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Starwood Amex points transfer to Avios lost in cyberspace - help?

Starwood Amex points transfer to Avios lost in cyberspace - help?

Old Dec 16, 2011, 3:24 pm
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Starwood Amex points transfer to Avios lost in cyberspace - help?

Hoping the B.A. experts in this forum can offer some help or advice...

I initiated a transfer of some of my Amex Starwood points to my BAEC Avios account - the exact number I need to book a CW ticket from FCO to IAD in January. While I was told on the phone by the BAEC rep that the points should be posted to my BAEC account immediately, they are nowhere to be found.

The points have already been deducted from my Amex account and a call to them revealed that the transaction has been initiated and completed on their end - it's in B.A.'s hands now. Amex has followed through, but when I called a rep at BAEC just now, they said that they have no idea where the points are and that there's really nothing they can do.

What!?!?!?

I can't book my ticket until the points show up, of course, and I have to book soon or I lose my window of opportunity to get the award seat.

Any advice from the leaned FTers here?

Many thanks in advance...
Sarah
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 3:37 pm
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Have all advised timescales for the transfer passed?

Chase it with Starwood.
Your redemption of Starwood points has not been recieved.

Make SPG take it up with BA / investigate further.

Last edited by David-A; Dec 16, 2011 at 3:46 pm Reason: EDITED DUE TO MISREADING
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 3:39 pm
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Some confusion here. Starwood points come from Starwood (SPG) not Amex, even if originally you earned them on an Amex card. The transfer usually takes a few (2-3) working days to go through. What exactly did you do to transfer the points?
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 3:45 pm
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Originally Posted by redshift27
Some confusion here. Starwood points come from Starwood (SPG) not Amex, even if originally you earned them on an Amex card. The transfer usually takes a few (2-3) working days to go through. What exactly did you do to transfer the points?
I misread the OPs post as Amex MR points going to BA, not Starwood points.
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 4:08 pm
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Sarah,

I think you are waiting on your points to move from Amex to SPG and then onto BA. The transfer between Amex and SPG is a monthly run and the transfer from Starwood to BA isn't instant. It can take a few days. Hope that helps answer your question.
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 4:21 pm
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Originally Posted by David-A
I misread the OPs post as Amex MR points going to BA, not Starwood points.
... which may be what the OP meant, and Starwood has nothing to do with it at all.

In any case, there typically is a delay of a couple of days. It is not instant.
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 4:32 pm
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Originally Posted by uk1
Sarah,

I think you are waiting on your points to move from Amex to SPG and then onto BA. The transfer between Amex and SPG is a monthly run and the transfer from Starwood to BA isn't instant. It can take a few days. Hope that helps answer your question.
That hardly seems likely. MR points can be transferred directly to BAEC, without the delay -- and devaluation -- of laundering them through SPG first.

The OP needs to return and clarify exactly what type of transfer this was. If it was SPG => BAEC, then Amex has nothing to do with the transfer, and the best thing to do would be to get an SPG rep and a BAEC rep on a conference call and let the two of them jointly figure out where the missing points are.
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 5:00 pm
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Originally Posted by guv1976
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That hardly seems likely. MR points can be transferred directly to BAEC, without the delay -- and devaluation -- of laundering them through SPG first.
I saw this as the SPG card, and the bottleneck being the transfer between SPG and BA.

Amex Starwood points transfer to directly to Starwood account just like Amex BA points transfer directly to BA. From the Starwood account they can then be trasnferred to BA. You cannot do anything with your BA Starwood accounts points other than wait for them to appear in your Starwood account - they behave in exactly the same way as you Amex BA account.

Last edited by uk1; Dec 16, 2011 at 5:32 pm
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Old Dec 16, 2011, 5:36 pm
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Originally Posted by uk1
Originally Posted by guv1976
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That hardly seems likely. MR points can be transferred directly to BAEC, without the delay -- and devaluation -- of laundering them through SPG first.
I saw this as the SPG card, and the bottleneck being the transfer between SPG and BA.

Amex Starwood points transfer to directly to Starwood account just like Amex BA points transfer directly to BA. From the Starwood account they can then be trasnferred to BA. You cannot do anything with your BA Starwood accounts points other than wait for them to appear in your Starwood account - they behave in exactly the same way as you Amex BA account.
Yes, but the OP wrote, "I initiated a transfer of some of my Amex Starwood points to my BAEC Avios account." (Emphasis added.) She could not have initiated the transfer from SPG to BAEC unless the points were already in her SPG account.
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 3:59 am
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Just looked up my last transactions for SPG>Avios.

Transaction date 16 November, posted to Avios 22 November - so 7 elapsed days between the two.

Transaction date 7 April, posted to Avios 13 April - same 7 days

And if it is the first time you have sent points that way, it can take longer.

It certainly hasn't been been instantaneous for some time.
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 8:34 am
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Hello -

Sorry I wasn't clear. In my panic I completely overlooked the fact that Amex points and SPG points are totally different. I'll clarify:

I have a Starwood Amex card, and all the points I earn go directly into my SPG account. When I say I "initiated the transfer," I meant that I went online and transferred my SPG points to my BAEC account. I say "initiated" because while it shows that they've been deducted from my SPG account, they don't appear in my BAEC account, so the transfer has been initiated but not completed.

So if I understand the responses on this thread correctly, the BA rep gave me erroneous information and it is normal for points transferred from SPG to BAEC to take up to 7 day to post? Argh. I would have done the transfer a lot sooner had I known.

I guess I should feel a little bit better that the not-insignificant number of points probably haven't been jettisoned into the ether of cyberspace, never to appear again, as I had feared...
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 8:49 am
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RedVee, that information is hugely helpful - I really, really appreciate you taking the time to look that up. Thank you!
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 9:09 am
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Originally Posted by sky74
RedVee, that information is hugely helpful - I really, really appreciate you taking the time to look that up. Thank you!
You are welcome. Think the agent was just out of date. At one point it was as simple as sending them, logging out of BA and then back in again - and they were there. There can be a lag when purchasing miles too.
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 10:54 am
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"Think the agent was just out of date."

Or the agent was under the misimpression that the OP was transferring Amex MR points -- which do transfer very quickly -- rather than SPG points.
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Old Dec 17, 2011, 5:08 pm
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i once had a credit card company open a new FF account for me without my knowing.
just wondering if SPG may have created a new avios acct for you.

get the avios acct number that SPG transferred into and make sure it's your existing one.
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