-
Hi all, new kid on the block here!
I signed up for the current BA Amex premium plus offer, 60,000 avios when you spend £3k in 3 months, however when I received the card and checked my new Amex account the offer has not been applied. I spoke to Amex and they said the application ‘didn’t come through BA’ but came through Amex instead, so I must have not clicked the link and gone through the Amex website.
Now I am utterly convinced I clicked the link in the offer email. I was paying close attention because it says you have to use that link to apply. I will admit I may have made a mistake, but I don’t think that is the case. As a side note, Amex’s statement that ‘it didn’t come through BA’ is confusing because I experimented with clicking the link in the offer email again and it takes you directly to the Amex website to apply, not a BA website.
Has any one had a similar experience, or have some ideas? Interested to hear your thoughts…
I think there’s a dedicated thread on this current offer, a few people have had issues.
@am123 – unfortunately it’s a not infrequent occurrence so any applicant shouldn’t have to, but does need to, keep screen shots of the ‘application journey’ as they like to call it. It doesn’t sound as though you have spent the £3k yet to trigger the offer? If you end up getting the ordinary offer (25k?) then you need to complain to Amex with whatever evidence you can muster to show you did apply via BA. The fact you received a targeted email is a start, but probably not enough in itself. If Amex still refuses you will need to take them to the Financial Ombudsman who will decide, on the balance of probabilities, who is correct. There’s no doubt the system for these big bonus offers is incredibly delicate – it seems very easy to ‘knock out’ the BA tracker by navigating away or having any sort of blockers, VPNs etc.
I think stuff like ad blockers (uBlock Origin) affects this. I made sure it was disabled and pretty much applied using an incognito browser, and was able to confirm that the 60K offer was in place.
@northernlass thanks, I had a search but couldn’t see it. Will try again.
@JDB thank you for the detailed response. To answer your question, I haven’t spent anything yet. In my Amex account page online there is a tracker on the righthand side for tracking spending towards a bonus offer. It currently lists my offer as 25,000 points, not 60,000 when I spend £3k. Interesting that the system for these offers is delicate – I’m not using VPN and I don’t think I have ad blockers (could be wrong), though I did have various windows and tabs open at the time because I was checking details and was moving between them, and I also remember one of the application screens not loading prooperly and having to be refreshed, all of which could have knocked out the tracker.I’ve debated cancelling the card and reapplying while screengrabbing the whole application journey, but Amex said they would perform a hard check on my credit score for the second application which doesn’t seem worth it…
@am123 – cancelling and reapplying wouldn’t help as even if you rescind the contract in the 14 day cooling off period, you wouldn’t be a new customer for any subsequent application within two years. Unfortunately the actions you describe are exactly those that cause these super bonus applications to fail.
In my Amex account page online there is a tracker on the righthand side for tracking spending towards a bonus offer. It currently lists my offer as 25,000 points, not 60,000 when I spend £3k.
I’m not sure the spend tracker means much. It never appeared for my Platinum card and not sure it reflects enhanced offers even when it has in the past (e.g., for BAPP).
After getting a card, I find I usually need to ask an AMEX agent via chat to confirm my spend to date and my bonus amounts (e.g., both SUB and referral bonuses) and then I screenshot the agent’s advice just in case.
@am123 I had the same experience. I had screenshots and recording of my BAPP application but Amex refused to even look at them. All they would say is “backoffice” says the application came from the wrong link.
I have taken them to FOS which would take a long time but hey ho!
In my Amex account page online there is a tracker on the righthand side for tracking spending towards a bonus offer. It currently lists my offer as 25,000 points, not 60,000 when I spend £3k.
I applied through BA website 60k offer page, there’s no sign of any bonus tracking in my account, only tracker til 10k spend for voucher
@am123 I had the same experience. I had screenshots and recording of my BAPP application but Amex refused to even look at them. All they would say is “backoffice” says the application came from the wrong link.
I have taken them to FOS which would take a long time but hey ho!
