asur

Are the only Alaska fairs available for Avois award redemption the lowest level, Couch Saver (W)? That would make the Couch Mid-level Choice (N) and Couch Refundable (Z) unavailable via BA, correct?

nux

Correct, only the lowest level 'saver' award availability can be booked with avios on BA partners.

Blueskyheaven

Can you hold awards booked on BA website with Avios and for how long?

Globaliser

No, but you have 24 hours from the time of booking to cancel for a full refund. That type of cancellation can only be done on the phone, and only if you have not made any changes to the booking in the interim. It is primarily intended to protect you from any mistakes that you may make during the booking process and discover later, but there is no requirement that this be the reason why you're cancelling.

You should be aware that the time that it takes for the refund to reach your respective Avios and bank/card accounts can be very variable.

Blueskyheaven

I was trying to book CX with Avios on BA site and at check out it and yes you are right, it shows, 24 hrs to cancel but must be done over the phone. The problem is it takes 30 mins to 6 hrs to get BA agent on phone. Award upgrades, date changes means pay $55 fee per person or lose whatever the tax is? My award is for 3 of us together and shows $169 tax total. I will lose $115 in fees if I want to change the date or upgrade/downgrade the award? Can you change existing awards online?

Thanks

cal_quail

Hi, Hope this is the right place for this.

We've got a new Plat with 100k MR to be awarded shortly. Avios seem like a good potential candidate for at least a portion of them. I know of the impending devaluation and may be able to pull the trigger before then. Will have to get creative to finish the spend earlier than planned.

At this point neither of us have an Exec Club account. We aren't huge air travelers but are planning a trip to Alaska and a few other west coast flights (So Cal to PDX and/or SEA) planned in the near future. I'm the one who may travel alone, but I'm not the half with the Plat. I'm also the administrator in the family.

In setting up an Exec Club account, could I make the account and then add the family member with the Plat? Or should we do it the other way around? Seems I can't email BA without first creating an account (makes it hard to ask a question about creating an account).

TIA.

mikeyfly

My recent holiday / TP run has been a shambles posting TP and Avios! I am currently 500 short and approx. 35,000. My question is; I started with 980 TP all in. Due to schedule changes I had to change to one long flight rather than two at 140 TP. Am I entitled to the original 980 posting, or will BA award 840? The agent I spoke to yesterday didn't seem too interested and just said the Back Office will sort it out. If it is posted incorrectly can I challenge?

nux

Correct. Yes you can change an existing award online once but you will pay the applicable change fee.

I'm assuming you mean a devaluation of the MR transfer rate for US card holders? There has been a recent avios devaluation.

You can only transfer Amex MRs into a BAEC account in the same name as the Amex cardholder. Either setup a BAEC account online then use that in the Amex transfer, or request Amex to setup a BAEC account. The former is probably quicker.

You can use avios from one BAEC account to purchase award flights in anyones name, unless you setup a Household Account to pool avios.

So, setup new BAEC account in Amex cardholders name, transfer MRs to that BAEC account, use that BAEC account to purchase award flights for anyone.

Yes if you were involuntarily re-routed by BA you can call after everything has posted and request ORC (original routing credit).

mikeyfly

Well, I preferred the re-route and suggested it - I suppose it depends if this was noted or not!

Yllanes

Another suggestion is to open also an IB+ account and transfer a few MR points to activate it. Once the IB+ account has been open for three months and is active you can transfer Avios to and from BAEC freely. I know you want to travel along the west coast (for which the BAEC is better) but you never know, you may want to travel to Europe in the future (better redemption options with IB, with much smaller surcharges) and it doesn't hurt.

cal_quail

Thanks. I'll look into it. I'd definitely like to make it to Europe. Have a few closer things to check off my list first though.

JohnW52

I can't see it posted anywhere else but Tesco have announced that from November the Clubcard points (and therefore Avios) earned from spend not in Tesco stores will reduce to 1 point for every £8 spend. This is a significant drop, particularly for someone like me who does not spend much in store but significant amounts out of store where i can't use my Amex card.

jerry a. laska

It's been reported in the Tesco thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...thread-44.html

ExpatSomchai

My Dad has just given me some Avios in an Avios account. If we join together in a household account can I transfer them to my BAEC account?

IMH

No, but you could redeem them parallel to your own. See: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-accounts.html

Or he can just redeem them for you from his account. Which option makes most sense depends on, among other things, how many Avios are involved and whether the HHA rules would prevent you doing other things you want to with your own BAEC account.