Rachel Cabarcas’s timing isn’t the best. No, not because she has an expired awards problem she’s sharing with us today, but because if she’d waited a little longer, then this probably wouldn’t have been a problem.
And what, exactly, is the problem? Her Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards are no longer valid, and she’d like them back.
As some of you probably know, Rapid Rewards no longer expire. But they used to.
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Here’s a type of case that crosses my desk often, and to which I almost always say “no.” But should I?
Oscar La Torre recently took two flights — one from Miami to Sao Paolo on TAM and the other on from Lima to Piura on LAN Airlines. He’s entitled to miles on OnePass for the TAM flight and through his AAdvantage account for LAN, he says. Both airlines are denying him.
Can I save his miles?
Before I answer, a disclaimer: I am, as many of you know, a frequent flier program skeptic. I believe loyalty programs benefit airlines more than they do travelers, and they also divide us into “haves” and “have-nots” on the plane, which makes this egalitarian, idealistic crusader bristle. But enough about me.
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If you’re a card-carrying frequent flier, you probably already know that several airlines – including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways – charge $150 to redeposit frequent flier miles into your account.
But Anne Isaacson thought she might be able to talk herself out of the fee when she phoned United Airlines to book a first-class airline ticket. After all, she paid $4,300 for it, and figured that as a courtesy, the airline would let the surcharge slide for some unused miles she wanted to put back into her account for a different flight.
She thought wrong.
“The agent said she couldn’t waive the fee,” says Isaacson. “She said she understood my outrage.”
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Quitting a frequent-flier program looks easy: You cut up your card and donate the miles to charity. And that’s it.
But after a recent column in which I questioned the value of loyalty programs, I realized that there’s a little more to it. Living miles-free in a world that’s polluted with points is exceedingly difficult – and for some, impossible.
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Attention frequent fliers: If you can’t get a confirmed upgrade on your next flight, don’t do what Jim Downey did.
He put a “hold” on two business class seats, in an effort to secure a better seat on an American Airlines flight to Paris — something that’s against the rules — and he got caught.
But did the airline overreact? Perhaps.
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If you’re a frequent flier, maybe you covet a Delta Reserve American Express Card. It offers access to Delta’s Crown Rooms, a first-class companion certificate and a generous 10,000-mile bonus when you sign up.
Vincent Petty did. So he signed up for one. But when American Express or Delta — it’s not clear which one — failed to credit him with the promised points, he set off on an odyssey that led him nowhere closer to getting the miles he’d been offered.
Can a card company simply refuse to give you what it advertised?
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American Airlines knows how to contact Mary Ann Hall. And it does. Often. She gets fare sale notices and credit card pitches from the airline regularly, which doesn’t surprise her — she’s been an AAdvantage member since almost the very beginning.
But a funny thing happened when her miles were about to expire: American said nothing. And so, without so much as a warning, 46,000 of her hard-earned miles expired.
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