Heard from FOS adhudicator refusing my complaint. Reason; Amex said I used the wrong link. Did not look at/mention all the timestamped screenshots I had supplied. Replied asking him to clarify if he looked at my info and why he would take the work of Amex link tracking instead of my time stamped record!
Will ask for an Ombudsman. Any suggestions anyone?
@Wiseoldman – the system threw up when I quoted (perhaps because it’s a double quote, so this might appear again).
Yes, you need to ask the investigator to have the matter considered by an Ombudsman. In response to the investigator not upholding your complaint, you need to analyse carefully what has been said in the decision and address anything that’s either incorrect or based on assumptions or hypotheses without any evidential foundation. This is unfortunately quite a common occurrence and while you should probably be telling the FOS that and they should consider a number of complaints with the same pattern of facts as having some evidential value, their standard response is that Amex and the FOS will say that these are individual cases and it’s only your application that is being considered here. The issue is that since January 2023 since BA launched these bumper bonuses, there has been a problem in delivery/execution of the bonuses on each occasion Jan/Feb 2023, Aug/Sep 2023 and this January. They have tried different delivery methods – the first one of 70k was delivered in one lump and caused serious friction between BA and Amex, the second one of 60k last summer was delivered in two parts so it’s fairly clearly that this isn’t smooth between the two firms.
For your complaint to be upheld, the FOS needs to decide, on the balance of probabilities, that you have been unfairly treated and did apply via the 60k, so you need to focus on the evidence you have and the flakiness of their system and crucially how that system actually works and/or is visible to the customer. You need to cast as many aspersions as possible about their system. That starts with any invitation you received from BA to apply (assuming that pre-dated your application) to show that you were definitely aware that you were applying for a bonus of 60k not 25k, and that even when using the correct link, you are taken to the main Amex application page where there is no visible sign of what SUB you will get. That failure of communication by itself is bad practice and unfair in itself, so a breach of FCA Principles 6 and 7. In summary, you acted in good faith and only applied on the basis of the 60k SUB, followed the rules precisely and it’s only Amex’s consistent failure to honour these BA deals and the firm’s refusal to acknowledge the widely known defect in their systems that has deprived you of the 35,000 Avios.
thanks @JDB. Good points to remember. Appreciate the detail.
@am123 I had the same experience. I had screenshots and recording of my BAPP application but Amex refused to even look at them. All they would say is “backoffice” says the application came from the wrong link.
I have taken them to FOS which would take a long time but hey ho!
Heard from FOS adhudicator refusing my complaint. Reason; Amex said I used the wrong link. Did not look at/mention all the timestamped screenshots I had supplied. Replied asking him to clarify if he looked at my info and why he would take the work of Amex link tracking instead of my time stamped record!
Will ask for an Ombudsman. Any suggestions anyone?
Yes, you need to ask them to have the matter considered by an Ombudsman. In response to the investigator not upholding your complaint, you need to analyse carefully what has been said in the decision and address anything that’s either incorrect or based on assumptions or hypotheses without any evidential foundation. This is unfortunately quite a common occurrence and while you should probably be telling the FOS that and they should consider a number of complaints with the same pattern of facts as having some evidential value, their standard response is that Amex and the FOS will say that these are individual cases and it’s only your application that is being considered here. The issue is that since January 2023 since BA launched these bumper bonuses, there has been a problem in delivery/execution of the bonuses on each occasion Jan/Feb 2023, Aug/Sep 2023 and this January. They have tried different delivery methods – the first one of 70k was delivered in one lump and caused serious friction between BA and Amex, the second one of 60k last summer was delivered in two parts so it’s fairly clearly that this isn’t smooth between the two firms.
For your complaint to be upheld, the FOS needs to decide, on the balance of probabilities, that you have been unfairly treated and did apply via the 60k, so you need to focus on the evidence you have and the flakiness of their system and crucially how that system actually works and/or is visible to the customer. You need to cast as many aspersions as possible about their system. That starts with any invitation you received from BA to apply (assuming that pre-dated your application) to show that you were definitely aware that you were applying for a bonus of 60k not 25k, and that even when using the correct link, you are taken to the main Amex application page where there is no visible sign of what SUB you will get. That failure of communication by itself is bad practice and unfair in itself, so a breach of FCA Principles 6 and 7. In summary, you acted in good faith and only applied on the basis of the 60k SUB, followed the rules precisely and it’s only Amex’s consistent failure to honour these BA deals and the firm’s refusal to acknowledge the widely known defect in their systems that has deprived you of the 35,000 Avios.
