America West FlightFund (Discontinued Program) - Wiped out account

I used to fly a little bit on HP in 1997-early 1999 to the west coast. I accumulated about 30,000 miles. After getting 20,000 miles I supposedly automatically received a voucher for award travel without requesting it. I called up and they said, "Oh, we will make a note in your account."

Since 1999 I have not traveled on HP although booked award travel in 2001, but changed my mind and never used the miles.

I called a few months ago and found that my account has been wiped out. Note that I never received any statements or communication since 1999, so this account was not on my mind.

Is there anything I can do? I tried to argue my case but the woman was very recalcitrant.

One reason that I am asking is that I would consider flying HP because of their standby policies and pricing, as well as a generous elite status program that I just read about. (Will they comp US and/or UA elite status?) However, I am slightly annoyed by the way my existing account has been handled.

Most frequent flyer programs now have provisions that inactivity for 3 years can result in your account being closed. However, I don't know that very many airlines have actually enforced that policy.

Many airlines are enforcing it b/c the FF miles are becoming a liability. You were told three years, and you didn't comply.

One issue is that they supposedly issued one free award travel "voucher" that I never asked for or received. What are/were the terms and conditions for these vouchers? There probably was some fine print regarding the miles expiring but I obviously never received any documentation regarding the voucher. I was just told that I had one credit for free travel annotated to the account.

It's not a huge deal but HP's antics and questionable competence on this issue makes me reluctant to give them any business in future.

Before 1999, the program was called "Chairmans Club", and only had 2 levels. Once you got 20k miles in your accout, they would send you 4 5k paper certs. These could be used for a free ticket, or an upgrade. These are probably what they were referring to. If I remember, the 5k vouchers did have an expiration date of 1 - 2 years after they were issued.

Now, it's all done on line - much better that way as I would have to fly for about 6 months straight to burn all the miles I've got in the last 3 years.

Aha, so that's what was "lost in the mail". I had no idea about expiration because I never received them.... C'est la vie, I guess. I should have insisted on having the coupons resent.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by gnaget:
One issue is that they supposedly issued one free award travel "voucher" that I never asked for or received. What are/were the terms and conditions for these vouchers? There probably was some fine print regarding the miles expiring but I obviously never received any documentation regarding the voucher. I was just told that I had one credit for free travel annotated to the account.

It's not a huge deal but HP's antics and questionable competence on this issue makes me reluctant to give them any business in future.</font>


The program was always very clear in the past. Once you reached the threshold they sent the certificates. They had to be used within a certain period of time.

I don't see how America West's "antics" are their fault. The program was what it was back then and it was all disclosed. While their service levels have always been sketchy this program was very well defined as to what the process was.

Now you may not have received the certificates as you claim. But they always issued statements with the mileage activity on them when there was any activity, even the issuance of certicates.

Even if you didn't get the certificates you would have been issued the normal statement. The normal statement would have shown the mileage withdrawal. If you would have reviewed the statement you would have seen this. Not receiving the certificates you would have contacted America West to ask what was up.

Complaining years later is ridiculous. The burden rests with you in this manner.