Exec Club account expired despite Avios earning and log in working

[DTR]

Hi all

Just been contacted by a close family member who has been trying to book a BAPP 2 for 1 redemption.

She can select the voucher on her account, search for flights etc. but has been getting an error whilst proceeding to final stages of booking on BA.com (‘sorry, there seems to be a technical problem’). She tried multiple devices and phoned CS multiple times who didn’t know what this issue was. Finally today after pushing for some resolution she has been told her account is ‘inactive’ or has ‘expired’ and ‘cannot be reactivated’ as she has ‘not logged into the account for a number of years’. It does seem that she had not logged in for quite a long time – exactly how long she’s not sure – however she:

1) is able to log into her account now with no issues
2) has regularly been earning avois via a BAPP or other means and has always earnt points to keep the avois active
3) has earnt a 2 for 1 voucher earlier this year which is clearly visible in the account
4) has flown in the past month with BA earning yet more points
5) has over 100,000 points visible when she logs in her account (and visible in HHA on other family members logins)

They said it was ‘impossible’ to reactive, and all they could suggest is that she could open a new account and they ‘might’ be able to transfer the points but ‘could not guarantee’. It sounds like the voucher would be lost even if they moved the points.

I’ve never heard of an account ‘expiring’ or becoming ‘inactive’ before due to not ‘logging in’ despite avois being alive – it sounds like BS. Has anyone had this before?

It’s possible her husband could still make a booking using the points via HHA, but he does not have the voucher.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for dealing with this?

It seems futile to raise a complaint with BA giving how long they take to respond. Is is that the only recourse, in which time availability might be lost? Has anyone ever has BA transfer a voucher – either to their own ‘new’ account or that of a family member? How can we get hold of someone at BA who might actually sort this?!

Any wisdom much appreciated.

[DTR]

UPDATE: her husband who is head of HHA also cannot book. He has logged in to check points etc and is also a regular acios earner.

He just phoned BA and they said they couldn’t get into his account either and said the same about setting up a new account.

Bizzare.

I’m wondering if the HHA (which also includes the kids) is somehow broken). I suggested he take a look but when he tries to navigate there is say ‘invalid frequent flyer status’

Any ideas?

[executiveclubber]

How rubbish. I’d email Sean Doyle with a very summarised version of this, sticking to the facts and the resolution, in the hopes somebody competent from their executive complaints team can fix.

PS — I like the Daily Mail style headline!

[Anna]

My first thought was also that Rob had hired a journalist from the Daily Express to write a column for HFP. But it does sound like typical BA nonsense (some CS agents will seemingly say anything to get rid of you), but the relative’s only recourse really is to submit a complaint and wait out the process. Also keep trying with the account as BA IT is weird and the issue may even right itself.

[JDB]

With the excitable headline (now fortunately edited and spelling corrected) and the post being written on behalf of an apparent victim, there are clearly elements of the story missing.

If anyone is going to be writing to Sean Doyle, they need to get the story absolutely straight and present it in a clinical/professional way and not come across as angry, particularly if there is the slightest risk the victim has made any mistake or done anything wrong. Any resolution is realistically exclusively in the hands of BA, so one doesn’t want to be putting their backs up and there’s probably only one chance; BA doesn’t usually enter into a dialogue.

[DTR]

Thanks for the various comments.

JDB – appreciate the headline, whilst a genuine expression of my frustration at BA CS, was perhaps a bit much and the need to be dispassionate when communicating with BA about such matters. But I’m interested in what details you think are missing. There is no additional backstory here, and I’m keen to help get all the necessary details. The family are not frequent fliers but have been slowly building a pot of avios (encouraged by me) and this was to be both their first Avios and 2 for 1 redemption. They have booked and flown cash but the system won’t let them book with Avios and CS seem unwilling or unable to help.

[Anna]

Sorry if I’ve missed this, but has the relative asked BA to try and make the 241 booking by phone? It’s worth a try as whatever issue is affecting her account either might not affect BA’s processing from their end, or if it fails it may shed more light on what that issue actually is.

BA may try to charge (£15pp ?) for this – your relative could argue that she’s unable to make the booking online but it would probably be worth it if it results in getting her flight booked!

[JDB]

DTR wrote:

Thanks for the various comments.

JDB – appreciate the headline, whilst a genuine expression of my frustration at BA CS, was perhaps a bit much and the need to be dispassionate when communicating with BA about such matters. But I’m interested in what details you think are missing. There is no additional backstory here, and I’m keen to help get all the necessary details. The family are not frequent fliers but have been slowly building a pot of avios (encouraged by me) and this was to be both their first Avios and 2 for 1 redemption. They have booked and flown cash but the system won’t let them book with Avios and CS seem unwilling or unable to help.

