Tips for Avios eStore crediting
Feb 21, 2019, 9:24 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: ATL
Posts: 406
Tips for Avios eStore crediting
Anyone else have frequent issues with the Avios eStore not crediting Avios or clawing them back? It doesn’t seem to matter the merchant for me I have yet to get credit without complaining and most of the time that isn’t fruitful. I fairly often shop via mileage portals with no issues for AA, AS, DL and UA (seems to be same provider) but the BA issue is getting quite frustrating. The last complaint where they reversed a credit of 1300 Avios because “my last click wasn’t from the store” but typically I am super cautious about going directly from portal to store then purchase.
Anyone had issues and figured out how to get credit?
Anyone had issues and figured out how to get credit?
Feb 22, 2019, 1:23 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Otley
Programs: BA, IB, DC, Amex PP, Motel 6, Waffle House, Cracker Barrel
Posts: 507
My experience and belief is that they just lie. They award you some of the purchases to keep you on the hook but others they reject as 'not last click'.
I am at the moment still chasing some 5,600 avios that did not migrate from avios estore to BA estore - now they want me to spend an hour on the phone chasing it up.
I also have a further 8,000 which have not tracked through BA estore and just booke hotel.com for October for another 23,000 - which has not tracked.
Despite me using a dedicated browser, it's a lottery.
I am at the moment still chasing some 5,600 avios that did not migrate from avios estore to BA estore - now they want me to spend an hour on the phone chasing it up.
I also have a further 8,000 which have not tracked through BA estore and just booke hotel.com for October for another 23,000 - which has not tracked.
Despite me using a dedicated browser, it's a lottery.
Feb 22, 2019, 1:54 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2018
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum, ALL Gold, Bonvoy Gold Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 384
Lots of discussion about this in the other recent thread.
I get most of my purchases tracking fine, but some of them don't track or are reversed even after they are approved. Email support takes literal weeks to respond with copypaste and sometimes completely bizarre excuses - one time they claimed I didn't qualify for the first-time customer Avios because they believed I had placed an order two years ago with this company I'd never heard of before. They held firm when I told them I hadn't even heard of the company prior to my eStore purchase, and only after chasing it up with the company itself (who were very friendly and prompt to respond), they changed their tune to "ok, but you used a voucher so it's ineligible".
It's completely routine for them to reneg petty amounts of Avios, and then argue about it with you via email over a period of months. Their customer service is openly consumer hostile, and I just do not understand why they insist on cultivating such bad blood and negative experiences with what is a loyalty programme.
When the eStore works, it works fine. But I've lost absolutely all trust in any of the promised Avios being awarded, so I've made a point to only use it for purchases I would've made anyway, and not to buy stuff just because it's on an Avios promotion. That way, if I get the points, it's a nice bonus; if I don't, well... there's worse things in the world, I suppose.
I get most of my purchases tracking fine, but some of them don't track or are reversed even after they are approved. Email support takes literal weeks to respond with copypaste and sometimes completely bizarre excuses - one time they claimed I didn't qualify for the first-time customer Avios because they believed I had placed an order two years ago with this company I'd never heard of before. They held firm when I told them I hadn't even heard of the company prior to my eStore purchase, and only after chasing it up with the company itself (who were very friendly and prompt to respond), they changed their tune to "ok, but you used a voucher so it's ineligible".
It's completely routine for them to reneg petty amounts of Avios, and then argue about it with you via email over a period of months. Their customer service is openly consumer hostile, and I just do not understand why they insist on cultivating such bad blood and negative experiences with what is a loyalty programme.
When the eStore works, it works fine. But I've lost absolutely all trust in any of the promised Avios being awarded, so I've made a point to only use it for purchases I would've made anyway, and not to buy stuff just because it's on an Avios promotion. That way, if I get the points, it's a nice bonus; if I don't, well... there's worse things in the world, I suppose.
Feb 22, 2019, 2:37 am
#4
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Glasgow
Programs: BAEC (Silver), IHG (Plat Elite)
Posts: 541
I never had any issue with the Avios.com estore, but for some reason the BAEC estore is awful, despite essentially being the same thing !
The most reliable retailers for me seem to be Argos and Screwfix, although these tend to be smaller purchases and small amounts of Avios, £15 -£40 ish. Better than nothing I suppose. John Lewis are also pretty good, and have spent much larger sums of money with them.
I've never bought from them, but PC World/Currys seems to be the worst offender.............
The best deal for me was 5000 Avios for car insurance, which was also cheaper than my renewal, win win !
