Won’t Run F’d Up, AMEX Gives him 28K MR

At least 10 times this month, I’ve told Won’t Run that he should take advantage of the American Express 40% bonus for transfer of Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios.  I emailed, I told him on the phone, and so on and so on.  I even sent him links to blogs, with tutorials on how to transfer points, including posts by The Points Guy, Million Mile Secrets, and a final reminder post by Mommy Points.  With the deadline looming, he promised he’d do it on Wednesday, and then he promised on Thursday, and then he promised on Friday.  But, did he do it?  Of course not.   I gave up. Then, at 9 pm last night, only hours before the expiration of the promo, he decides to start the transfer process. (Did I mention that I hadn’t eaten all day, and was waiting to go out for dinner?)

Of course you can guess what happened next.

First step:  link accounts.  He swears he did everything right, but suddenly his British Airways account locked him out.  I heard grumbling.  We called all the numbers I had for British Airways, but British Airways Executive Club does not have customer service 24/7, just a lovely recording.  Cheerio.

Great. I refused to get sanctimonious about this — I refused to say THIS IS WHY YOU DON’T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! He had planned to transfer about 75K MR points, so if he lost the 40% bonus, he lost it.  It’s not the end of the world.

He then phoned American Express.  I heard him telling his story over and over, as one representative connected the call to the next.  I certainly expected these calls to go nowhere.  And then I heard him say, I’m going to put my girlfriend on the phone just to make sure I got this right.  He handed the phone to me.  Tai introduced herself.  She then explained that, since Won’t Run was unable to take advantage of the 40% transfer promo, Amex was depositing 28,000 MR points in his account, roughly 40% of the number of points he wanted to transfer to BA.   This, Tai explained, would make him whole.  I almost fell on the ground!

So, Won’t Run waited till the 11th hour, everything got screwed up, and then he was rewarded!  Talk about lucking out.  Where is Tai when I need her?

So, now that Won’t Run got his 40% bonus, is there really a need for him to presently transfer the points to British Airways?