Last Friday, British Airways cancelled the reservations of people who booked $257 round-trip tickets from London to Tel Aviv on last Monday. That’s exactly why I wrote to wait several days before booking other non-refundable travel to see if the fare would be honored.
It seems unfair that airlines give themselves 4 days to cancel tickets when passengers can’t do the same, but that’s life I suppose. As this flight doesn’t touch the US, you won’t be able to file a DoT complaint to get reimbursed for non-refundable expenses.
Some people are reporting that they have received a £100 BA voucher as compensation. You can contact your travel agency or British Airways directly to request the voucher if you didn’t receive one.
Commenter Joe was able to fly on his flight last week before BA decided to cancel the tickets. That’s similar to other past cases where people who booked travel for the same week did have success, such as when DDF members booked first class tickets to Hong Kong for just 4 United miles and flew that same week.
Sometimes these things work and sometimes they don’t. But they can’t take away the thrill of the hunt.
What has your history been like with flight glitch fares?
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24 Comments On "British Airways Not Honoring London-Tel Aviv Fare"
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thanks Dan for reminding us to wait on booking other travel.. its hard to resist the urge but i’m glad i did
I think it’s very unfair that we cannot cancel after 24 hours without penalty but they can cancel after 24 hours and no penalty I think that is unfair.
I’m curious what the EU regulations are on mistake fares, and what people’s options would be in any case. I’m not personally affected by this deal, but I think it’s insane that airlines are not bound to the same terms they force on customers regarding cancellations. Also, with the rise of ULCCs serving the TLV market, it’s not so clear what a mistake fare is anymore. There are potentially many customers who booked this in good faith, not knowing it was a “mistake fare.”
I flew in Jan. 2018 on last year’s August Air Canada GLITCH, for $297 EWR-TLV (B787!) and return.
I ended up getting a %15 AC discount code, because the domestic flight (EWR-YYZ) was delayed an hour (stop in YYZ was 2 hours instead of 3…)
I flew in 2015 for $257 as well with Air Canada,
They are amazing when it comes to glitches
I haven’t received any email from them
Check your ticket online
Ye I csnt access it… But i didnt get a mail……
Got the Delta glitch a few years back and took my whole family of 4 to LA for a little over $200. Too bad I didn’t know I could have gotten Business Class for the same price 🙂 A few of my relatives also got the glitch fare and we had a mini-family reunion.
We’re they supposed to send a cancellation email, because I don’t see that they did.
I also didn’t get…..
It’s crazy. It’s good I checked thanks to Dan
Does anyone know what’s going on with searching Awards on avios since Friday it doesn’t seem to work
https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/milespoints/american-flights-arent-showing-british-airways-avios-awards-heres-book/
I specifically did not mention American Airlines searches I know that issue, I’m talking about searching award flights in general
Once you put in the info it just searches forever and never comes to the next page
do i get my money back ???
Should get it back automatically.
i did not get an email but dont see the booking. at the very least how do i get my money back
Should get it back automatically.
you mentioned in your cathay and jal deval post that there are less fuel surcharges using asia miles from jfk to lhr rt then using avios how much are the range of the surcharges using Cathay miles? thank you
Does BA apply surcharges on AA? Looking at a one way flight from PTY-MIA using Avios, the taxes on AA are approx. $75 but $144 on BA. Why?
Dan,
It was a good try, we all know these deals don’t always work out – thanks anyway!
The cancellation email – which was written in very poor English – referenced a 100 GBP voucher per person that BA would be issuing as compensation for this. But there was no information as to how to collect this. Anyone have further info?
Thanks!
I asked the agency that website redirected me to, and that’s their reply:
“We are very sorry to inform you but your booking got cancelled by British Airways due to their system glitch (Manifest Fare Loading Error) .
As your booking agent we asked airline for alternate flight / reschedule options however British Airways denied and instructed us that they have cancelled and processed full refund of total amount paid by customer .
We sincerely apologise for this unusual error from British Airways. Airline will also provide £100 voucher per person as compensation.
