How to get avios.com (ex-Airmiles) credit for BA flights?
 

As noted elsewhere, there is an avios.com offer for new ways of earning Avios. This includes BA flights. The offer is for up to 2,000 bonus Avios over the next year by crediting at least 500 Avios from BA flights per quarter. But how? :confused:

Our recent LHR-ZRH-LHR looked ideal. Out using BAEC, back using avios.com, or vice versa. (BAEC numbers were already in the PNR.)

The friendly help person at T5 changed our outbound numbers to avios.com numbers including the CJ prefix and they appeared on the BP. However, the flights were credited to BAEC. :eek:

OK then, we'll sort it on the return. Unsurprisingly, the SSCI machine at ZRH had no mention of avios.com or CJ. The check in lady had never heard of Avios let alone Airmiles (she was new) but successfully found CJ in her manual and input the numbers which show on the BPs. All well and good, then. Except that the flights have again been credited to our BAEC accounts. :confused:

Outcome: we have BAEC Avios and TPs but are down by 1,000 Avios between us as avios.com wasn't credited in the Dec-Feb quarter. (There's no way that our J trip to CPT will credit to avios.com with no TPs. :p)

So question for the experts, please. Just how can we get avios.com credit for BA flights? Thanks for your advice.

Have you had an online chat with them and asked if they know.

Well, not yet. It's a possibility though that device hasn't been too successful. I tried (about a separate matter) and got timed-out or systems-unsuccessful or whatever.

I'm still waiting to find out whether the LloydsTSB 9,000 bonus Avios offer for spend by Feb applies to me - they've invited me twice even including my name in the text of the message, but apparently I need to have received a letter from LloydsTSB about it and I don't recall such a letter - but efforts to find out remain unsuccessful.

The regular rate of 1 Avios per £ is less interesting than other cards though a 9,000 Avios bonus would make a difference, but I won't bother unless I know I qualify.

I would email them then. As long as they arent working for Natwest all should be fine in the end.

Ouch, sorry to hear this Roger.
I had kind of blithely assumed this would be as easy as changing the FF drop-down drop-down in MMB (which obviously requires being logged in on ba.com). Maybe / maybe not it would appear :eek:.

Stupidly I have booked two return trips for next two qtrs ... looking to credit o/b to BAEC and inbound to Avios.com.
Lesson 1: In future, better to book such trips as two singles.

I will now switch my FF programme to Avios.com for the o/b; then try to reverse it to BAEC for the inbound (Lesson 2).

FWIW, I would actually take it up on the phone with BAEC, and note your return flights have credited incorrectly ... please amend to FF# 12345678. You may well get shunted to avios.com "help", but your strongpoint would be the fact of your printed BPs. Personally, I'd want ONE person sorting the whole thing. They (BA) might even be interested to know of this wee bug in their IT!!

This was probably the problem. Once a FF number is in a booking, it can be very difficult to get points to credit automatically to another FF scheme.

If you have your boarding passes showing the CJ number to which the credit should have gone, why can't you retro claim from avios.com?

Thanks, littlefish.

I like your idea of booking one-ways. I've just made a dummy booking and see that 'avios' appears in the dropdown box of FF programmes so that may help next time.

When I have tried to change an FF programme in MMB in the past, it hasn't been possible, though I haven't tried this at OLCI.

Yes, that could be the answer (even if we have 4 BPs between us with the CJ prefix).

Are the 1,000 joint missing Avios worth chasing? Probably; alongside the Tesco and LloydsTSB bonuses if they post, they could be part of a total of 40,000 bonus Avios between us.

Okay, just fiddled around in MMB and looked through the FAQ :).

It seems MMB isn't enabled to allow you to change your choice of FF programme, once you have chosen one. Drat and double drat :eek:.

BAEC's MMB FAQ state, you can: " • Add an Executive Club or partner frequent flyer number to ensure receipt of Tier Points and Avios. "

Nothing to say you can't change of course but I sense a truly weird phone call to BAEC ... "Err .. can I change my earning selecion in booking N1234x from avios to avios please? [2 min hiatus and faffing] Yes .. that's right I want to earn less avios on these flights and avoid TPs altogether".

Why oh why didn't I book singles, I even thought about it? :o:o

You're right.

I even tried changing FF numbers using the Finnair tool. I could change to AA, CX and so on but not CJ (avios.com) as it's not in the dropdown box.

Did you sort this out Roger?

I've e-mailed avios.com, trying to explain that I wanted just one sector to qualify for avios.com credit to ensure the 500 Avios quarterly bonus, the other sector qualifying for BAEC Avios and TPs.

We seem to be in standard message mode, though. They've asked for info on PNR, avios.com membership no, routeing etc etc and raised the issue with BA as a missing miles enquiry. They passed the info to BA on whom the final result depends.

No sign of that yet. Possibly unfairly, I suspect I will get avios.com credit for both sectors with a consequent deduction of BAEC Avios and TPs.

What happens if I select Avios as the FF programme, at the time of booking, and enter my Avios number? Am I still able to select seats (as I would entering my Gold Card number)? How would I get the TPs credited to my BAEC account?

I assume this would involve a telephone call but is it possible?

Palmer

I would think getting TPs and avios.com (ex-Airmiles) credit for the same sector would not work as you'd need the BAEC number in the system for the TPs to be awarded. Ready to be corrected, though.

If you don't need the TPs urgently, it may be worthwhile to go for the avios.com credit and then call BA for the seat request. Or phone them first for advice, though I suspect the enquiry might be a little esoteric.

It was my understanding that using an Avios.com number instead of your BAEC one on tickets might provide the additional points, but not give you any BAEC benefits (i.e.: status benefits) and probably no TPs.

However, like Roger, I'd love to be corrected as there would then be a way of earning a few thousand more Avios for my usual flying routine.