NickPowell77

Hey all,

I've been kicked in the nutts by BA once too often and the latest baggage fiasco has pushed me over the edge.

I have an outstanding complaint with BA, centered around the fact that nobody warned us that our bags may not make it to JFK. Customer Relations are unable to provide answers or provide adequate compensation. I've asked for my complaint to be escalated and the name and contact details for the Head of Cutomer Relations - I don't hold out much hope.

I've got c100k airmiles and I'm going to give them all away to charity. Does anybody know if this is possible? If so, how much do they get per 10k airmiles?

Also, I'm sending back my BA Silver Card and cancelling my BA Amex. Needless to say I intend on never flying BA ever again.

N

Swiss Tony

Not sure about that, but how about using the following....

Find someone who might want those miles.

Sign into their household account.

Have them send you a cheque (say £1k - that's fair value) made out to a charity of your choice?

Of course you can't try to explore this on FT because that's not allowed, but you could always as around (colleagues, neighbours etc)

ba bob

I am so so close to doing the same thing. But, I hear the ba bob charity is accepting donations.

NickPowell77

I'm just so fed up I don't want to give the air miles back to BA and I don't want to fly BA ever again! Sooooooooooo Mad

I wanted to make a point by giving them all away to Charity and letting BA know. I may need to think again ...

G-BOAC

Send back (in time) your FT "Programs:" profile too...

I don't know of any way to give them to charity. But if you're that what about working out the most expensive partner award you can get with your miles and booking that. You don't have to fly BA and it would actually cost them something...?

The Saint

That's the best idea, although judging by the bmi Cash + Miles scheme, even this doesn't cost very much. Still, at least is hits them in the pocket and will be more than the marginal cost of providing a seat on one of their own services.

TEX277

I do not believe that FT has a problem with this - conducting a charity auction has been done already for a BA Silver card.

jkoul

I always considered that miles for charity was utter nonsense no matter which airline or hotel chain offered that option. I say that because you actually trade in a large amount of miles and/or points in exchange for a -relatively- very small cash donation on behalf of the airline/hotel. It simply isn't worth it, especially when one thinks what you can get with your 100,000miles.

Under the circumstances I can only suggest two things:

a) Give your miles to a friend, a relative or someone from our board, who will for sure make good use of them, as it would be a pity to leave all these miles in your account if you don't plan to fly BA again.

b) As was previously mentioned, give these miles to whomever you want and ask them to make a donation to a charity that you want on your behalf.

Globaliser

Buh-bye! Take care!

And come by and see us when you've changed your mind?

Aerotec

I am sure one of the many charities that send volunteers overseas would be greatful for you to make a booking on their behalf.

If you dissolve any household account then you should be ok to book a flight for anyone afaik?

latitude

I can imagine your frustration, however, commendable your guesture is, I don't think BA will give two hoots.

I would instead write a stern letter outlining your issues to someone as high up the ladder as you can. Someone on this board will be able to point you in the right direction.

Willy Wonker may have lost control of BA, but it doesn't mean mean all the issues are always down to BA- the grass isn't always greener ...

However, good luck, whatever you do !

Mutu

Don't think that will make much difference to BA bottom line "Virgin" Bob!!!

cloudwatcher

Hi Nick,

Truly sorry to hear of your desertion from BA. I hope I can look forward to welcoming you back in the fututre, under better circumstances.

Don't act in too much haste in ditching your miles, you never know when they might come in handy to your benefit.

If you do want to ditch them, then can I suggest you look up Dreamflight charity. I'm not sure if they can accept them but would be worth a try.

Good luck with your future travel plans.

JonWB

You could name a charity of your choice that accepts donations through www.justgiving.co.uk.

Then conduct an auction in the same way the Silver Card was auctioned by Smirnoff.

You can specify that the miles can't be used on BA services if you want to. I'm sure that would be respected by the winner.

Also, likely to be worth more to charity than a miles booking for two reasons.

1) Charity will probably redeem in economy.
2) Money from miles to justgiving.co.uk (plus 22% uplift from Gordon Brown) is likely to be better if a charity is buying flights.

SchmeckFlyer

AFAIK when not in a household account, one can book a miles ticket for anybody, even those not members of the EC. So I would suggest sending someone off on a nice holiday, or paying the way of somebody doing charity work. I think 100,000 miles will pay for two return tickets in Traveler from Europe to the West Coast USA, so it should probably get you to all of Africa and parts of Asia as well.

After that, cut your Silver card into little tiny pieces and send it back in an envelope to BA, and allow your account to lapse into oblivion. If BA does not care that they have lost your custom, it really is their own loss and shows a bad attitude IMHO... (assuming they really actively do not care of course).