East Coast Rewards

[SteveP29]

It's been quite a while now that I have had 158 pending points in my East Coast Rewards account.

I did see an announcement on the East Coast website that they were having problems with the system and were working on it.

A couple of weeks ago I tweeted to them asking if a solution was in sight as in a month or so's time, I'd be wanting to book a first class return journey.

As you will know, this requires 900 points, guess what?, I have 890. The pending points would give me enough to be able to book the journey/ tickets I want.
My journey is Edinburgh to London, so you can imagine my reluctance to endure 4+ hours on those horrific standard class seats.

The reply I got was quite unhelpful and confusing:
'Hi Steve, unfortunately we're unable to alter the date the 'pending' points will clear on. Sorry.'

Firstly, does anyone 'on the inside' know when the issue is likely to be fixed?
Secondly, is there any way East Coast would account for the problem and let me book my journey and use the pending points?

 

[Romilly]

In the absence of problems, pending points for something like an Offpeak Return remain pending for 2 months and a day after the date of outward travel, and if you bought the ticket 12 weeks ahead may therefore be pending for the best part of 5 months.

One tip is never to include Advances and non-Advances in the same booking, as the non-Advances will cause the points for the Advances to remain pending until a month and a day after the validity end-date of the last non-Advance to expire.

In your case, one option would be to go into your East Coast account and buy yourself a £10 e-voucher. I am fairly sure the £22 threshold doesn't apply (but am happy to be corrected), and the 10 points should be in your Rewards account by the following day. The voucher is not time-limited, and can be used by you or anyone to whom you give the voucher code. Of course, this presupposes that you are likely to make further paid-for bookings using the EC website.

 

[hangus78]

What you describe will be nothing to do with the issues mentioned on the site. The issues mentioned can cause a delay in the points showing up in the first place not in them changing status.

As Romilly said credited points are pending upto the point it is no longer possible to make any changes to that booking. This is to prevent people spending the points then requesting refunds on the bookings that earnt them.

 

[yorkie]

It's been quite a while now that I have had 158 pending points in my East Coast Rewards account.

Without knowing how long "quite a while" is, and specifically how long that period is after the date of travel, it's impossible to comment on whether this could be an error or expected behaviour of the website.

They don't credit points to your account until such a date is reached that the ticket could not be refunded.

 

[SteveP29]

Thanks for the advice.
I tweeted East Coast and found that the £22 theshhold still applies, so I got myself a £25 evoucher (Thankfully I have another Edinburgh- Newcastle trip to book).
Hopefully the 25 points will be added tomorrow.

I wasn't aware that point aren't allocated to your account until you are not able to get a refund. How long before the date of travel does a ticket become invalid for refund?

 

[Romilly]

The £22 threshold doesn't apply to everything. In general, the cases where it doesn't apply seem to be those where East Coast will keep all the money (e.g. Advances on East Coast trains only, £10 administration charges).

On refundable tickets, you generally have to apply for a refund no later than than one month after the last possible date of travel. So for an Offpeak Return valid for outward travel today and return anytime within the month that starts today, a refund application would have to be received no later than 17th November. So I wouldn't expect the points for that ticket to be available for use until 19th November.

 

[ASharpe]

I've been thinking about buying e-vouchers for a while for a £10.15 ticket I buy at least once a week, but at shortish notice.

Can I buy a £30.45 evoucher and use it over several weeks, or do I need to use it in one go?

I always get rewards points for my expensive tickets and my weekly tickets from Kings cross to Leeds and back.

 

[bb21]

You don't need to spend it all in one go.

 

[SteveP29]

25 points were added to my account this morning, thanks for the advice Romily.
I'll be able to book my first class return next week when the tickets go on sale.
The booking I had to make Edinburgh to Newcastle cost me £23.70, so I still have a credit of £1.30 which expires on 31/12/9999, so your credit (if you don't use it will never expire asharpe.

 

[ASharpe]

Thanks for confirmation that evouchers don't expire, I'll certainly start using them.

 

[Sleepy]

Hi folks I purchased 2 1st class Advance tickets for travel with FGW (total cost £42) on Friday, the points for this transaction have not yet been added to my Rewards account - am I being stupid and they do not qualify for some reason ??

 

[bb21]

Give them a few days. I find that they tend to add the points on a working day or two after the transaction.

 

[Sleepy]

Ok bb21 thanks.

 

[Deerfold]

Give them a few days. I find that they tend to add the points on a working day or two after the transaction.

Although the points for tickets I bought on Saturday were showing on my account by this morning.