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Good morning everybody. Long time reader here from Spain.
I wonder if somebody here had this issue in the past and can help me pointing me to someone that can solve it, please. 🙏
On Monday February 13 I tried to move my Avios from BA to my account in Iberia Plus using the Combine My Avios option at BA’s website, but after confirming the amount I wanted to transfer (in this case, the total amount: 72082 Avios) I got an error message saying that Combine My Avios wasn’t available at the moment and that I should try at a later time.
I forgot about it because it’s not the first time I see a message like that, but when I tried the next day I was shocked to see that my BA’s Avios balance was 0. I quickly went to my Iberia Plus account but nothing was there (just 1198 Avios that I had moved from avios.com on February 13 too). When looking at the transaction history in BA I found this:
Combine My Avios Debit: AVES
Avios
-72,082Meanwhile, in Iberia’s history, nothing. I contacted BAEC on the phone and they told me to contact Iberia Plus, as they could see (like me) in the history that the transfer was made. Iberia Plus told me that they could see a “request” for those 72082 Avios in their system but that it wasn’t confirmed, and that it could take up to 72 hours.
I waited more than those 72 hours and my Avios were still missing (from both BAEC or Iberia Plus). I contacted Iberia Plus again and they told me the request was still unconfirmed, and that until BA doesn’t confirm it Iberia can’t do anything about it.
Once again with BAEC on the phone, all they can do is e-mail “someone” in the UK that “maybe” can take a look at the issue (they did so on February 14 when I first called; no answer received in those first 3 days, they told me). I asked whether it’s possible to cancel the transaction and get my Avios back to BAEC, but they insisted nothing can be done over the phone and that they couldn’t transfer my call to anybody who can.
I then opened an incident on both BA and Iberia’s sites and also contacted them through Twitter, but I’m SO very worried because nobody seems to know anything or care, I can’t directly contact someone that can effectively take a look at this and solve it. It is not a LOT of Avios, but it’s all I got and I’m honestly quite stressed about losing them. 🙁
If someone in the HfP staff or a fellow reader know of someone I could contact and forward my issue, I would be eternally grateful.
Thank you and regards,
Miguel
Understandably worried. I would not know who to contact but I am sure you will get your points back but what I can suggest. Is bring the hammer down on compensation in form of avios. A thorough complaint on IT error and not user error.
Clearly the process has failed and requires manual intervention.
If you’re getting nowhere with BA or Iberia you may need to speak to someone in IAG loyalty.
They assisted me last year with use of my final Lloyds upgrade voucher after two BA cancellations of flights where I had attempted to use it.
In my case I got a response from one of their team via an email to Sean Doyle’s address, seanl.doyle@ba.com.
Thank you both for your answers!
Thankfully the issue was solved yesterday! I got an e-mail from BA apologizing for the error and saying they had restored my Avios (but yeah, a compensation would have been nice like Zapato said 😅).
Best regards,
Miguel
Thank you both for your answers!
Thankfully the issue was solved yesterday! I got an e-mail from BA apologizing for the error and saying they had restored my Avios (but yeah, a compensation would have been nice like Zapato said 😅).
Best regards,
Miguel
No Miguel. The onus is on you to start the complaint which in this case looks like a solid compensation. Please start one.
Seems this MIA Avios/Iberia thing has happened before, (albeit with a different transfer partner).
Great news Miguel. Given the stress it caused you, there would be no harm in politely informing BA’s chief executive how unsettling it was. Personally I wouldn’t ask for compensation as it just seems a bit “needy”.
Let them know about their poor IT and weak service recovery and then leave it with them.
I think the more people that do this, the better as at some point they may conclude that investing might be cheaper then dealing with annoyed customers all day long.
The exact same thing has happened to me 76000 Avios has gone missing in a transfer from Iberia to BA – they keep telling me to wait 24/48hrs. In all my transfers they have always been instant.
