ChocolateFactory

Matthew Bolous

goldwannabe

I possibly see some sense in going into negative balance in the Iberia account as this was stated clearly, but causing your BA account to go into negative after the accounts are merged seems highly unlikely, not least because it will give a disincentive to all the miles collectors.

And as a software developer myself, I can envisage all sorts of issues with going to a negative balance as I assume the code would have been written with '0' as the minimum. It's definitely doable but the question is, is it really worth the effort? Is there even a precedent for negative balances in miles accounts?

I wouldn't be surprised if Iberia just bit the bullet on this one and wrote it off.

Scandinavian traveler

I have a negative balance on my Avios.com account (around 2k), so it is possible at least on Avios.com. I chose to opt out of the merger with BAEC because of this and that has not been a problem.

Dfralmeida

I don't know the impact for them, but this is something to think about and they will never answer us with 100% precision. This is the biggest problem in the campaign. They have said that I have to spend it before December 1st, but if I issue an 100% iberia ticket on turista class that grants me the right to cancel paying a small fee, will the avios return to our account? Will they check if the Avios were already expired? No one knows for sure.

quitecryptic

Honestly why do so many people want to combine? Why risk what could happen when the programs merge, why risk having negative balance effectively losing your avios from the promotion.

There are plenty of reasonable redemptions you can do via Iberia...

Dfralmeida

Maybe extend the expiration date? Why not it something like that becomes possible? For me that would be fantastic, as I don't have much time left for vacation. BAEC has One Way tickets for the partners and you can cancel all tickets with a small fee, even for Partners. I don't wanna fight iberia, but do everything as defined in the initial T&C .
By the way: I have just found out via Award Wallet that my account avios expiration date is "unknown", but my father in law that issue an ticket, now the rest of the point are with expiration date in 3,7 years. I don't know what it means and if anyone here would believe that this miles will just stay in the account but who knows? Even iberia is not really sure.

Prospero

The opt out is offered as a result of the imminent closure of the UK Avios Travel Rewards programme, so what that means for you is the Avios you currently have banked belonging to your ATRP account will remain in the Common Avios bank and those that belong to your BAEC account will sit on a separate platform. Had you not opted out, then your ATRP balance would have been moved into the bank belonging to your BAEC account.

In very simple terms, the division currently looks like this. As of 2018, individuals who have AerClub and ATRP accounts collect and spend their Avios held in a single Avios bank account stored on the Common Avios Platform. Any Avios accrued via a BAEC and/or IB Plus are stored on separate stand alone platforms and members can transfer their Avios between accounts using Combine My Avios.



When the BAEC and IB Plus programmes migrate onto the Common Avios Platform, I am not expecting to be given an opt out because, as illustrated below, these programmes will move to the Common Avios Platform at the end stage of the migration process. At this stage, all your Avios will be stored in a single bank account and the Combine my Avios tool will be rendered obsolete.

essjay2009

quitecryptic

Neat, but that won't help when Iberia deducts 90k avios. In my opinion just be happy with what you got - a very cheap 90k avios to use on IB. Or I guess risk a negative 90k avios which could affect your overall balances when the programs combine...

petey2428

Whoever want to transfer their miles to BA should just do it. I'll check back again with a bowl of popcorn.

dalameda

There are a lot of people, including myself who didn't get their avios until much later, after a lot of run around from Iberia. By the time I was able to look at bookings I would be interested in, they were all taken up. From day 1 There have been horrible website experiences, challenges in bringing up potential bookings, and a lot of confusion from Iberia. If their goal was to build a base of new customers, it ain't working that well. I'll sit on my avios for now, but if nothing bookable shows up on iberia before mid-november, I'll transfer in a heartbeat and never log onto iberia again.

Guy Betsy

Because I cannot book the flights that I want through iberia.com. No availability on QF, CX flights when the same exact flights are available on ba.com. I want to book a BA flight in Business Class, and iberia.com only shows economy seats.

I tried to transfer IB over to BA which i have done before but this time it would not let me. Maybe its because my BA account has a different address (but same email though) - what gives?

Iberia.com is honestly horrible to do anything on. It simply won't let me change my address or email. It keeps going around in loops. I didn't book that many flights for fear that I would not be able to transfer.. so what I've booked now, am happy with the points I have.. if only I can use them!

I had sworn never to grace the insides of an IB flight ever since IB cancelled and withdrew 100K from my Iberia account 20 years ago. Do any of you remember the Oneworld promo of 100k miles into any OW account if you flew all 6 founding airlines' flights. BA, AA, CP, CX, QF and IB. I was slow in redeeming from my IB miles hoping for a rainy day, and after missing the rules (was there even one), they just deleted my miles and closed my account. I have hated IB since.

callum9999

There are tens of thousands of bookable flights, how are you defining "nothing"?

If you only had a handful of flights on a handful of dates in mind for these, then you really shouldn't have bought them. The only surefire way to get good value from airmiles is being flexible.

worldtravels

Iberia is apparently now allowing us to transfer to BA. What would be the point of Iberia allowing us to transfer the Avios to BA if we couldn't use them there? Why would they allow it? I did not read any prohibition against transferring them to BA and using them by Dec 1 in the original terms. Makes no sense at all.