The most reliable retailers for me seem to be Argos and Screwfix, although these tend to be smaller purchases and small amounts of Avios, £15 -£40 ish. Better than nothing I suppose. John Lewis are also pretty good, and have spent much larger sums of money with them.
I've never bought from them, but PC World/Currys seems to be the worst offender.............
The best deal for me was 5000 Avios for car insurance, which was also cheaper than my renewal, win win !
Feb 22, 2019, 4:35 am
#5
Join Date: May 2016
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold, Accor Gold
Posts: 1,427
I'm having success with the Executive Club app, seems to track the path to the retailer and gives you a confirmation message.
I even got some Avios from PCWorld/Currys that my girlfirend ordered (even though I cancelled the order as I refuse to use them and bought from John Lewis for half the Avios award) so I'm awaiting an actual genuine reversal on that.
I even got some Avios from PCWorld/Currys that my girlfirend ordered (even though I cancelled the order as I refuse to use them and bought from John Lewis for half the Avios award) so I'm awaiting an actual genuine reversal on that.
Feb 23, 2019, 9:44 am
#8
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: London
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 77
I’ve had no issues. Credit has normally been quite quick, apart from iTunes which take an age to credit.
Mind you I do find using topcashback and getting them paid out into BAEC works out a better rate in most cases.
Mind you I do find using topcashback and getting them paid out into BAEC works out a better rate in most cases.
Feb 23, 2019, 12:23 pm
#9
Join Date: May 2018
Programs: BAEC Silver
Posts: 219
Allegedly, you order online then go to pick up from the shop. The guys in the shop are measured on their volume of sales, so they cancel your order and book it as their own sale. End result is the cashback fails the verification check and never gets paid.
Impossible to prove either way when it gets to a dispute, buts I've probably had a 10% success rate with Curry's. Something is definitely dodgy there.
Feb 23, 2019, 12:36 pm
#10
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: UK
Programs: BA GGL, BA LTG/GFL, Honors Diamond, Accor Platinum, Bonvoy Silver
Posts: 716
I can't help with the frequent reversals / random BS reason for denials.
However I do keep a separate sterile browser (I happen to use Safari) just for referral sites. I reinstall it fresh once a month. I never use it on any other website (I use Chrome for normal browsing). No add-ons or add blockers. Always clear all cookies, logins, history etc. Always go direct to the referral site not even using google. Always accept all cookies from the referrer and merchant.
So far 90% tracking, still some post transaction denials - Hilton 75% denial, BA holidays 50/50.
However I do keep a separate sterile browser (I happen to use Safari) just for referral sites. I reinstall it fresh once a month. I never use it on any other website (I use Chrome for normal browsing). No add-ons or add blockers. Always clear all cookies, logins, history etc. Always go direct to the referral site not even using google. Always accept all cookies from the referrer and merchant.
So far 90% tracking, still some post transaction denials - Hilton 75% denial, BA holidays 50/50.
Feb 23, 2019, 6:37 pm
#11
Join Date: Oct 2018
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum, ALL Gold, Bonvoy Gold Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 384
First of all, it doesn't take months and months for clicks to post to begin with. And every then and again when the promised Nectar points don't show up or show up as 0 for whatever reason, I could just hop on an instant chat support line (compare to BA eStore's 12-day email response time, subject to a 5-day wait before you're even allowed to fill in the form), where an agent will offer their sincere apologies, and immediately award the promised Nectar points before the conversation is even finished. No emailing PDFs of receipts, no "please wait 8 to 12 weeks for crediting", no interrogation, no fuss. I assume it's all subject to some sort of fair use policy, but since I only had these problems 2 or 3 times over the course of two years, I never even ran into any of that.
It's clear that Nectar recognises as matter of policy that even when technically the click didn't go through or the retailer reneged or the T&Cs were breached or computer says no, it makes more sense in the long term to just eat the cost of honouring the odd 'bad' reward anyway, rather than generate unnecessary animosity through the "guilty until proven innocent" approach that BA eStore seems to favour.
The only downside of course is that there's no way to convert Nectar to Avios. But you can convert Nectar into Expedia vouchers good for flight fares less taxes and fees - which is exactly how I did a LHR-CDG return in CE for £83.
Feb 24, 2019, 12:38 am
#12
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 5,596
Anecdotal, I know, but I had the exact opposite experience when I used to use Nectar eShops for my click referral rewards. Compared to the BA eStore, it's a whole other world of bliss over there.
