I booked a redemption flight (by phone) using my Amex 241 fairly recently but but BA have yet to take the miles / charge my CC. Just wondered when this was likely to happen? I can see the flight in MMB (but not within my BAEC account). This is my first reward flight so I don't know the form just yet.

My advice: make a call to BAEC and get them to confirm that all parts of the reservation are complete in the system and then ask when the debit will take place. I had an inconvenient experience when this happened to me last year.

If no luck on the phone then paging Bukhara or another one of the board's resident experts for clarification!

If a miles booking is processed correctly the miles should always be debited immediately. If they are not then the booking will not be ticketed. When the agent took your credit card details an authority code from your card company would have been generated which is only valid for 72hrs. This means that if ticketing does not happen within 72 hours then BA won't ticket the booking without obtaining an authority code again. (there are exceptions to this where small amounts are involved and BA will take the risk and just debit the card without a new authority code. Without the authority code BA don't have a guarantee that they will get the money they just have to put it through and asume that there's enough credit on the card. For this reason this is very rarely, if ever done.)

If I were you I'd go to checkmytrip.com and check if there are ticket numbers on the booking. If there are they you're fine and BA will probably never debit the miles. If there are no ticket numbers then you have to call up and get it sorted.

Thanks - I've done this. Would the ticket numbers show up as the Airline Confirmation Number? At the moment it just shows:

Airline confirmation number(s): British Airways XXXXX

My seat requests are showing correctly.

Kazza,

This is your PNR or confirm number. I would remove it from your post. The ticekt number will be further down and is a long numberic number.

If your booking had been ticketed it would show up under the heading e-ticekt numbers.

OOPS! Have removed this (but it doesn't match the PNR number I was given and when I checked my next Edinburgh flight to compare to the same information is showing here too. So now thoroughly confused!

There doesn't appear to be a heading for 'e-ticket number' when I pull up the booking. I checked my upcoming Edinburgh flight too (booked through my corporate travel desk) and there isn't a ticket number for that either but in the back of my mind I don't think my business flights get ticketed until about 5 days before the flight and I'm not flying for another week.

I am facing a similar kind of situation. About 10 days ago I made my first MFU booking over the phone. Outbound to SFO in WT+ and then using miles to upgrade to club on the return leg from PHX. For 3 pax this was 37.5k miles. However they have never been take from my account. I followed the advice from 'xxxxx' and there appears to be ticket numbers listed on checkmytrip.com, and they have charged my AMEX correctly. I would quite like the peace of mind that clarification would bring, but am also aware this would mean surrendering the miles, the honest thing to do i suppose!! Can anyone foresee any problems with my booking if I just sit tight and hope they never take them?

Cheers.

okay - if you open mmb and click print/view itinerary, does it show a ticket number next to your name?

I am guessing it said NOSYNC? This is not the PNR (which is what you input with your surname to get at the booking), but the BA/internal reference used by the Departure Control System (you'll see it on your luggage tags if you check bags). NOSYNC means there isn't one yet. It can stay like that until check-in and is nothing to worry about it. I believe it is being phased out anyway and 'new systems' will mean just the PNR is needed. Not sure when though.

No, no ticket number displayed but then my Edinburgh trip (next week) doesn't have a ticket number either.

In that case you are not ticketed yet. Worth a phone call to BAEC to force the issue.

Before you call BA, i would go to ba.com and to 'manage my booking', then to 'e-mail print e-ticket receipt'. You will need your card number, if you can access your eticket receipt which shows the ticket number on '125-XXXXXXXX' then aok. The ticket number also should show in 'print/view intinerary', but the eticket receipt will also show the card number the booking was paid with. Just to check, it is issued as an e-ticket not a paper ticket isn't it?

Also, if the status in the booking on the itinerary shows as 'booked' as opposed to 'confirmed', call BA and ask why.

Before phoning BA, i'd phone your CC company just to check that there's no amount that hasn't yet appeared on your statement. It is often the case that charges take between 5 and 10 working days to clear on my statement. Being Christmas, it may be that it just hasn't been paid to BA yet; they have to wait for merchant services to pay them and it is calculated on working days. Just a thought, it's very unlike BA NOT to charge!! Maybe it is a belated Christmas gift.
Good luck, I'm sure it's just something simple i.e.an agent having a bad day and incorrectly entering something simple into the system. From what I understand of the BA system, the agent's screen looks somewhat different when making a booking than the simple ba.com, I'd imagine there are a few screens to pull up in the booking process and some code hasn't been entered somewhere. Of course, I am talking with no knowledge of the system and I am probably completely wrong!

Good luck again

The reason this has happened is because the agent didn't queue the booking for the miles to be debited and as such the ticket will not be issued until this is done. If no ticket is issued then the money will not be debited. BA will have earmarked funds from the OP's account but this will drop off soon.