Expired Avios recovered
Mar 29, 2016, 10:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 274
Expired Avios recovered
I know this comes up occasionally, so I thought I'd post my experience.
I recently realised that I had let about 100k of Avios.com Avios expire almost a year ago. No excuse, I just got my dates muddled.
I rang Avios in a bit of a panic and the guy I spoke to was great. He checked my account, saw the expired miles, reinstated them and said I had to earn at least 1 Avios in the next 3 months to keep the account active.
I got the impression that this was entirely routine. The whole thing took about 10 minutes on the phone and the miles were back in my account about an hour later. I made sure I collected a few Avios immediately and my account is back to normal now.
All pretty painless, considering :-)
I recently realised that I had let about 100k of Avios.com Avios expire almost a year ago. No excuse, I just got my dates muddled.
I rang Avios in a bit of a panic and the guy I spoke to was great. He checked my account, saw the expired miles, reinstated them and said I had to earn at least 1 Avios in the next 3 months to keep the account active.
I got the impression that this was entirely routine. The whole thing took about 10 minutes on the phone and the miles were back in my account about an hour later. I made sure I collected a few Avios immediately and my account is back to normal now.
All pretty painless, considering :-)
Last edited by pboae; Mar 29, 2016 at 10:41 pm
Apr 13, 2016, 2:28 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: CA
Programs: Amex Plat, SPG Plat
Posts: 8
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Tried many times with calls to BA with no such luck? All calls are outsourced to India and basically get you no where with that. Also emailed BA and those go to India as well with no luck. Is there any phone numbers to call that actually may help with the loss and/or expired Avios miles? You said you called Avios.com is that a UK number? Is there anybody on FT that may have more pull to get this job done? Your help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Apr 13, 2016, 3:02 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: London, UK
Programs: BAEC GGL/GFl, HH Diamond, BW Diamond, Virgin Voyages Deep Blue Extra, Blue Peter Badge Holder
Posts: 3,937
I've never been passed to a foreign call centre, I tend to call the international BAEC number, ensuring I withhold my number before-hand in order that I don't get the "you need to ring the 0845 number". Hope that helps.
Apr 16, 2016, 2:09 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2012
Programs: BA Gold, QF WP
Posts: 12,551
I'm in the same boat as the OP. Tried many times with calls to BA with no such luck? All calls are outsourced to India and basically get you no where with that. Also emailed BA and those go to India as well with no luck. Is there any phone numbers to call that actually may help with the loss and/or expired Avios miles? You said you called Avios.com is that a UK number? Is there anybody on FT that may have more pull to get this job done? Your help is much appreciated. Thanks in advance.
In your case you will need to contact BAEC, however I do not recall ever reading about someone having expired BAEC avios reinstated.
Apr 16, 2016, 7:00 pm
#8
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: JAX
Programs: Ex-BA/AA/CP/LY staff, BA Executive Club Blue, IHG Diamond, Marriott Silver, Chick-fil-A Red
Posts: 3,581
While I still worked for BA, the procedure was to write to Customer Relations and request the expired Avios be reinstated. A similar stipulation about earning more Avios within 3 months was in place. Don't know if that's still possible with BA Avios, but interesting to hear that Avios.com Avios can be reinstated over the phone.
Jan 13, 2017, 10:58 pm
#9
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: May 2002
Location: YEG
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 56,443
I hope that my miles can be reinstated as I received an EC email dated 20th Nov. gently reminding me that my miles would expire in 5 months which I appreciated but logging into today find they were already withdrawn 2 days ago! Hey, that's not even 2 months never mind 5 months!
Jan 15, 2017, 10:26 am
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: May 2002
Location: YEG
Programs: HH Silver
Posts: 56,443
Happily the miles that had been withdrawn from my account have been returned after talking to BA EC. Impressed that not only is there a willingness to correct what seemed an oversight but to do it so quickly on a weekend.
And an important lesson relearned for me to pay more attention to account activity dates.
And an important lesson relearned for me to pay more attention to account activity dates.
Jan 15, 2017, 12:41 pm
#11
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: JER
Programs: BA Gold/OWE, several MUCCI, and assorted Pensions!
Posts: 32,140
Nice service recovery, and glad that happened for you.
A bucket of Avios needs refreshing! Fortunately our Amex PP gets hit almost daily with grocery shopping, so expiry of Avios never crosses our minds.
A bucket of Avios needs refreshing! Fortunately our Amex PP gets hit almost daily with grocery shopping, so expiry of Avios never crosses our minds.
Jan 30, 2017, 4:30 am
#12
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 1,357
As data point the same applies to BA Avios too - my sister's expired earlier this month.
Email to customer services centre was a no - they are lost..
Call to the service centre was a yes. (that said waiting for them to reappear)
We now have 3 months to make any kind of transaction - suggestions included Gate 365.
Email to customer services centre was a no - they are lost..
Call to the service centre was a yes. (that said waiting for them to reappear)
We now have 3 months to make any kind of transaction - suggestions included Gate 365.
Oct 22, 2022, 4:36 pm
#13
Join Date: Feb 2015
Programs: Top Tier Flyertalk Member
Posts: 671
As data point the same applies to BA Avios too - my sister's expired earlier this month.
Email to customer services centre was a no - they are lost..
Call to the service centre was a yes. (that said waiting for them to reappear)
We now have 3 months to make any kind of transaction - suggestions included Gate 365.
Email to customer services centre was a no - they are lost..
Call to the service centre was a yes. (that said waiting for them to reappear)
We now have 3 months to make any kind of transaction - suggestions included Gate 365.
Wonder if different call centres result in YMMV?
Mar 2, 2023, 12:50 pm
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Juneau, Alaska.
Programs: AS 75K;BA Silver;AA G;HH Dia;HY Glob
Posts: 15,797