Avios account closure

callum9999

makemdano wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]I appreciate that if I was a frequent or business traveller from one of the London airports then I would probably have kept tabs on the situation. I'm not and due to temporary disabilities it just hasn't been convenient for us to use anything other than local airports for holidays.

Although we are talking about points with a small nominal value, the intrinsic value is substantial. If I had such a valued amount in a bank account that I had not contributed to for 3 years I would expect the bank to at least contact me before closure, and even if they did close the account I would be able to reinstate this at some later date[/FONT]

I suppose my biggest BoC is that now that I have taken steps to keep my account live by buying from Estore, I could still lose everything if the relevant store does not credit my points in time. I've followed the "missing points" route on the advice of Avios CS to try and ensure they are applied on time but its the total inability on my part to be able to excercise some control over what is happening.

It wasn't your lack of knowledge that I was objecting to, it was your attitude about how it's all pointless and a big rip-off. It's not. Though you did say in your first post that they meant so little to you that you saw about them expiring but couldn't even be bothered to read a blog post on it - so it's bizarre that they're suddenly so valuable now!

As would I, but air miles aren't cash.

I've already told you how you can stop them expiring (though I assume you missed it while writing this post) - you haven't taken proper steps to keep the account live, you've blindly guessed at how you can do it and may have guessed wrong.

makemdano

callum9999 wrote: »

A rather risky way of doing it, as they can equally expire in the other scheme. If you have any Tesco points or money in a topcashback account, transfer some of them now. If not, you'll most likely either need to redeem them before the end of the month or if your estores purchase doesn't credit in time, buy some Avios directly from BA for an extortionate rate!

Thanks again, just transferred some Topcashback which should be there in 14 days

callum9999

makemdano wrote: »

Thanks again, just transferred some Topcashback which should be there in 14 days

Good, hopefully they get there in time then!

makemdano

callum9999 wrote: »

It wasn't your lack of knowledge that I was objecting to, it was your attitude about how it's all pointless and a big rip-off. It's not. Though you did say in your first post that they meant so little to you that you saw about them expiring but couldn't even be bothered to read a blog post on it - so it's bizarre that they're suddenly so valuable now!

As would I, but air miles aren't cash.

I've already told you how you can stop them expiring (though I assume you missed it while writing this post) - you haven't taken proper steps to keep the account live, you've blindly guessed at how you can do it and may have guessed wrong.

Generally I concede that Avios points may well be useful to members in a certain location and with different circumstances to my own. As I said if I lived in closer proximity to the London airports I may have taken a more proactive approach, I knew at the time I couldn't use them and regrettably wasn't aware of the 3 year rule. I maintain that the Ts&Cs are not clear as to what constitutes an earned point.

They're not cash but they have value.

Correct I hadn't but I still maintain that it is not a customer focused practice to simply close an account with an intrinsic value of over £700 without first attempting contact. It's not even a substantial cost to the company as the whole process could be automatically generated and the notification sent via email a totally handfree process. (I always read all of my emails although there are many who do not so some would still lose out)

Anyway, hopefully one or several of the attempts I've made to protect my position will prevail

jpsartre

makemdano wrote: »

So not only do we have the limitation of where you can fly from and to, thefurther limitation that even if the cariiers do fly the routes the route may still not be included in the scheme and an even further limitation that there are a limited number of seats per flight that you can pay for with points.

Of course there are limitations on where you can fly, if a partner airline doesn't fly where you want to go you obviously won't be able to spend your Avios that way. All airlines will have a limit on the number of reward seats available. If you are serious about using your points you need to read up a bit on how the Avios scheme works, otherwise I fear you will be in for even more disappointments.

makemdano

jpsartre wrote: »

Of course there are limitations on where you can fly, if a partner airline doesn't fly where you want to go you obviously won't be able to spend your Avios that way. All airlines will have a limit on the number of reward seats available. If you are serious about using your points you need to read up a bit on how the Avios scheme works, otherwise I fear you will be in for even more disappointments.

Not being a frequent flyer I guess I naively assumed that it was more straightforward.

Collect point
Points=flights
Exchange points for flights

I've mostly flown Jet2/Easyjet/Flybe/Ryanair with occasional packages from Thoms. using Avios has always been second best

If there'd been money changing hands I would have dug some more but hey, they're just points :rotfl:

callum9999

makemdano wrote: »

Generally I concede that Avios points may well be useful to members in a certain location and with different circumstances to my own. As I said if I lived in closer proximity to the London airports I may have taken a more proactive approach, I knew at the time I couldn't use them and regrettably wasn't aware of the 3 year rule. I maintain that the Ts&Cs are not clear as to what constitutes an earned point.

They're not cash but they have value.

Correct I hadn't but I still maintain that it is not a customer focused practice to simply close an account with an intrinsic value of over £700 without first attempting contact. It's not even a substantial cost to the company as the whole process could be automatically generated and the notification sent via email a totally handfree process. (I always read all of my emails although there are many who do not so some would still lose out)

Anyway, hopefully one or several of the attempts I've made to protect my position will prevail

As your connection from Newcastle to London is completely free of charge, not living near London shouldn't really matter a great deal (other than making short trips to the continent a bit of a hassle!). Especially as most of the good deals aren't from London - all my best avios redemptions have been in North and South America and Australia.

If you didn't notice they were about to expire then they may have saved hundreds of pounds, so the cost is quite substantial! And you seem to be overlooking what the scheme is actually designed to do. It is for frequent fliers - you clearly aren't a frequent flier with BA, so it's hardly surprising that it doesn't really work out too well for you!

jpsartre

makemdano wrote: »

Not being a frequent flyer I guess I naively assumed that it was more straightforward.

Collect point
Points=flights
Exchange points for flights

Well that is the gist of it but there are several hurdles which can block the move from step 1 to step 3. One thing, as you've discovered, is reward seat availability. Another is taxes and surcharges which are payable on longhaul redemptions making most longhaul redemptions in economy very poor value.

makemdano

Well, I seem to have met with some success, BA do fly to Olbia from Heathrow, the problem always seems to have been the transfer from Newcastle to Heathrow!

Caz3121

makemdano wrote: »

Well, I seem to have met with some success, BA do fly to Olbia from Heathrow, the problem always seems to have been the transfer from Newcastle to Heathrow!

this will be due to the flight times. There appears to be 2 flights a week
Saturday outbound leaves late enough for you to fly down from NCL and connect
Saturday return arrives back too late to connect
Wednesday outbound leaves too early from LHR to get there same day
Wednesday return is fine to connect back to NCL
Alternatively you would need a hotel in LHR or other arrangements to get there
Should be 15,000 Avios + £35 each if you qualify for RFS (same price for going NCL-LHR-OLB or just LHR-OLB)