A word of caution about British Airways Avios points

I love Avios. They literally finance my long-distance relationship.  It costs me 9,000 Avios to fly nonstop roundtrip from DC to Chicago on American Airlines and just $5 in addition. Here are some other awesome things about Avios:

1. Priority AAccess on American Airlines

This means boarding right after the top elites and getting to go through the fast security line. I have AAdvantage Gold, but my girlfriend doesn’t so Priority AAccess is invaluable given how much she flies.

2. Free cancellation

We often switch flights a day or two before flying if something better opens up because we only lose the $2.50 each flight if we cancel.

3. No late-booking fees

I could book a flight 4 hours before I fly and just pay the $2.50. No $75 late-booking fee like American charges, and I’m flying American flights!

4. Easy to earn

The Chase British Airways card has a ridiculous 100,000-point  signup bonus. BA is also a transfer partner of both Amex Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards. It is the easiest points currency to earn, in my opinion.

For all the greatness that is British Airways, there is one major warning about using them that I want to point out.

Sometimes I book a flight with Avios and need to cancel it only a few hours later. The BA website doesn’t let you cancel until 24 hours after booking, and if I wait until then I lose the $2.50 per flight. So I call (yeah I want those $2.50!). The Avios reservations line cancels my reservations, no problem. But I check a day or two later and my points aren’t back in my account. I have to call back and ask them to refund, at which point the points come back to me.

If this happened once, no big deal. But it happens nearly every time I call to cancel. So here’s the warning:

MAKE SURE YOUR AVIOS GET REFUNDED

And if they’re not, call back and request them.