Two big Diamond Club => Avios disappointments
 

First, that it required deliberate initiative to make the transfer happen (and, in many cases, the associated inconveniences and failures described on this board).

Second, that the Avios expiry is based on the last Diamond Club activity.

To the first point, every other merger/sale has automatically resulted in a new account in the surviving programme, usually with the option/encouragement that the customer initiate a merge of accounts if the customer already had one in the "new" programme. Pan Am => Delta; TWA => American; Air West => USAir; Northwest => Delta; United/CO => UA.

To the second, pegging the expiry to the last Diamond club activity is unique, and challenging, with no general notice to this effect, and then the challenge, in many cases, of checking the last activity via one channel, phone, after concluding the transfer.

These policies clearly are designed to rely on attrition to save money. I know, there are arguments that an airline is in business to make a profit. But these lead at least to a bad taste, and often to failure on the part of programme members. Transferring the bmi miles should not be cast as a special privilege in the context of a merged loyalty programme. In all other cases above, members have been treated as nearly as equals as possible. (OK, maybe not at the upper reaches in Mileage Plus.)

Now that most of us have slogged through the first issue, this is a plea that BA change its policy from basing the Avios expiry on the last bmi activity to base it on the transfer date. This would be the good faith thing to do, given the lack of explanation of the finer - some deleterious - points, the confidence course that the transfer policies have created, and would restore good faith.

Would earning Diamond Club miles with your CC spend class as Diamond Club Activity?

That sounds quite serious. If not the last cc activity - is it when the last booking was made or when the last journey was taken?
I flew at the end of September 2012. Hopefully it will be at least that as I have no planned flights (nor can see any that I want to take at the moment).
Oh - what's the timescale from this last 'activity' - one year, two years??
Can any mods help, or even Nicci?

The expiry is 36 months. I don't know what the two programmes consider to be activity, or if the policies are the same in that regard.

Thanks.

Where did you get that expiry rule from? It doesn't seem to day that here: http://www.britishairways.com/travel.../public/en_us#

Log into your account. Click on the link "My Avios" beside your account balance. Up pops a window entitled "About Avios points" that says that - and not much else, actually.

Its really not hard to have some activity on your account in 36 months... I don't see what the fuss is about. If you dont plan on earning/spending anything in 36 months you have to almost wonder why you have them.

But if thats the case, just buy something cheap through the estore and that will reset the clock.

.... assuming the estore transaction gets posted to the BA account.

Since that is the ONLY activity that is now allowed in DC it's a nonsense to suggest that the expiry would be based on anything else. I am pretty sure that Nicci has posted on this subject in a post where she announced the creation of the diamondclub.org website.

But that still says nothing about using DC activity to set expiry dates. Once the points are moved to EC you need activity every 36 months there to keep them, which makes them the same as other Avios.

Indeed. So there is a known glitch that is nothing to do with DC activity dates where points landing in a stale EC account may seem to disappear. However to date everyone raising this has had their points recredited.

So actually no policy linking DC activity date with Avios expiry. Just cock-up, not conspiracy? Panic over?

Indeed.....the 36 months non activity rule is for your BAEC account and nothing at all to do with when your last activity was with DC.

I thought so.
I don't know about anyone else, but as soon as my CC bill comes in I noticed that my points are posted to my DC, so I log onto mine and Mrs S's account and transfer them over within the same weekend.