Help, my frequent flier miles are gone!

I don’t mind the “military vet” card, because (the vast majority of the time), the complaints are legit. If this was a case of “my miles expired and I ignored my statement because I was deployed,” well, that’s one thing.

But if everyone else is going to play their cards, where can I sign up to play my “I’m a self-supporting, full-time grad student working full time with an internship?” ;-)

Wow ! I’m surprised by the “advertisement” at the end of the article for your “Away is Home” facebook page : paying with weekend rental for a few additional likes is some kind of a new low … Good thing for your e-reputation it was buried at the end of an article where most people will miss it !!!…

I’ve seen a couple of posts indicating there’s nothing wrong with nicely asking for an exception to the rules. That’s certainly fair enough, and any business should have employees that are empowered to bend the rules at their discretion. They also have the discretion to say “no” to the request, however.

What really gets under my skin, though, are people like this lady who writes to people like Chris in an attempt to bully the business into giving her what she wants when the business (US Airways in this case) exercises their judgment and denies the request. And sadly, cases like this indicates the bullies win.

I think the wrong question was asked. I voted YES. For all of us, those accumulated miles were obtained by choosing one airline company over their competition. I see no justification for the airline cancelling them if they aren’t used within a specific period.

The question that would be more on topic would be, “Should US Airways reinstate this lady’s miles?.

To that, I would have voted NO. They were contracturally correct..

Third question: Did US Airways do the right thing? I vote YES. At the risk of setting a precedent, they scored a public relations victory: a company with a heart. Bravo US Airways.

I’m a little disappointed with those that look unfavorably on Chris’s good deed. But as many say, “no good deed goes unpunished”.
I’m a big fan of Chris’s and have read his vow not to try and save any more expired miles. But geez people, have a little compasion – not all people are savvy or are up on checking their mileage expiration dates.
Although I’ve never asked Chris to intervene on my behalf (and hope never to feel the need to) I’ve fought some of own battles with company’s who’ve charged me a late fee or an extra charge because I simply forgot to do something on their timetable, which admittedly I was aware of. G-d bless all of you who are so perfect as to never miss a deadline, or forget to do something simple and manage to run your life on a perfect spreadsheet so that you never make a mistake.
I’m sure that Chris’s letter to the airline was polite and not demanding, and he acknowledged he was asking them to bend their rules, which they did.
So many here think that corporations need to bend a rule or two for goodwill purposes, but then beat Chris up when he goes to bat for someone in financial straits who can’t afford the $150. fee. And then the downright meaness of comments such as “she should find a job, not worry about FF miles” is as cold as it gets.
Chris, good for you. I realize that your time can’t be taken up by every person who forgets to check a date, or knows the tricks of how to hold on to FF miles without taking a flight or getting an affiliated credit card. You helped a person in need and hopefully, everyone out there who’s also in danger of losing their miles will have read your post and will now take heed, and you’re one correspondence for this woman has helped hundreds of potential mile users. Thanks!

Hi Simone,
I think the point of most of the folks here (or at least my point) is that it’s not fair to invoke Chris to publicly pressure airlines to refund non-refundable miles, restore legitimately expired miles, or do anything else they shouldn’t have to do. More often than not, the airlines cave because they know that if they don’t, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people are going to read about it. If Ms. MacKenzie had contacted US Air and managed to cut a deal on her own… great, but to drag Chris into it? No; that’s not fair.

“you’re one correspondence for this woman has helped hundreds of potential mile users”

Considering Chris stance on frequent flyer programs, not sure he’ll be that happy with such a compliment !!! :-)

You have got to be kidding me! Sadly, I am sure you are not. I used to volunteer at a food bank, and was helping a family carry their food out, to what turned out to be a fancy new pick up truck. When I noticed a nice 55″ flat screen TV in the box in the back of their truck, I asked one of the kids if that was there TV and the boy said he was so excited, they just bought it with daddy’s tax refund. The next family I spoke to told me how they were going on a cruise with their tax refund. I spoke to the manager of the food bank and she said this is normal around tax time. Then I told her I would no longer be volunteering to help people who can afford luxuries, but not food.

Okay, now I want to hear the joke. I had the same thing happen at a former employer. I wasn’t actually fired, but I had to go through a slew of HR trainings, and had to go on probation, and fortunately found a much better job before all was settled.

Oops… in my post above, “non-refundable miles” was supposed to be “non-refundable fares”.

Ya sure, Em? It’s pretty racy: “Apple has announced the release of a chip which plays music and can be implanted in women’s breasts This is considered a major advance because women often accuse men of looking at their breasts… but not listening to them.” Ba – dum – BUM!

Racy, but not worthy of firing I would think. Mine was back when the Pork Producers of America were looking for a new slogan. I am Jewish and was talking to Muslim co-worker, and we decided that the new slogan should be, “Pork, Even Muslims and Jews can agree on not eating it.” No one was offended either, but just in case someone might be an investigation was opened, and we had to take sexual harassment training, then a slew of other trainings.

Ha! That’s a scream. I’da been fired for that one, too. :-)

As much as I have compassion for single, working parents, I have to admit that if keeping her son’s FF miles was important, she should have made it more of a priority. It takes about 2 minutes to check if FF miles are expiring. I’m sure there’s a lot of people who have rough circumstances and have let things slip through the cracks, but that’s the way life is sometimes. A few years ago, I was working full time, going to school full time, planning my budget wedding, and moving to save money all in a few short months. I missed an airfare sale for my honeymoon and wound up having to pay twice as much. That really hurt. But I didn’t write down my sob story to Chris in the hopes he’d argue with the airlines for me. She shouldn’t have gotten the FF miles back.

Rules are rules. Quit entitling people to bend them. It is totally stupid to be a frequent flier if you fly once a year or less. The system was set up for “Frequent Fliers”. If they ran out, then they were not frequent fliers. You have the rules presented to you when you sign up.

Use a credit card to get “frequent flier” points, then they don’t expire. Capitol One wants you.

If that was truly the case, then lost frequent flyer miles wouldn’t even be on the radar screen.

I might only be able to afford to fly a few times a year, but I fly the same airline, and that makes me no less loyal than you. Besides, if your company is flying your self important ego around, you’re simply along for a free ride – when I spend nearly every dollar I have to go visit my family, and I choose to spend that hard-earned money with the same airline, that should be just as valuable to any airline as you “elites”.

They are in “business” – keeping miles for unlimited years means you are neither frequent nor loyal, so why reward them with a free trip? If they want to limit years of accumulation for checkin, so be it.

If you had no incentive to keep them, then it’s clear they were not important to you, well, at least until they were gone. However, the expiration date is in EVERY monthly e-mail statement and the policy is that the miles expire in 18 months without any account activity. It’s our responsibility as customers to read our statements be aware of the policies, whether or not we like them. I, too, was recently laid off from a full time job I had for 23 years, but I still manage to find time to skim my e-mail.

love how these things always trigger a “certain” type of harrassment training. what did that joke have to do with harrassment, let along of the s x y sort? it’s like HR doesn’t know what to do with themselves when something “almost” goes haywire.