This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jul/22/ba-cancellation-invoice-claim-travel-insurance
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| BA cancellation: flying into turbulence trying to land an invoice | BA cancellation: flying into turbulence trying to land an invoice |
| (2 months later) | |
| Last October I booked return flights on British Airways from London to Faro for my wife using my Halifax debit card. The flight was for the end of May but my debit card had an expiry date in January. Nothing on the BA website pointed out the significance of this, and my card was renewed in the normal way. Earlier this year my wife was discovered to be suffering from an aortic aneurysm and, after major surgery, was advised not to travel. I tried to cancel my booking online and obtain a cancellation invoice from BA. The ticket I had bought was non-refundable, so I needed the cancellation invoice to claim on my travel insurance. At this point I discovered I could not make any changes online as the credit card I was now using had a new date and was not acceptable to the BA website. I therefore had to telephone BA to request the cancellation invoice and refund of airport taxes. | Last October I booked return flights on British Airways from London to Faro for my wife using my Halifax debit card. The flight was for the end of May but my debit card had an expiry date in January. Nothing on the BA website pointed out the significance of this, and my card was renewed in the normal way. Earlier this year my wife was discovered to be suffering from an aortic aneurysm and, after major surgery, was advised not to travel. I tried to cancel my booking online and obtain a cancellation invoice from BA. The ticket I had bought was non-refundable, so I needed the cancellation invoice to claim on my travel insurance. At this point I discovered I could not make any changes online as the credit card I was now using had a new date and was not acceptable to the BA website. I therefore had to telephone BA to request the cancellation invoice and refund of airport taxes. |
| After numerous phone calls with no resolution, "Philip" admitted an error had been made and my original request had not been dealt with properly and he even managed to get the taxes refunded to me on 28 May – but still no cancellation invoice. I telephoned again and spoke to a young lady who could not see why I had not received the invoice and promised to request it again. I have also written twice to the customer relations department to complain, but each time I was told that they only dealt with complaints about flights. RB, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire | After numerous phone calls with no resolution, "Philip" admitted an error had been made and my original request had not been dealt with properly and he even managed to get the taxes refunded to me on 28 May – but still no cancellation invoice. I telephoned again and spoke to a young lady who could not see why I had not received the invoice and promised to request it again. I have also written twice to the customer relations department to complain, but each time I was told that they only dealt with complaints about flights. RB, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire |
| BA admits you did not receive the cancellation invoice due to "an isolated technical error". This has been rectified and you were sent it by email. You were correct to say that if the payment card used in the original transaction has expired then a refund cannot be processed online. You would have to contact customer relations to provide them with a new valid card. The company also waived half the £30 cancellation fee you would have paid had you been able to cancel online. You now have all the paperwork to allow you to claim for the tickets on your travel insurance in the usual way – admittedly many months later. | BA admits you did not receive the cancellation invoice due to "an isolated technical error". This has been rectified and you were sent it by email. You were correct to say that if the payment card used in the original transaction has expired then a refund cannot be processed online. You would have to contact customer relations to provide them with a new valid card. The company also waived half the £30 cancellation fee you would have paid had you been able to cancel online. You now have all the paperwork to allow you to claim for the tickets on your travel insurance in the usual way – admittedly many months later. |
| We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@guardian.co.uk or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number | We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@guardian.co.uk or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number |
| Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |