With good advice from this forum, I spent hours researching the perfect itinerary on IB and opened a new IB+ account and had planned to transfer my Amex points into it today. I called IB just to ensure availability and received some strange information from customer service.

I was told that in order to use Avios, you must already have some in your account. Basically, she told me I needed to fly first or receive avios through a hotel/credit card or car partner before I could use those avios I would be transferring from Amex. She also told me that once any points were transferred from Amex, any new Ib+ members still have to wait 3 months before redeeming avios.


I am perplexed, this makes no sense. I called Amex and they had never heard of such as policy. The number I called was from the IB website. I was told to call back before 5pm (Madrid time) tomorrow and speak with a supervisor at IB, but the agent sounded very confident in her info.


Has anyone experienced this?