A word of caution to those who are considering moving their Iberia Plus Avios obtained through the recent 9,000 point per flight promo, over to British Airways. I checked my point balance this morning, and they’re gone. I decided to move my points over on the 28th after news broke that Iberia was no longer restricting transfers. I tend to use my One World currencies for domestic American Airlines flights, and I’ve found working with Iberia to book anything of this nature is a nightmare. I find BA Executive Club’s website shows more AA flights than Iberia’s does, so for me it was worth the risk. Plus, I don’t really care if my Iberia Plus account goes negative after December 1st. I’m not planning a trip to Europe any time soon.
When I transferred my Avios last week, everything went fine, the points showed up in my BA account and my Iberia balance was at 0. But when I checked BA this morning (out of points paranoia), this is what I found:
I called Executive Club to figure out what happened and they told me that because I had not made a redemption since 2015, they immediately EXPIRED my 90,000 point transfer when it hit the account! I told them that was crazy and by moving points into my account, that should keep it in active status, right? No dice…
The Executive Club Rep I spoke with put in a request for an exception, but he doesn’t think that I’ll get one. His advice was to make a purchase through the British Airways Shopping Portal today to show some activity before my exception is reviewed. Simply transferring points in from Chase, Amex or Iberia Plus does not keep your account in active status. I asked if there was a way to just move the points back to Iberia, to which he quickly said ,“no.” I hung up and called again, only to get the same answer.
I’ll have to wait 7 business days to find out the fate of my Avios, but I wanted to warn all of you that If you don’t have a very active Executive Club account, don’t move your Promo Iberia Plus Avios over. They got me good. I’ll keep you all posted on status of my request.
Hello, any update for those 90000 avios?
The Executive Club “Terms and Conditions” put the transferring from a “Service Partner” i.e. Amex/Chase points under “Earning Avios points” (section 14.13) which, by definition under the same section, does extend the 36-month clock. But the Executive Club “Conditions of Use” (different than Terms, I guess?) under “Combine My Avios” number 11 state “Moving Avios using ‘Combine my Avios’ will not count as earning or redeeming Avios; and will not prevent the expiry of your Avios balance under the Programmes terms and conditions.” On the one hand, I sort of get it since Combine transfers are reversible and you could… Read more »
clickbait…
hello, any update with those 90000 avios?
Just one more reason to tell the World of Avios to drop dead. I got my points after severe B#$%ing and complaining, but they screwed over my spouse. In response, we have filed complaints with both the Department of Transportation AND the Federal Trade Commission for fraudulent bait and switch/false advertising. While it might not ever result in them keeping their promise, the scrutiny to bring onto them, as well as possible penalties assigned by both agencies, which will then result in small court claims for judgements is worth it. While we originally planned on truly using quite a few… Read more »
[…] CAUTION: BA REMOVED MY 90,000 PROMO IBERIA POINTS AFTER TRANSFERRING […]
Happned to me in reverse. I had BA miles that I transfered to IB. I used 34k for a one way J that I later had to cancel. Th e points were put back to my Iberia account and then vanished as they said the account was inactive as miles transfers dont count to keep an account active. Fought the hard fight with IB and never got them back.
[…] Majored in Miles had a piece earlier this week about an issue he ran into with the Iberia promotion. Iberia recently allowed their promo miles to be transfer to BA Avios. That wasn’t originally possible per the promo’s terms. He decided to take them up on the offer which ended up being a mistake. He was shocked when a few days later BA wiped out his entire 90,000 Avios balance. […]
[…] Lost 90K Avios By Transferring to BA: Â A few weeks back everyone was jumping on this Iberia promotion where you could snag 90K Avios. Â Up until now, positive news had been rolling out with points posting to their accounts. Some have hit some snags when transferring those points to their BA account. Â Be careful, YMMV! […]
[…] Travel Update is reporting that their miles were removed from the British Airways account after transferring. […]
That is crazy, that BA vaporized your incoming Avios due to previous inactivity. I just checked Award Wallet, and fortunately see that my BA Avios are safe for another couple of years.
Good luck getting your Avios back!
[…] A Travel Update writer is reporting that he transferred his 90,000 Iberia Plus Avios to his Executive Club account. He then logged into their Executive Club account to discover the 90,000 Avios had expired just a day after entering the account. […]
damn…that’s harsh
So the problem is you transferred points to an already expired account and they removed your points? I agree that that’s ridiculous but has anyone had this happen to an active account?
[…] Die volle Story:Â CAUTION: BA REMOVED MY 90,000 PROMO IBERIA POINTS AFTER TRANSFERRING […]