Travel Solutions: Getting a refund for a cancelled flight from 2020

I paid for this flight with a combination of miles and cash. I'd like a refund of my 150,000 points as well as the $770 in taxes. Can you help me? — Louis Hyman, Baltimore

A: It's highly unusual for an airline to lose a reservation like this.

Normally, you would be able to send British Airways proof of your reservation, and it would then fix the problem. I see that you tried to send the airline copies of your reservation, which included all the information it would have needed to track down your missing ticket.

British Airways got its wires crossed when you asked for a refund. I thought it might have erased your ticket because the flight was more than three years ago. Most airlines retain ticket data for at least 10 years, but they may move older ticket data to an archive database, where it can be more difficult to retrieve.

A brief, polite email to one of the British Airways executives I list on my consumer advocacy site, elliottadvocacy.org, might have helped.

I reached out to British Airways on your behalf. A representative contacted you and apologized for the loss of your tickets.

"Due to the age of this record, it was purged from our system," the agent explained. British Airways referred your ticket to its refunds team, who retrieved the purged data.

"They have confirmed that a full refund of all taxes paid has been processed back to the original form of payment," the representative said. You also received a full refund of your points.