What do you do if British Airways suspects you of selling Avios and closes your account?

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Like virtually all other frequent flyer schemes, British Airways Executive Club lets you issue tickets for other people using your Avios.

Unless you are in a BA Household Account, there are no restrictions on this. Some airlines take a harder line – Singapore Airlines, for example, will only let you issue tickets for people on your ‘friends and family’ list and restricts how often you can amend this.

18 months ago (I am updating an old article today as we’ve spent all week finalising the new site design) I got the following email from a Head for Points reader. I have edited it for clarity:

Avios wing 7

“As a long time subscriber to your blog I wanted to know if there is any way you can help me. I am a British Airways Executive Club Gold member, or least I was until Friday.

I received a email from BA last Tuesday telling me that my account was being suspended and investigated. I am suspected of not keeping with the terms and conditions. Basically BA suspects me of selling mileage tickets and asked me to email them with my response.

I emailed them to say that I have never violated the terms and conditions. On Friday I received another email from them telling me that my account has been closed “due to Brokeridge activity” that contravenes their terms and conditions.

I tried to contact them by telephone but couldn’t get a response. Obviously this is not the case – I have never sold tickets in my life. I have been a BAEC Gold member for over 13 years and, yes, I have bought tickets for family and friends but I thought that’s what the mileage was there for.

I’m asking you if there’s any way that you can help me with this as I have over 150,000 Avios and companion tickets and over 20,000 accumulated tier points. I’m completely devastated and I don’t understand why they would treat their loyal customers like this.”

For clarity, I am not taking sides in this case. Executive Club has an aggressive anti-fraud programme, and rightly so. In general, when I receive an email like this there is often something else going on which has raised suspicions. I know – having personally issued tickets for many friends and family members over the years – that BA does not come after you automatically.

What should you do if British Airways closes your Executive Club account?

Why would British Airways threaten to close your Executive Club account?

If British Airways does close or threaten to close your account, it will have looked at your Avios redemptions over the medium term and spotted patterns which are deemed suspicious:

Were all flights booked to depart from the UK? If you were booking flights which either did not touch the UK or were flying TO the UK and then back, this looks more suspicious than booking tickets FROM the UK which are likely to be for genuine friends and family.

Were you using your own credit card to pay the taxes? Not paying the taxes yourself raises a flag.

Were the surnames of the passengers different to yours?

Obviously there are honest reasons why you could give Avios tickets to friends and family which would still trigger the fraud alerts above.

There is also one other fact that BA knows and which you don’t know:

Have any of these passengers travelled on tickets issued by OTHER BAEC members?

If British Airways sees a person flying on tickets issued from a number of different BA accounts then this clearly looks like someone who has been buying tickets from other members.

If you were thinking of selling Avios by booking tickets for random people, the one above is where you are most likely to come unstuck.

If your account is flagged, British Airways may put a marker on certain tickets to question the passenger at check-in. It is easy for the check-in desk to casually ask how they earned so many Avios, or to ask if the passenger gave a nice gift to the person whose Avios were used.

What should you do if British Airways closes your Executive Club account?

What should you do if BA closes your Executive Club account?

This was my advice to the reader who contacted me (who, remember, had lost around £1,500-worth of Avios and his chance of hitting ‘Gold for Life’ status):

Make a list of all tickets you have issued for third parties in the last couple of years

For each ticket, explain how you know this person and why you would want to voluntarily issue an Avios ticket for them without any money or reward in return

Where the surname differs from yours, get each person to send you an email confirming how they know you and that they did not pay you, either in cash or gifts, for the Avios

Whilst BA can, in theory, do what it wants, they are likely to act responsibly in the face of evidence. Irrespective of the Executive Club T&Cs, it would also be possible to make a money claim against BA if you believe that your account is totally clean – but you’d be foolish to do this if there is any chance that they have real evidence.

After all, it only takes British Airways to show that one person you issued a ticket to has previously bought tickets via a known ‘mileage broker’ and your case will be thrown out.

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Goldmember says:

20 Aug20 August 04:23

I’ve used the Gold perk on several occasions to make redemption space available on Feb Half Term ski flights to Switzerland in the past for my wife’s boss and his family. The fare is often upwards of £700pp return paying cash compared to in the region of £360pp using Avios (taking into account the purchase of the Avios and the RFS cash component). Wife’s boss gifts the amount of Avios to my account (rounded up by a significant amount to make it worth my while and so I’m never out of pocket) and I complete the transaction with their credit card. Gold seat allocation rounds off the experience and everyone is happy. Guessing as they’re always on my friends and family list (despite me having never met them) it’s not going to trigger any suspicious activity algorithm.
- Andrew says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:53
  
  I admire your optimism but I’d be very nervous doing this. As a gold member presumably you have a decent number of avios already in your account. If so purchasing/receiving an incoming transfer of a large number of avios (when you don’t need them) to then immediately redeem them for a third party sounds exactly the sort of behaviour an algorithm could be watching out for.
  - meta says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 09:04
    
