I have to rant.

For the last 18 months I have been trying to get Aeroplan credit for a Swissair flight from Africa to Zurich. After talking to & faxing Aeroplan reps in England several times last year I was credited with two ZCH-LHR segments - for a lousy 1000 miles, which is nothing like the 5000 miles I should have had. I've written to them several times trying to get this changed, not received any response to some of my letters, and today I finally got a letter back which said, in part:
"milage adjustments to your account can be requested up to 6 months following an Aeroplan partner transaction. As your correspondence was not received within this period we are unable to credit your account. ... We would like to advise that Swissair is no longer an Aeroplan partner effective March 29 1998.."

They then went on to thank me for my loyalty. Not bloody likely!

Not to mention that, when using their erstwhile partners, I would make certain that my aeroplan number was in the system when I booked my ticket and when I checked in, - and I still didn't get credit for many of my flights.

The letter I got today didn't even list a number to call - so I got one from their Website. It was busy the first 3 times I tried it, then I finally got into computer hell. After ten minutes of pressing buttons, choosing English or Francais & being endlessly routed to another menu or asked to wait I hung up, as whoever finally answered the phone wasn't likely to be any more likely to help me than the 'Manager, Aeroplan - Customer Service Center' who wrote the idiotic letter was. And of course I can't contact HIM directly!

When are they going to start behaving like a grown-up ff plan?

This is a really fast way to lose clients.

Sorry BaoBab... The last message under Omni
is moot now. You rant very well but I would
say let Inside Flyer Know.

And thank you for using ****'s to express your frustrations... it the use of "that"
language that makes this Cat's hair stand on
end on other sites! CATMAN

Catman - I use a "V-chip" before posting. I'm sure that everyone's imagination can fill in the asterisks.

Sorry this has happened to you. Air Canada has been very good about crediting my miles (actually sometimes too good -- but we won't talk about that too much here). I don't know what to suggest other than what you've done. The last resort only works if you happen to be at Air Canada's head office in Montreal. I once had a friend show up at an office in New York to collect an outstanding debt--it worked! If you have anyone you know in Montreal it looks like the only hope you've got. I have only had problems with them crediting minor partners (parking and car rental partners etc.) but even those have all gotten resolved to my satisfaction. I have only once had to phone a supervisor to get results. E-mail me which phone numbers you would like (Canada may be expensive from where you are) I will see if we can't get you an executive line number (if you aren't already plugged in that way).

I've also have never had trouble getting retoractive credit for miles on Air Canada ever. Also, like BlondeBomber, I've gotten more than I deserve on several occasions (most notably flying only one-way on a return ticket - I still get miles for the return segment - defies logic)

Got back from LHR yesterday and AC was great. I got upgraded going, my flight back was originally connecting through Ottawa to Toronto - they endorsed the ticket to a non-stop flight to Toronto (no charge), and I got triple miles for the trip.

Sorry about your trouble Baobob - I still think Aeroplan is an excellent ff program (Business class rewards within North America for only 30K miles rather than 40K eveyone els) Today's Globe and Mail (Canada's business newspaper) stated that Canadian Airlines is having trouble attracting frequent fliers as ff's mostly prefer Air Canada (Admittedly this is only a comparison of Canada's two airlines - I realize that you may make a "lesser of two evils argument")

(w.r.t. your profile)
Hopefully your H1 should come thru soon - the new quota begins Oct. 1

Thanks to both of you - I will contact you, BlondeBomber.

I have no problem with their airline service, Megamiles, and agree that they're definitely better than Canadian - but... their ff program has given me a lot of trouble, & refusing to credit miles which THEY messed up on makes my blood boil.

Unfortunately, despite their great fares to Montreal, I can't go up & picket them. The real problem is that I moved from Canada to Europe via Africa, so I used their European partners a lot, and they don't want to credit me for Swissair flights which they miscredited in the first place. Everything seems to be centralised in Montreal, so their London people, who tried to help me, didn't have the power to do much.

For geographical & job reasons I generally used British Airways & Swissair. Miles on Swissair don't "qualify" with Air Canada. So they don't recognise me as a 1K/year traveller. (I'm a BA ff too, and they treat me very well...)