Housefold account / combine Avios

[danimal]

The way Combine Avios in Household accounts seems to have changed. It used to be the case that if you combined you Avios out of a BA Household account to, for example Avios.com then only your personal Avios would move. This was useful as our household could keep their own stash of Avios and then deposit Avios as required for joint flight purchases.

However when I combine Avios out of the ba.com Household account now, my personal total is recredited by a proportion of what I’ve taken out. It seems to be debiting the other household members Avios and crediting them to me, which doesn’t make any sense.

Is this a new thing? Has anyone else noticed this?

[JDB]

It has been a ‘new’ thing since the upgrade in November. They are moving the Avios for HHA bookings differently, but the net effect is exactly the same – the Avios are still taken pro rata from each HHA member’s account.

• This reply was modified 53 years, 9 months ago by .

[danimal]

It’s not the same thing though. Previously only redemptions were debited pro-rata from each account.

What is happening now is if I debit Avios via Combine my Avios to MYSELF in another account, e.g. avios.com, then I get a corresponding credit from the rest of the household. I can therefore effectively take the Avios from all other household members and put them in my account.

[danimal]

Also, it’s only started happening in the last week. Prior to that Combine my Avios had no effect on the Avios in anyone else’s account, so not related to November updates.

[keith9016]

Same thing is happening with me. Can confirm it’s a recent thing. Certainly didn’t happen three weeks ago when I carried out a Combine my Avios from BAEC to avios.com

[Swissy]

I have tried moving Avios/Aerclub back to BAEC and keep getting the unavailable at this time message. I have a household account.
Is anyone else experiencing this ?

[hoog23]

Yes I cant combine either.

Combine my Avios is not available at the moment. Please try again later

[memesweeper]

Not only is it not available on BA, it’s not available on Avios.com. I’ve never experienced it broken in both directions before.

[Zana]

There’s a notice on Avios.com today, saying the site is unavailable for maintenance. Hopefully, it fixes the BA <–> Avios.com transfer functionality.

Now that it’s not possible to only transfer your Avios without impacting others’ accounts in the same Household account, what is your strategy? I used to track my Avios separately and we move Avios in and out of our respective BA, Avios.com, Qatar or Iberia accounts as needed to enable us to pool miles when needed but also book individually without impacting someone else’s Avios balance. Now it seems impossible to do that anymore. Is the only solution to disconnect all the accounts? Just curious what everyone else is doing…

[memesweeper]

Zana wrote:

There’s a notice on Avios.com today, saying the site is unavailable for maintenance. Hopefully, it fixes the BA <–> Avios.com transfer functionality.

Now that it’s not possible to only transfer your Avios without impacting others’ accounts in the same Household account, what is your strategy? I used to track my Avios separately and we move Avios in and out of our respective BA, Avios.com, Qatar or Iberia accounts as needed to enable us to pool miles when needed but also book individually without impacting someone else’s Avios balance. Now it seems impossible to do that anymore. Is the only solution to disconnect all the accounts? Just curious what everyone else is doing…

I’m about to resign from my own HHA. I have a child over 18 now, she can have the honour bestowed on her 🙂

[memesweeper]

Update: combine to/from Qatar is working in the ‘wrong’ way, deducting from the whole household, as well. However, at least you can log in and do something with Qatar!

[memesweeper]

memesweeper wrote:

Update: combine to/from Qatar is working in the ‘wrong’ way, deducting from the whole household, as well. However, at least you can log in and do something with Qatar!

… and when you send the Avios back, it only credits the personal account it is being sent to. I might not resign from my HHA just yet… 🙂

[Zana]

Posting an update in case it’s of interest to others. Avios.com <-> BA transfer still not working this morning. Contacted CS via chat function and was told that they ARE aware that the “Combine my Avios” functionality has not been working for some weeks and have escalated that but cannot provided a timeframe when it will be fixed. In the meantime, a manual transfer was possible. So CS did a transfer for me from Avios.com to BA. Showed up in BA account instantaneously.

[danimal]

I want to dissolve my household account but cannot because this rule says members have to stay for at least 6 months. However the 2nd part says the account can only be dissolved after 6 months.

16.1.7 Once a Household Account is established, new member(s) may not be added or existing member(s) removed more than once every six months. A Household Account may not be dissolved or re-established more than once every six months.

This implies that I CAN dissolve the account as it has been active for more than 6 months but the only way to do this online is via removing the members. Is there another way?

[chengtak]

Hi Danimal, did you manage to leave the household account? If so how? Thanks!

[danimal]

I did manage to leave the household account early. I wrote an old-fashioned paper letter to BA requesting it be dissolved and they actioned it in a few weeks.