“We really feel cheated on all levels”

If you collect frequent flier miles, you already know what happens when you don’t play by the rules. You know there are exceptions to the rules. But what if you play by the rules, and still lose?

Meet Jill Noll, who thought she’d done everything right when she applied for a new American Express Membership Rewards through Delta Air Lines, and the promised SkyMiles never appeared in her account.

If Noll transferred her points to the American Express card, she could get 30 percent more miles — an extra 15,600 points. At least that’s what they said.

We transferred a total of 52,000 points, and then waited the usual six to eight weeks for the additional miles to show up in our account.

Nothing happened.

I engaged in a losing email commentary first with Delta, who put the blame on American Express. And then, with American Express, with them saying it was Delta’s promotion.

We then talked with Delta’s customer service people who then proceeded to ask if we were registered. We explained we had been loyal and long time customers registered with Membership Rewards in partners with Delta for many years. That went on for several times, before we caught on to the fact that we were supposed to register specifically for that promotion.

And then, they had the nerve to say we couldn’t have our points back!

We really feel cheated on all levels and were so frustrated with Delta’s people.

I checked with Delta, and as it turns out, Noll needed to register for this promotion.

“Although our records do not show they ever registered for this promotion, we did make a one-time exception and added 15,600 bonus miles to account,” a spokeswoman told me.

That’s awfully nice of Delta. But was this misunderstanding preventable? Absolutely.

If Delta had explicitly told Noll that she needed to register — that simply being a SkyMiles member wasn’t enough — then I think this might have been avoided. Seems to me Noll could have also paid closer attention to the terms of the promotion, which would have stated that you have to register, even if you’re already a frequent flier.

No one was trying to cheat Noll out of 15,600 points, as it turns out.

(Photo: tipiro/Flickr Creative Commons)

  • Carver

    This played out exactly as it should. A promotion is to incentivize the customer to use the provider’s goods or services. Registration is a way to determine who used or increased usage based upon the promotion and to reward accordingly. Not requiring registration makes it difficult to track the effectiveness of the promotion.

    Its been my experience that its fairly clear when registration for a promotion is required. Otherwise the promotion fails in that it doesn’t incentivize behavior.

    That being said, it was good business for Delta to make the exception for the OP.

  • http://www.wanderingaramean.com Wandering Aramean

    It was a bonus for transferring points FROM a Membership Rewards account, not to one. And the rules were pretty explicit. You note that “If Delta had explicitly told Noll that she needed to register…” but I’m pretty sure that they did.

    I feel badly for people who don’t actually read the rules and play by them, something you imply that Ms. Noll did when, in fact, she most certainly didn’t. But the rules are the rules and they exist for a reason. Your suggestion that she was “cheated” by the company when she simply was looking for more than she had signed up for is a disservice to Delta.

  • Christopher Elliott

    @Wandering Aramean thanks for the comment. Noll suggested she was cheated by Delta. I did not.

  • The IT Guy

    I think that Chris had no business pushing to get this resolved. If someone doesn’t follow the rules and they lose, then it’s their fault and not the airline or anyone else. Chris saw this and even though he knew the airline was right to do what they did, he still pushed. The more of these articles I read about customers not following the rules and Chris pushing to get them what they want has caused me to lose a lot of respect for him.

  • Christopher Elliott

    @The IT Guy, the only way I would know what actually happened is to ask Delta. I did not “push” the airline to do anything; I simply inquired about the case.

  • Carver

    @IT Guy

    That’s really uncalled for. It would be one thing if Chris were threatening lawsuits, and smear campaigngs and the like. But it is never unethical to simply ask for an exception to the rules.

    Personally, I have no doubt that Noll was adequately informed of the rules. But what’s more important is that she acted in good faith and attempted to follow the rules as she understood them. Therefore, it was appropriate to Chris to get involved.

    Now, had Noll tried to cheat the company, or was trying to pull a fast one, then I am sure that Chris would not get involved.

  • LeeAnne

    @IT Guy – clearly you haven’t read enough of his articles, or you wouldn’t be making these rediculous comments.

    Christopher is one of the few people advocating for the CUSTOMER in the travel industry. He is out there fighting the good fight on our behalf, often dealing with situations in which a behemoth, profit-driven corporation is trampling on the “little guy.” We customers often have no recourse – we get screwed, they get paid, and we don’t have the resources to fight them. Christopher has the power of the media to keep these companies honest. They know that if he shines a light on their bad behavior, they’ll lose PR, customers and money. Many times that’s the ONLY thing that motivates them to do the right thing. Because it sure ain’t due to any sense of ethics.

    Are there some customers who try to take advantage of him and use his power and skills to get more than they deserve? Yes, I’ve seen it happen a couple of times. But those cases are a tiny fraction of the travel-troubleshooting cases he’s written about. And keep in mind, we probably only hear about a small fraction of the requests he gets. I’m sure he declines to help way more than he accepts, for just that reason — people trying to manipulate the system, or use his muscle to squeeze something out of a travel company to which they are not entitled. And the few times he has written about these types of cases, he didn’t know that’s what they were doing until he pursued it and heard from both sides.

