Where did my BA air miles go?

J.H. writes: I am in dispute with BA, whose staff deleted my Executive Club membership from its system without warning. I did have over 550,000 Avios air miles. BA has given a number of reasons, ranging from data protection to inactivity. The inactivity was caused by serious illness in the family and travel restrictions because of Covid. Now it says it cannot locate my details on its system, which is of course because it has deleted my account.

BA told me that your account and all your air miles were deleted because the rules of the scheme say that you need to use your account at least once every 36 months. But you have explained that your daughter had a serious long-term medical issue, culminating in surgery several months ago. This, together with the pandemic, kept you on the ground.

It was not until your daughter had recovered sufficiently that you tried to make a booking to take her to the US for a holiday, only to find that your Avios air miles had vanished. I am very happy to say that BA has reconsidered. The airline told me: ‘Due to the significant amount Mr H had in his previous account, and that he wants to use them for his daughter, our team has on this occasion reactivated the Avios.’ Have a good holiday!

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.