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It seems very haphazard and easy to fall foul of some seemingly unpublished T&Cs that mean you end up with no nTPs from either the package or the flights only. If as MGW says some circumstances result in no nTPs then surely, when you make a change the agent has some kind of obligation to let you know this. I am not prepared to drop this when I am down by about 7k nTPs for the flight costs alone. At the end of the day I spent the money and cannot see, nor have been made aware of, anything that would have made it not valid for BAHs TPs; also it was all done over the phone and the agent never raised that it would be an issue. If BA publish terms then they must be legally obligated to abide by them.
Even via GGL I have tried to escalate this but got no where.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how we get to someone that can fix this?
All ideas welcomed. I have an email that says ‘I am unable to give you the bonus Avios as you did not meet the British Airways Club terms and conditions of the promotion’, but that’s the culmination of 4 calls over two months.
The entire BAC scheme is a crock of crarp if BA can arbitrarily decide that a holiday can be deemed not a holiday and in that case withhold payment of even the TP that should be awarded on the base fare.
If you book a hotel stay with (e.g.) IHG, in your booking it clearly shows how many points you’ll earn from it (barring a change in status between booking and staying). Would it be so difficult for BAH to do this? We’re talking about large sums of money that people are committing for travel and it’s logical to want to know what will be earned in terms of TPs.
and if your IHG status does change it also updates the expected points earnings on future bookings. Amazing what proper technology can do!
To be fair I think the BA system does that as well with a change of status (for some booking types at least), it’s the base earnings which are so lacking.
Edit: Some of it is good, my latest BAC entry
14670 Avios, 1867 Tier Points
Club World (I)
Booking Reference: xxxxxx
Base Avios: 7335
Promotional Avios: 7335
Pre 30 Dec Booking: Tier Point Conversion AppliedBut if it knows all that within 24 hours of taking the flight, why couldn’t it tell me anything about it before hand?
Something doesn’t add up here. A few questions though.
1 Are you sure you haven’t fallen foul of this:
British Airways Holidays tier points awards do not apply to any British Airways flight bookings where the hotel or car is added to a booking in a ‘Shopping Basket’ with individually priced flight and hotel and/or car components or when added in Manage my Booking after the flight has been booked.Also
2 When did you first make the booking and was it for flights after 1 April 2025? the BAH TP only applies for trips after that date.
3 Did you pay anything to amend the booking?
4 How long since you’ve returned from the trip? Tp are supposed to be applied 14 days after travel is completed
5 Did you fly on BA metal and on BA flight numbers?
6 Was this in CW?
7 Did you register for the bonus TP offer?
Sounds like you’ve been awarded the bonus TP for the flights but not received anything for the flights.Hi
In answer to your questions:
1) I booked the flight and thr hotel at the same time (if it makes any difference the ATOL certificate shows BA Holidays as the issuer)
2) I made the booking on March 10th for travel on April 23rd
3) I didn’t have to pay extra for amending – it was the hotel I had to move NOT the flight on rechecking
4) I returned on May 2nd
5) It was a BA operated flight on a BA plane not a code share
6) I was in Club World
7) I have indeed been awarded bonus TPs (400 each way); it’s TPs relating to the £10,200 pre tax spending on the flights that I’m more concerned about.It seems very haphazard and easy to fall foul of some seemingly unpublished T&Cs that mean you end up with no nTPs from either the package or the flights only. If as MGW says some circumstances result in no nTPs then surely, when you make a change the agent has some kind of obligation to let you know this. I am not prepared to drop this when I am down by about 7k nTPs for the flight costs alone. At the end of the day I spent the money and cannot see, nor have been made aware of, anything that would have made it not valid for BAHs TPs; also it was all done over the phone and the agent never raised that it would be an issue. If BA publish terms then they must be legally obligated to abide by them.
Even via GGL I have tried to escalate this but got no where.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how we get to someone that can fix this?
All ideas welcomed. I have an email that says ‘I am unable to give you the bonus Avios as you did not meet the British Airways Club terms and conditions of the promotion’, but that’s the culmination of 4 calls over two months.
The entire BAC scheme is a crock of crarp if BA can arbitrarily decide that a holiday can be deemed not a holiday and in that case withhold payment of even the TP that should be awarded on the base fare.
There is nothing arbitrary about BAH or not: there are rules, adding a hotel to a flight is not a BAH, need to go through BAH tab of the site.
@ricknye Thanks for your reply. I must admit I am stumped. I believe you are correct but I think you need to check whether the hotel priced out separately from the airfare. I Believe that is a linked arrangement covered by ATOL rather than a BA Holiday booking ad should onky get TP for the flights.. A BA Holiday booking does not itemise the components contained in that holiday hence awarding TP for the entire spend.
