Wouldn't the points go onto pending just like a Credit Card Charge until the ticket was ticketed. I know when I used miles they would be deducted almost right away pending the ticket would ticket within a few minutes etc.

What pops into my mind is lets say you booked your BA flight for 210,000 Avios you simply could not book a second flight using the same 210,000 miles for another journey. So there must be a "pending withdrawal" whereby the system ensures you have enough miles and then holds the reservation until Ticketed at which time the points leave your account unless you decide to cancel the trip.

I like to think of Frequent Flier miles like cash and like using a Credit Card. Instead of paying with your Visa Card you are paying with points and they operate the same way as the Form Of Payment is Avios not dollars. The reservation system works pretty much the same way with miles as it does with Credit Card purchases.

I spoke once with a Friend who works in the Revenue Ticketing Back Office and he told me that once a reservation is made it generates a PNR reservation Code and then waits for the Ticket to be issued within 72 hours. If its on manual ticketing someone has to physically confirm your details and enter their Agent ID# and Submit the ticket to generate the ticket number.

In most instances your ticket is set to automatically ticket in which case the unticketed PNRs are entered into a queue with a Ticket batch at which point when it hits that batch your ticket number is generated. In fact if one wanted to delve deep into the history of the ticket purchase you would find the time stamp of when the reservation was requested, who booked it(Phone agent,Customer), Ticket Batch#, Form of Payment, Any errors with Form of Payment, is the Customer on a No Fly List(API Information) etc. Most of the time online you will get the ticket number right away pending everything is OK which is why there is a lag between seeing the itinerary online and getting it into your inbox. During the time between you see the PNR# for the first time and seeing your reservation in the inbox the BA CRS checks to ensure that you have enough Avios or that your Credit Card is valid.


If there is a problem your ticket automatically gets sent to the Manual Ticketing queue at which point an agent checks everything and contacts you if there is a problem. If nothing is done then the ticket automatically cancels and the hold with your bank or miles gets refunded thus you hold no valid reservation.

This is why its so important to closely follow the progress especially when dealing with partner airlines and phantom availability. If you smell something isn't right call up the airline right away to rectify the problem rather than wait and be fined with a higher fare or higher mileage redemption.

Hope this helps.