Originally Posted by
grandgourmand
Count yourself lucky...Avios just de-valued the program. Although those short-hauls are still priced at 4,500k one-way.

But no, it was to be used explicitly for one of those 4500-mile short-haul segments to the Caribbean, which tend to be priced outrageously.
Anyway, I tried the transfer again this morning w/o delinking, changing names, etc., and it worked. I guess it was just a technical glitch.