Either way you should either get the TP for the flights or you get the TP for the total BAH booking.
This is very frustrating and while not entirely helpful you are not alone in suffering BA’s intransigence. There is a thread on FlyerTalk where others are experiencing exactly what you are going througb. I woukd contact BA Holidays again and if that gets you nowhere then submit a complaint to BA.
It seems very haphazard and easy to fall foul of some seemingly unpublished T&Cs that mean you end up with no nTPs from either the package or the flights only. If as MGW says some circumstances result in no nTPs then surely, when you make a change the agent has some kind of obligation to let you know this. I am not prepared to drop this when I am down by about 7k nTPs for the flight costs alone. At the end of the day I spent the money and cannot see, nor have been made aware of, anything that would have made it not valid for BAHs TPs; also it was all done over the phone and the agent never raised that it would be an issue. If BA publish terms then they must be legally obligated to abide by them.
Even via GGL I have tried to escalate this but got no where.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how we get to someone that can fix this?
All ideas welcomed. I have an email that says ‘I am unable to give you the bonus Avios as you did not meet the British Airways Club terms and conditions of the promotion’, but that’s the culmination of 4 calls over two months.
The entire BAC scheme is a crock of crarp if BA can arbitrarily decide that a holiday can be deemed not a holiday and in that case withhold payment of even the TP that should be awarded on the base fare.
There is nothing arbitrary about BAH or not: there are rules, adding a hotel to a flight is not a BAH, need to go through BAH tab of the site.
I hope you turn out to be right, but there are plenty of people who believe they have booked a BAH but are being told, with no explanation, that in fact they have somehow fallen foul of the rules and who are also being denied the TPs which should be paid regardless. It’s a shambles.
The FT thread is worth a read, some good analysis there as ever.
To help those getting here late in the conversation:
– Just booking your flight: Not a BAH
– Adding a car or hotel using the “add car/hotel” options shown before you pay for the flight: CAN BE a BAH if you are seeing A SINGLE price (that is you see £1,000 for both flight+car but don’t know how much each is)
– If you change the dates of the car or hotel and click to continue you are given separate prices for each component: THIS IS NOT A BAH (basically when you go to pay you see £800 for flight + £200 for car) The usual reason to do this is because you need the car/hotel just for some days, not the whole trip
– Solution: use the BAH custom trip builder and book a flight + car or hotel for just a few days IT IS A BAH (yeah, even if the previous case was not). Once again, you will be quoted a single price for all the component and you don’t know how much is each.Seeing a single price or being able to pay a deposit is the best indication you have a BAH. Seeing flight cost + car/hotel cost separately –> totally not a BAH. Sometimes a deposit cannot be paid so a lack of deposit does not mean it is NOT a BAH. However if THERE IS a deposit then it SURELY IS a BAH.
When you go to pay there is a mention of the payment being done to British Airways PLC in both cases.
Don’t they make things easy!
@yonasl – the added wrinkle to all you correctly say above is that you can have have a BAH (with deposit, ATOL cert etc) that still doesn’t meet the terms of the special BAH TP offer. The fact a trip is a BAH doesn’t make it automatically eligible for the TP offer.
I get the impression from reading some of the posts on this topic that people are only looking at the terms after they don’t get the points rather than before booking.
It would appear also that some non-compliant bookings are getting the offer.
Caveat emptor.
@JDB and @yonasl the other added wrinkle is that even when a ‘BAH’ doesn’t meet the terms of the offer, even the ‘base’ TPs are not being applied. What we have yet to determine is whether something that is neither a BAH nor a not-BAH earns absolutely no TP at all. Whilst I can’t believe that could be the case, it feels like BA’s systems and processes have yet to learn how to cope with this seemingly quite common scenario.
@Wanderlost – yes, it would seem that the systems can’t cope with BAH mutations. The problem is that with TP and Avios matters you realistically have little recourse except by persuading BA.
If I were in your position, I would write to BA setting out in very clear, succinct terms that you booked a BAH that met the terms of the BAC tier points offer at x cost but you have not been awarded any TP with various unparticularised excuses for such failure. If, which is not accepted, the BAH I booked does not comply with the terms, please specify exactly which aspect is non compliant. Please therefore credit the correct number of tier points to the respective accounts as follows within 14 days.
Do make sure that it is/was indeed compliant! If BA does specify some defect, then the next step is to insist on the underlying flight TP but I wouldn’t be volunteering that yet!
You could add some guff about longstanding status, trying to stay with BA but this sort of treatment of customers and refusal to examine the issue is very counterproductive etc.
