In an earlier post, I inquired re: companies which don't let their employees keep their miles. That's only half the story.

This incident occurred about a year ago.

My friend flew on (a certain Atlanta, GA based) airline for the interview. The company made the flight arrangements. A day or two before travel, he called to request an upgrade. After giving the agent his FF number, and after some hold time, he was told he couldn't upgrade because the ticket was an award ticket.

He thought nothing of being informed he was on an award ticket because this company doesn't let employees keep their miles. He thought the company purchased an award ticket using some of those miles the employees are not allowed to keep. The company does not allow employees to make travel arrangements and had made all of his arrangements.

When his statement arived about a month and a half after traveling, he found that 25,000 miles had been deducted. At the time, he was changing jobs and moving so this wasn't on a list of priorities at that moment (I can't understand people who think FF miles are not the most important things in life although I guess if they choose to be freaks, I shouldn't judge).

Finally, he starts to deal with the situation. He calls the airline and after explaining , the agent said something like "I know what happened. Give me some time to look into it."

A month or so goes by and the miles aren't back. He calls again and a second agent tells him that there's no record of his previous call and there's nothing he could do. Of course, he doesn't know the first agent's name.

He calls me because I'm both a miles junkie and a lawyer. I compose an e-mail and forward it to him so he can cut and paste and send to the airline with his e-mail address. It explained the facts and also offered a theory as to what might have occurred: When he called for an upgrade, the agent realized that the FF number used for the ticket did not coincide with his number. She charged his account and re-deposited the miles back into whomever's account they were taken from. Looking back, I should have sent a letter but I'm not charging my friend a fee so I didn't want to use the firm letterhead or "represent" him in any way.

I would think it would be pretty difficult to try to reverse the situation some five or six months later. So guess what the response was.

Nothing.

Of course, neither of us saved the e-mail in any fashion. Doh!

He's pretty much given up. I haven't.

So how do I get them to admit they screwed up and reinstate his miles?

Also know:

(1) Lots of bad blood developed after he rejected the company's offer so it's not likely they'll help me get his miles back;

(2) Of course, he never received that notification that comes when one books award travel.

But who did?

(3) Wouldn't someone have to have paid the taxes even on the award? Should I tell them to look into this? Given the level of cooperation and communication in the past, it seems unlikely anyone will do anything.

(4) Is it too late?

(5) Is it time for a small claims court action? I can't believe that an airline wouldn't see the shortsightedness (and lack of cost effectiveness) of defending the claim so I doubt it would even go to trial

Any thoughts?

What kind of law do you practice?

Here's a thought.
Your friend didn't care enough about this to do anything for a few months. Your friend didn't care enough to get the name of the CSR they talked to. Your friend didn't care enough to keep a copy of the e-mail you drafted free of charge. Your friend doesn't care enough to put out the effort now.

Why do you care about this so much?



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"A day without Points/Miles is like a day without SUNSHINE"

One thought --

Sometimes the number of the credit card used to pay the taxes on award travel is printed on the ticket. If they gave him a paper ticket (instead of an e-ticket), and he kept the "passenger receipt", he may be able to get that number. Work from there.

This story reminds me of one of my friends who asked if airlines give retroactive mileage credit and I replied some do, some don't. I thought he had meant he'd taken a flight a within last 90 days and then realized he should've signed up for FF program. But no, he meant he took a flight over 7 YEARS ago and wanted back credit for that journey!

To the average non FF, the fine points of the various programs are just not that important. If they're aren't keenly interested as we all are here, it's like try to teach a foreign language. You can try and fight the good fight, but I usually find the longer the elapsed time, the less willing airlines/FF programs are to help.

Because this is a board dealing with frequent flyer miles issues, I was fairly certain other members might recognize I was not looking for thoughts regarding any insight I might gain on my motivation. However, I did fail to be expicit in what I was seeking and should have said,

"Any thoughts on how I might recapture those unauthorized miles?"

The generous suggestions I've recived so far are greatly appreciated.

I saw "The Ring today,

But this story was much scarier.
I'd help your friend because if it happens to him it can happen to any of us.

Better to contact "Texas Justice" or Joe Brown, try the case in their forum, and let the TV show pay for it.

[This message has been edited by jmartin (edited 04-07-2003).]

Most civil courts in the U.S. generally require someone pay court costs.

Additionally, the tax money spent on maintaining small claims courts is not so much an investment in the individual cases as much as they provide overall benefits to the society at large. In particular, they provide a disincentive for persons (or corporations) to violate the law in dealings as well as providing parties that believe themselves to have been wronged their day in court.

But I think we are straying off topic.

not sure, but I think the federal airline regulation makes airlines exempt from small claims court--otherwise they'd be in small claims court evertime they lost someone's luggage. I know that there are federal limits on lost luggage for example. I would read the fine print on those tickets before going to court.

this is 100% not the case. the claim amount has to be less than 5000$ - other than that you can take nay airline to small claims court. However, this is one case I would let rest.

Actually it probably would not happen to any of us. If it happened to me, at least, I would be on top of it right away, document the calls, emails, etc. None of this was done and a lot of time has passed. Apparently it was not that important to take care of and now there is less leverage/evidence to take care of the issue. If it was let go this long, just let it go, as one person responded, if it was not important enough to save the email, document the calls, etc., it is not important enough to worry about.