Veteran frequent flier stripped of 46,000 AAdvantage miles — are they gone forever?

by Christopher Elliott on March 12, 2010

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.

Here’s what happened to Hall, in her own words:

I have been an AAdvantage member for many years. I took my first trip on American in 1947 and I was one of the early members of their Junior Stewardess Club — a bit embarrassing, now that I am 75 years of age, but it shows the immense loyalty and affection I have had for American all of these years.

When I went to check on my mileage, which should have been around 46,000 miles, it showed that I had zero miles in my account. I called them up and was told that after 18 months of no activity, they cancel the miles. Then, I asked them why they didn’t let me know of such a “rule,” and was told they sent it to me in an e-mail, to which I responded, “If I ever would have received something like that in an e-mail, I would have taken care of it right away and not let my mileage lapse.”

I then told them that they send me all sorts of advertising at least two-to-three times each week, why couldn’t they have contacted me the same way?

Do you think that you would be able to help me?

Yes, I can.

I realize that I’ve been taking some heat in the comments of my site for helping people who should have known better, and that’s fine. But I, for one, buy Hall’s argument that American could have done a better job letting her know her miles were about to expire. I believe airlines intentionally say as little as possible about expiring miles because they want miles to expire. (And for good reason — the industry has trillions of unredeemed miles out there.)

I contacted American on behalf of Hall, a loyal and longtime customer. A few days ago, I got the following email from her:

I have had a couple of telephone calls from American Airlines today, the last one was at 7:08 this evening and was from Terra Clark, from their AAdvantage Desk. She was wonderful, Chris, and even will see that I receive my mileage back (a one-time thing, as she explained it).

Heaven knows my level of appreciation for your work in my behalf knows no bounds right now. How does one simply say, “Thank you,” to a non-emotional computer screen, when I am positively jubilant!?! Thank you, Chris.

I’m happy to help, and grateful to American for reversing its decision.

American could have done a better job of letting her know her miles were about to vanish, but beyond that, the airline certainly should have been able to see the value of returning 46,000 miles to someone who had been flying American for more than 60 years, when she initially contacted the company.

And Mary Ann, I’d recommend using your miles as soon as possible. Next time they expire, American might not be so generous.

(Photo: Anke L/Flickr Creative Commons)

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Tagged as: AA, AAdvantage, American Airlines, Frequent Flier Miles

  • MVFlyer

    This one’s a bit different, Chris, than some of the other situations where you were lambasted. Mary Ann was asking to get something back that was rightfully hers, no entitlement, no whining. And on American’s part, this really is good customer service–she’s a junior stewardess, after all!!

  • Bodega

    Wait a minute. She says she gets notifications from AA weekely by email? How does she receive her statement? That isn’t mentioned, but if they send her weekly ads, as they do me, too, I bet she gets her statement sent to her that way as well. I am an Avantage member myself and each month on my statement it clearly states when my miles will expire.

    I know that before they started adding this information to each monthly statement, knowing when you might lose your miles required more work on my part, but it has been quite awhile since they implemented the expiration date. I think this is another case of someone not reading and paying attention, just like yesteday’s post on the nonrefundable hotel rate.

  • laura townsend elion

    Just a guess, but like the banks and credit cards who bury their changing terms in fine print on some ‘junk mail” disguised flyer, I’ll bet American sent her some e-mail that began ‘Check out a our great deals to South Amrica!’ and buried the notice about miles expiring on web page three of fine print. Meets the legal requirement of notification (just like those Visa glossies that tout unneeded life insurance or other specious benefit and end with account changes), but all of us are inclined to hit delete after the first few lines if we have no intention of flying to South America or whatever other offer they are proposing.

  • Bodega

    No Laura, they sent a statement monthly to their Advantage members, of which she is one and right below your current balance it gives your last activity date and right below that it tells you went your miles expire. No hiding of the information, no burying of the information. Very clear and easy to read.

    AA changed their program on 12/15/07 and it shows on each monthly statement when your miles expire. So no reason for her not to know this since she gets their emails so frequently.

