British Airways UK
AVIOS points - have to book 11 months in advance

I have >73, 000 Avios points which apparently I can't use. I booked a ticket (Jhb-Ldn-Jhb) -2 months ago to travel in September, done way in advance as the seats were being taken fast. I spoke to a man in customer care who advised that I buy the ticket on a lower class as BA releases seats from time to time to use for upgrade with points. I've checked around a dozen times and there never are seats.
Phoning the call centre is awful as it take ages to answer - today was 12 minutes, holding on listening to a taped message attempting to redirect you to a website which hasn't helped you, is not much fun.
Maria advised that in fact seats are allocated 11 MONTHS PRIOR to the flight date, so unless you're booking that far in advance you will never be able to use the points. She also advised that seats are only released for Avios users on the DAY BEFORE if they haven't been sold. I think your advertising is misleading and I will be putting in a complaint to the Advertising Stds Authority.
It is very difficult to contact you and I think your company needs to:
a) up your game in rewards
b) sort out your (lack of) customer service
c) get your call centre to answer sooner and/or set up email.

Company: British Airways UK
Country: United Kingdom
Region: United Kingdom
City: Johannesburg

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