British Airways ended its Book with Confidence policy overnight. If you make a NEW booking, you are no longer covered by the policy.
Existing Flights
If you have any British Airways flights booked for travel BEFORE September 30, 2022, you continue to receive the protection of the Book with Confidence policy. This allows you to:
- Change your flight without paying any change fees (you would still pay the fare difference)
- Cancel your flight for a refund in the form of a voucher valid until September 30, 2023
The policy also covered award flights booked using your British Airways Avios, even when flying on a partner airline.
However, the policy never covered codeshare flights that were operated by British Airways but sold with an AA, IB, AY, etc. flight code.
If you are planning to make any changes to a current booking, be careful… as your next change will be your last one…
New Flight Bookings
Normal pre-COVID rules have returned. This means that:
- Non-refundable tickets are now truly non-refundable
- You must pay fees to change flights
- You must pay $55 to cancel award flights and redeposit the Avios (although if you paid less than $55 in taxes you will simply forfeit the amount already paid)
If you were thinking of a late summer trip to London / Europe, there is now some added risk to booking with British Airways. Previously, a positive COVID test meant that you could change flights or cancel relatively painlessly. Going forward, you will now be pointed in the direction of your fare rules and/or your travel insurance provider.
Bottom Line
Book with Confidence was always likely to go away at some point. Even though many people made leisure travel plans they otherwise wouldn’t (safe in the knowledge that they could always cancel for a voucher) many business travelers will have stopped paying for the most flexible fares. British Airways is definitely gambling on a bounce back of that business revenue compensating for the leisure traveler booking fewer speculative flights…
