Reply To: Avios not taken – do I have a problem?

[The Savage Squirrel]

One angle not discussed with “failure to pay” above.

The Avios are held in an account by BA – you have deposited them with the company and they have free access to them to deduct as they choose. “Failure to pay” then is not really the correct description – the passenger has handed over the required amount of payment both in cash and Avios.

HfP readers are not typical. An inexperienced flyer might quite reasonably assume that Avios would be deducted from their account balance at the time of flying.

If a utility company tried to claim a customer had failed to pay when the customer account with them is in credit and the company had failed to deduct a payment out of that credit balance to cover the costs of electricity due to an admin error then they would be laughed out of court. Can’t see this going much differently. So, to me, if it ever did reach truly neutral 3rd party adjudication, the airline wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.

Now if you spent those untaken Avios on something else before flying, then your position gets a whole lot weaker.

I had a hotel chain fail to take points for a stay once. I Emailed the hotel once to inform them of this as I thought reservation may not have gone through and didn’t want to be turned away on the night, specifically pointing out the non-deduction of points. They assured me the room was confirmed and the booking was all correct and still didn’t deduct points. At that point I see my moral and legal obligation to rectify any error as complete (and evidenced!) and I enjoyed my free stay with a clear conscience.