Latest update;
The FOS adjudictor has now come back and uphelp the complaint and Amex has agreed to give additional 25,000 points.
I have two problems;
1- The missing points are 35,000 and not 25,000
2- Amex should have given these points when i complained and supplied proof instead of just telling me “back office says….). They should have to pay something for the lackluster attitude to my complaint and also fighting the FOS also forst time round.What is the wisdom? should I continue? I am minded to continue. thanks
Did you ask for 35k? If so, you should be able to go back to the adjudicator with this.
From what I’ve gathered here, the FOS doesn’t do compensation-type awards, so you’d probably have to take that up with Amex if you still want to.
But it’s very poor from Amex, all the same!
@northernlass thanks. I did ask for the difference between 60,000-25000(given) = 35000. I clearly stated this multiple times. This is unfortunately the level of attantion the adjudictor has on any one issue. This is the same adjudicator that did not look at the evidence I gave and rejected my complaint in the first instance just like Amex.
The FOS can give small awards and often does for service failings.
@Wiseoldman – the FOS can indeed award ‘distress and inconvenience’ payments but the starting point is that you must have suffered something beyond the ordinary vicissitudes of daily life. Your own description of Amex’s conduct being a “lacklustre attitude” would suggest the threshold hasn’t been reached and Amex is as entitled to resist your complaint as much as you are entitled to bring it.
While you should be able to have the 25k/35k error fixed by the investigator (who you said above had rejected your claim earlier this month??) as an agreed error of fact, asking for a D&I payment now would need you to reject the investigator’s decision and for it to be considered by an Ombudsman.
Get back onto them. In my only submission to the FOS, I claimed for 2 free night certs from Creation, and was awarded one. I emailed the FOS again and reiterated that my original claim had been for 2, and the 2nd one was duly awarded.
@JDB Yes, it is the same adjudicator who who had rejected my complaint earlier this month on the same evidence that I asked him to reconsider. It is annoying that the adjudicator is making factual mistakes and further annoying that Amex is getting away with giving me what they should have first time round.
I have gone back to FOS asking them to fix the error plus an service award without sending the case to an ombudsman. thanks for all your help and advice HFP friends
Signed up to the forum specifically to comment on this post as I have finally had success in getting the extra 35k avios credited. I reported BA to advertising standards. I signed up through the link in the email but rather than taking me to my BA Exec account (as I later found out it was supposed to) it actually took me to the AMEX website and therefore I was apparently ineligible for the 60k bonus. Of course the emails were all very clear that the only way I would be eligible was to use the link in the email and that link was incorrect.
I complained to AMEX and BA and neither upheld my complaint so I submitted my advertising standards complaint through the online form on their website. They contacted me several weeks later and asked me to submit any evidence I had. I provided a copy of one of the many emails from BA advertising the offer, the confirmation from AMEX that they felt I was not eligible for the 60k bonus, and a screenshot of my BA AMEX app showing I had met the 25k bonus threshold.
Two days later BA contacted me to say they had given me 35k avios for my ‘loyalty’.
Hope you all have success too. It was an *extremely* frustrating experience.
Welcome to the forum @GillyUK
Interesting to hear of success via the advertising standards route, not one I remember being reported here before. Well done on getting your due and not accepting the first refusal.
It sounds like @Wiseoldman is also close to success – the 25/35k discrepancy looks like a very annoying error from Amex rather than an attempt to get out of paying in full. Good luck with reaching an acceptable resolution. I would have thought that getting this final 10k, plus potentially a service recovery for “d&i”, would have been easier via Amex than going back to the FOS, but then again…
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Popular articles this week:
