s1362083

I have been using the following system to share Avios within my friends/family when needed, whilst still maintaining our individual balances. However, this won't work once avios.com closes so I wondered if anyone can think of other suitable solutions.

1.) Each person in group is added to BA HHA and has their individual Avios.com account which is not in HHA
2.) Each person keeps their stash in Avios.com and transfers just enough points to BAEC to redeem whenever necessary
3.) If person A is short for a redemption, person B can chip in by also transferring to BAEC and then there is enough in the BAEC HHA to redeem without drawing down from person C, D etc

This way we keep our balances separate and we can control who chips in how much when necessary, rather than everyone being pro-rata'd all the time. It also has the secondary benefit that if once in a while BA forgets to charge for a redemption they can't claw back the points retrospectively because BAEC has zero balance 99% of the time (I've had retrospective deductions twice in the past several months after ticketing!).

The obvious thing to me was to keep our separate stashes in IB instead of Avios.com but it seems like if you are in a BAEC HHA then you can transfer from BAEC to IB but not vice versa, which is no use to us.

And before someone suggests it, I know you can just redeem for someone else. The issue here is roughly once a year someone makes a big redemption that is bigger than any one person's balance.

:D!

I'm wondering the same thing.

My wife and I fly frequently, but other family members in the HHA don't.

Using the method you mentioned, I find it useful to use up the other family members' Avios as soon as possible after they are accrued. The main reason, rather than having people "owing" each other avios, is to keep everyone else's balances at 0 in case their BAEC accounts expire because they don't take any oneworld paid flights in a 36-month period (and this is because when they do fly oneworld it is often redeemed using our Avios).

The best solution I have come up with is to continue the same way, but with IB. To get around the restriction of moving avios back from IB to BA, I'll just have to leave the household account and rejoin it 6 months later. Do you think this will work?

Fortunately, my wife is the head of the BAEC household and I fly the most so have the most Avios, and we don't like keeping high avios balances anyway. So hopefully if I transfer most of my Avios to IB, the redemptions we would make will completely deplete everyone's BAEC, and we can accomplish this without my wife leaving and messing everything up. We'll just have to remember to do this every 2 years.

Steve in Olympia

But doesn't any redemption from the Household Account reset the 36-month clock for all of the account members and prevent the expiration of any of the account members' Avios?

David-A

Only if there is a member with status in the HHA.

David-A

Keep in mind any earn or burn will do - so use the eStore, etc.

David-A

Transform your existing Avios.com accounts into AerClub accounts (or Vueling accounts).
Or open a new one, but I would just transform your existing one.
Then continue as before.
They should not have the IB+ restriction in behavior (vs. HHA transfers)

pauldb

Steve in Olympia

Or bronze.

boboqui

Where can I read about avios.com closing?

louie-m

Try this thread.

David-A

Officially, that does not count as activity for them (in the same way that combine my avios official does not). I recall people being told that by BA about HHA debits. But it might well do in practice.

David-A

Indeed - have edited to status.

For along period after bronze came in it still said Silver and Gold IIRC. It has indeed now been changed to any status.

neuromancer

A redemption does count as activity, officially. And as it is taken pro-rata from all the accounts, it resets the clock for all.
Only Combine My Avios does not count as activity.

s1362083

Maybe I've missed something but how do I transform existing avios.com account to AerClub? AerClub FAQ at the moment says combining Avios with BAEC should be done via Avios.com so I guess there will be some other way to do once it closes, but is it possible already?

David-A

I'm curious why you say 'officially'? - People have certainly been told the exact opposite by BA. I.e. that officially it only counts as activity for the member doing the action.

From the terms and conditions:

"18.1.17. The Avios points balance of individual Household Account Members shall expire in accordance with Clause 14.4 if the individual Household Account Member has not earned or redeemed Avios points or purchased or transferred Avios points in accordance with the Conditions of Use for 36 consecutive months. Notwithstanding Clause 3.12.1, in such circumstances, the membership of the individual Household Account Member and the Household Account shall continue in effect."

"18.1.18. Notwithstanding Clause 18.1.16, in the event a Household Account has a Gold, Silver or Bronze Tier Member who has earned or redeemed Avios points within the last 36 consecutive months then the Avios points balance of the other Household Account Members shall not be subject to expiry in accordance with Clause 14.4. In the event a Household Account ceases to have as a Household Account Member any such Gold, Silver or Bronze Tier Member then the provisions of Clause 18.1.16 shall apply."

(I think the references to 18.1.16 are erroneous - it says: "18.1.16. Rewards will be mailed only to the residential address noted on the Executive Club Household Account records. In some countries, Rewards may have to be collected from designated places.". I think the references should be to 18.1.17, it is just caused by renumbering.)

Now that is how the T&C have been expressed for a long time. Crucially since before the additions of Bronze as a tier and Lifetime Gold as a concept - at a time when we also had membership year end dates changing upon promotion.
In that world, the implication of these two terms very clearly supported the interpretation which I know BA have given to people - that it only counted for activity for the member who is making the booking. This being because you could not previously have a situation of a status member in a HHA where nobody had any activity for 36 months - as the status member would have dropped to blue. So the second paragraph would be an impossible scenario to reach under the other interpretation, and therefore it must support the interpretation that only the member making the booking has qualifying activity (and this is an interpretation I know BA have given to people.)

HOWEVER, now that we have (1) fixed year end dates, (2) bronze as a tier, (3) LTG, the presence of the terms - the wording of which has not changed, beyond adding Brozne, does in fact act as a clarification argument in the other direction. As you can easily have such a scenario. Hope that makes sense.

So, I'd feel safe to argue it your way now BUT I know BA have said the opposite previously to people.
As I said hope that makes sense. I think it's quite a good example of how the meaning of terms can be changed by other changes.