I'm considering dumping MCI to see if they will beg me to come back with AA miles and no monthly fee. Since I use a 4 cent per minute Costco phone card from home, the only thing I really want from them is no monthly fee. Has anyone done this successfully? If so, how many miles did you get and over what period? How often can you change and come back and still get miles?

I dump them every five months and they always call. You have to see which plan they are offering at that time. Just keed asking. I get one thousand miles a month usually

You want a plan with no monthly fee or usage
minimum. When I finally got a rep last week
who,I felt, knew the calling plans, I was
told this was 12 cents/min. Like you, I
make my calls on a different carrier
http://www.onesuite.com/ ,and don't care
about the rate. FYI I was "promised" 6,000
miles on UA.

Yes, someone from MCI will call you back and offer you the same offer you likely had before you cancelled - 1k AA miles for the 1st 10 months.

IMO The Sprint/NW deal is better, 5k+1k first month, 5k at 6 months, 5k at 12 months. But this only works if you are flexible with your frequent flyer programs.

Actually, there is a better deal available from Sprint (valid through July 31, 2001):

"For Sprint Nickel Nights residential long-distance service 5,000 mile bonus will be deposited in your WorldPerks account within eight weeks of your first, fourth, eighth, and twelfth long-distance invoices, for a total of 20,000 miles in 12 months."

Just be careful....

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum97/HTML/000106.html

my wife is still waiting to get miles from MCI for signing up for the FIRST time last summer.

i've spoken to six different MCI reps and have been "assured the problem's been corrected."

still no miles ...

do NOT re-up with MCI for ANY reason. they are practicing ILLEGAL bait and switch tactics by NOT following through on THEIR end of the agreement and then forcing their customers to do all of the "dirty work" to have the miles deposited into your appropriate FFM account.

Whether you keep MCI or switch back, you will have to have either a monthly minimum or monthly fee.

MCI quietly offers an online plan, 9 cent days / 5 cent weekends. Min monthly bill is $4 (after $1 online credit card billing rebate). Also 5 AA miles = $1.

Unless you can get some bonus miles or need AA miles to top off for an award, you are better off with the Costco card.

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He who dies with the most miles ... is dead.

[This message has been edited by ontheroad (edited 07-10-2001).]

I had the same problem. As it turned out, my name was misspelled, and aside from that they had my first name and not my middle name, so that threw the whole thing off. I waited for 2 months, e-mailed USAir, e-mailed MCI, and was told by both parties to call MCI Customer Service. Did that, they resubmitted the info and in 2 weeks--voila! 2,000 miles for the 1st 2 months of service and 600 more for the long distance.

So my advice to you would be to keep at it. And make SURE your name(s) on your FF account match the one(s) on your LD bill...

I know lots of people post on FT with their problems getting one of MCI, Sprint, or AT&T to post their bonus miles. But I've participated in more than half a dozen bonus offers from MCI and Sprint and every time, the bonuses have deposited exactly as promised without any problems. So while I don't deny that there are "squeaky wheels" who have legitimate problems with these companies' promotions, there are some of us "greased wheels" quietly sitting out here, too.

I'm currently on a 20,000 bonus miles in 18 months plan with Sprint. Rate plan has a monthly charge is $5.95 (round to $6 for simple math). 18 months at $6 is $108. At that rate, I wish I had more residential phone lines to put on such a plan. Most of the time, I'm happy to buy bonus miles at half a cent per mile.

???

Last time I dumped them, they begged me back with 5,000 SkyMiles up front and 1,000 a month for five months.

I just dumped MCI to start growing my NWA miles and they offered me 5000 AAdvantage miles to return (I'd been using their online plan).

Maybe I'll return after my first 5K from NWA gets deposited... I really liked MCI the best... the online account manager is great!!

badgerfan, I got the same call from MCI, if you ask they'll tell you the deal they are offering is not simply 5k miles, but 1k miles/month for five months.

MCI suuuucks. Beware of MCI.

MCI raised my Sunday rates (remember all those nickel sundays ads) from 5C to 10C effective March 01. Problem is, they didnt' tell me until I got the JUNE bill - where all my april calling was billed, and at double the rate promised. Of course their phone support was pathetic, maintaining that they followed the tarrifs, and that they're free to change the rate 'from time to time". They denied my request for a credit to fix the rate on calls made before my notification.

Needless to say, they better be offerring a million miles before I'll do business with this shady bunch again...

(I got my credit in the end, by using an automated request for credit where the machine just gives it to you, without any possible intervention by one of their hateful humans).

I was just UAL free, now I live the MCI-free existence too.

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Celebrating 4 years of United Airlines free travel this August!