For reasons that are too long to explain I ended up having two frequent flyer accounts with US Airways. One with 63,000 miles which I hadn't used in a while and one with 36,000 miles which I used last fall.
The account account with 63,000 miles showed an expiration date for those miles of May 09, 2007 until this January ... when all of a sudden the account showed 0 miles.
Low and behold, US Airways had quietly changed their policy how long miles are kept in inactive accounts. Despite all their claims to the contrary, I NEVER received any information about this change in policy.
So what did I do?
Trying to avoid long hold times on the phone, I thought it would be best to email them. I did but didn't hear back for 1 day. So after trying that, I resigned myself to calling their customer service. It took approx. 2 1/2 hours on the phone until I finally reached the correct department.
At first they said tough luck, but when I threatened a little, they suddenly were able to merge the two accounts and restore the miles.
Then I was very surprised when I received the following email yesterday:
What kind of moron is Melina Joseph?
I was really surprised - if not astonished - at such a blatant display of BAD customer service.
Not only did they not solve my problem according to her email, instead telling me to call customer service, they also didn't even bother to look into the account - because then they would have seen that the problem was already taken care off.
Wow.
I guess this cements my decision to use these miles as quickly as possible and then never ever fly with them again.
Their customer service svcks, their flights are horrible, and Philadelphia (their hub) is the worst airport I have ever encountered (layout, personnel, etc.).
I hope it is an entertaining read.
If I didn't know that my email would simply go to the trash, I would be tempted to email their head of customer affairs. Customer service like this is not only bad - it is a wast of money for the company (and those costs are passed on the me as a customer).
The account account with 63,000 miles showed an expiration date for those miles of May 09, 2007 until this January ... when all of a sudden the account showed 0 miles.
Low and behold, US Airways had quietly changed their policy how long miles are kept in inactive accounts. Despite all their claims to the contrary, I NEVER received any information about this change in policy.
So what did I do?
Trying to avoid long hold times on the phone, I thought it would be best to email them. I did but didn't hear back for 1 day. So after trying that, I resigned myself to calling their customer service. It took approx. 2 1/2 hours on the phone until I finally reached the correct department.
At first they said tough luck, but when I threatened a little, they suddenly were able to merge the two accounts and restore the miles.
Then I was very surprised when I received the following email yesterday:
What kind of moron is Melina Joseph?
I was really surprised - if not astonished - at such a blatant display of BAD customer service.
Not only did they not solve my problem according to her email, instead telling me to call customer service, they also didn't even bother to look into the account - because then they would have seen that the problem was already taken care off.
Wow.
I guess this cements my decision to use these miles as quickly as possible and then never ever fly with them again.
Their customer service svcks, their flights are horrible, and Philadelphia (their hub) is the worst airport I have ever encountered (layout, personnel, etc.).
I hope it is an entertaining read.
If I didn't know that my email would simply go to the trash, I would be tempted to email their head of customer affairs. Customer service like this is not only bad - it is a wast of money for the company (and those costs are passed on the me as a customer).
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