Negative Amex Avios card

withabix

Henny9 wrote: »

I can see these terms in americanexpress.com/lacidc/en/mr/tc.shtml - but that is for a different card. Mine is an Avios (not Membership Rewards) card and doesn't have terms about points advances or paying back unsatisfied advances on closure, or even a value for the Avios.

And I'd surely only be liable for the amount by which they are GENUINELY out of pocket, which they would need to subtantiate, rather than some arbitrary amount, given that I haven't agreed with them (in terms and conditions) an arbitrary monetary value for the Avios. And I'd be very surprised if they'd want to reveal exactly what they pay Avios for their points, since that is highly competitive information. All of which means they are a little bit stuck?

They will have dealt with this exact situation many thousands of times. You will have received the printed T&Cs when you were sent your card.

You will find that you are the one who is 'a little bit stuck'.

If I was a sceptic, I would have assumed that you booked refundable hotel rooms just so that you could get 25,000 Avios to go towards some flights, followed swiftly by the cancellation of those rooms.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt though!

You will probably get a definitive answer to your question if you post it here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1046913-amex-ba-master-thread.html

I know that is on the BA section of the forum, but that particular thread is dedicated to MR and Avios.

Henny9

Hi,

So over 6 months on nothing has happened... and I've closed the card. Result - 25,000 free avios! Also I double-checked the T's & C's, and there's nothing at all about charging you for the avios.

So it seems this little mistake worked out to my advantage quite nicely... I'd highly recommend others trying the same based on my experience, there's no reason you can't make the same 'mistake'... as long as you don't care about keeping the card, I've thrown mine away and I'm collecting via the Tesco card now :-)

Thanks!

Henny9

redpete

Are we supposed to congratulate you on cheating the system?

guesswho2000

You could well have knackered your internal rating with Amex though, I've read that they don't forgive this sort of thing easily, so you mayo have trouble getting a card with them in future.

[Deleted User]

You will not be 'charged' for the points, you will simply continue to have a negative points balance with Amex. While this is the case, any points earned by spending that you do on the cards will go to clearing the negative balance.

There is nothing to stop you from cancelling the account but if you reopen an Amex account again, don't be suppressed if the negative balance reappears.