Why the British Airways ‘triple Avios’ offer is worse than we thought

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• BIGTED says:

  9 Sep9 September 12:06

  As a newly retired person who has just achieved Silver status with BA, I thought I was on to a winner with the TRIPLE points deal as I was going to Malta, Phuket and Barbados in the allocated time. Then I realised that the caveat used was NEW bookings and TRAVEL during that specified period.What an absolute bummer.
  I am sure that the vast majority of leisure travellers do not book and travel within 3 months.
  (Must admit the punctuation in the BA offer was terrible).

  • idrive says:

    9 Sep9 September 14:18

    true, i book a few weeks before or less 🙂

  • Keith says:

    9 Sep9 September 14:45

    Similar for me – just re-gained my silver, and have return flights booked in each month of the offer. All booked a few weeks ago or more. Some reward for our loyalty! Just another way which BA demonstrate that they don’t care.

    • harry says:

      9 Sep9 September 14:47

      I think it’s a bit of an unfair/ naïve gripe tbh – they are trying to drum up new business, not give extra discounts to tickets already bought

      as to whether they should be sympathetic on the phone if you have a little moan, that is a different matter 🙂

• Dan Mortimer says:

  9 Sep9 September 14:02

  I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed but the Book & Uprgade tool is not working and hasn’t for the last 5 days!! (Since the Triple AVIOS offer was posted??) Interestingly, though, the book with AVIOS part does work – I have Tweeted BA three times asking if the Book & Upgrade tool will be working before the sale ends, “we are aware and working hard to fix it” was the response! I was pointed in the direction of the booking line, to which I responded that reward seats are few and required customer flexibility – and booking them would take hours over the phone!

• Callum says:

  9 Sep9 September 14:21

  The dodgy punctuation remains – ‘You can earn triple Avios on all British Airways flights and when you fly with our partners American Airlines, Finnair and Iberia on flights between Europe and North America.’ which implies that only flights between Europe and North America are included. This is not true.)

  Maybe I’m not quite as literate as I thought, but that clearly says all BA flights anywhere in the world, and the partner flights between Europe and North America to me. Granted the standard of English is low (though I’ve seen similar on this normally well written blog many times! – it’s much more important for BA to get it right though), but it seems clear enough to me.

• Wyle E Coyote says:

  9 Sep9 September 14:24

  For heaven’s sake, when a promotion is too complicated that your own PR people can even understand it maybe, just maybe, it needs to be simplified.

  • Wyle E Coyote says:

    9 Sep9 September 14:25

    *can = can’t

  • Nick says:

    9 Sep9 September 22:20

    Thing is, it is a very simple offer. And, to be frank, a good one too.

    The problem here lies not with the guys who came up with the offer, but (I assume) the marketing department who made a right mess of communicating it.

    I hate to be critical, but whomever is responsible for this really needs to ask themselves if they really are the best person to run this sort of thing. It’s embarrassing. I’ve had ‘difficult conversations’ with juniors on 20k a year for lazy wording like this. If anybody on 50k+ a year had anything to do with this, they are overpaid.

    The English language can be like a Swiss watch: beautiful, and precise. This promo is more like the counterfeit version which is such a pity because rather than getting excited about what a great offer this is, we are bemoaning what it is not because they are incapable of clear communication.

• Pateldaku says:

  9 Sep9 September 14:55

  English is not my first Language, but I don’t see anything wrong with the Punctuations.
  2 categories
  and in the second 3 sub categories.

  You can earn Triple Avios

  1. on all British Airways flights
  2. when you fly with our partners
  a. American Airlines
  b. Finnair
  c. Iberia
  on flights between Europe and North America

  1. 2. separated by “and”
  a b separated by “,”
  b c separated by “and”

• KK says:

  9 Sep9 September 15:08

  OT: Having hit my BA PP £10K spend and the 241 voucher duly received, is it possible to :
  1.Downgrade to the free BA Card and get a refund on the remaining annual fee?
  2.Does it affect the 241 validity?
  3.Do you get a new card number. i.e a new application and new credit check?
  4.Can you upgrade to the Premium card after the anniversary date to start the cycle of £10K spend to gain another 241?

  Any advice much appreciated, my first tryst with BA PP Amex!

  • Genghis says:

    9 Sep9 September 15:20

    1. Yes
    2. No
    3. Yes. No. No (done over the phone)
    4. Yes

    • KK says:

      9 Sep9 September 15:23

      Cheers! 🙂

      • Genghis says:

        9 Sep9 September 15:25

        Or what I do is cancel the account completely, wait 6 months then get another sign up bonus.

        • James says:

          9 Sep9 September 15:48

          Me too. And it doesn’t affect the voucher, despite the scare-mongering by Amex.

        • Wayne Phillips says:

          9 Sep9 September 16:18

          Agreed.

          You do need an amex to pay when redeeming the voucher, but doesn’t need to be a BA one

• Canuck says:

  9 Sep9 September 16:29

  I read that as

  – All BA flights
  – And long-haul flights between N.America/Europe for partners airlines.

• Scott says:

  9 Sep9 September 18:35

  Apologies but so OT:

  Hilton free night certificate, once you redeem if you need to cancel do you get the certificate back in your account? Thanks

  • John says:

    10 Sep10 September 00:37

    Yes but you still have to stay within 6 months of earning the certificate.

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