British Airways faces accusations of refusing cash refunds for cancelled flights during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A number of passengers were quoted by the BBC as being in dispute with the carrier over the offer of vouchers rather than returning their money.
One couple reportedly spent £4,748 on five tickets for them and family members to fly from Newcastle via London to Dallas and Las Vegas.
They said they always wanted a cash refund but communicating that request to BA was difficult.
The airline used to offer an online facility where people could request money back for cancelled flights.
But that option was removed from the carrier’s website when Covid-19 struck and thousands of flights were being cancelled.
BA said it was because its system was not set up to deal with that volume of traffic, so passengers who wanted refunds were asked to ring the company instead.
Many passengers then struggled to get through on the phone lines as well.
Other BA customers who were after cash refunds for cancelled flights also claimed vouchers were automatically issued to them.
The airline said the voucher process is clearly worded but failed to explain why part of its website appeared to offer a refund but took people to a voucher application form instead, according to the Radio 4 You and Yours report.
BA told the BBC: “We will always provide a refund if a customer is eligible and we’re offering flexibility if any of our customers need to change their flights.
“Since March we have provided more than 1.67 million customers with cash refunds and more than 1.3 million with vouchers to fly with us that they can use right up until April 2022”.