just_starting

Hi all,

I've come across this "problem" many times, and I still haven't found a good solution:

• Person A has a large amount of Avios in his account (say 500k), Person B has a smaller amount (say 50k)
• A and B are friends and want to go on holiday together, and both want to use their Avios to either pay for the whole flight or an upgrade
• For all kinds of reasons (status benefits, treatment in disruption, potential upgrades, etc.) A and B want their flights to be on the same booking

Now what A has done so far is to book the whole trip on his account, and B in return booked a couple of short-haul redemptions to pay back the Avios. That solution seems far from ideal (A doesn't need any short-haul redemptions in the future, and A doesn't like the hassle of always having to go through B's account, and this will probably get flagged eventually). A also doesn't want to just sell his Avios to B.

Other options I could think of:

• Household account: This doesn't seem to work as it seems to be impossible to draw from both Avios pools equally. Also, A and B do not live at the same address anyway.
• Transferring the Avios: Don't think that's possible, probably far too expensive anyway
• Booking individually, and then merging the bookings: I seem to have read about it at some point - does that work?

This must be a common situation surely - how do people around here usually solve this?

rapidex

A books flights, B books hotels.

just_starting

That would come under "A also doesn't want to just sell his Avios to B."

RockyRobin

just_starting

Clever thinking!

Scandinavian traveler

JAXBA

The trick to having Household accounts drain the correct amounts is to move surplus balances to Avios.com/IB accounts, making the redemption, then combining back into BA. Fiddly, but doable. Doesn't solve them not wanting to live together though...

Other than transferring the Avios by paying for it, there is no other solution. Bookings cannot be merged.

just_starting

Wouldn't that be a nice feature to have? Seems like a fairly obvious one now that I think about it - to allow both A and B to pay for their respective shares of an Avios upgrade.

But I guessed as much... Was hoping someone here had a secret trick that I hadn't thought about!

Misco60

I "solve" it by not worrying about it.

I frequently travel on redemption bookings with friends - and one friend in particular. Sometimes I book the trips using my Avios, sometimes they book using their Avios. I have significantly more Avios in my account than they do (and some friends aren't even BAEC members so have no Avios at all) so I end up booking more flights than they do, which is absolutely fine by me - that's the nature of friendship. The gesture gets "repaid" in other ways at other times (and it's not as if the Avios even cost me anything in the first place).

If the nature of the relationship between A and B is such that A does not want to use his Avios to book flights for B, A doesn't want to sell his Avios to B and it's not acceptable for A to book the flights and B the hotels, then there is little they can do other than make separate bookings, with all the disadvantages that brings.

:D!

Is B emptying out his account every time this happens? Otherwise why can't B book for A using B's account one time, then A books the next time? Does B have an issue with "selling" his avios to A or being temporarily "owed" avios?

If A is on the booking won't the status benefits apply regardless of who booked? The only problem other than B not having enough avios for both, would be if the flight comes out of the Gold extended availability and B doesn't have access to that.

rossmacd

I have been in the same position as you before, and quite honestly since I'm Avios rich (like you), I just use my miles to pay for my friend. They of course cover the TFCs element, but I find this a good thing to do.

That being said, since I accumulate so many Avios very easily I do not get the opportunity to spend large chunks frequently. Furthermore, I do not value Avios as highly as others may do, so no real biggie.

mastutio

This is a brilliant suggestion. I often end up with drips and drabs of Avios in the kids' household accounts. This is a great way to tidy them up. Thank you.

1Aturnleft

Iberia always require passport number for transactions like this (unable to handle online yourself as HHA prevents it) so you need to call through and hope they understand the requirement.