Any suggestions who to complain to would be great I have flights I want to book !Hi Dave! Sorry to hear that. Did you get any error message or did the transfer go smoothly? Did you get a confirmation e-mail? In my case I got an error message when I tried combining my Avios and did not receive any transaction e-mail as usual, but the Avios disappeared anyway, that’s why I focused on claiming BA (though I spoke and opened an incident in Iberia too). Frankly, I do not know what finally worked for me, cause I contacted both BA and Iberia by phone, website and Twitter. I do think what made the difference was speaking to someone who knew of issues like mine and properly sent mine to the team capable of solving it… and that was on my THIRD call to BA, so… I’d wait those 48 hours and then insist, insist and insist.
Zapato and Froggee, thank you for your messages too! I will make the claim as you suggest, cause frankly, it’s been a hell of a week. Though I don’t know which would be the best channel to do so. Any recommendations? 🙂 (Froggee, you said to contact BA’s Chief Executive, but who’s that?)
CEO = Sean Doyle as per @marks7389’s email above. I don’t know if the email address is right though.
Obviously Sean won’t read it but it will be read by his staff. Too often in big companies the CEO is insulated from bearing about customer service failures which can result in some weird impression that all is good.
But please do not use the word “claim”. You are informing the CEO about poor IT and poor customer service so he can make it better for all of us.
Hi – I got an error message at the end of the transaction – but the avios left my Iberia account and I got a confirmation email from Iberia – spoken to Iberia 3 times they are hopeless. Now on the phone to BAEC.
CEO = Sean Doyle as per @marks7389’s email above. I don’t know if the email address is right though.
It was the address I successfully used last year.
The initial response was from this address:
Hi – I got an error message at the end of the transaction – but the avios left my Iberia account and I got a confirmation email from Iberia – spoken to Iberia 3 times they are hopeless. Now on the phone to BAEC.
I suspect issues with Combine My Avios are a fairly regular occurrence and I’m sure it’s happened to me in the past.
If I’m transferring a lot I tend to do it in smaller chunks, checking each has transferred successfully before continuing.
But please do not use the word “claim”. You are informing the CEO about poor IT and poor customer service so he can make it better for all of us.
Hi! I’ve followed your advice and this morning I sent Sean Doyle an extensive and detailed e-mail of my IT issue and the unsufferable interactions I had with CS. And no, I didn’t use the word “claim” as you suggested. 😉
I’ll let you know if I get any answer. Thank you all!
Bumping an old thread, but I’m currently in this situation, just with QR. Pillar to post games between BA and QR, although QR have actually been more responsive (total radio silence from BA as usual).
It’s being “investigated”. As mentioned above, I’m semi-confident I’ll get the points back in the end, and am not that interested in compensation, just wish they’d pick up the pace, and also fix their dire CMA website.Background – used QR, which was linked to BAEC and had previous completed transfers successfully, to initiate a transfer. Transfer “failed”. Fine, whatever, I thought, until I logged into BAEC and saw the amount had been debited successfully and credited nowhere.
I’m not without Oneworld options, my OH has a decent Avios balance (glad I didn’t try and move those) and I’m ok in terms of QF/VA points, both of which can access QR (although QF is a bit of a gamble), but still.
Hi! Does anybody have any heads up on how to solve this problem? Unsuccessfully tried to combine 55.000 avios form IBP to BAEC mothe than one month ago and stil got nothing! I’ve already called and filled request form on both IBP and BAEC. In fact i’m getting kind of hopeless.
No, I’m banging my head against a brick wall speaking to idiots at both ends. One of the live chat guys with BA was semi-helpful yesterday in trying to point me in the right direction, but so far I’ve just filled in about a million different forms with the same details.
The incompetence is mind blowing, I had an email earlier today saying they couldn’t progress my query as they didn’t have my BAEC number, and could I provide it. In the email they sent, they quoted the case reference and my BAEC number. I’m actually bewildered as to how these people function on a day to day basis.
Update for anyone who’s experiencing similar, response from BA overnight resolving the issue and re-crediting my account. I’m not sure which team is responsible, but the most responsive/helpful were definitely the FlyerTalk reps.
Anyway better late than never, but still, 43 days in total to resolve.
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