British Airways Dating Site Promotion Issues
Yesterday the blogosphere went crazy with the British Airways double Avios shopping portal promotion. During the promotion period (which is still ongoing) you can earn hundreds of Avios per dollar at Match.com and eHarmony. (Match.com seems to have been removed.) After a couple of bloggers highlighted how you could purchase Avios at a cheap price through this promotion, many people jumped on the deal.
I do a lot of online shopping due to my reselling business and wish it were just that simple. Buying points for a set price is different than counting on a portal payout to give you those points. Portals have a way of at the very least making you work to get what you think you deserve.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have chased similar deals in the past. For example a couple of years ago the Singapore Krisflyer portal had an AMAZING deal on Lifelock. I paid $27 for a membership and earned over 17,000 points. As you might guess they didn’t post right away, but I eventually got them. It took some work, but the value was there.
Why I Didn’t Bite
When it comes to this latest Avios promotion, in my view the cash outlay was too much given my overall points balances. In other words, I might have considered “buying Avios” with this promotion if I had an immediate use for them, but truth be told I have a healthy 5 figure Avios balance and don’t have an immediate need. Plus, the potential time and frustration factor seemed too high.
Problems Already Occuring
According to One Mile at a Time and Frequent Miler, yesterday’s purchases are already tracking but the news isn’t all good. Despite it not being mentioned in the terms, British Airways is only seemingly paying out on the base subscription and not on the final cost including add-ons. In other words, the “cost” of these Avios is much more than originally calculated.
Lessons Learned
I know many people who jumped on yesterday’s deal and I don’t fault them at all. The truth is that many times these deals do work out in the end, but it takes time and effort to get what you expected. When deals like this one come up in addition to the cost, I also try to factor in two other things. Time and frustration.
It remains to be seen if this deal will be honored as expected, however there is no doubt that people who participated will need to spend time and effort to get the extra Avios. Hopefully it will be easy, but that frustration factor should be considered. I have learned that lesson the hard way quite a few times.
Conclusion
In the end if you participated in this deal there is good and bad news. Thankfully the Avios are posting at the promo rate, but you aren’t being paid for your full purchase. I think deals like this one are a good reminder to think before you jump and to make sure a deal makes sense for you. Hopefully everyone who participated will get their Avios at that great price!
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When I have dealt with portals, an important factor to me is the merchant. Match.com has a rather turbid reputation, and has a rating of 1.1 out of 5 on several review sites, plus there are interminable complaints of ongoing billing when subscriptions are cancelled. Many of these merchants make these outrageous offers for a reason. Add this to the quirky nature of the BA portal…
Thanks for the great blog. Read it (almost) daily (work has this way of getting in the way of travel.)
I called in and got a refund. I knew this was a risky proposition and am not surprised it blew up. If I had been less greedy and just got a subscription I would have totally let it ride. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Also given BA’s terms I really doubt they will honor the full amount. I hope I am wrong for the folks who wait but I am out.
I almost didn’t take advantage of this deal as my Norton Subscription thru the BA shopping portal took 9 weeks to post. I luckily only went with the $215 subscription, so my correct amount of Avios are showing as pending. I blew through 100k Avios a few weeks ago when AA released a ton of domestic space…so this came at a good time to throw a few Avios in the bank for the next time AA releases space (probably sometime in 2018 🙂