[bombayteddy]

I had over 300000 Avios in my BA Executive Club account; and they expired in October last year. I was saving these for a trip to New York, which had to be postponed indefinitely because of COVID. Other airlines have auto-extended expiring miles because of this; but not British Airways!
Moreover, the expiring Avios were summarily deleted without giving me ANY warning notice via email in advance…which I was expecting since BA did inform me when they were due to expire previously in 2019; and I made an online transaction to renew them.
I have written to BA via the form on their “Customer Support” page but, so far, no response.

[Swissdiver]

We’re back to normal. This is it. Other alliances are as strict. I am for instance saving my Flying Blue miles because I could manage to fly with them shortly after I realised I could loose my miles…

[bombayteddy]

My point is: shouldn’t they have the decency to give advance warning before they delete the miles? Especially when they have established a precedent of doing so, which people reasonably expect them to follow.

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1350949]Moreover, the expiring Avios were summarily deleted without giving me ANY warning notice via email in advance…which I was expecting since BA did inform me when they were due to expire previously in 2019[/quote]

I feel VERY sorry for you. If it was me, I would have been kicking myself for not posting a reminder in my diary.

However, it does state in the T&Cs:

“14.4. If a Member has not earned or redeemed Avios points or purchased or transferred Avios points in accordance with the Conditions of Use for 36 consecutive months, all Avios points that have accrued to that date will expire“.

For those with any BA Amex card, just one small purchase using it will cover this.

[cwoodward]

Cathay miles no longer expire as long as there is activity on the account within 18 months.

[bombayteddy]

Thank you for your sympathies.
I am aware that Avios expire if there is no activity within 36 months. When they were about to expire in 2019, BA had the decency to send me a reminder, upon which I purchased an additional 1000 and renewed the Avios. I thus had the reasonable expectation that they would do the same in 2022…which they didn’t. Nor have they had the courtesy to respond to my message.
I will NOT be flying them again.

[RoyJones]

[postquote quote=1351029]

BA miles do not expire as long as there is activity on the account within 18 36 months.

[cwoodward]

Plus 1 for BA……..its seems not often that one can say that

[ASK1945]

[quote quote=1351097]BA miles do not expire as long as there is activity on the account within 18 36 months.[/quote]

…………. and if you have a BA Amex card, a spend of a few GBP to generate a handful of Avios is all that it is needed.

But, I think that the bombayteddy’s primary anger is the failure of a reminder to do this. Whilst I agree (with him) that BA’s failure to respond to his email message is poor, we do have a responsibility to look after our own financial affairs – which is what Avios is a part of.

[AlanOrton1]

I have a degree of sympathy for the OP.
BA probably should have reminded him but their IT systems are so poor they’ve probably lost the ability to. They are quite unique in this day and age that their IT regresses whilst most others move forward.

If you have the time you could try and call and hope you get through to a receptive agent. It’s a long shot but might be worth a go.

As Ask1945 says, best to keep an eye on programmes and their points as companies will wipe your balance per their Ts & Cs. Hertz did this to me back in the second half of 2021, but I was able to plead my case and make a booking which reactivated them.

3 users thanked author for this post.

cwoodward, ASK1945, bombayteddy

[MS]

Hate it when people blame the company when it’s clearly the customer’s fault.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Montysaurus, FaroFlyer

[Chris in Makati]

[postquote quote=1351029]

I had around 40,000 Asia Miles expire last July because I’d missed the deadline for extending them. I called Cathay Pacific and they reinstated them without question. I used them soon after that to redeem a Premium Economy flight from Manila to London.

[CathayLoyalist2]

In my 34 years of flying mainly Cathay I have had 2 suchlike examples. I had forgotten about expiry dates and on both occasions Cathay reinstated the miles. On one of those occasions CX suggested if I could change my dates by a couple of days I could get an upgrade . That is what I call loyalty working both ways

1 user thanked author for this post.

bombayteddy

[Chutzpahflyer]

I
I used miles to book a long haul flight with Singapore Air, but the event I was due to attend was postponed a year because of COVID, so not surprisingly I cancelled my flights. Singapore then deleted my miles because they became out of date. After several extended phone calls to Krisflyer they did have the decency to restore them…

[Fclass]

I and my good lady had Miles and More Lufthansa points which twice Lufthansa reminded us would expire March 31 2023. Duly converted these into shopping vouchers! Same applied to Accor hotel group, so bought a few more to keep them.
BA used to remind about expiring points and I can only assume the removal of this commonly used politeness reflects their current view on loyalty.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, bombayteddy

[Author]

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