Just to be safe, I've made a spreadsheet of all of my loyalty programs that I care about. I think it should be safe enough to check in with them all once a year... picking an arbitrary date like... April 15, tax day, to ensure that they're all in order.
I mostly care about AA, UA, and NW... but I have a few miles in DL and US... plus all of those hotel chains that I rarely use. No sense in losing them. I did recently lose my credits on Southwest. I thought about doing something to keep them, but really I don't have a big need to fly that airline so oh well.
Programs: AA lifetime GOLD, thanks FT, AARP senior member
Posts: 13,846
It will be interesting to see how many AA miles are trashed under this new policy. I get AA miles nearly every day of the month from one source or another, but my husband only gets them from flying. He doesn't fly often unless he is on an award ticket out of my stash. I'll have to watch his account closely.
Thanks to the OP for this information. Much appreciated!
There may not be a huge reduction in actual liability, but there may be an on-the-books liability if all miles are assigned a certain cash value.
But not all miles are reflected on the balance sheet as a liability. Here's how AA accounts for earned mileage liabilities:
Quote:
Frequent flyer program – American uses the incremental cost method to account for the portion of its frequent flyer liability incurred when AAdvantage members earn mileage credits by flying on American or American Eagle. American’s frequent flyer liability is accrued each time a member accumulates sufficient mileage in his or her account to claim the lowest level of free travel award (25,000 miles) and the award is expected to be used for free travel. American includes fuel, food, and reservations/ticketing costs in the calculation of incremental cost. These estimates are generally updated based upon the Company’s 12-month historical average of such costs. American also accrues a frequent flyer liability for the mileage credits that are expected to be used for travel on participating airlines based on historical usage patterns and contractual rates.
This change in policy will likely affect very few accounts that had a realistic chance of accumulating 25k miles, and thus will probably not have any material effect on the "on-the-books" liabilities.
I'm skeptical that an 18 month expiration policy will have any real effect on anyone, other than serving as a "gotcha" for the really infrequent flyer. The really infrequent flyer who doesn't have a Citi AAdvantage card, that is.
This change in policy will likely affect very few accounts that had a realistic chance of accumulating 25k miles, and thus will probably not have any material effect on the "on-the-books" liabilities.
Ahh. Thanks for the info. So they're already doing things to limit paper liability.
Didn't they make arrangements the last time they did this, so miles earned before a certain date had different expiration than ones earned after?
If so the above scenario would be moot, and correct me if I'm wrong but I think there's already an AA precedent for having an account with X miles in it, where some of the miles expire at different times than others....
They may have done it that way in the past, but if you look at the link in the OP, AA states very explicitly that all accounts with last activity dates before 6/15/06 will expire on 12/15/07. And--as they admit on their site--the "expiration date" in the account summary page online is *incorrect*. (UA still has an incorrect expiration date online, though hopefully AA can fix it sooner.)
This pattern of airlines' implementing retroactive changes sets a dangerous precedent. Today it's expiration, tomorrow...
Just to be safe, I've made a spreadsheet of all of my loyalty programs that I care about. I think it should be safe enough to check in with them all once a year... picking an arbitrary date like... April 15, tax day, to ensure that they're all in order.
Good idea, but not totally reliable.
Imagine this scenario:
1) You last had AA activity 2/20/06 (just because)
2) You check on 4/15/07. The expiration date provide is 2/20/09.
3) AA changes the policy.
4) Your miles expire on 12/15/07.
5) You check on 4/15/08. Zero balance.
Airlines--not just AA--should not shorten already announced expiration dates. This is just one example of how a diligent customer could still lose their miles.
Programs: AA EXP 1MM, Marriott PLT, HHonors Silver, SPG, Avis First
Posts: 4,015
Quote:
Originally Posted by trinity_in_texas
Naw, no personal stake. I just am curious how people think. I'm a marketing student. Oh and I like to argue. And I am poor so I usually fly SW.
WN's marketing is so good that a lot of people think they're the cheapest even when they are not. I'm sure it's one of the reasons you have to go to WN's website to book online and not Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, etc.
Programs: AAdvantage Superstaaa. My views are my own.
Posts: 227
Quote:
Originally Posted by soitgoes
You fly Air Namibia? Wow, I didn't realize their route network was so wide.
Herein lies the problem. They sent statements out with an expiration date saying, for example, "your miles will expire on 5/31/10".
Then, the member doesn't have any activity for 18 months and the miles expire, even though they have something in print stating the contrary.
DL and UA have implemented these changes very poorly. I hope AA does better.
While I would prefer a longer expiration period (not so much for my accounts, but for the accounts of family members whom I help with miles issues), the change is okay but should be phased in so as not to apply retroactively.
*cry* meanie! Just because I don't know your jargon...*sniffle*
Imagine this scenario:
1) You last had AA activity 2/20/06 (just because)
2) You check on 4/15/07. The expiration date provide is 2/20/09.
3) AA changes the policy.
4) Your miles expire on 12/15/07.
5) You check on 4/15/08. Zero balance.
Airlines--not just AA--should not shorten already announced expiration dates. This is just one example of how a diligent customer could still lose their miles.
This is the same problem with Delta's change.
To resolve the problem, AA could say the new policy will begin 18 months from today. However I doubt it.
Memo to self: On Dec. 15, 2007, start new thread titled "The 'My miles have expired' Master Whining and Ranting Thread". Might as well try to keep 'em all together, rather than a separate threead for each.