    And also posting it in public with quite a lot of detail!
    - Goldmember says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 11:01
      
      But hopefully with sufficient info missing to reveal anything with any certainty. I might have gotten the country wrong for example.
- Doug M says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 09:11
  
  How do you know he’s not doing this with others. He’s paying you a commission in Avios to take advantage of your status. It’s exactly the kind of thing they’d close your account for. You only get seat selection if you fly with them, no?
  - Goldmember says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 10:55
    
    Sorry I should have said I include me in the travelling party at time of booking then cancel me off at a later date once seats are secured. The seats selected remain for everyone else left on the booking.
    - meta says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 13:06
      
      That’s really bad. This is absolutely grounds for an audit and terminating account.
      - Goldmember says:
        
        20 Aug20 August 21:26
        
        @Meta It’s a benefit of being gold. It’s also a benefit of any Avios booking to cancel any seat from the reservation upto 24hrs prior to travel for a £35 fee so in this sense it’s perfectly acceptable. You don’t need to provide a reason for cancellation or proof of illness to do so.
    - Chris Heyes says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 17:43
      
      GOLDMEMBER@ Perfectly correct for you to do !
      Of course you would need to cancel yourself off the trip if you became unwell lol
      Done it myself (but with hotels) booked me & my daughter & granddaughter into hotel using my gold card but myself unable to travel never had a problem (daughter happy upgrade, me got points without being there) i see no difference lol
      - meta says:
        
        20 Aug20 August 18:16
        
        He’s effectively selling his miles. He’s done it repeatedly and deliberately. I presume if he was ill he had documentation as proof? It is also for someone outside his household!
        
        For hotels, it’s different because some hotels allow this and it’s in their terms and conditions. Actually you don’t even need to pretend. If you call a hotel in advance, no problem. Some chain hotels do have a policy (Marriott) which does allow someone else to stay, but no points. Hilton actually allows you to book reward stays for someone else in your household.
  - Goldmember says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 21:22
    
    Ultimately I don’t but I’m fairly certain he doesn’t. Skiing at half term appears to be the extent of their foreign travel according to my wife.
    - Andrew says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 22:30
      
      In all seriousness ask yourself how you’d feel if BA cancelled your BAEC account tomorrow. If it would cause major annoyance then at the very least tone back what you’re doing. You’re currently partaking in 3 dodgy acts any one of which could bring you to the attention of BA:
      Using your status to reserve seats for others when you have no intention of traveling yourself
      Using your status to open up award availability for others when you have no intention of traveling yourself
      Receiving a commission to do so
      - Goldmember says:
        
        21 Aug21 August 04:22
        
        Using tier status to assign me and others on the booking seats at time of booking is a permitted tier benefit. If BA were smarter they’d cancel the seat assignments off when the booking no longer includes a gold tier member but they don’t.
        
        Cancelling any combination of redemption tickets booked prior to travel is also permitted for £35. One of the benefits of redemption bookings. I don’t do it within 24hrs of booking which would be without charge and in my mind would look more suspicious.
        
        Opening redemption space (at twice the amount of avios of a regular redemption) is another permitted benefit of gold.
        
        This family aren’t on my household account as household members, they’re on my friends and family list and have been for several years now. I’m not palming them off as living at my address. I don’t update my household account or F&F list with new names at every given opportunity.
        
        Apart from the intent of not ever travelling which you could argue ethically isn’t in the spirit of BAEC membership, it doesn’t appear to be in the terms and conditions of membership so it would be interesting from a legal sense where BAEC would go with that. There’s no prerequisite to provide proof of hotel accommodation as an example and not should there be.
        
        The commission you speak of would be the amount of avios which get returned to my account when my reservation is cancelled.
        The wife’s boss purchases the entire amount of Avios (including my ticket) as a gift which BAEC allows on an an annual basis. This transaction doesn’t exceed this amount. The tickets are all purchased with their credit card which they can show at check-in if required.
        
        I’m not being deliberately ballsy or obtuce by boasting in order to gage reaction, the whole point of sharing was that this thread is extremely relevant. I’m not advertising the services of my membership in public or indeed shady places to garner profit or broker a deliberate scam. It’s one family who my wife knows a member of but who I don’t. They travel once a year. If that does her any favours in her professional life then I don’t have a problem with that but that’s not the aim of the game. It just using eligible benefits available to maximise financial saving (£1500-£1700 on grossly overpriced 1hr20 flights ew in school holidays). All I get out of it is the Avios equivalent to the redemption for my ticket.
        BAEC are perfectly able to tighten up in these areas of they deem it an area of concern but they choose not to.
    - Chris Heyes says:
      
      21 Aug21 August 07:11
      
      GOLDMEMBER@ wow you created up a storm there lol
      some people seem to think it’s ok to resurrect dead moggys over and over again but think making £4/5,000 selling a seat is a no no lol
      not that i’m accusing you of that lol ?
      people know the risks most weigh them up then either do or don’t whatever it’s up to them
      I’m not averse to some dodgy dealing so I’m not going to take some high moral ground like some on here (i’d be an idiot if i did)
ChrisC says:

20 Aug20 August 04:41

Flyer talk is littered with posts about having accounts closed and not just BA.