First of all, it doesn't take months and months for clicks to post to begin with. And every then and again when the promised Nectar points don't show up or show up as 0 for whatever reason, I could just hop on an instant chat support line (compare to BA eStore's 12-day email response time, subject to a 5-day wait before you're even allowed to fill in the form), where an agent will offer their sincere apologies, and immediately award the promised Nectar points before the conversation is even finished. No emailing PDFs of receipts, no "please wait 8 to 12 weeks for crediting", no interrogation, no fuss. I assume it's all subject to some sort of fair use policy, but since I only had these problems 2 or 3 times over the course of two years, I never even ran into any of that.
It's clear that Nectar recognises as matter of policy that even when technically the click didn't go through or the retailer reneged or the T&Cs were breached or computer says no, it makes more sense in the long term to just eat the cost of honouring the odd 'bad' reward anyway, rather than generate unnecessary animosity through the "guilty until proven innocent" approach that BA eStore seems to favour.
The only downside of course is that there's no way to convert Nectar to Avios. But you can convert Nectar into Expedia vouchers good for flight fares less taxes and fees - which is exactly how I did a LHR-CDG return in CE for £83.
First of all, it doesn't take months and months for clicks to post to begin with. And every then and again when the promised Nectar points don't show up or show up as 0 for whatever reason, I could just hop on an instant chat support line (compare to BA eStore's 12-day email response time, subject to a 5-day wait before you're even allowed to fill in the form), where an agent will offer their sincere apologies, and immediately award the promised Nectar points before the conversation is even finished. No emailing PDFs of receipts, no "please wait 8 to 12 weeks for crediting", no interrogation, no fuss. I assume it's all subject to some sort of fair use policy, but since I only had these problems 2 or 3 times over the course of two years, I never even ran into any of that.
It's clear that Nectar recognises as matter of policy that even when technically the click didn't go through or the retailer reneged or the T&Cs were breached or computer says no, it makes more sense in the long term to just eat the cost of honouring the odd 'bad' reward anyway, rather than generate unnecessary animosity through the "guilty until proven innocent" approach that BA eStore seems to favour.
The only downside of course is that there's no way to convert Nectar to Avios. But you can convert Nectar into Expedia vouchers good for flight fares less taxes and fees - which is exactly how I did a LHR-CDG return in CE for £83.
Feb 24, 2019, 1:20 am
#13
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Glasgow
Programs: BAEC (Silver), IHG (Plat Elite)
Posts: 541
I've heard of this on other cash back sites like Quidco and Topcashback.
Allegedly, you order online then go to pick up from the shop. The guys in the shop are measured on their volume of sales, so they cancel your order and book it as their own sale. End result is the cashback fails the verification check and never gets paid.
Impossible to prove either way when it gets to a dispute, buts I've probably had a 10% success rate with Curry's. Something is definitely dodgy there.
Allegedly, you order online then go to pick up from the shop. The guys in the shop are measured on their volume of sales, so they cancel your order and book it as their own sale. End result is the cashback fails the verification check and never gets paid.
Impossible to prove either way when it gets to a dispute, buts I've probably had a 10% success rate with Curry's. Something is definitely dodgy there.
Feb 24, 2019, 2:16 am
#14
Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: London
Programs: BA Gold
Posts: 1,680
My own experience is as follows. Apple far and away the best. Hotels.com pretty good, although if taking reward nights the earning rate is unclear, and you do wait until checkout +90 days for the Avios. Dell and Microsoft have both had reversals, the Dell one around a year after award. Persistent emailing and follow up had them both reinstated. Hilton, PC World, both very unreliable, I’d say avoid as you’ll most likely end up frustrated.
John Lewis been good too, and off topic but Waitrose is an easy earn for Virgin miles if you shop there.
John Lewis been good too, and off topic but Waitrose is an easy earn for Virgin miles if you shop there.
Mar 5, 2019, 6:46 am
#15
Join Date: Oct 2018
Programs: BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum, ALL Gold, Bonvoy Gold Elite, HHonors Gold
Posts: 384
After moaning about my problems (to do with the eStore, anyway) on this forum, someone from the BAEC support team sent me a private message offering to help. After exchanging details, they sent an email asking for PDF proof of purchase. It's now 2 weeks later, and I now receive a form response from a completely different person, copypasting the exact same rigid citing of T&C's I got from the eStore team directly months ago. What a brilliant way to sucker me in for one last round of false hope, time-wasting and wild geese!
That sucks! I can see that overall Nectar seems to be cutting down on benefits and accepted retailers... shame, as their customer service is top notch.
That sucks! I can see that overall Nectar seems to be cutting down on benefits and accepted retailers... shame, as their customer service is top notch.