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We took a Club flight before 1st April 2025 and returned after that date. The outbound should have retained our Silver card. BA did not credit our account with any points and states that our Silver status ends in Nov 25. I’ve called and emailed and they keep saying we had a reward flight when we paid for it and used some Avios to lower the flight by £60. We’ve usually do this and don’t use full Avios for flights. I’ve copied them their own terms and conditions but they will not budge. The people we spoke to on the phone said it was a known glitch and would be dealt with, but it hasn’t. The BA staff emailing us say otherwise. Has anyone had this problem and what can we do about it? Have been at Silver since the scheme started.
What fare class did you buy? Not sure if it’s possible now to get the Finnair website to email your ticket since you’ve flown the itinerary?
Do you have the e-ticket receipt from BA as that might show the fare class (can’t remember if it does)
What does your BAC statement show ? It’s complicated by the fact the flight straddled the year end and change to the club so it’s possible that you won’t see the pre 31 March flight but it should show the detail of your post April flight.
If it was a cash fare reduced with Avios it would book into I, R or J class. A reward flight is usually U class and earns nothing.
If you are certain that you booked a cash fare reduced with Avios I would submit a complaint via the website clearly showing that you bought a cash fare refuced with Avios. It will be difficult to go to CEDR as you haven’t been affected financially but if you have evidence that you have a fare earning TP and Avios then you could try MCOL if BA continues to refuse.
I had a similar issue, in that a flight taken on 31/3 did show up in my transactions list but hadn’t been added to my tier point year ending 31/3. I needed it to retain silver and the only evidence that it hadn’t been included was that my year end hadn’t moved from 31/7/25 to 30/4/26. I emailed in, they changed it and I had an email response that they like to help loyal customers blah, blah …as if they had done me a favour being only 20 points short, whereas it was their mistake in not calculating properly.
So it can be done, you just need the right person to be able to help.
What fare class did you buy? Not sure if it’s possible now to get the Finnair website to email your ticket since you’ve flown the itinerary?
Do you have the e-ticket receipt from BA as that might show the fare class (can’t remember if it does)
What does your BAC statement show ? It’s complicated by the fact the flight straddled the year end and change to the club so it’s possible that you won’t see the pre 31 March flight but it should show the detail of your post April flight.
If it was a cash fare reduced with Avios it would book into I, R or J class. A reward flight is usually U class and earns nothing.
If you are certain that you booked a cash fare reduced with Avios I would submit a complaint via the website clearly showing that you bought a cash fare refuced with Avios. It will be difficult to go to CEDR as you haven’t been affected financially but if you have evidence that you have a fare earning TP and Avios then you could try MCOL if BA continues to refuse.
You will be much better off trying to escalate it within BA, but if that all fails then I think you have more of a hope with CEDR than with MCOL. CEDR is for seeking redress if an airline is treating you unfairly, and can deal with non-monetary awards (eg avios). MCOL is more for financial claims, and it will be difficult to put a justifiable value on what you are losing out on.
Thanks for the replies.
The saga remains ongoing. We paid £298.00 for two flights from Jersey to London – a 35 minute flight – in Club Europe. We used some Avios to reduce the fare by £60.00. This flight would have retained our Silver status.
Now BA are saying – “I have checked your booking and can see the flights were paid for using a combination of money and Avios points. I’m sorry to say tickets purchased using Avios & Money do not earn Avios or Tier Points, so I am unable to credit your account.”
BA are also saying that the paid and part Avios is a Reward flight and thus not eligible for anything.
I’ve asked them to check all our flights from 1/4/24 to 1/4/25 as all of these were paid for in the same way. They all earned Tier and Avios points, except for this most recent flight which straddled the new system.Six emails now and two phone calls to them. They are seriously starting to annoy me now! Any suggestions?
So presumably you still have a day and a half left of Silver? Have you tried calling the Silver line? You may get someone a bit better trained, the level of knowledge coming from agents in recent weeks seems to have plummeted to new depths!
Hey, Northern Lass – our card should have retained status until April next year, but as they haven’t honoured the flight in question it will expire in November. We never travel economy anyway, but it’s the knowledge that we’ve been cheated on this that remains. When we called the Silver line they actually told us it was a glitch and would be resolved. It hasn’t hence the many emails. BA are really the most awful when it comes to customer service.
Matt, has mentioned in a post that we should access CEDR and I am going to do that.
I think BA thoroughly deserve their plummeting status in the ranks of best airline. They are going from bad to worse and somehow it feels like it’s on purpose!That’s a shame, whenever I’ve called the Silver or Gold line I’ve usually spoken to someone based in Manchester and sensibly northern (though of course I am slightly biased)! They tend to engage in dialogue rather than reading answers off a crib sheet so can be reasoned with if necessary.
I’d give them one more try during U.K. office hours.
Even if you always travel in business class, Silver status is hugely valuable for free seat selection, guesting people into lounges and other things!
Did you check the fare class against the flights posted in your account? Also have the return flights posted to you account? What do they show up as? The reply from BA sounds like they think you bought a reward flight and reduced the number of avios required by paying cash.That is called Avios and Money and is a standard redemption where you reduce the number of Avios by paying more cash. This does not earn Avios or TP.
What you initially described is called Avios part payment and is a commercial fare reduced in cost by part paying with Avios. It is an easy mistake to make.
You say you paid £298 and used some Avios to reduce the fare by £60 which means your original fares were £358 return in CE. Was that per person or for both of you? And was that one way or return? I thought originally you bought return tickets. If per person that sounds normal price and should definitely earn TP and Avios. If for 2 passengers then that means each ticket was £179 before the discount which is very low and makes me think you actually by mistake bought a reward flight and reduced the number of Avios required by paying more cash.
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