AA is very active and has software to find miscreants and will then close accounts after human review. If you try and sue or complain to the DoT they will be very robust in describing what you did publicly.

People usually start complaining they they had done nothing wrong but drop by drop details emerge that show that in fact either they had done the offending activity themselves or that their ‘friend’ had priors.

I recall one BA one where someone had their BA account closed and all flights cancelled (Whilst they were abroad!) because of illicit activity involving their lodgers paying for his tickets using their avios in return for him letting them use other parts of the house as this happened more than one it got picked up.
- Doug M says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 09:14
  
  The rent payment one was a cracker, gradually revealing bit by bit that the tickets were in lieu of rent. I just can’t understand why BA wouldn’t let me fly!
  - ChrisC says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 11:25
    
    I found the thread once I remembered the destination.
    
    https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1922055-desperately-seeking-help-flights-cancelled-account-audit.html
    
    For the avoidance of doubt I am not saying the people who contacted Rob have done anyting like this but wanted to give an example where BA can and do cancel accounts.
- Ricatti says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 09:39
  
  “their ‘friend’ had priors.”
  
  That occurrence should have nothing to do with You and your transaction / your reasons to book an Avios ticket for that person. There must be some presumption of innonence.
  - J says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 10:37
    
    “There must be some presumption of innonence”. Why? Outside of a criminal trial, it is rare to find examples of presumed innocence – many companies drop customers because of actions taken by friends and family – at least here they would be directly linked by a transaction.
    - Anna says:
      
      20 Aug20 August 11:33
      
      Yes – private companies don’t have to presume anything!
@mkcol says:

20 Aug20 August 06:45

So what was the outcome?
- ADS says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 11:10
  
  Rob – did you ever hear the outcome in this instance ?
ChrisW says:

20 Aug20 August 07:06

There’s usually a LOT more to the story than “I did nothing wrong”.

If he did nothing wrong he has nothing to worry about…
- Radiata says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 16:45
  
  Careful with such logic as what fascists reputed to say…
- Lady London says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 17:40
  
  So if you survive being drowned in water then you must be a witch anyway!? How medieval!
DA says:

20 Aug20 August 07:20

I’m willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt but several years ago my account was frozen and audited and I’ll admit I had been up to some slightly dodgy behaviour. Fortunately it was unfrozen a month later and all avios reinstated and I’ve been squeeky clean every since.
Vistaro says:

20 Aug20 August 07:24

Be interesting to see a more general blog post on this and not just for BA. There’s a plethora of brokers facilitating this, many of them have been in the business for ages and as such there must be a market for it and it would be good to know the bigger picture, I’m surprised there don’t seem to be brokers doing similar for AMEX and similar.
- Rob says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 08:20
  
  There are. Amex is easier because the seller issues a supplementary card in the name of the buyer which allows the transfer to go through with no risk.
Chris Heyes says:

20 Aug20 August 08:04

i posted a few days ago if you need to get rid of some avios due to no longer flying.
Put the recipient on your friends & family list before you give (sell !) your avios ticket saves a load of bother, hardly any chance of flagging up anything (if on your f & f list they could easily pay what the avios is worth ?)
Gavin says:

20 Aug20 August 09:08

I booked a one way from Majorca to Heathrow for a friend using Avios last year, perhaps as this was a first occasion I got away with it. I didn’t ask any money from the friend, they had to get back to the USA around that time anyway and the Avios flight meant we could catch up for the weekend before they did so.

Perhaps more cavalier was adding my in-laws who lived overseas to the household account to benefit from the 15k Avios their flights would get,
and lying that they were resident in my property. Now I’ve burnt all the Avios I don’t mind admitting this.
- Anna says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 09:13
  
  In the first instance that’s perfectly acceptable – you weren’t “selling” your friend the avios so no breach of Ts & Cs.
  
  I don’t know how BA views where people actually live – presumably there are people who have residences in different countries anyway?
  - Gavin says:
    
    20 Aug20 August 12:05
    
    In terms of how BA view addresses, I just claimed they were resident at my address, obviously they aren’t as live overseas – this was the only BA flight they were ever going to take.
    
    Their Avios eventually became a crate of wine!
- Chris Heyes says:
  
  20 Aug20 August 10:58
  
  GAVIN@That’s not a problem in it’s self you can get a flight for a friend anytime the only problem would be if you “made anything” from doing it (that would be against terms & conditions)
  although not illegal
  doing it on a regular basis “might” flag up
  that’s why f & f is “very” useful