cgtechuk

Hi All,

I have had a look around the various threads and not able to find a straight answer.

My friend in work has 20k avios in his BAEC account that expire today, He said that he doesnt want them any more as he has no use for avios and do I want them.

How do I transfer them to myself ? What is the easiest / cheapest Method.

Given that he doesnt want his BAEC account any more I was tempted to add him to my Household account and then spend some of them as part of the "Pot" to keep them active then remove them when they are used up, The caveat with this though is that I need to leave him in my HHA until I do this,

I am GOLD he is Blue.

Any help appreciated

Cymro

Can't he just spend them on you now? Easiest thing would be to find a route you want to fly and just get it booked! (Easier said than done, maybe!)

ILikePancakes

If he's on BAEC, get him to try and earn a point of he's got one of the linked schemes... That'll buy another 3 years to figure out how to transfer them

squawk

I am not the most knowledgeable about this, but looked into a similar thing for relatives. If I recall correctly, if they are Blue, it is extortionate to transfer them - though I believe GGLs can do it for free?

The Household account was definitely the easiest way to go, though the person must be a member of your "household"... (there are some restrictions on how many times you can change address, etc. and add/remove people from a HHA in a given time). If he doesn't want the account at all, it seems like that would be the obvious way to go.

Alternatively, find a way of quickly crediting the account today to prevent expiry, and give you more time to make a decision. It might be too late for a BA eStore purchase or RewardsforThoughts survey, but Tesco Clubcard points might be possible - again, worth checking. But if the person doesn't want to keep it open anyhow, adding them to your HHA seems most sensible.

One final option: if you have some short haul trips that you need to book, can you use Reward Flight Saver directly from his account? 20,000 would give you 5 one-way off peak flights in Europe in ET. He books the flights "for" you, to use up the Avios. Obviously no good if you're hoping to stockpile them for a specific larger purpose.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do!

cgtechuk

Thanks all for the quick replies.

As gold I was thinking of gifting him a 1000 Avios for free and I wonder if that would be enough to reset the clock for 3 years ? Looks like household account is the easiest method I think
@squawk am I not right in thinking you cant book avios redemptions for other people no?

windowontheAside

You can definitely book redemptions for other people.

squawk

Beat me to it!

Globaliser

If they are expiring today, then this is what I suggest you do as immediate first aid: use his account to book a one-way LUX-LHR award ticket (either for himself or for you, or for someone else) on an off-peak day a while into the future. This should cost 4,000 Avios + �3.31. 6 February would work, trying a random date.

That will immediately reset his 3-year expiry clock, and give you breathing space to decide what to do next.

At some future time, you may decide that you don't want to fly that LUX-LHR flight after all, and it can be cancelled up to 24 hours before the scheduled departure time of the flight. At that point, he will get a refund of the 4,000 Avios, although he will forfeit the �3.31 cash payment.

WorldLux

IIRC combining Avios does not extend the validity of Avios. The transferred avios would expire today.

---
LUX-LHR is indeed good idea. It's 4,000 Avios + �3.32

Globaliser

A transfer from one member to another does reset the clock. It's in the T&C. See https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29789080-post148.html

So that is definitely another option, although it increases the number of Avios in the orphan account.

armouredant

To safeguard your own Avios while your colleague is on your household account, you could move them all into Avios.com or Iberia accounts, and only pool them in the BA household account when you wish to spend them.

cgtechuk

My understanding of the household account is that I can book things as the Head Of Household using pooled avios but any accounts i added as "members" can only book their own?

Is this incorrect?

armouredant

Yes, I'm afraid that's incorrect. Anyone in the household can spend all the Avios in the household account.

johnaalex

In addition to �.31 won't the cancellation fee also be due? �35? Or there abouts.

windowontheAside

No. You never have to shell out extra cash to cancel. They'll take the lesser of whatever you originally paid or �35.