 2020 cancelled due to the pandemic and we received a refund in future travel vouchers. The voucher we received was £600 more than the original cost of our holiday but we didn't think much of it at the time, lots of companies were offering incentives for taking vouchers over cash and we assumed this was part of this.

This ended up being pretty useful as when we went to rebook in October 2021 the cost had increased. We rebooked a holiday and called BA to pay with the voucher. They confirmed the amount and we paid off the holiday with it and thought nothing more of it.

Then today my partner received a call from their Germany office (already suspicious, but aparrently due to 'staff shortages'). They are saying the extra £600 was actually in error, due to a technical error in the system and lack of staff training. They are now claiming we owe a further £600 for the holiday. Surely this isn't right? I understand that there has since been an issue identified, but we rebooked with the new amount in good faith and they confirmed the amount over the phone twice, once when we were refunded and again when we rebooked. Has anyone else had a similar issue? Worth noting they have not communicated any of this by email, only by phone. Are we liable for this money or are they just trying their luck?  

Brie

I'd be waiting for a demand for money in writing not on the basis of some random phone call.  

But whatever has happened if they say you owe more and you are unwilling to thye should be willing to give you a free and final refund of everything without any deductions due to their error.  If they aren't willing to do this then I would be raising a complaint about the whole situation.  It's possible that they may decide there's some middle ground that you might find a reasonable compromise but that would be your choice.

I do think that the price has been going up on everything - a friend who was going to book a trip last autumn has just found it will now cost 50% more.  And then there is the increases in petrol/fuel prices that will need to be covered some where as well.  

mainsc

Thanks for the advice. We have asked to escalate and they provided an email, so will push to get this all in writing before we do anything else. Certainly not intending to pay anything more on top! Last time we book anything with BA I think.