Avios Cancellation Fee – How Much Will I Be Charged?
If you want to change your Avios booking to another destination, fly on a different date/time or cancel your booking for a refund you may be wondering what the Avios Cancellation Fee is. The simple answer is £35 per person… but more on this below!
Benefits of booking with Avios
One of the key benefits of using Avios to book your flights (other than saving you money!) is that the tickets are flexible! You can cancel or change your flights up to 24 hours before departure. Bear this in mind if you need or desire some flexibility to your travel plans
When can I cancel up to?
You can cancel your Avios flight up to 24 hours before departure on the outbound leg. After flying the outbound you can no longer cancel the inbound flight BUT you can change the date/time as long as there are Avios seats available.
If you need the flexibility of being able to cancel your return flight consider booking your flights as two one-way tickets.
Do I get my Avios back?
Yes, as long as you cancel before you reach 24 hours before departure you will get all your Avios back. These should appear in your account instantly.
Do I get my ‘taxes and fees’ back?
Yes, they are returned to your original payment card minus the lower of either £35 or the taxes you paid. (If you booked a one-way trip in Europe your taxes would be lower than £35.) This is the Avios Cancellation Fee of sorts!
What if I’m using a 2-4-1 voucher?
If you are using a BA companion voucher (Amex 2-4-1) you will also get it back when cancelling as long as you cancel your Avios flight up to 24 hours before departure on the outbound leg. This should appear back in your account instantly. Unfortunately doing this doesn’t extend it’s expiry date!
How do I cancel my Avios booking?
You have two options…
- The easiest option. Go into Manage My Booking for the relevant flight on the BA website. Follow the options for cancellation. (currently due to COVID you will have to use option 2 if you don’t want your Avios & ‘taxes and fees’ tied up in a future travel voucher.)
- Ring your local British Airways Executive Club service centre. Find the number here – https://www.britishairways.com/travel/contact-executive-club/public/en_gb
With both options you will get all your Avios back and the lower of either £35 or the taxes you paid. As long as you cancel up to 24 hours before the outbound flights departure.
If you are looking to kick-start your Avios with a huge 200,000 haul don’t forget to take a look at our guide to fast track yourself to a rather cool 200,000 Avios points – https://pointsuncovered.com/american-express/fast-track-yourself-to-2000000-avios-points/ – Enough to get a business class return to the Maldives!
2 Comments
Nerdy Norm
“Do I get my ‘taxes and fees’ back?
Yes, they are returned to your original payment card minus the lower of either £35 or the taxes you paid. (If you booked a one-way trip in Europe your taxes would be lower than £35.)”
Unfortunately not correct. I just cancelled an Avios BA flight where the taxes were only £8.60. They deducted the remaining notional £26.40 cancellation fee from the Avios points refund (converted as 4952 Avios points).
Points Uncovered
Thank you for the heads up. That certainly never used to be the case.