@Wanderlost – yes, it would seem that the systems can’t cope with BAH mutations. The problem is that with TP and Avios matters you realistically have little recourse except by persuading BA.
If I were in your position, I would write to BA setting out in very clear, succinct terms that you booked a BAH that met the terms of the BAC tier points offer at x cost but you have not been awarded any TP with various unparticularised excuses for such failure. If, which is not accepted, the BAH I booked does not comply with the terms, please specify exactly which aspect is non compliant. Please therefore credit the correct number of tier points to the respective accounts as follows within 14 days.
Do make sure that it is/was indeed compliant! If BA does specify some defect, then the next step is to insist on the underlying flight TP but I wouldn’t be volunteering that yet!
You could add some guff about longstanding status, trying to stay with BA but this sort of treatment of customers and refusal to examine the issue is very counterproductive etc.
That sounds like good advice, thanks. Which part of BA handles this kind of thing; BAH, BAC or somewhere else, do you know?
@JDB and @yonasl the other added wrinkle is that even when a ‘BAH’ doesn’t meet the terms of the offer, even the ‘base’ TPs are not being applied. What we have yet to determine is whether something that is neither a BAH nor a not-BAH earns absolutely no TP at all. Whilst I can’t believe that could be the case, it feels like BA’s systems and processes have yet to learn how to cope with this seemingly quite common scenario.
Correct on this one … we have BAH, non BAH and flights that earn NO TPs other than the bonus …
Regarding the its a BAH but does no earn TPs the T&Cs are here: https://www.britishairways.com/content/the-british-airways-club/about-tier-points/holidays?msockid=19d82e89348367981a3e3b73357866cb
1. Members of The British Airways Club who book a holiday package (Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car) for travel from 01 April 2025 will earn tier points.
Self explanatory. Wish it was just as easy!
2. Members will earn 1 tier point per pound (£) spent on the total price of the holiday package. The amount of tier points awarded is based on the total amount paid before travel and not on any charges payable at the accommodation. No additional tier points will be earned for the flight element of the holiday package. Tier points will be evenly split between the number of people on the booking. Infants under two will not earn tier points on a British Airways Holidays package. The total eligible spend for bookings made in another currency will be converted to GBP using the OANDA rate of exchange, calculated on the date the booking was made.
Ok this seems fair too. A literal reading would mean you get NO BONUS TPs but we know this is not the case.
3. The booking must be for a British Airways Holidays Flight + Hotel or Flight + Car or Flight + Hotel + Car package.
Fair.
4. All passengers who have added a British Airways Club membership number prior to travel will receive their tier points within 14 working days of their trip completing.
People are getting their TPs 4-5 days after the return flight so this is even better.
5. British Airways Holidays tier points awards do not apply to any British Airways flight bookings where the hotel or car is added to a booking in a ‘Shopping Basket’ with individually priced flight and hotel and/or car components or when added in Manage my Booking after the flight has been booked.
Ok this is important and we now know you have to be certain there IS ONLY ONE PRICE.
6. Bookings can only contain one flight departing from their country of residence and departure, multiple journeys from this country within one booking will not qualify.
I don’t know how many people are getting caught here. You could indeed create some weird multiple jump itinerary but many won’t even price. I am more worried about the fact you need to depart you country of residence AND departure. Can’t I not start a BAH in EU or the US?
7. All passengers using the hotel and/or car hire must be named on the booking prior to travel, any subsequent additions to passenger mix made locally could result in the booking being deemed ineligible for tier points.
So what happens if I book a flight and car but then once I arrive to the US want to add a friend that lives there to the rental? (this is a normal request as BA is advertising an additional driver). I get the idea is for you not to book 4 hotel rooms and then put that under a single BAH and that is why they say “could result in”.
8. British Airways Club members must register their Club membership number against their booking prior to travel.
Don’t think this has been an issue so far.
10. The tier points awarded are non-transferable and there is no cash or credit alternative. British Airways does not accept any liability in the event that the tier points received later expire. Tier points expire at the end of each membership year however, they will be added to your lifetime tier points, the total tier points you’ve ever earned with the Club. Your lifetime tier points are shown in your account.
11. British Airways Holidays booking Terms and Conditions apply. All travel on British Airways flights is subject to British Airways General Conditions of Carriage and its Notice and Conditions of Contract as stated on each ticket or itinerary as provided. Passengers travelling on flights operated by another carrier will be subject to the conditions of carriage of that carrier.
12. British Airways Holidays reserves the right to cancel or amend without notice the terms at any time and for any reason.
13.Information is correct as at 1 April 2025.
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