US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Information US keeps on us

I'm curious if anyone knows definitely how much information is collected on us.

This much I know (or think I know)

1. Obviously all city pairs, fare class, base miles, tier miles, bonus miles.
2. EVERY SINGLE BONUS CODE/PROMOTION WE HAVE EVER REGISTERED IN PERPETUITY stays on the account. I base this on a recent conversation where a CP agent said that it took him a while to find a current bonus code because of 'all the stuff on my account'.
3. phone numbers/etc (even though they ask for them every time we call to confirm something)
4. ??? what about if we write a letter or email ???

I get the imprssion that DMSC has a different database than customer service, another at reservations and some are cross linked, some are not.

This is an interesting question. I don't know whether the stuff you note above is actually kept in perpetuity, but it would be good to know who knows what, when.

Knowledge is ___________!

Not sure about flight info, but I can tell you that lost baggage info is only around for 90 days. Then its filed in paper form in LGA (so said the last agent I spoke with) for 1 year.

After that, nothing is around AFAIK.

-Chris

The common denominator appears to be the DM number. They are able to see all the reservations you have at one time. I also believe they keep track of "chronic complainers", who regularly seek compensation for problems they have while traveling. American business, today, is obsessed with knowing it's clients, even though much of the information they gather on them is misleading (starting with the famous "credit scoring"). Between shared information from things like your B of A credit card activity, to "cookies" planted in your browser, there is no shortage of additional data. One thng to watch out for is having an argument with a telephone agent. These days, they are under great pressure, and if they lose it with you, to protect thmselves, they may put things in the file that are untrue, in order to make it appear you were the one causing trouble. Unlike a credit rating agency, in this case, you have no right to see what they say about you.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
The common denominator appears to be the DM number. They are able to see all the reservations you have at one time.</font>

I agree with Deel. There have recently been some on-board experiences where I have given US employees variations of my given name, but all subsequent correspondence has been to the name on my DM account.

In the most recent e-mail I received from Consumer Affairs, the ending was "and we look forward to seeing you on your next US Airways flight on July xx."

Based on various conversations I've had with the CP desk, it seems like those folks can see both every flight you have booked as well as any flight you may have taken for some period.

I agree that the index key in the US "Big Brother" dataset is probably the DM number.

Tom Bascom might be better suited to speculate here.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

Let me tell you how I stumbled upon this.

I called to target/register for R&R and they got that all setup for me.

When it didn't credit through a few weeks later I called again and they said there was no indication that I was registered. At the time I didn't have the bonus code # for R&R with me and the liason said I MUST have the code and to call back with it.

I called back a few days later with the code and the liason found that I was registered. He said it was hard to find the code in my account because of all the other codes that were there. Upon further inquiry he told me that every promo code I've ever registered for is still listed on my account (for what reason I have no idea). There are so many apparently that it is hard to see the new ones there.

Methinks they have always known the cockroaches... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm mostly speculating but the evidence is all around us...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Daniel:
I'm curious if anyone knows definitely how much information is collected on us.

This much I know (or think I know)

1. Obviously all city pairs, fare class, base miles, tier miles, bonus miles.
</font>

I doubt that they keep the history for very long. Your online DM statement, for instance, only goes back 6 months. And there are lots of things that they claim they can't do after a year (although the real time period seems to be 15 months...) After that they have to go back to "paper" (although I'll hazard a guess that that's really microfiche or imaged archives that get printed for them...)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
2. EVERY SINGLE BONUS CODE/PROMOTION WE HAVE EVER REGISTERED IN PERPETUITY stays on the account. I base this on a recent conversation where a CP agent said that it took him a while to find a current bonus code because of 'all the stuff on my account'.
</font>

Probably. That might also have something to do with why they don't reuse the numbers...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
3. phone numbers/etc (even though they ask for them every time we call to confirm something)
</font>

These are spread all over the place. Some systems get copies from some others. Some are "write only" (updates vanish into thin air...)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
4. ??? what about if we write a letter or email ???
</font>

Hit or miss. There's reason to believe that they keep it but I'd bet a lot of that is paper based and not easily accessed on a routine basis. Unless you become well known -- there aren't that many people in the departments that handle that stuff so a "chronic complainer" is going to become infamous fairly quickly.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">
I get the imprssion that DMSC has a different database than customer service, another at reservations and some are cross linked, some are not.</font>

There are at least dozens if not hundreds of systems that these bits of data are stored in. Very few of them are linked and the links are probably mostly one-way.

There are many islands of data and no map. There does not appear to be an enterprise architecture in place -- the systems have been thrown together in an ad hoc manner over the years and it shows. They also suffer from limitations and compromises that made sense 20 years ago but which are, at best, questionable today.

Lots of opportunity to make things better if they'd like to hire some of us http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Not to follow quite directly with anything anyone's said, but the current issue of Frequent Flier magazine that I got recently talks of frequent flier account audits that can happen for a variety of reasons.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TomBascom:
There are many islands of data and no map. There does not appear to be an enterprise architecture in place -- the systems have been thrown together in an ad hoc manner over the years and it shows. They also suffer from limitations and compromises that made sense 20 years ago but which are, at best, questionable today.</font>

I always thought that was the purpose of "messaging middleware." I also enjoy pain and suffering, and immediately order a drink when someone so much as thinks MQseries or Tibco. I'd hazard to guess that the folks at US don't share my line of thinking http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Lots of opportunity to make things better if they'd like to hire some of us http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif</font>

So long as we jump on it before the crazies from our codeshare partner UA forum hear about it (half of the UA forum here on FT works for Oracle).

