British Airways sending legal letters to people requesting compensation for the data breach

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• jtz says:

  15 Nov15 November 15:41

  I accidentally moved 20000 avios from iberia to BA yesterday, trying to use the cobine my avios feature on iberia as avios.com did not work. Iberia did not let me bring them to ba as it said transfers are only allowed to iberia.
  What’s the workaround? I tried making an aerlingus account, but it kees saying ‘The country code in your phone number has to match your country of residence.’
  Thanks

  • Rupert S says:

    16 Nov16 November 09:47

    Did the same I had a household account and couldn’t move the miles back.

    I then removed everyone from my account and it was no longer a household account and I could move the miles back. (It took around an hour or two for the systems to update.)

    • Ray says:

      21 Nov21 November 16:07

      Trying to move Avios from my Iberia account to BA, spoke to someone at Iberia just now she said it’s not possible, any ideas on how to achieve it. Rob suggested setting up an Avios.com account via Aire Lingus but then how can you transfer the points from your Iberia account as the only transfer facility on their site is to transfer the points to another Iberia member.

      • Riaz Shah says:

        23 Nov23 November 22:23

        It is possible, You can do it by calling them on on the site. Note Rupert’s message above – you have to get rid of household account members first.

• Albert says:

  15 Nov15 November 15:44

  OT – does anyone have any experience booking AA redemptions (HAV-MIA) through BAEC?

  Flying to Havana then back from Miami next week – trying to book a connecting flight using avios from HAV-MIA with no joy

  Availability showing on BA and AA websites – BA site says there’s a problem and to call

  Just spoke to BAEC on the phone who said they as a company aren’t booking any flights to or from Havana?

  Is this correct?

  Does anyone have any advice on how to get this route booked using avios?

  Many thanks

  • KevMc says:

    15 Nov15 November 16:08

    Do a search online using BA – the flights come up when I do a search. Just use ‘HAV’ where it says ‘FROM’ and it will automatically search for Havana.

    • KevMc says:

      15 Nov15 November 16:09

      Sorry, I have just re-read your post correctly. Did you try calling back to speak to a different operator?

      • Albert says:

        15 Nov15 November 17:17

        No I haven’t, but I will do, if I can get through…getting a bit twitchy as flying out tomorrow

  • Anon says:

    15 Nov15 November 18:12

    Many airlines interpret the Trump administration’s sanctions as saying you can’t fly from Cuba to the US unless you can make the OFAC declaration – which you can’t if you are going for tourism purposes – but AA’s website is unclear on this point. So it may be that they won’t allow you to fly, which is why you can’t book.

  • Albert says:

    15 Nov15 November 18:37

    So I created an aer lingus account with the hope of transferring avios from baec to avios.com and redeeming there, but the HAV-MIA flights aren’t showing up there

    Could book on VS but a tad steep at 17500 VS miles + $40 each way compared to cash fares

    Tried to HUACA with BAEC but disconnected after an hour on hold

    I can’t think of any ways of garnering enough AAdvantage miles quickly enough

    I might try Amex MR to delta skymiles and redeem on DL there…stress levels undoubtedly rising.

    If any members of the HfP community have any tips I’d be very grateful!

    • Anna says:

      15 Nov15 November 19:03

      I don’t understand why you’ve left it so late, but if you really can’t fly direct from Havana to the US the only option seems to go via another island. Fairly close is Grand Cayman; Cayman Airways flies to/from Havana and to Miami (check their website for their schedule) but obviously it would be cash fares.

      • Anna says:

        15 Nov15 November 19:06

        Or you can quite often get AA award flights to Miami from GCM at short notice, so you’d just need to pay cash from HAV to GCM.

      • Callum says:

        17 Nov17 November 04:51

        If they’re going to pay cash they can just buy the HAV-MIA flight….

        I’m not sure if redemptions have ever worked – it’s always failed when I’ve tried. Quite possibly because AA require you to agree that you’re flying to Cuba legally before purchase, something BA obviously isn’t set up for.

        My advice is just pay cash. It looks like it’s only $130 or so most days I looked at – redeeming 7500 Avios to save $90 ($40 are taxes) isn’t a spectacular bargain anyway.

