When BA announced the significant changes to Avios earlier in the year, it gave a guarantee that flights booked before the changes came in (on 28 April) would be honoured at the old earning rates. This seemed to be the decent thing to do. This was what the BA web said (and still says):
However, once 28 April came BA ‘forgot’ to tell people that the guarantee didn’t apply to tickets with partner airlines. Even if the flight was booked as a codeshare on a flight flown by BA.
I came across this with my recent flights to New York on the BA service from London City which only partially credited:
An email to BA about the outbound flight confirmed that they would honour the offer as originally made:
Thank you for contacting us about your flight with American Airlines on 21 May 2015.
I am sorry you were disappointed your flight was credited with less Avios and Tier Points than you were expecting.
If you booked a BA flight before 28 April 2015 and the flight date is on or after 28 April 2015, we will credit your account with the Avios and Tier Points you would have earned before 28 April 2015. Unfortunately, our agreements with our partner airlines state we should only credit partner flights based on the awarding rates at the time you flew.
However, as you have been misadvised about this, I have now credited your flight based on the awarding rate at the time you booked as a gesture of goodwill. I have made a manual adjustment to correct the amount you’ve earned, which you can see if you log in to your account at ba.com.
I hope this is a solution you feel happy with and thank you for choosing British Airways.
Under the pre-28 April rules it would have earned 210 Tier Points, despite being booked as AA6228.
This seems an pretty good move by BA.
So, if you ticketed before 28 April and received less Avios or Tier Points than you were expecting, complete the online form and after a few days BA should fix the problem.
Those of us enrolled in other OW programs are still waiting for the shoe to drop on a revamped mileage crediting for lower BA fares. Makes purchasing BA too far out a bit risky, though one would hope we get several months notice of such changes, or a similar guarantee (that’s followed through with) that tickets purchased prior to the change, but flown after the new earnings levels come into effect, will be honoured at the current mileage. I’d certainly like to buy one of those $800 US-SAfrica tickets for January, but hate to see I’ve only earned 10K instead of 20K EQMs/base RDMs.
Hi,
I’ve flown on AA metal on 3 May 15, but credited the fight to my BA account and I was given the lower amount of Avios and tier points. I’ve contacted the Executive Club line numerous times and tweeted @British_Airways, and I keep getting snubbed — they keep telling me that nothing can be done about adjusting the Avios. What should I do?
@YC – I would go back one more time as BA only recently (aka last week) have had a change of heart. You can say others have received dispensation, and that you’ve read it on the internet!
Thank you for your reply! After waiting for 30+ minutes on the Executive Club phone line, I was told buy the representative of the Executive Club that “the correct amount is credited and nothing can be done about it.” I tried calling again, but I only get a busy tone when I now try calling the Executive Club number. Any suggestions as to what to do? Thanks, again.
@YC – Use the online form and not the phone. I think the back office staff are processing these requests.