BA staff demanded death certificate for refund, but dad was still alive: daughter's shock

A woman was horrified when British Airways refused to refund her flights without a death certificate after her father fell gravely ill – even though he was still alive.

Liz Horne was on holiday in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on November 29 when she learned her 88-year-old father Kevin Duvall was critically ill. The 61-year-old immediately contacted BA to change her and her husband's £3,500 business-class tickets for an earlier flight home to Bristol.

While on the phone with customer service, Horne claims she was told she would need to buy new tickets and then submit her father's death certificate to claim a refund. Shocked, she explained her father was still alive, calling the instruction "insensitive."

Horne ended up paying £2,500 for new tickets, returning home two days before her father died on December 1 after a six-year battle with dementia.

In the following weeks, while organising the funeral, she says she had to send the death certificate four times and made numerous calls and emails chasing the refund. The money had not arrived as of the report.

Horne, who said she will never fly BA again, stated: "It's not the great British institution I thought it was."

A British Airways spokesperson acknowledged the customer's experience "fell short of expectation" and said they were in direct contact to resolve the matter.