  • http://www.consumertraveler.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28693&page=3 Arizona Road Warrior

    @ laura townsend elion – “…I’ll bet American sent her some e-mail that began ‘Check out a our great deals to South Amrica!’ and buried the notice about miles expiring on web page three of fine print.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - –

    First, the expiration of your miles is listed clearly on your paper and electronic statements from AA.

    Ned made a post in the forum, http://www.consumertraveler.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28693&page=3, about his experience with AA when his miles were getting close to being expired:

    “I don’t fly AA very often. Generally I only fly them when I go to South America. That being said, both Mrs. N. and I have considerable miles with AA. Last year when our miles were to expire we receive countless emails warning us about their expiration.

    I’m not talking about 1 or 2 poorly worded emails about the miles’ expiration. I’m talking about several emails per month for several months warning me about our miles expiring. The emails were explicitly written. You couldn’t help but understand what they were saying. The emails offered different ways of preventing the miles from expiring, and offered direct links to use those options.”

    Before accussing AA of be devious, unethical and etc., how about finding out how AA does it before you throw them under the bus?

  • Gary

    I have many 688, 670 miles with AA. Each month they send me an update with the subject line “AAdvantage Gold eSummary for Mar 2010″ was one that just came in. The miles are clearly shown and clearly state last activity date and that “Unused miles will expire 18 months from the date…” What I do is on the different airlines is go to their website and buy a $10 gift card for Home Depot. There is no extra cost and you are good for another 18 months.

  • http://mandel.jerry1@gmail.com Geraud (Jerry) N

    Gary—I have never seen any notice on any airline website that one can buy a gift card other than for flights on their own airline. Please elaborate for AA, Delta, CO, etc.

  • John

    United took 26,000 miles from me, even after I called two days after the expiration, and nicely asked to have them restored. They refused, even after I pointed out that a timely reminder would have been good. They told me that they had informed me a year earlier that I would lose the miles, and that they weren’t even required to do that.

    To make matters worse, I had just booked a trip worth 15,000 miles with United that was to occur one month later. Didn’t matter. So, when I have earned enough points to cash them in for a free ticket, no force or reason on earth will cause me to EVER book with United again.

  • Dave

    John, United did the same to me 17 years ago. I am certainly not the most frequent flyer around here; I probably average 12-15 RTs per year. Wanna guess how many have been on United in those 17 years? If you guessed one, that’s too high.

  • http://www.consumertraveler.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28693&page=3 Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Geraud (Jerry) N – “Gary—I have never seen any notice on any airline website that one can buy a gift card other than for flights on their own airline. Please elaborate for AA, Delta, CO, etc.”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
    It will depends upon the airline FF program. For example, US Airways has its US Airways Dividends Miles Shopping Mall. On the US Airways Dividends Miles Shopping Mall, you can purchase gift cards (as low as $ 5.00) from Sears, Barnes & Noble, Macy, Home Depot and etc. There are over 100 merchants (I stop counting at 100) such as Apple On-Line Store, Ann Taylor, Avon, B&N, Banana Republic, Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Brooks Brothers, Coldwater Creek, Crate & Barrel, Dell, Dillards, Harry & David, Home Depot, K-Mart, Macy, Microsoft Store, Nordstorm, Office Max, Overstock.com, QVC, Sears, Target, Walgreens, WalMart and etc.

    AA has AAdvantage eShoppingSM Mall (over 300 stores). CO has ShopOnePass. Delta has SkyMilesShopping.com. UA has United Plus Mileage (over 300 stores).

    In addition to the US Airways Dividends Miles Shopping Mall, AAdvantage eShoppingSM Mall, ShopOnePass, SkyMilesShopping.com, United Plus Mileage and etc., you can purchase items from the various merchants from Sky Mall and receive FF miles for your FF program of your choice.

    There are so many different ways to earn miles by your normal activities (i.e. a bank debit card, buying flowers, magazine subscriptions, eating out and etc.) beside flying to keep your miles active.

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