‘I spent over £100k on my British Airways Amex card and it gave the perks to my son’

QA couple of years ago I signed up for a British Airways American Express credit card after reading that the perks were really generous if you spend over £10,000, which I do. I am a father of three, and travelling with them can be very expensive.

However, for the last couple of years I have been using the card and spending above the £10,000 a year limit for receiving perks, but not receiving any companion vouchers or Avios points.

I complained repeatedly to American Express, which advised that Avios and companion vouchers were in fact being credited. I was told that I should check with British Airways, but it in turn told me I should check with American Express, therefore sending me round in a loop.

Finally, a few months ago, I snapped and wouldn’t let it go. I had to find out what had happened to my points and vouchers. It turned out they had been credited to my eight-year- old son’s British Airways “householder” account, which is linked to mine. American Express apologised and accepted the blame, awarding me 500 Avios as compensation.

I was seriously unimpressed with this. I had wanted to spend the points and companion vouchers for this year’s summer holiday, and as a result of not having them, I ended up overpaying instead of saving.

American Express told me to contact British Airways and ask for my companion vouchers to be restored to my account. But British Airways said it was unfortunately not possible to restore the companion vouchers to my account, meaning they would have to stay in my son’s, even though he can’t spend them. This seemed mind-blowingly incompetent.

I spend up to £40,000 on that American Express card every year. I need a better resolution than this.

– HK, via email

Dear Reader

AAfter spending a six-figure sum via this British Airways American Express credit card over the three years since you took it out in 2020, you were incredibly frustrated to be passed around the houses like this.

Yours is a confusing case which stems from the fact that you mistakenly provided your son’s British Airways Executive Club account number, rather than your own, when you first signed up for the card in 2020.

This meant that your Avios points and companion vouchers, which effectively give you a two-for- one deal on Avios points you spend, went straight to his account.

Although you were able to access and spend the 96,000 Avios points sitting in your son’s account due to it being part of your “British Airways household account”, it wouldn’t have made sense to spend them without using the companion vouchers, which effectively gave you two plane seats for the price of one.

By the time you were able to access these they had nearly expired and you had already been on your family summer holiday for the year.

As the companion vouchers were issued to your son, instead of you, they could only be used on flights on which he was travelling, meaning you could not even use them for a last- minute break with your wife instead.

So unless British Airways and American Express took action, they were going to go to waste.

Happily, I was able to bash their heads together and get the expiry dates on your two companion vouchers extended so you can use them, along with your Avios points, for your family holiday next year. In addition, I’ve had all your points and vouchers moved into your British Airways account, which is where everything you accrue from now on will go, too.

You’re delighted this is now resolved, and you’re looking forward to a significant discount on your next family holiday next summer, possibly to Asia or the US, you say. Wherever you go, I hope you’ll have a fabulous time.

An American Express spokesman said: “We appreciate the card member’s patience as we worked with British Airways to resolve this highly unusual case.”

A British Airways spokesman said: “We’re sorry for our customer’s experience and have worked with American Express to help resolve the issue.”

QBack in October I spent £204 on Molton Brown products online via its website. As expected £204 left my bank account, but then, on Nov 3, Molton Brown removed another £204 from my account. Then it happened again on Nov 6.

Both of these payments, totalling £408, were taken without my permission. Molton Brown has blamed them on a computer error and I have received an email saying that it will refund the two extra payments in five to seven working days.

However I do not think that this is acceptable. Surely Molton Brown should be refunding the money immediately? It has offered me 30pc off a future order, seemingly as some kind of compensation, which is laughable.

I have sent several emails to customer services asking for my money back sooner. In one email, it said not to worry, and not to contact them.

– JW, Northamptonshire

Dear Reader

AIt only took a quick glance at Molton Brown’s Trustpilot reviews to see you were far from alone in having unauthorised funds leave your account after purchasing some of its products online. Some 72pc of reviews are one-star, with a spate of customers complaining of money being taken from their bank accounts and not returned in recent days.

When I asked Molton Brown, it said that on Nov 3, its systems experienced a “technical error” whereby more than one payment was unintentionally requested from some customers, including you. As soon as it realised this problem, it said it “immediately took steps to identify who was impacted and contacted those customers affected and issued refunds as our main priority”.

It told me all refunds were issued by the end of the day on Nov 6. It said the reason why it might take this long to show in the customers’ accounts was due to “the processing time between our independent payment provider and the customer’s bank, which is outside Molton Brown’s control”.

However, 10 days later on Nov 16, Molton Brown let me know that it had heard from customers who had still not received their refund. And you were one of them. It was revealed that the merchant bank that monitors and approves all transactions for Molton Brown had placed some of the genuine customer payments under fraud review, which meant they were held and not passed onto customers.

However as I write this, all payments have now been released, which means that at long last, everyone now has their refunds. You finally received yours on Nov 17. So in total your money was gone for two weeks, which I agree, is ridiculous and utterly unacceptable. Had you run into debt, or other tangible life problems caused by the lack of funds in your account, Molton Brown would arguably have been on the hook for reimbursement, which I’d have gladly enforced.

Similarly, other affected customers are entitled to consequential losses as a result of its actions, and should contact me for help if they need it. In your case it was simply an annoyance, for which it has sent you two bottles of hand wash. A nice gesture this may be, although probably not enough to restore your faith in the company.

A Molton Brown spokesman said: “We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused and want to thank our loyal customers for their patience and continued support.”

‘I bought some Molton Brown soap and then it raided my bank for £408’