Avios took 502K away incorrectly
Dec 1, 2017, 3:22 am
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,047
The loyalty industry has a term for this - "breakage" - and it is an important factor in explaining to investors that not all miles will even be used - so the liability implied by billions of miles outstanding isn't as serious as it might appear.
Dec 1, 2017, 4:46 am
#17
Join Date: May 2013
Location: MAD
Programs: IB+, BAEC
Posts: 3,106
Welcome to the arrogance of certain big companies. Somebody with no activity for three years is clearly not a frequent flyer to be concerned about annoying, and expiring their Avios is good for the bottom line.
The loyalty industry has a term for this - "breakage" - and it is an important factor in explaining to investors that not all miles will even be used - so the liability implied by billions of miles outstanding isn't as serious as it might appear.
The loyalty industry has a term for this - "breakage" - and it is an important factor in explaining to investors that not all miles will even be used - so the liability implied by billions of miles outstanding isn't as serious as it might appear.
It's also why I have a paid subscription to awardwallet. It's saved me a few times from losing out on points I would have otherwise lost. Easily more than the subscription.
Dec 17, 2018, 6:27 am
#18
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Manchester, UK
Posts: 213
Apologies for resurrecting this old thread, but I've just discovered I've been 'done'....
I only created an Iberia Plus account to take advantage of a little 'free points' promotion back in 2015 - and so that I had an active account in case I wanted to take advantage of any Avios booking 'quirks' only available through Iberia.
(Later in the year I moved 100,000 Avios in, so that I had a bit of a balance across the various schemes)
Today, thoughts have started turning to opportunities for spending Avios for next year, and I successfully transferred 28,000 from Avios.com to BAEC. When I logged into Iberia Plus to check my balance there, I discovered I'd been wiped out:DateDescriptionSectorAvios30/04/18Expired Avios For InactivityOther services-101,50007/07/15Combine My AviosOther services100,00026/04/15Iberia Plus WelcomeOther services50008/04/15Earning Avios HailoOther services1,000
I accept that I've clearly taken my eyes off the ball here - naively I thought activity on one of the Avios schemes would count as activity on all of them.
However, I'm really rather p155ed off at the way this has been done.
I've found a single, solitary email from Iberia Plus in my junk mail folder, dated 1st March 2018 headed "[MIM], are you going to let your Avios expire?"
That's it. No follow-up emails - maybe ones with "URGENT!" in the header. No text messages. No phone calls. Nothing in the post.
If they really wanted customers to not lose out, that's what they'd have done. They wouldn't have sent a single low-key email, then left it at that. It's almost as though they didn't want me to do anything to save the points...
Is there any point in trying to please my case here?
I only created an Iberia Plus account to take advantage of a little 'free points' promotion back in 2015 - and so that I had an active account in case I wanted to take advantage of any Avios booking 'quirks' only available through Iberia.
(Later in the year I moved 100,000 Avios in, so that I had a bit of a balance across the various schemes)
Today, thoughts have started turning to opportunities for spending Avios for next year, and I successfully transferred 28,000 from Avios.com to BAEC. When I logged into Iberia Plus to check my balance there, I discovered I'd been wiped out:DateDescriptionSectorAvios30/04/18Expired Avios For InactivityOther services-101,50007/07/15Combine My AviosOther services100,00026/04/15Iberia Plus WelcomeOther services50008/04/15Earning Avios HailoOther services1,000
I accept that I've clearly taken my eyes off the ball here - naively I thought activity on one of the Avios schemes would count as activity on all of them.
However, I'm really rather p155ed off at the way this has been done.
I've found a single, solitary email from Iberia Plus in my junk mail folder, dated 1st March 2018 headed "[MIM], are you going to let your Avios expire?"
That's it. No follow-up emails - maybe ones with "URGENT!" in the header. No text messages. No phone calls. Nothing in the post.
If they really wanted customers to not lose out, that's what they'd have done. They wouldn't have sent a single low-key email, then left it at that. It's almost as though they didn't want me to do anything to save the points...
Is there any point in trying to please my case here?
Dec 17, 2018, 9:55 am
#19
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Barcelona, London, on a plane
Programs: BA Silver, TK E+, AA PP, Hyatt Globalist, Marriott LT Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 13,047
You can plead for mercy as a gesture. But let's face it. Not only were you inactive for three years, but you didn't even notice for 8 months that your Avios expired. Pretty solid example of an inactive account.
The solution was mentioned upstream... Award Wallet.
The solution was mentioned upstream... Award Wallet.