    The vast majority of Christopher’s travel-troubleshooting cases involve some poor beleaguered customer getting ripped off, screwed or stepped on by a corporation. They have tried everything, gotten nowhere, and have no options left except to bend over and take it…or contact Christopher. And it’s not until Christopher “looks into it” that the company – SURPRISE! – suddenly does an about-face and does the right thing. Funny how that works.

    Your attack on him is ridiculous, not to mention disingenuous. Do you REALLY think it’s a good idea to attack the one guy any of us (including you!) can go to when we’ve got a travel company screwing us? What kind of bozo puts down “the good guys”?

    You also clearly miscalculated the number of fans he has. Get ready for a good, solid skewering.

    You are either a plant from some travel company that was forced to do the right thing by him…or you’re just a [insult deleted].

  • Nancy

    Delta just sucks.

  • Mort B

    In one word, Nancy, you suck too.

  • Christopher Elliott

    @Mort, @Nancy — five minutes in timeout!

  • Duke Nukem

    IT Guy, Mort B, Delta, American, you all SUCK!!!

    Nancy, you Rock!

    Chris, LOL!

  • Sarah

    In three words, Viola, I heart you.

  • Sarah Di

    I can’t speak about Delta, but I lost miles on American because they expired. No foul and my fault because I didn’t check and knew they would. I’m sure if I contacted them, they might try to do something to reinstate them, but I don’t expect them to because I didn’t check them. It certainly doesn’t make me feel cheated.

  • Mike

    I have read this a half dozen times and still cannot figure out why Jill would have had to sign up for anything new. She ALREADY applied for the new AmEx card. She ALREADY HAD the delta flyer card with plenty of miles, and she transferred the points between the two. If this was a Delta promotion as was suggested, she already had the card, so why sign up for something new? If this was on AmEx, she had just signed up for the new card and transferred the points and AmEx had all her info. So why would they not just sign her up for the appropriate account since it allowed for the transfer to take place.

    I find it odd that people would need to continually register for every promotion. If you are part of the group and you use the services or rewards benefits then any new promotions should be applied automatically to existing cardholders.

  • Jackie

    I’ve had the same issue with having to register before being able to benefit from a promotion, and the problem I’ve had is that it takes very close reading before you realize that it’s the PROMOTION you have to register for. It’s all too easy to be lead to believe that being registered for Sky Miles (or another airline mileage plan) is what the promotion requires. It’s extremely frustrating to make an effort to do something (such as book a flight with a particular airline for a particular time-frame, sometimes for more money than a competing carriers) and then find out that since you didn’t register for the promotion, you just lost the advantage you sought to gain. Yes, you should read the fine print, I get that. But to me the vague terms they use are disingenuous. It could and should be made more clear. Just my two cents.

  • LadySiren

    My only comment for the OP: if Delta doesn’t treat you right, head over to Continental. ;)

  • Alan Nimby

    Slightly off topic: Why does it take so doggoned long (six to eight weeks?) for a major corporation to do these things. I’d guess 90% of these things could be taken care of on the telephone with the customer. (If not, they need a new IT staff!) Only two reasons for the delay come to mind: a) income from the float – in other words the customer gives them an interest free loan for 2 months or b) they hope that in two month’s time the customer will forget to follow up

  • Shari

    @IT Guy – If you’re so offended by Chris, why keep reading his blog? I’ve never seen Chris do anything unethical, no have I seen him take advantage of companies. He fight for the customer, but is always polite and courteous. Perhaps you feel that it’s right for customers to get done wrong, or that we should all just “suck up” everything bad that goes our way. I don’t, and I’m glad that Chris doesn’t think that way either.
    @ Mort – either you work for Delta, or you have issues. Saying someone sucks because of an innocuous comment? Really?

    Nancy, I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Delta. I’ve told my friends and family to avoid flying on them unless they have no other choice. There are websites out there dedicated to how bad Delta is. I’m glad to see them doing something nice, but it hasn’t changed my mind, and I completely agree with your sentiment.

  • Paulette Baker

    @Mike: Carver clearly explained the why. Having to sign up for such promotions is the norm rather than the exception. I automatically get air miles every time I dine at certain restaurants, but I have to sign up for special promotions to receive bonus miles. Registering takes all of 30 seconds. I always read such offers thoroughly rather than assuming anything. (I read for a living — can’t help myself!) I’m glad Delta made an exception and Noll got her miles, but the onus was on her, not Delta or Amex, to understand how the promotion worked.

  • http://www.clarkecomputer.com Charles Clarke

    I hate all the registrations, but it has usually been obvious to me those times I’ve needed to register. Of course, I’m a very good reader. Lots of folks can’t make sense of some of these offer and registration requirements. Those requirements should be in larger font than the offer, in my opinion.