Please note we will process your refund after your confirmation, however it might be possible that the amount will reflect in your account or card in 03 to 05 business days.
The voucher information : –
Can only be used by affected customers, discount is not transferrable and has no cash value.
*Bookings to be made via the original travel agent. Discount is not available via BA directly or via another agent.*
New booking must be made by 31 July 2018 for travel by 30 June 2019
£100 per customer to be used against a future booking on BA services.
Voucher is not valid for bookings made after 31 July 2018
The voucher will be provided to you within 3 to 5 working days by email after your confirmation.
We do require your confirmation by replying to this email.
Furthermore information please feel free to contact us on 0207 4848 909 during our business opening hours.”
I got a different email, as per the bottom of this post.
Yesterday, I still hadn’t received my refund, so I emailed them to inquire, which got a reply that said I didn’t receive my refund because I didn’t reply to the previous email (!)
They also suggested the vouchers would only be given if I booked the same itinerary at the new fares – but that’s not what the first email said, at least the way I read it.
Anyone else having this problem?
I’m also perplexed by their strange English – who writes ‘wanna’ in a business communication? It makes me wonder who I’m dealing with here.
most recent email:
—
We are sorry for the delay caused in replying to your mail and apologies for the inconvenience,
As per your ticket status we can see no one has applied your ticket for full refund yet.
If you would like to claim full refund then we do require you to acknowledge this email then will apply your ticket for refund and will take to credit amount 08 to 10 working days.
Airline is also offering 100GBP as an Voucher per passenger that can be adjust for making a new reservation through our Omegaflightstore website.
Do let us know your opinion, would you wanna make new reservation with adjusting old fare with 100GBP voucher per passenger or would like to proceed for full refund.
—
Previous email:
—
Dear Customer,
This email is to notify that your booking got cancelled by British Airways due to their system glitch (Manifest Fare Loading Error) .
As your booking agent we asked airline for alternate flight / reschedule options however British Airways denied and instructed us that they have cancelled and processed full refund of total amount paid by customer . We sincerely apologise for this unusual error from British Airways. Airline will also provide £100 voucher per person as compensation. Please note we will process your refund today only, however it might be possible that the amount will reflect in your account or card in 03 to 05 business days. You will receive £100 voucher from British Airways as compensation . You can also reconfirm this same flight cancellation information with British Airways ( contact details 0124 412 0715 ) .
Also as we are your booking agent , we want to help you with new booking however it will be as per availability of seats and fares . We will adjust the full refund amount with your new booking with us and waive off the new booking admin fee as one time gesture of goodwill .
We understand these changes made by Airline do causes great inconvenience to travellers but as your booking agent we remain committed towards you and wanted to notify .
For any assistance please contact us on +44 020 7484 8909 (UK) , +33 9 7107 0777 (France) , +34 927 88 00 66 (Spain) , +39 0344450008 ( Italy ) , +49 351 88 84 99 99 (Germany ) , (+1) 856-666-2221 / 646- 862-9546 / 213 -221- 3551 / 650-741-0032 ( United States ), +51 170 03337 (Peru), +57 132 88996 (Colombia), +52 2225768099 (Mexico) , If you cannot call us abroad , you can send email to our customer service email address “customer.support@omegaflightstore.com ” . Alternately you can visit our website and raise your concern using “contact us” option .
Kindly acknowledge this email by replying to us.
Thank you for your understanding & patience.
Kind Regards ,
Omega Customer Support
First, I maintain my appreciation to Dan – we all know we try jumping to get a good deal, and while this one wasn’t the $350- NYC-TLV deal, there WAS a chance it wouldn’t go through.
That said, I was able to confirm seats etc and didn’t get cancellation OR refunds when everyone else posted they did. I was hoping it was b/c we had our seats reserved/confirmed.
However, we JUST received the official cancelation email from Omega, and that the refund will process in the coming days. They also mentioned that BA is offering the 100 pound PER passenger comp – not per booking (7 in my case).
Thanks again Dan