Back to an airline discussion....

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

If you ask for your lifetime mileage, they can give it to you. That suggests they have tied more data together than you might think. This data bank is also why some are targeted promotionally, while others are not.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by deelmakur:
If you ask for your lifetime mileage, they can give it to you. That suggests they have tied more data together than you might think. This data bank is also why some are targeted promotionally, while others are not.</font>

Either that or they just keep a running total. Given how quickly they come up with it I'd guess running total.

I'll bet you the beverage of your choice that the promotional targeting is being done out of a spreadsheet, an Access "database" or something of that ilk that gets a file extract every now and again. Given the known characteristics of the "targetting" it probably contains very little beyond name, address, dm#, zip code. Possibly status and date of last flight although there's little reason to think so. They then probably produce a file of DM#s that gets sent back to some system that flags targeted members (probably duct-taped together sometime last summer...) and another with names & addresses that gets sent (probably via a floppy disk in the mail given the overall level of sophistication...) to the printer who sends out those nifty postcards.

None of the signs point to a well oiled IT machine. The odds of the systems being significantly integrated are similar to the odds of BBB actually having a clue about marketing.

There's a lot of stuff that they don't know about us -- they don't know our income, or our credit score. They don't know about our assets and liabilities. They don't know our credit card balances. They don't know what sort of car we drive (or if we take the bus.) They don't know if we have a summer place on the lake -- or if Mom & Dad do. In spite of having multiple copies of the data they rarely know our phone numbers. They don't know who our employer is. They don't know who our family members are. They don't know who our friends are. They don't know how many other airlines we hold elite status on. They don't know who we stay with or what cars we rent. They don't know if we're traveling for business or pleasure on any given flight nor do they know what the mix might be. They don't know if we're happy customers or disgruntled. They don't know if we're planning a lot of full fare trips or if we're going for "cockroach of the year". They don't know if our stated plans are accurate and reliable (if they were to ask). They don't know if our personal history is full fares or cockroach fares. They don't know if we tend to use awards personally or for others. They don't know if we fly long hauls or short hauls. They don't know if we fly alone or in groups. They don't know an awful lot of stuff that they ought to be very, very interested in knowing.

And they don't know where our bags are http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Much of this is stuff that they could know and some of it they should know. Some if it they ought to know in the aggregate but show no signs of knowing (or caring) about. Some of it we might not want them to know. But, on the whole, they "know" a lot less about us than they could and they act effectively on only the tiniest portion of what they do know.

Here's an idea:

Why can't they tell you online what bonuses you're signed up for? I just came across a postcard for the targetted double miles promo, and I have no idea whether I signed up for it when it came out. So I had to sign up again (it's been awhile since I flew US and not UA).

Tom, they can surely figure our spend. If nothing else, your DM statement shows whether First Class mileage was full (F) or upgrade (G). A couple of pages of solid G mileage is all they need to see. As for lifetime mileage, mine was all USAir pre -merger, while many others had PI miles. At the time the FF plans merged, that would all have gone together. They clearly plant "cookies" in the browser. That's one reason backing up to earlier pages scrambles USAirways.com. I recently tried to make an Avis res on their site, gave up, tried Priceline, and some other car companies. I finally just ended up calling Avis, and the phone rep said to me, "my, you have been busy". She could see where I'd been because I didn't purge the "cookie" ( I use Ad Aware and/or Spy Bot). If Avis can do it, so can these guys.

Further thought on Spy Ware. US continually promotes Side Step, which, when installed properly, starts giving you realtime alternative pricing on the same itineraries you are looking at. It even puts up a little sign, telling you it knows whose site you are on when it launches. Ever notice, it does not launch when you go on USAirways.com. Maybe there's a data share there as the quid pro quo for US promoting them.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ClueByFour:
I always thought that was the purpose of "messaging middleware." I also enjoy pain and suffering, and immediately order a drink when someone so much as thinks MQseries or Tibco. I'd hazard to guess that the folks at US don't share my line of thinking
</font>

Delta and Southwest are marquee references for TIBCO, Vitria always trots out FedEx as an example (WebM claims them too), and MQ is embedded about everywhere.

Not a peep on anyone about US. I get the impressions they aren't leading edge, integration technology-wise. I'd love to get in there and put a business case together for them. I think I'd have a local project for years to come (of course they probably still wouldn't act even with a compelling case).

Can I write this $10 hotel internet charge off as a business expense now...


Back to flying stuff...

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Daniel:
I'm curious if anyone knows definitely how much information is collected on us.

This much I know (or think I know)

1. Obviously all city pairs, fare class, base miles, tier miles, bonus miles.
2. EVERY SINGLE BONUS CODE/PROMOTION WE HAVE EVER REGISTERED IN PERPETUITY stays on the account. I base this on a recent conversation where a CP agent said that it took him a while to find a current bonus code because of 'all the stuff on my account'.
3. phone numbers/etc (even though they ask for them every time we call to confirm something)
4. ??? what about if we write a letter or email ???

I get the imprssion that DMSC has a different database than customer service, another at reservations and some are cross linked, some are not.</font>

5. Our flyertalk username