Reply To: Amex has cancelled all my cards!

[JDB]

@Metty – thank you for updating us and I’m sorry to hear the outcome. I fear that in pursuing the issue of the closure and confidentiality vis-à-vis other family members that has, as previously posted on 19 Sep, got in the way of addressing the TP and Avios. There’s simply no upside in complaining about the first two issues and it’s just a distraction. The trouble is that TP/Avios are almost certainly outside the ken of most Ombudsman; it’s just not something they are used to dealing with. This means that you need to spell things out for them. I’m not sure I had understood that your TP/Avios were ‘in transit’ rather than withheld which is obviously a very different problem.

Whenever anyone posts about missing companion vouchers/TP/Avios and Amex sends people to BA, it’s just a way of fobbing them off; the responsibility lies with Amex. In practical terms, Amex is the sender of a ‘package’ and until it is actually delivered to you, it’s their problem in exactly the same way as any other package sent by a ‘retailer’.

You say “the end” and it is as far as the FOS is concerned, but it’s worth trying to press BA on the basis of the FOS decision. You have been given a formal decision stating BA is responsible – make them act accordingly. You can ask Amex to provide all the relevant tracking data.

@rams – there are around 40 Ombudsmen and a lot of them seem very intelligent if you read their published decisions which are cogently argued. There are unfortunately some rather flaky ones as well and many of the investigators are hopelessly lightweight. In terms of “tending to side with the business” the quarterly statistics they publish say otherwise. I think that perception may stem from complainants thinking their case is better than it actually is when looked at objectively.