I don’t know what missing, but I would be very confident that there is further information that may help identify the issue and a resolution. The reported response of BA is particularly odd if it comes from several agents, so they may be seeing something they don’t want to reveal.

The reported status of the account is quite odd as it appears to be partially operational rather than suspended/blocked/closed which is also quite peculiar. In order to help your relative who is probably less familiar with all this than you are, I would be looking at each transaction on the account (and those of other HHA members) to see if there is anything unusual. It’s a bit of a boring task, but it sounds as though there may not be so much activity and means you can set it all out on one sheet for any eventual letter to BA.

[DTR]

Thanks. Yes they have tried booking over the phone too but the agents report errors and say they can’t fix it.

I’ve had a look now to see if I could spot anything. The error shows when trying to book an Avios flight with or without the voucher and on both accounts. A cash flight appears to be fine and goes to the payment page, as does, interestingly a cash flight using part pay with Avios.

The thing that stands out to me is the inability to visit the HHA page and the error ‘invalid frequent flyer status’. It appears the HHA is broken. The question is how to get BA to fix it. Despite insisting on the phone, they are now just saying ‘try again later’.

It should add, the issue has persisted for over two weeks now so doesn’t appear to be temporary.

[marshy11]

DTR wrote:

Thanks. Yes they have tried booking over the phone too but the agents report errors and say they can’t fix it.

I’ve had a look now to see if I could spot anything. The error shows when trying to book an Avios flight with or without the voucher and on both accounts. A cash flight appears to be fine and goes to the payment page, as does, interestingly a cash flight using part pay with Avios.

The thing that stands out to me is the inability to visit the HHA page and the error ‘invalid frequent flyer status’. It appears the HHA is broken. The question is how to get BA to fix it. Despite insisting on the phone, they are now just saying ‘try again later’.

It should add, the issue has persisted for over two weeks now so doesn’t appear to be temporary.

If you think it is the HHA then would an option be to dissolve that? Be mindful that you can only make changes once per six months but as they are not able to use it then this may trigger something to reset it? But it will mean they cannot merge it for another six months.

https://www.headforpoints.com/2023/02/13/how-do-british-airways-executive-club-household-accounts-work/

[DTR]

Thanks. Yes that would be a way to go but they’d then be unable to book their 2 for 1 redemption as the points are across their accounts. And, the head of household can’t access that part of the website anyway.

Ultimately the issue here is BA’s lack of accessible customer service, because if that weren’t the case, there would be someone speak to who would actually help resolve the issue or escalate it to someone who can.

[lolpancakes]

Any news for this? I am getting the exact error as well as the following attributes

is able to log into the account with no issues
has regularly been earning avois via a BAPP or other means and has always earnt points to keep the avois active
has earnt a 2 for 1 voucher earlier this year which is clearly visible in the account
has flown in the past month with BA earning yet more points
has over 100,000 points visible when logged in (and visible in HHA on other family members logins)

As well as
The error shows when trying to book an Avios flight with or without the voucher and on both accounts. A cash flight appears to be fine and goes to the payment page, as does, interestingly a cash flight using part pay with Avios.
phoned BA and they said they couldn’t get into his account either
the inability to visit the HHA page and the error ‘invalid frequent flyer status’

[DTR]

It took six weeks but it did suddenly start working. Whether that was a result of the multiple phone calls or email to customer service remains unclear…

Good luck!

[Jo Stovell]

Hello,

I am experiencing exactly the same issue.
I can access my account, search reward flights but get an error message when selecting them (after adding passenger details)
I use my BA account a lot so not inactive. I have a lot of avios and a AMEX companian voucher. I have been trying to book rewards seats for 3 days, tried all the obvious like clearing caches etc. Finally called BA and after several long painful calls and looking through all the pages on my account I noticed when clicking on family page its shows the error code – Invalid flier status.
My husbands account which is linked to mine is showing the same thing.
The call centre cannot access my account!
I have been told they have no idea how to resolve this issue?
Having googled the life out of it i have stumbled across this post,I would be so grateful if anyone has any advice?
Thank you

[lolpancakes]

Checked today and found out its been fixed, not sure how but here is the rough timelines

Mid Dec 23 – found out something isn’t quite right with BA, but thought nothing of it as it could be temporary
6th Jan 23 – tried to book for real this time and found out I couldn’t no matter what I tried, and found this thread

Called BA couple times since then, lodged an official complaint, and received an email today saying Email address updated – to the normal email address – weird one.

Tried everything and I can continue with looking up avaialble avios seats, booking and HHA page fixed

Good news is that its fixable – but bad news is not sure what happened and how it was done. Good look to everyone else!