        As to the question of leaving it so late – I book late flights all the time. I find rigid plans rather dull and much prefer spontaneity. Many of my best adventures have happened because I didn’t book the flights I initially planned to!

• Munch says:

  15 Nov15 November 16:26

  O/T Just received a new Platinum card – does the fee start from the activation date of the card or when I first applied? I haven’t activated the card yet. Looking at hitting the target spend quickly (starting in a couple of weeks) but minimising the pro-rota fee.

  • Rob says:

    15 Nov15 November 16:46

    Application. As does the 90 days for the target spend bonus.

• Ian says:

  15 Nov15 November 19:46

  And what happens if you close your IB account. Can you apply for a new one later?

  • Rupert S says:

    16 Nov16 November 09:49

    And how do you close it?

    • Joe A says:

      16 Nov16 November 19:42

      GDPR Request.

  • Shoestring says:

    16 Nov16 November 19:48

    New passport number every 10 years! Your renewal date will likely be much sooner.

    Not that we can even guess if IB would refuse to open a new a/c with the same old passport number.

• BlueLabel says:

  15 Nov15 November 19:59

  OT as bits: IHG seems to have loaded the credit card free night voucher nights for Kimpton Fitzroy London now. Used mine for a cheeky Xmas break

  • Rob says:

    15 Nov15 November 23:31

    Yes, another reader had a LOT of trouble with this – including getting emails from the hotel itself where it specifically said it was telling credit card voucher holders to take a running jump – but he kept pushing back and may have been the person responsible for getting this fixed.

    I personally think it was confusion over the US credit card voucher (only valid at hotels under 40,000 points) and the UK voucher (valid anywhere).

    • Lyn says:

      16 Nov16 November 04:06

      And to confuse things further, there are still some US credit card vouchers that are valid anywhere, although only for the next year or so,

    • BP says:

      16 Nov16 November 15:31

      There are a few Kimptons in NYC that also refuse the UK voucher.

• S**mo says:

  15 Nov15 November 20:28

  OT / Marriott

  Trying to make a redemption for a Ritz property in Miami for January. Cost is 60,000 points or $1100 a night.

  Looking to book using points, but the redemption mentions “Advance deposit policy” – We will need a credit card prepayment to reserve your room. To ensure you receive this special rate we will charge your credit credit a prepayment of $357.42 USD when you make your reservation.

  Deposit Instructions:
  Please send cheque or money order to (address of said hotel).

  Anybody know what this is for? Never seen it before…

  • Rob says:

    15 Nov15 November 23:29

    This tends to be an error with the site copying over the rules from a flexible cash booking onto a reward booking. Domes of Elounda had a similar issue.

• The Streets says:

  15 Nov15 November 21:04

  Just received the following email from Iberia… not sure what its getting at in the second paragraph

  Dear Customer,

  We would like to remind you that the Avios you earned in the promotion last June had special terms and conditions, as we pointed out at the time. As such, please note that the promotional Avios obtained during that campaign will no longer be available in your account if you do not redeem them in the Iberia Plus programme before 1 December 2018.

  We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that the programme does not include the transfer of Avios, as indicated in the general terms and conditions.

  Yours sincerely,
  The Iberia Plus Team

  • Imran says:

    15 Nov15 November 21:08

    I just got the same email as well – no idea what the second paragraph means!

    • Roberto says:

      15 Nov15 November 21:21

      It means if you transfer the avios earnt in the promo out then they class that as not “redeemed” in the T&C of the offer.

      They will want them back in December. How exactly it will pan out I am unsure but thats been a given since day 1.

      I assume your account with Iberia will effectivly go overdrawn. How they collect on that debt is anyones guess.

      • Shoestring says:

        15 Nov15 November 21:52

        it’s not a monetary debt, that’s for sure – the Avios have zero (monetary) value

• Steve says:

  15 Nov15 November 21:23

  For those who transferred Avios over to BAEC, to play it safe, perhaps its best to ‘cash out’ and make a decent redemption for the future. You would need to do this with a view to stick with the redemption and take that flight if, on 1st Dec, people report Avios going missing, butnif it turns out to be safe, cancel the redemption and get your Avios re-deposited.

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