24 April 2023 , 12:21
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British Airways customers who accepted travel vouchers during the Covid-19 pandemic have been given more time to spend them.
The vouchers had an expiry date of September 2023 but travellers have now been given an extra 12 months to cash them in.
This means you now need to book a trip and have completed this journey by September 30, 2024.
If you book a flight that is more expensive than the value of your voucher, you'll need to pay any difference if the new fare is more expensive.
This is the third time BA has extended the expiry date of the vouchers, which were offered to people after their trips were disrupted.
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If your flight was cancelled between March 9, 2020 and November 19, 2020, and you accepted a voucher after your flight was cancelled, you can swap your voucher for a cash refund.
You can claim a refund on the BA website through this online refund form. This applies to customers who booked flights-only with BA.
But if you accepted a voucher before your flight was cancelled, you won’t be able to ask for a cash refund now - instead, you’ll need to spend your voucher by September 2024.
If you're a British Airways Holidays customer, meaning you booked a packaged trip through the airline, you should have been refunded automatically.
If you booked through a third-party, you’ll need to contact the company who booked your trip if you’ve yet to receive a refund.
Figures released last month showed International Airlines Group - the parent company of five airlines, including BA- was sitting on around €600million (£533million) in unused vouchers.
BA said 700,000 vouchers were used last year and it was sending reminders to customers who hold outstanding ones.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, many airlines started to issue travel vouchers rather than cash refunds for travellers whose flights had been cancelled.
Travellers then claimed that these vouchers were difficult to claim and use for future flights.
The Civil Aviation Authority, the UK regulator, criticised airlines for its initial response to the pandemic including a backlog of refund claims in 2020.
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It said the process did improve as airlines recovered as the crisis wore on.