One of the better “travel hacks” of the pandemic has been British Airways’ Book with Confidence policy. The Book with Confidence policy allows you to change or cancel any booking made with British Airways, including codeshares. The policy also covered award flights on any airline, provided they were booked using your Avios.

When you change a British Airways flight, you simply pay the fare difference. For cancellations, you receive a voucher that can be used until September 30, 2023. After some initial hiccups, the system now works very well and changes / cancellations can all be done online.

What has changed?

The prior version of Book with Confidence apply to travel before August 31, 2022.  This has now been extended until September 30, 2022.

Any vouchers you have / receive remain valid until September 30, 2023. (Your trip must be completed by that date.)

British Airways has also stopped providing Future Travel Vouchers for Avios bookings. This was previously a useful workaround for cancelling award tickets cheaply, or to extend the life of any Companion vouchers.

When you request a voucher for a reward booking, you are advised that you are accepting a refund.

However, it remains unclear as to whether the cancellation fee applies to these refunds. This could mean that Book with Confidence fundamentally no longer applies to award flights…

Bottom line

Having extended by a single month, I would be surprised if British Airways decides to make further extensions to the Book with Confidence policy. Since you can now book flights until February 2023, make sure to remember that travel after September 30, 2022 is no longer covered – standard fare rules will apply.